The Gaunga Dyns
| The Gaunga Dyns | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1965-1967 |
| Labels | Busy-B |
| Associated acts | The Twilights |
| Past members |
|
The Gaunga Dyns are an American rock band from New Orleans, Louisiana, who were active from 1965 through 1968 and who regrouped in 2013. They recorded two singes for Busy-B Records and a had a local hit with "Stick with Her". In the intervening years they have become known amongst garage rock enthusiasts, particularly for some of their bolder songs such as "Rebecca Rodifier", which is one of the earliest rock songs to tackle the topic of abortion, and "No One Cares". They reunited with most of the members from their best-known configuration for the Ponderosa Stomp festival in 2013 and have since been intermittently active with different lineups.
The Guanga Dyns formed in 1965 in the Algiers section of New Orleans, Louisiana, located on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, and the bulk of their membership was made up of students from Behrman High School in Algiers as well as other area schools. They and another band, the Twilights, were both from Algiers and would eventually merge to form the better known version of the band. The Twilights' membership included three members later to join the Guanga Dyns, which featured two lead singers, Beau Bremer and Neal Lundgren, as well as Steve Staples on guitar. The Guanga Dyns' original membership included Bobby Carter on bass and his brother David on organ, as well as Johnny Baker on vocals. Their band name was created as a pun equating Rudyard Kipling's poem, "Gunga Din" with popular nightspot on Bourbon Street called the Gunga Den. The Twilights had been around slightly longer than the Gaunga Dyns, but were not satisfied with their current bass player. Two of the members in the Guanga Dyns, both guitarists, after graduating from high school and did not wish to continue in the band. So, the bands merged retaining the name,the Gaunga Dyns and settled into a lineup consisting of Beau Bremer and Neal Lundgren on vocals, Steve Staples on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, Mike King on lead guitar, Bobby Carter on bass, Brian Collins on organ, and Ricky on drums.
The young age of the band did not impede them from landing gigs. In New Orleans during the sixties it was not uncommon for underage bands to play at bars. However, there were two teenage nightclubs in the New Orleans area, which did not serve alcohol and hosted shows for bands, one of which was the Hullabaloo on Airline Highway in Metairie. As they became more popular, the Gaunga Dyns sometimes played on the same bill with famous New Orleans R&B legends in the clubs. According to Steve Staples, “A couple of times, we were Ernie K-Doe’s backup band. He came and did a whole set with us. That was fun. That was at the Hullabaloo Club,” says Staples. "We played with Irma Thomas and Benny Spellman at Your Father’s Mustache.” "And we also played VFW halls,” he says. “We were playing all over in Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast. We didn’t ever go to Texas, but we were in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, mostly."
...
Wikipedia