Music & Martinis - The Day Southside met Second City

Posted on December 31, 2004 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY ED KAZ! – CORRESPONDENT – DECEMBER 31. 2004 – Southside Johnny Lyon, sketch comic? – You read right. It was way back in 1981, when Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes ventured to Canada to tape the legendary TV comedy show “SCTV Network 90.” Even though it aired on NBC, hardly anyone saw it, given its graveyard time slot of 12:30 a.m.

Thankfully, this problem has been remedied. The episode was included as part of a “SCTV” DVD boxed set released in June, allowing fans to enjoy the show in all its comedic glory without bleary-eye syndrome. Lyon and the Jukes show up (as a wedding band!) in a sketch entitled “Southside Fracas.” The group is at the top of its game, with Lyon trading witty repartee with the likes of Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara and the late John Candy.

Who knows? Had his career as a soul-shouter gone south, Johnny Lyon might have joined the ranks of Bob and Doug McKenzie and become a TV funnyman. Just the same, music fans are happy he’s held on to his regular job. Lyon, who will be ringing in 2005 along with the Asbury Jukes at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, recounted his comedic adventure in the Great White North.

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4th of July, Asbury Park (Johnny)

Posted on July 2, 2004 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY ED KAZ! – CORRESPONDENT – JULY 02, 2004 – Southside Johnny Lyon personifies sound of the Jersey Shore

Sandy split this scene years ago. Madam Marie is still on probation. Don’t even ask about the damn Tilt-a-Whirl. Nevertheless, on July Fourth, Asbury Park’s fabled boardwalk will once again come alive with the blare of horns, the screech of guitars and the rockin,’ testifyin’, soul shoutin’ of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. As part of the Stone Pony’s Red White and Blue Weekend, Johnny Lyon and band are scheduled to take the main stage at 8 p.m. and commence to some good old-fashioned roof raising, Jersey-style.

Lyon, of Ocean Grove, was in the middle of a series of concerts in the Washington area last week when Jersey Alive! rang him up in his hotel room. Although disappointed we weren’t room service, he talked to us anyway.

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Six Degrees of Bobby Bandiera

Posted on June 24, 2001 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY KELLY-JANE COTTER – MUSIC WRITER – JUNE 24, 2001 – Jersey Shore guitarist is everybody’s sideman -or so it seems. Mild-mannered Bobby Bandiera could be considered the Kevin Bacon of the Jersey Shore’s veteran music scene.

The journeyman guitarist has played with virtually everyone. He’s been a member of Southside Johnny Lyon’s Asbury Jukes. He’s played for Jon Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and Dave Edmunds. It seems like he’s gigged at every club, pub and dive in the state, not to mention all the benefit shows in which he enthusiastically participates.

Six degrees of separation? There’s really no more than one or two degrees separating Bandiera from any other titan from Asbury Park’s blues-rock heyday. “Everybody seems to know him,” said Kristen Miller, who booked Bandiera to play an upcoming fund-raiser for the Mental Health Association of Monmouth County. “And nobody has anything bad to say about him.”

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Interview: It's his party!

Posted on December 29, 2000 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – INTERVIEW BY ED KAZ – DECEMBER 29, 2000

“I get up onstage and go insane and sing. It’s my only redeeming feature, I think.” — Southside Johnny

It’s a simple equation: New Jersey + New Years = Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. And this year, the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank will be the scene of the crime, as a revved-up Johnny Lyon — along with a recharged Asbury Jukes — will ring in 2001 with a raucous live show mixing rock, blues and soul in a manner that is both unpredictable and unparalleled.

Lyon has reason to be revved. His month-old new release, “Messin With the Blues,” (Leroy Records BHCD1001) produced by high school pal and E Streeter Garry Tallent (who also plays bass and co-wrote many of the songs with Lyon), finds the singer in top-notch form, blowing through a lucky 13 tracks that traverse a broad spectrum of blues, from New Orleans to Chicago-style to Cajun. As hard as this is to believe, it’s the first time the Ocean Grove native has ever done a full-on blues album. Better late than never.

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Springteen & Co pack 'em in again!

