Bio

[color=\"red\"][b]The Original Members of Maypole[/b][/color] [b]Dennis Tobell[/b]- Under the stage name of Denny Romans, later to be known as Demian Bell. Principle writer and Lead Guitarist and Vocals. Born near Chicago, to a show business Father and Mother, grew up in Maryland, Ohio, and California. First started piano at age 7, then guitar at 13. First professional gig at 14, with “The Rogues” at the Gold Horse Saloon in Folsom California. He was a member of “The Moss” a Baltimore Blues band who had won many competitions known a “Battle of The Bands”. He founded the “Psychedelic Propellors” at 16, in Baltimore Md. Played with “Van Morrison” and “Moulty and the Barbarians” at 17 and “Maypole” when 20, with Paul Welsh. [b]Paul Welsh[/b]- Drummer and writer and co-founder with Dennis Tobell. Born in Frankfurt Germany, to a French mother and American father. Raised in Towson , Maryland. A brilliant student in History, Literature, Languages and music. His first love was music as he saw it, as a tremendous way to communicate with the masses. Playing drums since age 10, he first played with “The Paupers”, “Daddy Warbucks” and then with “Maypole”. [b]Steve Mace[/b]- Writer, singer and second guitarist. Born in Baltimore, raised in Towson , Paul and Steve were almost next door neighbors all their lives. He also was a member of the “Paupers”, “Daddy Warbucks”, before joining “Maypole”. [b]Kenny Ross[/b]- Singer, songwriter. Born in Baltimore and grew up in the Govans area of Baltimore. Kenny was also a member of “The Paupers” with Paul and Steve. [b]John Nickel[/b]- Bass Guitar was born in Baltimore, was from the Essex area of Baltimore, and played in many area bands before joining “Maypole”. [b]The Story of Maypole[/b] Denny says “Maypole” was about freedom, people being natural, true to themselves and the others around them. We told the truth about things and what we saw. The beauty, the ugliness, the injustice, the irony, the plight of true hearts on their journey to find happiness, and ultimately our strengths and our weaknesses. We tried to tell the truth inside a tunnel of madness.” “In many ways the story and history of Maypole contains so many human elements. It really cannot be fully expressed. The characters involved, from the Mafia, the drug culture, the music business, personal relationships, not to mention, managers, agents, recording sessions, radio and TV shows all mixes together in a tangled web, and if I could remember every detail I might go mad. These events triggered reactions so important in my life they cannot be calculated. Sometimes it’s strange, you’d think that you would learn things that would protect you. I seemed to be a magnet for every weirdo that you can imagine. I only wanted to play my music, travel the world and be a part of it. These characters turned my life into a circus, and I was the ride. I’ve given so many rides in my life. If I could find a shrink smart enough I might give it a try, but I doubt it, as most of them, are more screwed up than me. At least I am still friends with myself and, I have no hate for myself. When I am playing I feel no pain, maybe that’s why it has been so important for me to keep doing it. Loyalty was and still is the most important thing to me in relationships. Most people it seems nowadays don’t get it, but respect demands it and love needs it”. “Maypole” was not a typical group. Their approach was purely artistic and on a spiritual level. “We could give a hoot about making a hit single and even though they tried to push us to do it. Everyone usually is.” It was the music we felt and believed in. We weren’t concerned with song lengths and snappy hook lines , we were searching for a whole new way to express themselves. We found it.”They played with power and conviction, forming many new styles. Some of these things are universal. Other musicians came to see them because of their talent for improvisation. The songs on the album sound tame, compared with their live performances, that would leave the audiences astounded by their power and stamina and emotion. The people would crowd right up to the stage to be a part of the “vibe”. People who were ever at a Maypole concert, say that they would never forget the energy in the air, as the band would leave the stage drenched in sweat with the audience screaming for more, they themselves, drenched in sweat.. Bad management and disco put an end to this era of true music, as more and more venues closed down to be replaced with disc jockeys spinning records. The band finally broke up in 1972. Denny went to Europe to build a new life. He was determined to carry on. Maypole would carry on in many forms and with different people. But that’s another story and now this was how “Maypole” began. They had met in 1966 while both playing on the same bill together in different bands at a local Baltimore teen center. Denny in the “Chambermen” and Paul in “The Paupers”. They liked each others playing and got to be friends over the years and ran into each other at times and as they both shared the love of the pipe, they had many occasions together to talk about music and to jam together. In late 1969 they decided to form a new group, They would call it “Maypole” after a famous story by Nathaniel Hawthorne called the “Maypole of Merry-Mount” which described how some Puritans went off into the woods to erect a Maypole and dance around it in complete violation of the rules of the day, and were arrested and punished for the crime of dancing and basically having a good time. They saw the parallel to the times they were living and the principle of freedom that it represented. They first practiced in John the bass players tiny bedroom, in his apartment of St. Paul St., in downtown Baltimore Maryland. That was when they met Pat Perticone one day. Pat had been the manager of Denny before in the “The Propellor” and had him still under contract. Pat wanted to hear the new band and he went to hear them play. He was impressed with band as they were fairly tight at this point and one could see the potential. He said that he thought that he could get them a record deal and so from that moment they sent to work as hard as they could on the music and the complex vocal harmonies .They first recorded a demo in Washington, D.C. at Track studios The place was terrible and in spite of the radio stations coming through their guitar pickups, they got the 4 songs needed, and waited to see what