S2:E4 The Pleasure Seekers Start Playing Around

On episode 4, Patti Quatro discusses the early line-up of the Pleasure Seekers and playing at shows with Detroit DJs, the teen clubs, local venues, and colleges. These shows included other up-and-coming musicians and bands like Mitch Ryder, Paul Revere and the Raiders, Sam the Sham, and the Yardbirds to name a few. Patti discusses the logistics and reality of touring in the mid-1960s in an under-aged all-female band, and it’s a fascinating insight into fake IDs, driving unchaperoned, and dealing with the mob. As the Pleasure Seekers started to gain local and state-wide notoriety, Patti’s father, Art, purchased a van through his GM connection for the girls to start touring out of state. It was also then that Art decided it was time for the band to get a proper manager since their popularity was on the rise. We listen to the Pleasure Seekers’ “Light of Love” after Patti talks about what their male groupies were like seeing a girl band playing and carrying their own instruments. As the lyric goes, “Light of love, burn the night away,” and these girls were breaking hearts and burning the midnight oil as they traversed all over Michigan playing show after show for their adoring and often lustful fans.