After a 50 year hiatus, 1960s Ann Arbor rock band The Hideaways reunited Friday with three of its founding members.
YORK TOWNSHIP, MI – After a 50 year hiatus, 1960s Ann Arbor rock band The Hideaways reunited Friday with three of its founding members.
Many residents from the late-1960s will remember the group from their performances alongside music legends like The Who and Jimi Hendrix.
Members came from far and wide to perform for fellow alumni of the Ann Arbor High School Class of 1968 at the Tri-County Sportsmen’s League in York Township on Friday, Aug. 3.
Founding members Robert « Tigger » Benford, Jeff Jones, and Al Jacquez started the band in 1965 while they were attending junior high in Ann Arbor. Practice was held in the basements of each member’s house.
By 1967, the group was performing at the Fifth Dimension, a teen club that hosted names like Pink Floyd and the Jeff Beck Group.
Jacquez remembers those times fondly.
« You could actually make money, buy your own gear, and it was tons of fun, » he said. « … Hendrix was incredible. The Who was incredible. It just shows what hard work could accomplish. »
The success they found in Ann Arbor was a stepping stone for each individual involved in the band.
The reason behind their eventual split is typical among many adolescent groups of friends: life.
Jacquez’s road to success began following an expected phone call, in which he was asked to perform bass in an up and coming group, Savage Grace. This would eventually lead to a record deal with Reprise Records; the label of guitar legend Jimi Hendrix.
« I ended up starting a career and was a big fish in a small pond for quite a while, » he said. « Turn around and here I am, married and have kids. »
Benford, on the other hand, pursued other routes in the music world. He spent 30 years as a music director in the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Though the original trio parted ways nearly 50 years ago, recurring members such as Mark Tomorsky and Mark Gougeon have performed on and off for various projects with Jones, Benford and Jacquez for decades.
Much has changed since those days, according to Tigger.
« Between ’65 and ’68, what happened in music then was so central to the culture in a way that it isn’t anymore, » Benford said. « It was hugely influential in the way people saw themselves. »
He laments the more corporate nature of the modern-era music industry.
« People back then weren’t trying to make art, » he said. « By accident, people made art. »
Tomorsky, who traveled from Los Angeles for the weekend gig, described the group’s natural inclination to keep making music.
« We all started out as musicians, » he said. « We’ve weathered all the times, and it’s not like we have a choice. We don’t really have a choice whether we play or not. It’s what we do. It’s who we are. »
