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Two relatively insignificant
groups from Phoenix, Arizona, finally merged during 1972,
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allowing the more dogged members
of both to re-group as the Radar Men From Uranus.
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From the Red, White and Blues came
occasional songwriter and guitarist Roger Steen
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and drummer Prairie Prince, while
three ex-Beans - guitarist Bill Spooner,
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Vince Welnick on keyboards and
bassist Rick Anderson - completed the line-up.
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The Radar Men's flight was a brief
one, however, and, with the addition of
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art-college refugee Michael Cotten
plus roadie/aspiring lead vocalist Fee Waybill,
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they metamorphosed into the
Tubes.
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The newly-formed band
confronted the perennial problem facing emergent groups:
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how to make the transition from
being an outfit with only a local following to
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one with national and
international appeal.
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Challenged by the need to
illustrate Spooner's satirical lyrics, they devised a stage
show
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incorporating a multitude of
effects and off-beat characters designed to excite
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maximum interest on the American
music scene.
The band worked continuously from 1972 until 1975 before A
& M Records
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took the plunge and financed their
first album.
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The Tubes(1975) was a competent
enough debut but fared poorly in the charts,
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a fate suffered later that same
year by it's successor, Young And Rich.
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What the records did, however, was
to introduce many of vocalists Fee Waybill's
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on-stage personalities - such as
the drug-addled superstar
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Quay Lewd, hero of 'White Punks On
Dope' - and air some of the songs that would form
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a crucial part of 1977's
blockbuster shows.
