All Things Must Pass

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R.I.P. Sydney Willis Anderson AKA “Sunny” & “Syd the Kid”

February 9, 2024 in All Things Must Pass, Gone But Not Forgotten, Local Heroes by Stan | No comments

For many of us, Sunny was the stuff of legend. Equal parts mysterious and mercurial, Sunny spun a web of stories that sometimes defied credulity. As Jim “Del Rivers” Buhlman once noted, “(Sunny) had many stories…In fact, I think he moved out of Rochester because he was an informant against the Mafia or other criminals.” However, former WITR Deejay Mick Alber, posted the following condolence: “I will never forget Sunny’s kindness and his talent for cool music. He truly was a gentle soul and will be missed.”

In reality, Sunny was equally both… sure, he cut an imposing figure and could be intimidating. You couldn’t be a bouncer at Scorgies if you didn’t convey some sort of menace. But Sunny had a very different side to him, and with his musical talent, he became a part of the local Rochester garage scene.

He recorded in a variety of styles but hewed closest to the sounds of his Sun Records heroes, Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley. Always true to his passions, his work can be compared to today’s rockabilly and psychobilly artists.

If you were lucky you could catch Sunny opening for Personal Effects or playing in the Record Archive back room at the old Mt. Hope location. One of these days Russ Lunn will digitize that footage. When that happens I’ll make sure he shares it.

Click here to listed to Sunny performing “Do You Like It?”.

In the meantime, here’s Sunny’s obit.

ANDERSON: SYDNEY WILLIS JR. “SUNNY”

Peacefully at the Hamilton General Hospital on Sunday November 30, 2014 at the age of 57 with his fiancee Joan and his brother Wray and Kaela by his side. Son of Jessie (Maracle) Jamieson and the late Sidney Anderson Sr. Predeceased by his sisters, Amelia and Alva; brother, Victor “Yogi” Bomberry; niece, Nikki Oronya Star Kick; uncle, Wallace “Mad Bear” Anderson, Also survived by nephews, Victor and Wayne; niece, Tiffany Bomberry and their mother Diane; Sandra and her family; the families of the late Grace and Robert Whitlow, Doris and George Henhawk, Frank and Hazel Maracle, Duane (Isabelle) Anderson and Harold (Dolores) John, Sylvia Wegerski, Laura Joseph, Florence Stevens and Violet Brayley, Diane Longboat (and family). and his many friends at the Dialysis Unit at the BGH and the Penmarvian Retirement Home and from everyone at iC SuperCOMPUTERS, especially, Eric, Callum and Scott. Also Paul Williams, Dr. John Deacon, John Baucom, Jon Burrows, Ryan Johnson (& Family). Resting at Styres Funeral Home, 1798 4th Line Road, Ohsweken on Wednesday 7-9 p.m. Funeral Service will be held Styres Funeral Home, Ohsweken on Thursday December 4, 2014 at 1 p.m. and conducted by Father Sunny Sebastian of St. Michael’s Catholic Church (close friend of Sunny and Wray) followed by the burial and Luncheon at Grand River United Cemetery, 1585 Mohawk Rd. at the corner of 4th Line Rd in Ohsweken.

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It’s December 5th and I Believe It’s Raining Outside

December 5, 2020 in All Things Must Pass, Gone But Not Forgotten by Stan | 2 comments

As I write this, it’s 36 degrees outside and raining. There was a brief round of hail earlier. Looking back over the past few months, it’s hard for me to reconcile that it’s been over a year since the death of Press Tones frontman and legendary Scorgies’ bartender Scott Weichman. Scotty passed away on October 15th, 2019 after a series of debilitating health issues. This was, for many people who knew him, both a shock and not surprising. Ever since his return to Rochester in 2009, he underwent more than a few health scares directly related to lifestyle choices.

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Scotty was always brutally honest about his faults… and journaled about them incessantly in a variety of diaries that he kept. Here’s a notebook entry he made shortly before he passed:

“in my suck ass life, I’ve enjoyed lust & love. Had a lot of fun. One of my rules was to be honest to doctors. Only lie to police and girlfriends.
Now I’m at the age where I don’t have to worry about girls anymore. On my behalf, I’ve always remained true and always remained faithful to music.
Sure, I’ve had a little television on the side, but music you are and and (will) always be my only love. I love you.”

