THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Joanie and Dennis Palmer outside the Fischer Theatre in Danville.
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DANVILLE — It was The Rolling Stones who sang “It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It).”
Dennis “Denny” Palmer’s rockumentary, “60s Rock in Danville,” a music documentary about ’60s rock bands in Danville, will make anyone around during that time reminisce about the good old days, and those who enjoy music look back on all the talent from this area.
The 1963-1964 Danville High School class members in town for a 60th class reunion will be among those taking in the documentary that Palmer recorded and has now updated.
The film will be shown at 2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, at Fischer Theatre in downtown Danville. It is a free-will offering for viewing. Everyone is invited.
Palmer said it was something in his mind for a few years now, since the theater reopened five years ago. He and his wife, Joanie, volunteered at the Fischer in the past and were there the night of the theater’s grand reopening.
He had a video he could envision putting on the big screen.
“Finally, it’s happening,” Palmer said.
Palmer was born and raised in Danville, graduating from DHS in 1964.
This turns out great for the class reunion planned for the weekend, he said.
He said for their 50th reunion, they toured DHS. But this reunion, they wanted something different. The documentary and the Fischer Theatre fit right in with the planned reunion.
Palmer, bands’ past“I started playing rock ‘n’ roll music when rock ‘n’ roll music first came about, you know, in the early ‘60s,” Palmer said.
“I was playing in a band before I had a driver’s license,” he said, adding that he had to have another guy in the band pick him up and take him to the gigs. “Then, I got my own car and made my own band up, and we’ve been playing music ever since.”
The first band was The Chevelles and then The Villagers. Palmer and his friends formed the bands.
Joanie said Dennis’ father was a professional musician and taught him to play guitar.
“I’m sure that the music was just born into me,” Palmer said laughing. “He played guitar. I played guitar. His music was of course, was his era of music and mine was the new era of rock ‘n’ roll. It kind of clashed a little bit, but he never complained about it.”
Palmer said his dad went along with it and whatever he wanted to do.
“All the bands that grew out of the rock ‘n’ roll start up with the Beatles era and all that, it was amazing how many teen bands there were in this area,” he said. They look back at it and there’s nothing like that now.
Joanie too said there were so many places for the bands to play in the Danville area. The bands and clubs don’t exist like they did in the past.
Palmer said the private clubs had teen dances and the bands were able to play at the clubs and city park pavilions. Joanie said the bands would attract around 1,600 people at the fairgrounds.
“It was really a great time,” he said. “I’d like to have everybody be able to remember those days and look back on them as, yeah, they were really great to grow up in Danville in the ‘60s.”
Palmer has a home music studio, recording studio called Midnight Sounds. He started it when he retired about 15 years ago after working at Bohn Aluminum which became Heatcraft, Vermilion Rubber Technology and then he worked for his wife’s house-building business, Village Builders. She retired from Carle. Since he had all these friends in music, they really loved recording in the studio.
He got the idea to produce a video and interview the guys for two DVDs. That was in 2013. One was about the pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll and the other, a little bit later, was about the Beatles-era bands.
When he talked to Fischer Theatre representatives about putting this on, they came up with the idea to focus on the 1960s. So, he revised and changed his videos, updated pictures and cut the video footage to a film around two hours long.
He now calls the rockumentary, “60’s Rock in Danville.” The name, rockumentary, came about during the late 1960s with videos about rock ‘n’ roll.
“I’m so excited to be doing this,” Palmer said. “Hopefully a lot of my music friends, that are still around, will come and see it and enjoy it. And even people that maybe didn’t grow up here or maybe in a different generation, hopefully they’ll enjoy it, too.”
The rockumentary has a lot of different interviews with the pioneers, that he calls them, that were still around in 2013. Some are not here now, so the film is a valuable asset. At the end of the film, they recognize people they’ve lost, as a tribute to them.
The second half is more of the band members and guys that ran around together with The Villagers, with songs in the background. Some of the songs are original songs by these bands that went to Nashville and Chicago and recorded them.
“They were all kids,” Joanie said, adding that some of them were around 11, 12 and 13 years old. One band called The Cobras were from North Ridge junior high school and recorded two big hits, Palmer said.
“People will be able to hear those, see those guys,” he said.
Other bands were Shades of Blue, the Starlites, The Keepers, The Rockets and others. Palmer also played with the music group Spice in the 1970s and The Midnight Sons.
Joanie said people remembers those names.
Larry Weatherford, with the Vermilion County War Museum, is the main narrator for the rockumentary about Danville’s rock legends.
There will be a meet and greet in the Fischer Theatre lobby of the band members.
Palmer still plays music today with The Dixie Flyer Band. The band was named after a train that went through Danville. They play off and on right now.
He had taken about 20 years off from music but got back into it. He loves it.
“I’ve been so lucky to know a lot of good musicians and play a lot of cool places,” he said.
It’s hard to pick favorite songs to play, but Palmer said fellow musician Wayne Acton has won several original song contests in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. About three years ago, he asked Palmer to enter one of his original songs, “Dixie Flyer.” Palmer also was fortunate to win first place in the contest.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said about getting a trophy.
The rockumentary also features Palmer’s studio, Midnight Sounds. That’s also the name of a song about growing up in the Danville area and things you hear in an industrial city.
“So many people loved that song. It just brings back great memories to them,” Palmer said. That song is featured in the film too.
Joanie said there were so many people who just made music their lives. Another local musician has taught guitar all his life.
Joanie helped her husband, for hours and hours, redo the videos for the rockumentary.
“We were so lucky to have what we had of the music we had here in Danville supported by the musicians’ union, city, all the clubs that were in existence then, it was great,” he said.
Also on Saturday, Sept. 14, is American Graffiti Night at the Vermilion Regional Airport with classic cars. The vehicles will drive by Fischer Theatre between 1 and 2 p.m. that day, prior to the rockumentary showing.
The Palmers said people will come out of the rockumentary viewing with “lots of memories” from a lot of history in it.
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