|
Tim Sullivan is the central unchanging core of The Supertones over their many years. Tim was born in Long Beach, California, the son of a Marine Corps Colonel. Tim’s early days were spent down at Camp Pendleton, living in Carlsbad and learning to surf at some of Southern California’s most revered surf spots. Tim’s biggest influence in picking up the guitar was hearing Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy and recordings by Link Wray (in fact, the first Supertones recording was Wray’s stiletto-sharp Switchblade). Tim then moved with his family to Camp LeJueune in North Carolina where he started playing surf music. He formed his first band in 1964 at the age of eight with one of his lifetime friends, Randy Laine, who played drums. Together with Rusty Miller on guitar and one of their friends on bass they were known in the local area as The Surfing Nomads. The band continued to perform until 1967.
Tim went on to study for a degree in music at St. Petersburg College in Florida and later ended up in New York City in 1979 on a ballet scholarship. Tim’s next band of significance was a rockabilly band he formed in the early 1980s called The Stringbusters with future Supertones bass player Marc Lipsher. From the Stringbusters, Tim and Marc moved onto the Mustangs and then The Dragsters. With The Dragsters, Tim and Marc recorded their only major label release, Stoked, on Island Records subsidiary Great Jones label.
Tim relates how The Supertones came into being, “I guess it was January of 1989 when I met Ted Lawrence at Chelsea Guitars here in NYC. Ted would come in on the way to his rehearsal studio and we found that we shared an interest in old pre-CBS Fenders and a love of The Ventures, Link Wray and The Shadows. We said, ‘Lets get a band going.’ and we got Marc Lipscher, who was in a couple of NYC retro bands with me, The Dragsters and The Mustangs, to play bass. Then we got Steve Busby to play drums. He was in a band that was rehearsing in Ted’s studio at the time. We played at the Memphis Studio Christmas party and everybody had a blast.”
Trying to come up with a name for the newly formed surf band, Tim and Ted considered using, but ultimately rejected, the name of The Penetrators (which was later adopted by the great spy-surf band from Atlanta). Looking across the studio they noticed a very cool amplifier from the 1930s with a speaker hole in the shape of a harp or lyre. Being a good Irishman, this was Tim’s sign for the name of the band. The amplifier brand was The Supertone amp, thus The Supertones.
On their early success Tim states, “Everything seemed to click and we started getting a lot of gigs at places like McGovern’s, The Continental, and all around the Lower East Side. We also recorded The Big Wet Twang in 1990. We went on like that for about 3 years and then Ted wanted to form Purple Knif. So I thought about asking Mike (Mandina), who was a friend of mine who I also had met at Chelsea Guitars. He was in a couple of country bands, The Biscuit Flippers and The Party Killers, and also a surfer like me, so we had been going surfing together for years out at Jones Beach and Long Beach.”
As the band moved forward some of the personnel changed with Mike Mandina’s eventual departure after a run of five or six years, and the final additions of Seth Lipscher on guitar, Simon Chardiet on bass, and Rob Prosky on drums. 2001 also brought a contract with Golly Gee Records, yet another product of a visit to the famed Chelsea Guitars.
The driving force behind the Supertones continues to be Tim Sullivan, but he adds that the current lineup of talent is “arguably the best the band has ever had”. Their latest release, “The Supertones Live! Rincon, PR 2008” is a two volume set of music recorded during a February, 2008 visit to the island. Their next visit will be in November of this year, so if you like that classic surf music sound be sure to check them out at places like The Calypso and The Pool Bar.
Surf Caribe: So, Tim, you ended up in NYC on ballet scholarship?! Tell us about that.
Tim Sullivan: I went to Brevard Community College in Cocoa Beach, FL in 1973 and I took a ballet class to meet chicks and I also thought it would help my surfing. It ended up being great for both things. I met a hell of a lot of chicks and made them realize how cool the long board thing was even though it was way out of fashion at the time.
SC: You formed The Surfing Nomads at the age of eight. That’s pretty weighty stuff for a boy that young, no?
TS: The truth is that I started playing the guitar at eight and a few years later my next door neighbor, Randy Laine (Wes Laine’s older brother, and a drummer), and I started to play surf music. We covered The Ventures mostly, and that was around 1964 through 1969. We were both living at Camp Lejuene in North Carolina where our dads were coronels in the USMC.
SC: When did you first come to Puerto Rico and what has brought you back over the years?
TS: That was around 1988. I love the warm water and all the right hand point surf. Really, some of my favorite surfing ever was in PR in the olden days when it was very hard to get to so it was pretty empty. I would surf Wilderness by myself or with two other people out a lot of the time, and when the surf is good in Puerto Rico there is nothing better. I will always come back and the fact that it’s only three hours from NYC helps a lot, too!
SC: Favorite places around the island to stay, surf, eat, drink, and be merry?
TS: I do love Rincon. The Calypso is always a great place to play and party, but these days I’ve been digging it up north at Wilderness for my surfing .
SC: Tell us about the local PR surfers that impress you.
TS: The local surf talent in around PR is top notch. I do have my favorites. I don’t know their names, but there are some young guys who surf Wilderness on longboards these days who really get it. Crazy Mary form the Outer Banks is a stand out as well. It’s good to see that Puerto Rico has some talented longboarders that can hold their own when they leave the island.
SC: What’s on the docket for the Surftones in 2009 and beyond?
TS: We have a few gigs line up here in NYC as well as in Puerto Rico in November and December of 2008 and then we’ll be back on the island in February and March of 2009. Next summer we will play at the Huntington Beach International Surf Museum (HBISM). I was asked to play at the 40th anniversary of the 1968 world surfing contest, but I had a prior gig here in NYC and then will be in CA in October at the HBISM.
SC: Where can people see your band perform in the states?
TS: We play all over the NYC area at places like Otto’s Shrunken Head at 538 East 14th St. where we play about once month. We also always have a few gigs in Ca. in the summer time.
SC: Does the band have a website where fans can purchase the music and find out about upcoming gigs?
TS: We have three myspace pages; supertones surf, supertones NYC, and the supertones. We also are on gollygeerecords.com where they have all our information posted. People can also contact me directly at supertonesurf@hotmail.com.
|