Ron Silva connected with Mark Zadarnowski – who was just learning to play bass guitar – through a mutual friend and fellow Beatles enthusiast named Tim LaMadrid. The first gig by the newly formed band the Crawdaddys was at Abbey Road in September 1978, with Ron’s brother Russell Silva – who went by the name “Scuzz” – sitting in on drums. By their third concert at the Lions’ Club in North Park, the line-up was Ron Silva (guitar), Steve Potterf (guitar), Mark Zadarnowski (bass), and Dan McLain (drums); McLain ran a local record store called Monty Rockers.
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Tim LaMadrid came on the scene again to help out the band; Ray Brandes calls him “an unsung hero in the history of the Crawdaddys”. Besides taking all of the band’s photographs, LaMadrid borrowed a four-track, reel-to-reel tape recorder from his school and supervised the recording of the tracks for their first album over a two-day period.
(January 2015/2)
