Paulette McWilliams and Chaka Khan had met and became the best of friends through their spouses Howard Towles and Hassan Khan. Willie Weeks was in turn replaced by Dennis Belfield, James Stella by keyboardist/vocalist Ron Stockert and Lee Graziano by Andre Fischer. In 1971, the band signed a contract with Epic Records recording an album that was not released, after which Epic dropped their contract in early 1972. At this point, Ciner came back to replace Pilder and Willie Weeks was added on bass after Colbert left. In 1970, after switching their management to Bob Monaco and Bill Traut, the group's name changed again to "Ask Rufus", the name is taken from the title of the advice column in Mechanics Illustrated. They re-emerged in 1969 under the name "Smoke".
#Rufus band plus#
After much success, Colbert and Graziano (without Loizzo who pursued a successful production career) created a new group, adding later day "Breed" members Kevin Murphy on (keyboards) and Paulette McWilliams (vocals), plus James Stella (vocals) and Vern Pilder (guitar) from the bar band "Circus". “Together, the South Burnett can achieve great things.In 1968, the American Breed ( Gary Loizzo, guitar/vocals, Al Ciner, guitar, Charles "Chuck" Colbert, bass and Lee Graziano, drums) had a top ten hit with the classic rock single, " Bend Me, Shape Me".
“We thank the South Burnett Regional Council for the use of the Town Hall for this event. This will be a concert not to be missed, as we celebrate our local music industry. “Mark your diaries now, make sure you bring your camp chairs and your dancing shoes. We thank you all for your commitment to support this event,” Tony said. “We are super stoked to be organising this concert with all regional providers, and this community really does have an amazing array of talented music industry professionals. Musicians Oasis will be providing the sound engineering services at the event, which will be compered by Damien Martoo (The Martoo Review). “The SES will also be on hand to provide logistical support.” “All profits from the provision of food and beverages will be retained by Rotary and Lions for the benefit of our community. “Our local Rotary and Lions, not-for-profit community organisations, will be on hand to man the bar and provide a barbecue. “We will be bringing communities back together as we all recover from COVID, by celebrating with a live concert, presenting bands from across the region. “The funds have been provided to financially support performing artists who have been so hard hit due to COVID challenges and loss of work,” Tony said.
The concert is being funded though the Central Queensland Regional Arts Service Network (CQ-RASN).
Tony Cisneros (Mr Q) and Rob Fitz-Herbert (Ryza) have been working hard to bring the event together. “Burnett Bands Together” will include performances from the Barambah Big Band, Soul Good, Rufus Jack, Ryza, Mudgard3n and Mr Q. If you’ve been missing your fill of live music, this is definitely a date to mark in your calendars! On January 15, some of the South Burnett’s best live bands will be putting on a concert in the Kingaroy Town Hall Forecourt from 5:00pm to 11:00pm.
#Rufus band free#
Rufus Jack will be one of the popular local bands which will be performing at the free concert (Photo: Facebook)