My, how things do change

Mike & the Mystics of Poughkeepsie, NY, lip-synching on a local music/dance show on WKTV (Channel 2, Utica, NY), during the summer of 1965. The station wasn't equipped for live performance, so after driving three hours to get there, we recorded two songs at a local studio (single track, overdubbed) in the morning, then trucked to the station for the afternoon taping. They were rushed to get ready for the evening newscast, so we never even got to see our "performance."

L-R: Pete Crispell (rhythm guitar), Mike Cole (bass), Mike Lawry (THE "Mike", drums), Skip Wills (i.e., me) (organ), Mike Coyle (lead guitar)

On the road to Utica, we stopped at every service area on the New York State Thruway so we could look cool wearing matching sunglasses. Here we are having completed the quest.

L-R: Lawry, Coyle, Cole, Crispell, Wills

A January, 2009 find! The recordings done for the WKTV show. These are EXTREMELY rare: only one acetate is known to exist, from which two cassettes were made in the late Eighties. These MP3s were ripped from one of those cassettes (someday, maybe a better rip direct from the acetate, assuming it is still playable):

Mister, You're A Better Man Than I
Vocal by Mike Coyle

Hey Little Girl
Vocal by Mike Cole

Mike & the Mystics renamed as Group Therapy shortly after the WKTV appearance. Here we are at a Poughkeepsie under-age club (an alcohol-free place for the under-18 set) called "What's It To Ya?" Crispell had departed; Donnie Herring (a/k/a "Fish") had joined on vocals; Lawry had moved to California following high school graduation and was replaced by yet another Mike on drums.

There were a couple of equipment changes in the interim: Coyle had traded his Fender Stratocaster for a Telecaster, and Wills had moved up from the Farfisa Compact to the Compact Duo.

L-R: Mike Gilroy, Mike Coyle, Mike Cole, Donnie Herring, Skip Wills

After a long engagement at the Dew Drop Inn in Kingston (every Friday and Saturday for something like 36 weeks straight), we publicized our return to Poughkeepsie by decorating the van with poster paint and cruising all over the area for over a week. Here were are in front of WITY.

L-R: Coyle, Gilroy, Cole, Wills, Herring

Aftermath

Mike Lawry retired in 2008, having taught middle school history and English in Longview, Washington since graduating from Central Washington State College.

Skip Wills (i.e., me) I initially pursued a career in radio, becoming a newsman at WHVW in Hyde Park, then moved to northern Vermont, where I eventually got out of radio and spent a large chunk of my life with the US Immigration & Naturalization Service. I remain today in a small town on the Vermont-Quebec border. Among other things, I am an accomplished amateur actor, proud father, grandfather, and a recognized commercial voice talent. I work at IBM Burlington.

Mike Cole is a partner in a Rhinebeck, NY company which builds wiring harnesses for HumVees (as of 04/09).

Pete Crispell is retired, living in Ulster County.

Mike Gilroy has been located in South Bend, Indiana (04/13/2010).

Donnie Herring succumbed to cancer in 2000. He was 50.

Mike Coyle There are stories of sightings, but his whereabouts remain unknown.