Jerry Hatch on rhythm guitar, Chris Carpenter on sax and vocals, Howard Govette on drums(!), Mike Winburn on bass and vocals, and Mike Govette on lead guitar and vocals, circa 1966.
Yes, we glammed out, but I must say, it was at least partly at the behest of the adults who I think were living vicariously as we won amateur battle of the band contests, and such.
Chris,Jerry, Mike W., Mike G. and Howard
Silver silk shirts with red silk ascots, dark peg leg trousers and Beatle boots. We played many little gigs and it was great for getting attention at an age when it was of supreme importance. Hey, I’m with the band! We had so much fun!
b&w pix: at Winburns household, Upkandm Ca.–color pix: at Govette’s household, Ontario, Ca.–I think Dad always wanted to be a drummer…..I’m not sure who made that cool drum sign for us. Howard looks cool with his Maverick tie and red sparkle drum set. I look like Lumpy Rutherford with Eddie Haskell’s guitar. Stella’s birthday party was stellar for the In-Keepers. We played Midnight Confessions,
Thee In-Keepers in a Battle of the Bands at the Pizza Palace!
The Pizza Palace was of course the Holy Grail for 16 year olds in a new band in Ontario! So we entered the talent contest and all our parents’ friends and our friends came and packed the place and we won. I have no existing audio of Thee In-Keepers. WE do have some rare 8mm footage that shows us in action.
Thee In-Keepers on 8mm film
This short (4:16) film shows 4 different gigs for the fledgling Govette brothers and Thee In-Keepers.
The first was shot in our garage, which my Dad had converted to a rec room. This was us playing for our folks. We did have a few rowdier gigs later on. We jammed there one night with crowds spilling out into the street on Granada Court! The Dobler brothers came, along with a Hammond B3 and leslies. We had a blast playing Hey Joe, Under My Thumbs, It’s Gonna Be Alright, by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gloria, and of course, Don’t Play With My Soul, our original.
The second gig shown was at Stella R’s birthday party, and you can catch a glimpse of her in a bright red dress! She was in the corner much of the night, necking furiously with someone. After a couple of hours had passed, one of her brothers asked me if I liked her. He said she was necking with the other guy, hoping I would step in! Not me. I was trying to remember chords! I always liked Stella…
The third clip shows us playing on our enclosed patio on Granada Court, Ontario, Ca. It was likely a practice, but the outfits at first were so cool, we would wear them anyway.
The last clip was the band playing at our bass player Mike Winburn’s parents’ house. It was a party for all the adults in our lives who helped us up onto a stage. In this clip you can clearly see the satin shirts and ascots. A moment in time.
Thee In-Keepers Ephemera
We made a business card, I believe in printing class, Chaffey High School. We passed the cards around to anyone who would take them. Then low and behold, General Dynamics where my Dad worked, was having a winter party called the Sno-Ball (heh) and needed a band to dance to. Enter, Thee In-Keepers! It was a blast! There was a huge crowd which was awesome. I remember as the night wore on, and the drinking got heavier, the folks wanted to keep dancing, We played She’s Not There, by the Zombies four times! I recall as that song ended each time, the band ends the song at the same time, on one note. But the crowd was so into dancing, they kept a beat after the song ended. As I tried to keep my cheap Tiesco guitar in tune, just beaming from the good vibes while playing, i bore witness to a guy leaning a woman over for one of those movie-style kisses. Success! They did it! Then as he pulled the woman back up, he unzipped the back of her dress from shoulders to butt! Fifteen year old Mike was stunned. Fifty five years later, I still chuckle.
Thee In-Keepers 1968 with a new lineup.
Mike Govette, lead guitar/vocals—Chris Carpenter, sax/vocals—Howard Govette, drums/vocals—Mike Winburn, rhythm guitar/vocals—Tex Hampton, bass.
Gone are the matching silk shirts. In a bid further individual expression, the band began to change. We dressed how we wanted. This meant at one point that Howard and I bought full-out flower power clothes for a couple of gigs. I mean paisley long sleeve shirts, with huge collars, pinstripe slacks, headbands.
We got a gig at the West Covina Drive In! I don’t remember the connection, but we got to go into Hollywood and record a radio commercial at Rev. Bob Richards film studio. We recorded three songs: She Comes In Colors, by Love, Live For Today by the Grass Roots, and Don’t Play With My Soul, our requisite original. It was a four-track studio and I remember having my vocal tracks isolated and played back. Aaahhhhh!!!! I know I sound better than that! So they made a thirty second radio commercial I don’t have a copy of anymore. It featured 2 bars of drum into (yay, Howard!) at the beginningof the spot, a whole lot of talking in the middle…”Two shows for the price of one! Come early and listen to the rocking sounds of Thee In-Keepers! Then stay for the movie! That’s Thee In-Keepers at the West Covina Drive-In! Come early and catch both shows!”…
We played in front of Ontario Music ina Battle of the Bands! The owner George Martin (I kid you not) let us pic out any instruments we wanted to play. I got a Fender Jazzmaster! We did well, playing the gritty Seven and Seven Is, by Love. But the Establishment, who had maybe 6 or 7 members and all dressed in white played better. John Jensen played lead and he shredded at an early age! Still, unfortunate name, and they looked like a collective of milkmen.
We played another Battle of the Bands at the parking lot of White Front! It was on Mountain Avenue, Ontario, Ca. and there was a big carnival going on there. Games, rides, food. I remember four bands played that first night. The first band played 1 song and left. The second band played three songs, one of them being “Psychotic Reaction”. That was on our set list. We played 6 songs, including Psychotic Reaction, and blew them away. Then came the MC’s friends, The Realm. I liked their name and I kind of knew Bill Shapiro, the guitar player. They played 6 songs. The MC made the executive decision that we had tied and needed to come back to have a tiebreaker the next night! So we returned the next night, played all the same songs, and they played all their same songs, and in a nail-biting, breath-holding announcement, the MC proclaimed the winner to be……..The Realm! *
*I met with Bill Shapiro in 2019 during our 50th High School Reunion! I hadn’t talked to him or seen him since high school. He remembered the bands. I told him how my brother and I always joked about the contest being fixed because he had an ‘in’ with the MC. He laughed and said “That sounds like something I’d do!”
Eventually, the band splintered. Tex Hampton ended up in a rocking band called Hard Luck Boy, with John Harrelson. I never heard from Jerry Hatch or Chris Carpenter since those days, but I will always remember them fondly, as we were a tender age together. We banded and practiced and played and it forms a brotherhood, a comraderie that is worth the price of admission in this world.
I would be remiss if I did not mention a short-lived band that Howard and I got into right after Thee In-Keepers broke up: Devilled Shit.
ointmentproject.com 