would happen. Pat came back to them in a couple of weeks and told them they had a deal with Colossus records in New York, and they would be recording at A&R Studios, they had three days to complete the project. He would be the producer. He didn’t know squat about producing a record. He had bragged that he would have a finished album on their desk in three days. Later we would find out the real reason. The circumstances that occurred during the recording, are that Paul had contracted hepatitis, and was running a very high temperature during the recording, but it was something there was no way he was going to miss. He played the shit out of his drums nevertheless, and his performance still stands in my mind, as one of the highlights of the album. The first side of the album was recorded as one song and the music was recorded live with no overdubs whatsoever. The vocals were then overdubbed also live, with all the vocal parts at the same time. They did all of this in 19 hours. Denny used a 1953 Fender Telecaster with a Fender Twin Reverb Amp. A Vox tone bender to boost the gain and a hardly known thing at the time called a wha- wha pedal. He used it on “Stand Alone”. The first American group to use it. Steve played a Les Paul Studio guitar with a Marshall amp. John used a Fender Precision with an old Ampeg bass amp, and Paul used a set that he had built with Ted’s Drum shop in Baltimore. A 26” Bass drum and all oversized toms. Zildian Cymbals, all away around. A new concept in those days, quite common now. Dave Green was the engineer who had engineered “The Brooklyn Bridge” and some other groups, but never such a group as Maypole. He smoothed out everything and made the guitars sound “tinny” and with no balls. It was a recorded on an 8 track machine on what was in those days considered to be state of the art. Denny was not happy with the result. To him the whole session had been mishandled and wanted no part of the result. He went back to the hotel after he had been locked out of the mix room and was determined to return to Baltimore. They finally had to call him back to the studio because they could not figure out how all the parts fit together, as Denny had written most of the songs, he was the only one who could figure it out, in the length of time they had. Owing to this, at least the album wasn’t a total loss. He still was not happy as the basic tracks had been rushed and done in only two takes in a totally live fashion and were a nightmare to try to make something out of. The result is what you hear, and that’s life folks. The album was on their desk in three days, and later when Denny spoke with the record company president, he was informed they could have had a week, or more if they had wanted. Pat had pocketed the money saved by doing it in only three days. Around $7,000 by all estimates. He also purposely didn’t put any of the names of the Band or song writing credits on the album as another way to cheat them, even out of their song writing royalties. It worked, “Maypole” never received a dime for their work, thanks to Pat Perticone. The next shock was when he received a box of singles from the album with the “A” side “Show Me The Way” written solely by Denny spliced in to middle with part of an instrumental and the Atomic explosion written by Paul and spliced together again with the second part of the song. It credits, (Dennis Tobell- Kenny Ross) but Kenny had no part of the song, Paul did. It sounded like a train wreck and they refused to promote it in any way. Only the “B” side “Johnny” would they promote. Pat was doing everything to sabotage his own product just out of jealousy and spite. They then, right after the album was released fired him, once and for all. Two brothers from Baltimore, Joe and Slantz Billelo who were well know promotion men tried to help them to salvage the situation, but at this moment, right after the release, the record company went under, along with their hopes of their album ever coming to anything. There had been no budget to promote the album in the first place , now their label had folded. The brothers got a lot of airplay around the country and the band did dozens of interviews on the air and concerts to try and promote an album that had no company behind it. The high points were, that they could push any button on the car radio and a “Maypole” song was playing at the same time in the Baltimore, Washington, and Virginia area. The reviews by legends such record- raters as, Bill Gavin, spoke of a great band, “The American Led Zeppelin”as he called them. Dave Marsh of “Rolling Stone Magazine” spoke well of their record. They did many local and national TV shows and tried to repair the damage done by Pat the manager and producer. It was disco coming on strong that finally killed it. Record companies had jumped on the disco bandwagon and you could hardly find a company who would record a rock band that had so many problems internally with its management. Especially when there was no money in “Rock” anymore, or so it seemed. When we broke up we thought it was the end of our album. Never would we dream that all these years later, people would be so passionate about the record, collecting it and paying very high prices for it. The top price at this moment is believed to be $224.00 U.S. We deeply appreciate the interest and our loyal fans. We worked very hard to write great music that would stand the test of time, and it looks like it has done so, so far. We thank you for this. Paul Welsh took his own life in 1988, leaving behind a note, which said that “He was tired of all the assholes”. Kenny Ross passed away in May 2005 from Liver Cancer. There are only three of us left, John Nickel, Steve Mace and Dennis Tobell.The guys who help make this music with me, are very special people to me. We shared great and bad times and moments I will never forget. Even though they have past from this life I cherish their memory and their contribution to my music and my life. They were dedicated artists and musicians, their work deserves to live on, as I humbly wish mine to do. I want the people to know how special these times were, and the people who shared them with me. I play under the name of “Demian Bell” these last 30 years, because of the contracts coming from the “Maypole” era. I hope you will check out my later work. “I have reformed “Maypole” and it will live on as long as I do.” The songs on this site are some of our recent recordings.