Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

Rene? (Stupid Bob) ... come tell us about this band and this poster, OK? Thank you!

Click the image for a larger view

OK. I'm surprised you don't know more about Free Fall - full banner name of the group was (The) Free Fall Lyric Ensemble, later shortened to Free Fall.

Clay was with Free Fall longer than any other performance group he participated in throughout his life. Free Fall played hundreds of venues and actually made quite a splash in the DFW area. Many groups imitated Free Fall - Zorro and the Blue Footballs and The New Bohemians spring to mind. Free Fall was the first group to have its advertisements ordered to be taken down, the first to be banned in DFW (that action was fought and successfully countered), the first to use an X rated film in a stage production at a college (Richland - Free Fall was asked to leave and never return), the first to invade a newspaper office with a live performance (Dallas Times Herald), and the first local band (I think)to play a command performance for the members and guests of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at the Symphony Hall when it was located at Fair Park. Eduardo Mata was the conductor. There were many other firsts, but these spit out of my head, uh . . . first.

This incarnation of the group was (left to right)

Back Row
Rene Lawrence - guitar
Raymond Cedars - drums
Hendrix Burns Tolliver III - bass
Clay January - flute

Front Row
Chick Reagan - congas
Simon Songs - guitar

The mustache guy is the cardboard face of a Monty Python character.

I cannot remember the name of the photographer, but the shot was taken at our rehearsal hall in the Potter Building on Henderson and Central Expressway in the early 70's.

The original group consisted of Clay, Christye and moi. Hank (Hendricks Burns Tolliver III or HTIII) came in shortly afterwards. Christye could not continue with us, but the trio stuck it out and along came Chick, then Raymond and finally Simon. The group added and lost many other players over the years, but the core trio remained throughout.

Terrific! Thanks, Rene!

I'll copy and paste this info on FB where people are asking about the group.

Was it early 70s?

Oh, and yeah, I've heard the name before as well as the names of some of the players but having not been there since I was somewhere else entirely, I didn't know the details. What a trip the story about invading the newspaper office, as well as the rest of the history!

Sorry I didn't recognize you in the back row. But there you are! That's you, all right! Looking quite dapper, I might say. (so I did)

Do you have any recordings by this group?

I own the rights to several 2 inch reels of Free Fall studio work. Barry somehow ended up with at least one and Zeke ended up with another. Zeke also had his hands on the one Barry has. I have a one inch tape of D.S.& V. from Sound Techniques (first half). Clay lost the 1/4 inch 8 track second half from the Cowboy Stadium Studio. Damn. I also have maybe a 1000 hours of other tape on 1/4 inch. Some stereo, some 4 track. I have the Succubus album we recorded and the Live In Brooklyn album. Both unreleased.