Pistoleros

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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.

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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Bill, Ed and Cliff

Bill, Ed and Cliff

REMEMBERING SCORGIES
By Ed Richter

Wow. A Scorgies Reunion. What can I say? After all these years?

Is it true? Sure Is. I am friends with Stan Merrell. He says it’s true.

I am friends with Tom Kohn. He says it’s true. OK, I’ll be there.

What do I remember? I remember getting dressed up. Doing my hair and getting together a couple of girls and heading down to Andrews street.

The stories are in hundreds. Don Scorgie always made the biggest hamburgers in Rochester. He also had a knack for picking national bands about a week before they hit it big. He also gave many local bands their first chance to appear on stage.For some strange reason Don liked me. I got free hamburgers.

But best of all I became Scorgies House Videographer. Yep. I still have all the videos I shot. I shot Personal Effects, New Math, and the Press Tones,  The Chesterfield Kings and of course the Tinglers. At the time I shot the Press Tones they were calling themselves The Pistoleros. The song they were doing at the time was called “Pistol On My Hip“. I also shot the Waitresses, the Comateens (they did the Munsters Theme) and other national acts that appeared in the Rochester area like the Divinyls, Billy Idol.

Cliff Owens on Guitar

Cliff Owens on Guitar

As far as local bands went, one of my favorites was the Tinglers: featuring Bill Curchin as Lead Singer and Cliff Owen as Lead Guitarist. They were the center of the band, and both of them touched me later in my life in a special way.

After Scorgies, Cliff went to law school and was a Assistant District Attorney under Howard Relin. Now he is part of the team at Fiandach & Fiandach. He represented me on a recent legal affair I was involved in, and he’s a nice guy.

As for Bill Curchin,  yeah,  he touched my life recently. Sadly, he died in 2006. Bill how could you do this to us??? Bill was the real essence of cool. He taught me a few things about being cool. “Just be cool and you stay cool”. Wacky statement I guess you had to know Bill. I miss the guy.

Bill Curchin on Vocals

Bill Curchin on Vocals

Anyway I have tons of Videos and photographs I took at the time and will try as hard as I can to get them together for all of you to enjoy. I will write more soon.

I leave you with a few photos of The Tinglers and Myself.

Ed Richter 10/08


Editor’s note: Ed Richter passed away September 22, 2022. If anyone has information on Ed’s archives, shoot us a message. RIP Edwin…

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