Posted on December 19, 2000 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY KELLY-JANE COTTER – MUSIC WRITER – DECEMBER 19, 2000

For those of us lucky enough to be rooted at the Jersey Shore, it’s easy to take all these Springsteen shindigs for granted. But it bears noting that not everyone gets to see a favorite rock star in a setting the size of a high school gym. And, to flip it around, not every 50-something rocker has the credibility to command such a loyal crowd.

So it’s a nice symbiotic relationship between Bruce Springsteen and his hard-core fans here in Asbury Park, where last night some 2,300 fans sweated in Convention Hall while a few hundred more shivered on the boardwalk just to hear him sing his songs.

Last night’s concert was the second of two benefit concerts billed as “Bruce Springsteen’s Holiday Show with the Max Weinberg 7 with Friends.”

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Southside Fans won't want to go home tonight

Posted on December 31, 1999 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY ED CONDRAN – DECEMBER 31, 1999

Southside Johnny Lyon has never been a sentimental kind of guy. When he learned that the Stone Pony in Asbury Park closed months ago, he said it didn’t bother him that his old stomping ground had shut its door…

“I hear they turned it into a dance club,” Lyon said from his Nashville home. “I don’t think it’s a big deal. The Stone Pony I knew has been gone a long time. When we were (the house band) it was Mrs. J’s’. Then when Mrs. J’s’ closed down people said, ‘oh no, Mrs. J’s’ closed.’ Then it became the Stone Pony. It’ll probably reopen as the Stone Pony once the dance club fails. I’ll probably get a phone call saying, ‘we’re having a grand opening.’ Oh boy.”

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You can take Southside out of Asbury Park, but...

Posted on June 4, 1999 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY CHRIS JORDAN – JUNE 04, 1999

With Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band and Whitney Houston touring the country, the Smithereens and Bon Jovi working on new albums, Lauryn Hill gathering her Grammys and Southside Johnny Lyon back on the road, 1999 is shaping up to be the year of New Jersey.

“This is the year of New Jersey?” Lyon asked over the phone from his home in Nashville. “Poor world.” That’s Johnny. Always quick to display his acerbic wit.

Despite his self-deprecating humor, Lyon’s been the one performer of the big three to come out of the Jersey Shore in the 1970s and ’80s — Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi are the others — to consistently perform live. A New Year’s Eve at the Jersey Shore almost always includes a Southside show.

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Historic Rock Jam

Posted on February 2, 1998 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY JEAN MIKLE – FEBRUARY, 02, 1998

RED BANK — It started with “This Time It’s For Real” and ended, a little more than three hours later, with “Thunder Road.” It featured a historic roster of Jersey Shore rock talent, from Jon Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny Lyon to Bruce Springsteen and “Little Steven” Van Zandt. And yesterday, fans who were lucky enough to attend Saturday’s “Jon Bon Jovi and Friends Come Together” concert used a string of superlatives to describe the 30-song benefit show, which raised more than $112,000 for the family of murdered Long Branch police Sgt. Patrick King.

King, the 45-year-old father of two young boys, was slain Nov. 20 by a fugitive who had vowed to kill a police officer before killing himself.

“It was a chance to forget about it a little bit,” said Long Branch police Sgt. Bruce Johantgen, one of about 50 city police officers who attended the show. “The outpouring of love from the performers to the audience was unbelievable.”

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Homegrown Stars Rock Charity

Posted on January 30, 1998 by JUKES.NET

THE ASBURY PARK PRESS – BY KELLY-JANE COTTER – JANUARY, 30, 1998

Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen have made charity as much a part of rock ‘n’ roll as youth and rebellion. Tomorrow’s sold-out concert at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, which benefits the family of slain Long Branch police officer Sgt. Patrick King, is only the latest example of two local guys trying to do the right thing. They will — ahem — “keep the faith” and “prove it all night.”

Time and time again, New Jersey’s most famous rockers have put their money where their mouths are — penning songs about hope and then working hard to give hope to others. They’ve donated time and cash to help fight disease, poverty and misfortune. Much of their work has benefited local causes and, much of the time, their fans don’t find out about their financial donations to charity.

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