Frank Sanchez

How I became Frank "From the Bank"

My stage name was given to me by "Weird Al" Yankovic during the time I played for him in the very early days of his career. This picture was taken by Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz of me listening to a playback of a recording I made with Al. I played with Al on a few basement tapes and my bass playing can be heard on his Placebo EP on "Happy Birthday". I was 26 at the time and because I was working at a bank, Al started calling me Frank "From the Bank". It is appropriate as I worked my day job in banking my entire career.  The day job at the bank was a means to an end but my passion was always to play music, so I worked at the bank during the day and went out gigging at night. There was another person who was quite famous who worked for the bank and played music on the side and music became his number one thing. His name was Harry Nilsson later in his career became friends with John Lennon. I thought maybe I could do that and become another Harry Nilsson. I was interviewed on Dave & Ethan's 2000" Weird Al Podcast. Hear the interview at: http://2000inch.com/episode-32/

My story...

I started playing music in 3rd grade at 111th Street School in the South-Central area of Los Angeles. I started out playing a metal clarinet and eventually got a plastic Bundy clarinet. I played well enough to be in the Southeast Los Angeles All City Orchestra. After the Watts Riots my parents moved across the tracks to Lynwood. There I started playing Baritone Sax. I would walk to school with my Baritone Sax in a shopping Cart. When I was 12 years old my friends were starting bands . Our family went to the to L.A. County Fair in Pomona and we heard a band playing in the lunch pavilion.  We stopped to have lunch and sat by the band. They started playing a Blood, Sweat and Tears song called "Spinning Wheel" The bass player had the classic set up that players still use.  He was playing a Fender bass through an Ampeg Flip Top. I watched everything he did and felt the power from the back of that wonderful tube amp and I was hooked!  For all I know it could have been Jim Fielder himself because he was from nearby Anaheim.   My dad took me to a swap meet and bought me a cheap hollow body bass. Right away I started playing along with records of my favorite bands. Big early influences for me were Glenn Cornick of Jethro Tull, Jim Fielder of Blood Sweat & Tears, and John Paul Jones of Led Zepplin. Later influences were Paul McCartney of The Beatles and Peter Cetera of Chicago. I played the heck out of that stuff during the summer. Later on I bought an imitation Hofner Beatle bass for $35 in a pawnshop. My grandmother helped me buy a 1969 Fender Precision Bass. My garage band career had begun. The first band that I was in as called The Blazing Image" with friends Vince Dubrall, Rex Stout and Kevin Gilbert. Our first gig was at The Washington Elementary School PTA Bake Sale. I can only remember playing songs by Cream. The summer of 1968 my friends and I attended a summer “Jazz Camp” at Cerritos Community College. That was a big on us. The teachers taught us the basics of theory and motivated us to be the best that we could be as people as well as musicians. In 1969 I played bass in the jazz band at Lynwood High School and was invited to play in a pop group called “After Hours” that played jazz oriented rock. We practiced regularly in a friends living room and played our first gig at a 4th of July Battle of the Bands and came in second to a Jimmy Hendrix tribute guy who did the "Star Bangled Banner". He stole the show. We recorded a demo at a studio in Hermosa Beach. The engineer was a guy named Rolf. We recorded the Carpenter’s “We've Only Just Begun”, Chicago’s “Make Me Smile” and Cannonball Adderly’s “Suite Sioux”. We then started playing at a bowling alley lounge. We had to change the name of the band because the name “After Hours” meant that the club was open After Hours (like past 2:00AM), and that certainly could not be done. We changed the name to “Synopsis” and started playing at a supper club called "The Magic Robe". As the name implied, we played a variety of stuff. Pop 60's songs like “What do You Get When You Fall in Love, Grazing in Grass, Watermelon Man, Jive Sama, Tijuana Taxi, and stuff like that. We stayed away from the heavier rock stuff because of the restaurant clientele. I was 15 at the time. We played together for a few years. We played on television on a show called “Head Shop” hosted by Elliott Mintz. Synopsis broke up in 1972, but our group of guys gigged as a backup to a guy named Jerry Eisman, who was a lounge lizard type singer. We did lots of Neil Diamond; Elvis, Tony Orlando and stuff like that. It was an election year so we called ourselves “The Candidates”. Ishkabibble - In 1972 I started playing with friends, Keith Fries (guitar), Mike Portugal (drums), Ron Lenggiere (vocals). We did Led Zeppelin, and David Bowie, type of stuff. We played a lot of house parties and built up a local following. I asked my friends from Synopsis, Mark Massey (keyboards), and Dave Hill (sax) to play in the band. We later added Duane Hampson (Trumpet) and Jason Ingram (Trombone). The horn players called themselves “The Mad-Hatter Horns. They added a great visual of wearing lot of stupid looking hats. We recorded a demo at Dave Paton’s Grammophone studio in Whittier. Our tape contained David Bowie’s “Suffragette City”, Average White Band’s “Pick Up the Pieces”, Tom Scott’s “Rock Island Rocket” and the Beach Boy’s “Surfin’ USA”. We used that tape to play for many high school dances and proms. At that time