The Kingston Trio at Birmingham Town Hall, England c. 1962-64.

THE KINGSTON TRIO

Birmingham Town Hall, England.

Concert Program
c. April 1963

To follow thorough the story of the Kingston Trio it is necessary to go back as far as the spring of 1957 and the campus of Stanford University in California. Near the University was a popular hangout called the Cracked Pot, and it was here that two young graduates from nearby Menlo College were singing and playing for a microscopic fee. Their names were Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, and they had hit off a musical partnership with a Stanford student called Dave Guard. The Cracked Pot stays open till one o'clock in the morning, and one night at the bewitching hour the three young entertainers had a visitor in their dressing room. His name was Frank Werber, a San Francisco publicist. Werber had liked what he had heard and told the boys so. A few hours later Werber had signed the unknown trio to a personal management contract. At this time

the group had no identifying name, and a four-sided conference finally hit on the Kingston Trio, "because it sounded collegiate," and also because at that time there was a considerable vogue for Calypso rhythms.

Werber immediately embarked on a grooming process. First he bought the three boys a tape recorder so that they could hear for themselves how bad they were as well as how good they were, and started sending them to regular sessions with one of San Francisco's most respected vocal coaches. Werber's aim was to get the act to develop three hours of continuous vocal material, which is a tall order even for a long-established group, never mind a brand new untried one. Slowly the three entertainers began to work out a method of presentation. Werber groomed them in stage deportment, and all four men spent long hours searching for the type of material that would best suit the talents of the act.

The Trio would meet every day in the storage loft of a building in the North Beach area of San Francisco. Here they practiced their instrumental techniques, tried out vocal arrangements, discussed the possibilities of various material. This kind of meeting continued for several months, until at last Werber was convinced the time had come for a trial run. He arranged that the Trio should make its debut in a new San Francisco club called the Purple Onion. The idea was for the Trio to play an engagement there for one week. What followed is what usually follows in the days of a unknown group which is destined for success.

At the end of the first week at the Purple Onion the proprietors extended the Kingston Trio's contract to cover another week, then another. Eventually the Kingston Trio became virtually a resident attraction at the Purple Onion, staying there for sever consecutive months.

This initial success, though modest enough, was invaluable for many reasons. It earned the group publicity, and secured them their first invaluable reviews. That meant that people in the profession were beginning to become aware for the first time of the existence of the group. During and just after the run at the Purple Onion, the Kingston Trio learned what it felt like to be approached by brokers and concert promoters all over the United States. But most important of all, the seven-month sustained success built up the confidence of the three boys. They had needed the reassurance that what they were doing they were doing well. Until the run at the Purple Onion they believed in themselves but would never be really sure that audiences would react in the same way.

If the proprietors of the Purple Onion had had their way, possibly the Kingston Trio might still be the resident attraction there. It is certainly true that the seven months might have been spread into a much longer run had the Kingston Trio desired it. But the boys, after talking it over with Werber, felt the time had come for something a little more ambitious. Werber agreed and began to set up a national tour for the group.

The Kingston Trio hit the road in the winter of 1957 and headed steadily East, right through to the summer of 1958. Their act appeared on concert stages and in night clubs, including the Blue Angel in New York and Mr. Kelly's in Chicago. It was during 1958 that the Trio also made its first TV appearance, starting at the top on the highly successful series "Playhouse 90." This was on May 1st 1958, when the play was "Rumors of Evening." The boys played World War II pilots as well as singing.

Later that summer the Kingston Trio turned around and headed back home again, and played a four-month engagement in San Francisco's "Hungry i" club. The whole time they were there the "Standing Room Only" sign became a permanent fixture of the club. It was while they were singing and playing at the Hungry i audiences that their first LP album was released. They had cut it some months before, and although it now sold well with people who had been lucky enough to catch the act during its long tour during the previous winter and spring, the general public was still pretty unaware of the excellence of the Kingston Trio. The album sold moderately well, but there were no sales records being broken. At the end of the four months in San Francisco, the Trio accepted an offer to play at the Royal Hawaiian in Honolulu. To the three boys this was a kind of working vacation.

It was while they were away that the action began which was to transform them from a group with a purely local fame into a national and even international act. In Salt Lake City there is a radio station known as KLUB. It was there that two disc jockeys called Bill Terry and Paul Colburn began playing one of the songs from the Kingston Trio's first long-playing album. This one song got repeated plays on the KLUB station's turntables, and Terry and Colburn soon discovered that listeners wanted more of the group. It was not much longer before other disc jockeys in other parts of America noticed what Terry and Colburn were doing. Soon the song of the Trio began to get played all over the place. Then one of the executives of Capitol Records phoned Werber in Hawaii and told him to get the group back to the States as soon as possible. "It looks like you're going to have the record of the year," said the executive, and the prediction proved perfectly correct. The single song which Terry and Colburn had spotted in the first Kingston Trio LP was called "Tom Dooley."