And on another page, he wrote this:

“I never cared for too much, not that I didn’t love life, laughter or the company of a beautiful girl. Next in line was nature, feeding the birds, mostly the squirrels. Nature is so important, it is everything beautiful.
But foremost is what makes even nature smile… music. Without music we wilt and die. With music comes sex, friends and smiles; without it comes the END. The end brings darkness, death”

I truly hope that wherever Scotty is, that there will be musicians to jam with and listen to, friends to share good times with, girlfriends to love (and lie to) and a plenitude squirrels for him to feed.

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Update! Whither Goest the Neighborhood, There Goest Thou or “Gentrify This!”

September 29, 2019 in All Things Must Pass, Gone But Not Forgotten, Your Stories by Stan | 1 comment

It was September of 1984 that my first band, The Invisible Party, opened for the Neats at Scorgies (remember them?). That gig was also, believe it or not, the first date I had with my wife Lynne. And here we are, Sunday September 29th, almost 35 years later and Lynne heard through the grapevine that the club’s venerable site on Andrews street was a “crumbling’ down” (please pardon the John “Cougar” Mellencamp reference, slight as it is), dashing all hopes that the club would ever find a new owner. More than a few good folks have left us over the past few years, some noted here, some not. Could the stage that so many have graced will be truly obliterated, never to return? This needed to be investigated!

Lynne and I stopped by this afternoon to take a few pictures of the demolition in process. While it wasn’t apparent at first, given the security gates surrounding the area, Scorgies was not being demolished… it was the building next door at 162 Andrews Street. Whew! I took a few pictures and it wasn’t till later, after reviewing Google street view, that Scorgies appeared to be untouched, albeit showing signs of age and a few cracks. So far, it looks like the “glimmer of hope” I was searching for in my previous post still exists. Who knows. The building lives on, empty as it stands right now, still full of grit, grease, grime and asbestos. Still, I’d like to to retrieve a piece of the old building for posterity’s sake, much like some Liverpudlian entrepreneurs have; just saw an Instagram ad touting fragments of a Cavern Club brick enclosed in acrylic selling for $29 each. Probably no such luck here!

Mementos? We got your mementos, right here in these pages. Plenty of memories from those days. Paul Dodd’s Polaroid pictures, Kodak memories from a ton of folks, posters and (thanks Duane) bootleg recordings. Tons of physical media that has been digitized and shared, as well as the ubiquitous posts on Facebook. I guess for now, thanks to the wrecking ball limiting itself to 162 Andrews Street, we still have the building that housed Scorgies

Hopefully that’s the end of the story for now… here’s a few pictures of the demolition that’s occurring next door:

Road Closed

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Couldn't enter the site, for obvious (safety) reasons

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Luke Warm…fill me in

March 31, 2009 in All Things Must Pass, Local Heroes by markyme | 3 comments

I saw the Rochester music review in a recent issue of the City newspaper. It brought back many fond and painful memories and lessons of Rochester music legacy and lore. I was looking for somebody to fill me in on Luke Warm.

I remember him as a delightful character on the scene (during my original duration in it). I was in the Commercials and we played Scorgie’s, usually as an opening act, from 1982 until about 1984 or so. Obviously, I encountered Luke on every occasion. I gotta hand it to this guy. If he was in a band or had any musical ability – HE NEVER TALKED ABOUT IT IN FRONT OF ME – he never said “come check out my band” or anything of the sort. When I read the review on his musical efforts I was really shocked! Maybe I’m stupid, but I was NOT out of the loop in the old days at Scorgie’s…I was there almost every week for about two years straight. How did I miss him? Nobody spoke up, especially not Luke.

The really sad part is, not only was I denied a chance to hear him do his musical bit, but also the other guys in the bands I opened for (especially the members of the group Passenger), just sort of wrote him off as the club’s resident idiot/lush/foolish jester behind his back. So, being very young at the time, just wrote Luke off as a “happy drunk.” I scared him once by acting like he was interfering on my date with the young lady I  was with. The girl and I were there as “friends-only” (as she was probably under-age at the time), but I did kind of a “hey man, step off” gag, and he vanished in the crowd, tail between his legs.  Now, back then,  I could probably beat my way out of a paper bag…if it was wet. Anyway, a couple of the guys from the Clichés or something got a big laugh out of it.

So, I knew that he was very ill by the late 1980’s (when all us new wavers were hard up for gigs and had to settle on playing Schatzee’s) and I learned that he passed away several years ago when it happened. Tragic thing. It made me think real hard and thank God I’m still here. Thanks for bringing the info home to me.

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