-Blue Sky came together in 1972 in Bremerton Washington . The original members were teenage buddies, among a large group of musician friends, running the streets, partying and occasionally skipping out of school to play music together. Larry Darone and Jim Fleming played in a band called Train while Mike Williams and I were gigging with a drummer named Chris Ballah in a band called Goldstone. Larry occasionally played and sang with Goldstone for a short while doing gigs at the YMCA and Mariners Club in Bremerton . At 17, I was the oldest guy in the band.
GoldStone
Mike Williams Chris Ballah Larry Darone Roger Nick
When a new band formed from the nucleus of Train and Goldstone, it was agreed that we would call the band “Darone”, after Larry's last name. I was hanging out in Seattle at that time and came back to Bremerton to start rehearsing up some songs with the new band. So the first Blue Sky band was actually called “Darone” with Larry, Mike, Jim, myself and a guy new to the Bremerton area from California named Jimi Herron. He played guitar left handed but strung right. We thought that was very cool! …Roger Nick
Jimi Herron
First Business Card
-While working up cover songs and writing and recording originals in Bremerton , we set our minds and hearts to follow the dream of playing in all the top clubs in Seattle and to make headline status at the Aquarius Tavern before we reached our 21st birthdays. This goal was no problem to reach once we got our foot in the door. …Jim Fleming
-After gigging around Kitsap County for about six months doing one-nighters at the high schools and at Perls as well as weekends at the “Y” and the Mariners Club we realized we had to break into Seattle to really go somewhere and not just be wasting our time. So Jim and I went to Seattle and asked the owner of Bananas Tavern in Fremont if we could have an audition. He obliged and we played there that Sunday Evening. We were young, green and raw but the place was packed for a Sunday. It was really jumpin' and we were kickin' ass. At the end of the night when he approached us to pay us for the evening, he asked us to stay on for the next two weeks as he had already bumped out his next two bands. (‘Sorry About That' to the guys in those bands…shit happens!)
BANG! We were on our way. During that first gig we picked up two managers, Hank Manzanares and Dave Weddle, and a whole bunch of wicked looking stage clothes (well, for the day anyway!).
Darone
See!
They were able to get us into the Warehouse Tavern in Eastlake for our very next gig. At that time it was the second hottest club in Seattle . We took this as a sign that we were invincible. The prospect of power was intoxicating.
The problem was, we were still living in Bremerton . We knew we had to get over to the city. Literally overnight we picked up and moved the band to Seattle and stayed at the house of one of our managers. We didn't tell anyone. We just rented a truck, filled it with our stuff and in the middle of the night stole away to the city and never looked back, leaving our Bremerton friends, families and even our girlfriends behind. I think they were really bugged when they came over the next day to find we were gone. Yea, so we broke some hearts. But, we were on a mission. We were gonna be rock stars.
Our managers immediately thought we needed to change the name and do some road work to slick up our act. So we changed the name to “God” thinking it would have impact and went on the road to Canada . It turns out it just pissed people off so we came back to Seattle and rethought the whole name thing. I remember the day. It was a hot summer day and we were laying around our managers place half naked trying to come up with a good name for the band. It was discouraging because we couldn't think of anything. Our often laconic manager walking into the room and saw us all sitting there silently and said “why don't you just pick something out of the blue sky?”. We snapped to, looked at each other and said “that's it, we'll name the band Blue Sky”. And so the name was born. That name stayed solid with the band for over ten years.
Our trip to Canada was a turning point. We were inspired to write four original songs while up there including two very cool songs called “ Canada Town ” and “Clean Life”. After we returned, we went on to very quickly forge a massive following around the Seattle area. We played a circuit to rapidly growing crouds in clubs that included the Camelot in Lake City , the G-Note in Greenwood , the Hatchcover in Bellview, and many more. Eventually, we scored gigs at The AQUARIUS TAVERN in north Seattle . We were well accepted there and were able to pack the place in no time. …Roger Nick
-Playing the Clubs in Seattle and on the road to Spokane , State Line, Moscow and Lewiston Idaho , Yakima and Portland for long stretches the band saved money and got sponsorship from various managers and music stores then hit Seawest Studios in greenwood in 1973 and recorded the 4 songs we composed in Canada . …Jim Fleming
-One of the hot Seattle rock radio stations (I think it was KZOK), was sponsoring a contest for local groups. We submitted two of the songs we recorded at Seawest Studios. (the two mentioned earlier) We were surprised to hear we were picked to be one of the five finalists. There were hundreds of entries and this just exploded our egos. (even more) The five finalists were shipped off to a heavyweight producer at Capitol Records in LA. He picked Blue Sky's music to win the contest. We won some recording time at Holden Hamilton & Roberts, a popular recording studio in north Seattle . The focus was to make a hit song for the radio. Unfortunately, nothing of substance came of it except some experience in the studio. …Roger Nick
-The band changed guitar players. Jimi left and hooked up with “Magi” and we hired Danny Haines from Spokane/Stateline.
Danny Haines
In the meantime the band was getting more and more popular, owing to our own truck, huge light system, massive sound system and having a great (notorious) road crew. The band was always willing to conquer new and exciting venues all along the west coast and the midwest. The Blue Sky band loved the greater Vancouver BC, Spokane WA, Denver, CO. and Phoenix , AZ market. …Jim Fleming
-Our circuit expanded quickly to encompass venues everywhere west of the Mississippi River . We settled into a perpetual life on the road spending 6 to 9 months of the year constantly moving from city to town playing the very best rooms they had to offer. We made it a point never to spend more than a week in any one area if we could help it. The idea was, get in fast - hit ‘em hard - and get out quick! Make them want us! It worked great. The club owners loved us. We could blow into town, start Monday night to a fairly empty room. Play Tuesday to a full house and by the weekend the place was insane. We were good at it. It was a lonely life though. We made up for it by surrounding ourselves everywhere with local caches of friends, willing women and party crouds. We joked about being like modern day pirates, cruising around the country pillaging and plundering. We even had nicknames for each other.
More to come!!!