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	Both Ron and Carl talked Rich into joining. Rich was also in high school band at Ogden. He was a good friend of Ron’s too, having met through church where Rich's dad was a minister. Rich thought being a drummer sounded cool and decided to join up. He started out on cardboard boxes (didn't everyone?!?), but soon graduated to real drums thanks to Greg Rinehart. Greg sold Rich his kit which consisted of kick, snare, shell mount tom, hi-hat, and a shell mount cymbal. The set was finished in royal blue sparkle.     Since Rich didn't know how to play he took some lessons from the high school band director along with tips from some of the players in band too. Later on in the Agency Rich purchased a nice white pearl finished set that added a floor tom, another shell mount tom, and a couple of cymbal stands for separate crash and ride cymbals.     Mike, Carl and Ron all sang lead along with background vocals too. At the early stages of the Agency they ran their mics through their guitar amps. The mics they had consisted of a cheap crystal mic Ron got from Keith Berg, another cheap crystal mic that looked like an old RCA ribbon mic, and a Midland dynamic–the best of the bunch. After playing through a dedicated PA–courtesy of the Revolvers–at a battle of the bands at the Boone Drive-In, it was decided they needed to get a similar set up.
			Sounds Inc., a local music store that sold TVs, stereos and records along with musical instruments in Boone, sold that particular system the band had used. Bob Graybill, the store's owner, had been trying to convince Ron that the band needed a PA. It was decided to purchase a system from Sounds. It could be configured to meet a certain budget which was a big selling point.     The Agency bought a 35 watt Bogen amp along with one speaker column. The speaker column was built by Bob and was loaded with 4 Jensen Concert series 12 inch speakers. It was covered with black vinyl and the speaker grille cloth came in either a green/blue or a red/orange color—the latter being the color choice the group made.     The band practiced at least once a week. The first practice was held in Ron’s parent's garage. After that, Carl and his mom talked to Mr. Klockseim and secured the use of his "warehouse" facility for practice at no cost to the band. The building was the former office of the local lumberyard and was located directly west of the Ogden city park. It had two rooms, both about 12x12, which worked out well. The deal was the boys could use the building as long as they left the store stock which was there alone. The band could now practice without bothering anyone.
	Only one bad incident occurred there when a drunk individual happened to stumble in on a practice. He threatened them with bodily harm if they didn't stop making “all that noise”. Luckily some of this guy’s friends—who were less drunk than he—coaxed him back outside and, presumably, back to the tavern he had wandered out of in the first place.     After using this building, the band practiced a couple of times in Rich’s basement finally ending up in an upstairs room at Carl’s house. This was due to the fact that the Klockseim building had very little heat and the lads needed someplace warm to gather in the winter. They rehearsed at Carl’s until they broke up.     The Agency did the usual popular tunes of the day. At that time many bands did songs like: “(In the) Midnight Hour”/Wilson Pickett, “Gloria”/Shadow of Knight–Them, “House of the Rising Sun”/Animals, “Come On Up”/Rascals, etc. Along with these tunes the Agency tackled songs like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”/Stones, “You Really Got Me”/Kinks, “Hello I Love You”/Doors, “Sunshine of Your Love”/Cream and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”/Monkees. They also did one original tune entitled “ZZZ”. Ron had come up with this instrumental that was a direct lift of the riff from “Wipe Out” with an emphasis on guitar instead of drums. It was performed out at least twice and, to the bands surprise, no one threw any rotten fruit or vegetables.          previous page...        next page...
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