Stories and Tales

Howdy Mike and other readers .....

That's a noble thing yer doin' there. I wanted to contribute what I remember from the mid-70s on the Houston scene. Which I don't remember so well, cause I was there.

The Cactus Club (the official Liquor Board dba) was owned by Mike Horan, who also ran Damian's and a few other Montrose rock spots. His family also operated Birraporetti's, the Irish/Italian restaurant on W. Gray in Houston, I think. Mike had a partner named Cliff Bone, I believe. Never was any connection to the Gilley's crowd, but that rumor existed even then.

Cactus managers in the mid-70s included Greg Stair(?), Connie Ross, Wes Monteith, Bill Pullen, and myself, Richard Schneider. Between '74-'78 we all held almost every job in the place, at one time or another. I would have to say it was not a real tightly organized business, pretty smalltime, we were all winging it. Shoot, Connie & I were like 20, 21, Wes & Bill a few years older. We all went on to respectable trades after that.

The Cactus Club was actually just a few yards inside the Houston city limits, not in Pasadena, though half the crowd was from Pasadena. It was built by a Charlie Battestein (?) as a C&W dance hall, out of surplus barracks buildings from old Ellington Field after WWII; later he rented it out to Horan. It was famous in the mid-70s for its $3 beer bust nights. World-class intoxication there, lemme tell ya. Some nights, 350-400 people passed thru the door. I saw bartenders run full kegs dry without ever shutting off the tap, just keep the cups moving. We were friendly with Cisco at the Boogie Bar, about a mile up the road, and shared a lot of the same customers.

Some name bands did perform at the Cactus, including Canned Heat and Bloodrock (in their golden years, one might delicately say). Also Point Blank once, I think, and Kenny Cordray. I recall Canned Heat drank beer by the pitcher. Straight from it, I mean, without a glass. LIC was a regular there, while they were still a rising star. The Electromagnets, Oz Knozz, Eeze (later Automatic), and Too Smooth were also regulars, and later on, the BelAirs from New Orleans. Oz played all of Horan's clubs. I think they lost Richard Heath somewhere in that period and fell out of the scene some. This would have been '75-'77. (BTW, Oz is still around, Google 'em.)

In '78, a pretty good Elvis act, Rick Sumlin, took over some of the Cactus management; Mike Horan was looking to get out of it I believe. Rick tried some alternatives to the Cactus' benchmark rock, such as his own act, and Vince Vance and the Valiants; I heard that it didn't work out real well, but I had moved on by then, I never went in there after fall of '78. Soon the club became the Happy Daze (argghh), a pretty standard disco. I believe the building's still there, but I don't know what it is now. A lot of the Cactus crowd, and bands, moved on to the On The Border club, way out Telephone Rd I think it was, toward Pearland. It was about twice the size of the Cactus. I know I saw LIC there often, but I don't recall them having any big names, just area bands mostly. OTB closed in Sept. '81. They should be in your archive, but I don't have much to contribute.

The later info you have on Seabreeze/Eeze/Automatic, from Ed, is correct. Mike Horan promoted them all over, I never understood why they didn't go farther, they sure had the right mix. Larry Sotoodeh was a powerful percussionist, a great understanding of music dynamics. He did make drumsticks for several years, while studying to become a real estate broker in S.A., where he's been for 20 years. I knew Frank but don't know what became of him. Kenny Sotoodeh was playing with a band called Legacy recently, but their website is belly up. Mickey Garza played ZZ damn near better than ZZ did. Wish I knew where he wound up. Robert Ausmus was a superb guitarist who leaned toward jazz rock/progressive. I heard he's doing concert audio production now. Eeze had some original music of their own -- I still remember a tune called "Jupiter Moon" -- but I think none of it was ever published.

LIC's drummer, Charlie Izard, was an electrician then and I believe he's still doing that in Pearland or Dickinson, he was from someplace down that way. Those dudes had some groupies, man. Does the archive have a section about that?

Keep up your great work! I sure enjoyed reading the archive. Getting to that sentimental phase of life I guess. Crap, I'll be watching golf on TV next.

-- March 2009 --Richard Schneider, Port Angeles, WA