Season Three: Episode Twenty-Two:
From the Motor City to the Big Apple
Season Three is here with Dr. Kristen Hillaire and Patti Quatro! We talk in depth about the groundbreaking all-female Detroit rock ‘n’ roll band, the Pleasure Seekers, formed in 1964.
At the ages of sixteen and seventeen, Patti and her two best friends, Nan Ball and Diane Baker, were hanging out together and noodling on their instruments in a basement in the suburbs of Detroit. Like so many other teens, the British invasion was having a huge influence on the cultural shifts occurring in music, and after seeing the Beatles live at Olympia Stadium, Patti was hooked on rock ‘n’ roll. She recruited younger sister, Suzi, and Nan’s younger sister, Mary Lou, at the age of fourteen, and the Pleasure Seekers were ready to go!
Also in 1964, Dave Leone’s and Ed “Punch” Andrews’ “Hideout” opened as a teen club in the suburbs of the city. It was an explosive time in Detroit – the music, the Motor City, the mayhem, and the magic! The Pleasure Seekers and the Quatro sisters were not only there to bear witness to it all, they helped to create the distinct and dynamic sounds of early rock ‘n’ roll in Detroit.
When the Pleasure Seekers (and Cradle) were inducted into the Detroit Music Awards at the Fillmore Theater in 2012, Dennis “Machine Gun” Thompson of the MC5 wrote, “The Quatro girls were the first all-female band that played instruments well, and forerunners for many bands to follow. One kick-ass band!”
On this episode, Patti and I discuss the Pleasure Seekers upcoming road trip to the Big Apple in 1966 to meet with Joe Glaser of the ABC booking agency. Joe had gotten the band booked at the highly popular nightclub, Trude Heller’s, in order to see them perform and decide whether or not to sign them. Leo Fenn, the band’s manager, had made all of this happen, including that he had to coordinate the upcoming trip to accommodate the teens’ Spring break in high school. As the Big Apple looms large, Patti reflects upon the monumental and momentous shifts the Pleasure Seekers were about the experience under the guidance and leadership of Leo Fenn.
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