By the time the Trio had returned from Hawaii "Tom Dooley" was at Number One in the Hit Parade. Success breeds success, and Milton Berle, Perry Como, Dinah Shore, Patti Page and Gary Moore had all signed the Kingston Trio for appearances on their television shows. In addition, all the most famous night clubs were bidding for personal appearances.
It would have been easy for the Kingstons to have ridden the wave of success they had created, but they decided long before this that the kind of material they were singing and the style in which they were trying to put it across would be best appreciated by the kind of audiences who might be able to give a little more thought to the matter than most popular audiences do. The Kingston Trio remembered how they began in the Cracked Pot, playing to people who were almost exclusively the same as they were, college students and graduates. For these reasons Werber now began booking the boys into as many colleges and university concerts as he possibly could. The new policy gave the itinerary a look of college sandwiched with night club, of university sandwiched with television studios. During the winter of 1958-59 the Kingston Trio averaged one college concert every two days.

The success of the group eventually demanded wider attention, and LIFE magazine ran three stories on the Kingston Trio in one twelve-month period. "Tom Dooley" earned the group its first Gold Record, the trophy which means that a recording has passes the one million sales mark, and soon there were other hits almost as sensational, particularly "Tijuana Jail" and "M.T.A." Other trophies followed in quick succession. They were elected by disc jockeys as "Best Group of the Year" in both "Billboard" and "Cash Box." They were chosen by the Ballroom Operators of America as "Best Show Attraction of the Year." They won two "Grammys," which are the record business's equivalent of Hollywood's "Oscar" awards, and perhaps most remarkable of all, they have live plaques, each acknowledging that one of their albums has sold more than a million copies.

While the Kingston Trio was rising so rapidly up the Show Business Scale they met a young singer and songwriter named John Stewart. He soon became a vital part of the organization, writing songs like "Molly Dee" and "Green Grasses," and doing many vocal arrangements. Stewart became close friends with all three members of the Trio, who followed he career with anxious interest when he joined a new folk-singing group called the Cumberland Three.

In 1961, the Kingston Trio went on a tour of Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the South Seas, and it was on their return that they had their first change in personnel. Dave Guard decided to strike out on his own, and the replacement was obvious. Within a few days Stewart had been drafted into the Kingston Trio. The feelings of the two remaining members of the group over the change is best summed up by quoting what they said about it at the time. "John was a natural," said Nick Reynolds. "He's not only a talented performer and swinging musician, but he has that great personal quality of contagious enthusiasm that means so much to your performance." Bob Shane added, "And he gives us that extra solid sound we've been looking for a long time. We've known John for so long and worked so closely with him that we know there's no problem of tension or temperament. That's a rare quality in business."

One aspect of the Kingston Trio's activities is perhaps less well known than their public appearances and recordings. They have several business interests. For instance, they take a personal part in running their music publishing company, and follow very closely their interests in their land development business and their real estate holdings. They also own the Trident, a restraint just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and have also benn involved in merchandising men's clothing, shirts, slacks, belts and raincoats.

But despite these wise investments, the main interest of the Kingston Trio remains the music they sing and play for audiences. They continue to devote the same intense study to their work as they did when they sat in that San Francisco storage loft trying to work out the most effective way of blending their talents into a single entity. That was only fife years ago, but in that comparatively short time the Kingston Trio has come further than many similar acts travel in their entire lives.

BOB SHANE
Born in Hilo, Hawaii, son of a wholesale distributor of toys and sporting goods. Sang in School Glee Club and appeared in several school plays, learning the ukulele and picking up various Polynesian songs. Graduated from Punahou School in Honolulu in 1952, and came to the mainland to study Business Administration at the Menlo Park School in California. Graduated there in 1956 and returned to Hawaii. Began working in Honolulu night clubs, singing and doing impersonations. Then returned to California where he joined forces with Nick to form the nucleus of the Kingston Trio.

Favorite singers, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte. Hobbies include shooting, at which he has won several trophies.

NICK REYNOLDS
Born San Diego, California, son of a Captain in the U.S. Navy who is now retired, but who still plays some guitar now and then. Educated at Coronado High School, where he graduated in 1951. Continued studies at San Diego State College and University of Arizona. Later transferred to Menlo College, where he met Bob Shane. Took his degree in Business Administration, 1957.

Hobbies include sports cars photography and business affairs. Like Bob Shane, holds several medals and trophies for shooting, including the Hawaii State Skeet Shooting Championship, and also tied for the California State Skeet Shooting Championship.

JOHN STEWART
Born San Diego, California, son of a well-known racehorse trainer. Attended Mt. San Antonio College in California. Began as a rock and roll singer, but after hearing the Kingstons at the Los Angeles County Fair started writing material for them and finally joined them in 1961, taking Dave Guard's place. Before that had toured with the Cumberland Three, sharing the bill with comedian Shelly Berman.

Hobbies include skiing, skin-diving and tennis. Has a younger brother who plays guitar.

		The Kingston Trio Sang and played
	1.	This Little Light of Mine
	2.	Pullin' Away
	3.	M.T.A.
	4.	Chilly Winds
	5.	The Ballad of Ruben James
	6.	The Ballad of the Shape Of Things
	7.	Greenback Dollar
	8.	Tom Dooley
	9.	Hard Ain't It Hard
	10.	Larado?
	11.	Blowin' In The Wind
	12.	Wemoweh
	13.	Where Have All The Flowers Gone
	14.	When The Saints Go Marching In


Last revised: February 23, 2006.