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
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
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…
Tags: Cliches, Comateens, Edwin J. Richter, New Math, Personal Effects., Pistoleros, PressTones, Tinglers, Video, Waitresses
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Same here, it was quite a shocker… we’ve lost too many Musical brothers the past few years. In addition to Bill and others mentioned on the RIP page, we’ve lost Dave Cross (Coffee, Nod), Scott Palmer (Lotus STP, John Brown’s Body, Project Logic), Gordon Luzius (Badenovs, Ken Hardly Playboys, Coffee Achievers), Tony Cavagnaro (Buddhahood, Urban Squirrels), Tim McGrain (Three Boxes) and Scorgies light man Tony Gerardi. There are others whose names I can’t rightly recall, like Pete from Transistor Sister.
Too many, folks!
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I really don’t know how Stan wrote this in 2008. Tim McGrain sadly passed away in 2014. He was a good friend.
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The original comment was written in 2008; I updated it in 2014 to reflect Tim’s passing and that of of Tony Gerardi. Since then, we have lost Patti Schmidt of the targets and Liz Heveron, wife of Bernie and a former Transistor Sister band member. Time marches on…
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Edited in 2016, so date was incorrect
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Anyone possibly know what happened to transistor sister percussionist Ray Rivera.im the original singer and trying to find him and others in our band.thanks
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I did not know Bill had passed away. Very sad.
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Thanks to Ed, we have the date: April 21, 2006. The same day the Helix entrance of the South Ave Parking garage collapsed. Here’s the Obit:
Curchin, William J.
Date published: 4/23/2006“April 21, 2006. Predeceased by his mother, Gertrude H. Curchin. He is survived by his father, Ames Curchin; sister, Nancy (Michael) Heaney; brother, Christopher Curchin (George Barrick); nephews, Eric and David Heaney; aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. A Memorial Service will be held 11:00am, Saturday April 29th at St. Martin Evangelical Lutheran Church, 813 Bay Rd., Webster. Donations in memory of Bill may be directed to the Rochester School for the Deaf, 1545 St. Paul St. Rochester, NY 14621. Anthony Funeral Chapel, Inc. 1031 Ridge Rd. 872-6380”
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Do you know the cause? I remember joking with him a lot when I was in Cappy and the Frenchmen. I used to call him Slappy (reasons unknown), but he was always a funny guy, even just a look or a double-take would crack me up.
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No, but I remember that the Frenchment/Tingler folks did a show for public access cable in Webster. Perhaps Edwin J. has an episode or two in his archives?
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Bill passed away due to complications from diabetes. It is tremendously sad, still. He was very special to me.
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I knew Bill only fleetingly, from a few conversations at the bar. In those, he was indeed funny; a friendly guy and a good conversationalist.
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I was friends with Kurt Wilkins and Tinglers/Cappy drummer Steve (can’t remember Steve’s name at the moment). Great guys, they turned me on to Robyn Hitchcock/The Soft Boys, for which I will be forever indebted.
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