three agents in different markets were representing us. In LA & Hollywood by Michael White with “Dial-A-Band”, in Orange County, by Dave Paton, and in Long Beach, by Bill Trout. We kept pretty busy. Our big claim to fame was winning a Battle of the Bands at a Car Show in the Long Beach Arena. We played opposite to Blues Image at the Disneyland Hotel and backed up Manfred Mann at the Hollywood Bowl. Another story was playing for a house party for a girl who’s dad owned a Porche Dealership in Pasadena, They were going to hire Van Halen, but Ish played more cover tunes, so they hired us. Well I guess I know who won that one. Other places we played: Knott's Berry Farm, Six Flags, Magic Mountain, The Hollywood Palladium, Lion Country Safari, The Queen Mary, The Biltmore Hotel, the Century Plaza Hotel, and others. One night at a gig, the patron gave us a check for $1000 that said 2nd half of balance for band. Well, after we discovered that Dial-A-Band” was booking us for $2000 to $2500 per gig and only were seeing half of that of we confronted the agent about it and he stopped booking us. (Sad but true, but this still happens) Other Bands Phil Alvin - In the early days of Ishkabibble, we had a gig at a local Jr High School. Phil was a friend of Keith Fries and Tim Craven. Phil sang lead in the band for this one gig. He took off his shirt almost did a Jim Morrison routine that got us banned from the Jr High School circuit. Acme Music (Brad Powell, (Guitar), Mark Massey, (keyboards), Lori Miller (vocal) Dave Hill (saxophone) played around the Downey, Cerritos area for a little while. They played pop rock with an emphasis on female vocals. FATU the Samoan Elvis with Bill McPherson - Performed two sets of Elvis material. Singer Betsy Chapman – Toured Europe with band mate Dave Hill during the summer of 1978 in an Emmy-Lou Harris styled folk group. Interesting story. Played all original tunes. Dave and I went to England and France to play for Betsy Chapman. My amplifier was lost being moved from the train to the ferry in Dover England. We performed in Monte Carlo, Nice, and Marcellees. Our contact in France fell through and ran out of money. We rented a VW van and drove nonstop to the border and Dunkirk and took the ferry back to England, slept over night in the Gatwick airport using newspapers as blankets. I was without sleep for several days and could swear that I saw Little Bo Peep floating through the airport. Eventually we all made it back okay. We didn’t make any money, but had a wonderful adventure. The Musical Americans – Toured Japan and Korea with band mates Brad Powell, Mark Massey, Dave Hill, and Duane Hampson. Pit band with community college group performing Broadway Show Tunes. The Musical Americans played excerpts from West Side Story, and Pippin. We were in Korea and Japan for two weeks. The Lennon Sisters – My first (and maybe last time) playing for a “name” act. During the disco era, I called by a local contractor to play for the Lennon Sisters. With the Int’veld Brothers – I played a little while with these guys who were really into Rockabilly, they went on to work with Ricky Nelson, Unfortunately Ricky Intveld died with Ricky in a plane crash. May God be with them. “Weird Al” Yankovic – I got into Dr. Demento in 10th grade. Every Sunday the radio would be tuned in to KMET 94. 7. My classmates invited the good doctor to do a History of the Beatles show at our high school. This is where Dr Demento and Alfred Yankovic met. Alfred was a good friend with my younger brother Vince and they would get together and write parodies. Since I had recording equipment and friends who were players, we would occasionally record songs with them. Al went off to college and became “Weird AL” during the time I was on the road. In 1980 Al asked me to play on his demo. I played on Happy Birthday” with Bermuda Schwartz and Bobcat Bennett. On “Weird Al’s” box set I am listed on the credits as Frank “From the Bank” Sanchez” for that tune. Other songs that I played with AL are “Cylotron” a tune that later evolved into “Nature Trail to Hell”, “I’ll be Mello When I’m Dead”, and ”Amercian Slob”. I now that we did more, they all escape me. The banking years – In 1982 I decided that I wanted to be a Banker. I went into management with Security Pacific National Bank and met the woman of my dreams. We got married in 1986 and had a son in 1987. Bought a house and settled down to a somewhat normal Ward and June Cleaver lifestyle. I worked in financial services (Banking\Credit Union\Lending) from 1982 until 1996. Lobster Joe and the Drawn Butter Blues Band – Played at the KLON Blues Festival Competition and played comedy blues songs “Moving to Beverly Hills” a twist to the Beverly Hillbillies, and “Don’t Cut the Cheese”, a Taj Majah-ish blues shuffle. Presently - Colorado Springs – In 1992 we moved to Colorado Springs. I started playing bass again for extra money and have been a freelance bass player in town. I’ve played for the following local musicians at most of the local music venues in Colorado Springs. Al Eberhardt and the Changing Times at the Broadmoor Tavern Eric Saffell with Firebird Dave Hudson with Colorado Country and Masquerade at the Broadmoor (Conventions and Private Parties) Marci & Ed Hureau with Gentle Rain (Conventions and Private Parties) Franz Albert at the Cliff House Tommy O’Boyle at Bell’s Deli The Drifters at the City Auditorium Little Anthony and the Imperials at the Antlers Hotel Tricia Parish  The Penrose Room at the Broadmoor Hotel

I've played in many places, some I'm proud of and some I'd rather forget. I may stop playing one of these days, but not yet.