This time I was lucky enough to talk with Dean’s and Rob’s long time music collaborator and big friend, Tom Gleason. Below is what he had to say about the bands they were in, mixed with the information I was able to figure out on my own.
Tom Gleason: I had been singing and writing songs at the piano since I was seven. When I had enough good songs, I asked a young drummer around the corner to join my band – his name was Tom Contreras, a phenomenal drummer and great vocalist as well. He toured with STP for quite a while as a drum tech and has performed with them live as well.You can see Tom Contreras playing with STP on stage in Nashville on August 24, 2008 during their show in Grand Ole Opry.
Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMPYyIXhubQVideo 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vKF9GuREPYVideo 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekOSWrKAJf0Good quality audio recorded from the audience: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AE7H5LAR (Thanks to the taper)
At this point I was 9 and Tom Contreras was 7. We practiced playing and singing together and his father, who managed some nightclubs in the New Jersey area where we lived, allowed us to sit in when the bands took breaks and play our originals. You could barely see us on stage but we were good. I called the band Wonderspace.
I was friends with Dean at school since about second grade and we started hanging out. I knew he was learning the guitar, so I asked him to join the band as well. We played together as a trio for a while and honed our craft, then we added a bass player, Jeff Madole, another friend from school. From this point we practiced a lot and played gigs at clubs and colleges and parties. We also went into the recording studio for the first time and cut a record called “Into the Hollow.” We became quite popular after playing a huge concert at our High School. We practiced in my parent’s basement and Dean still thanks them on all the STP records.
My father owned some restaurants in New York City and got us some gigs at nightclubs up there, so we played a lot in NY and we would showcase for record companies when we could. We got a great write up in Variety magazine as a young band to watch with great music and harmonies – hailed as the next Bee Gees. Dean and Tom and I were like brothers and spent every moment together writing and playing.
When Jeff left the band we took a short break to look for another bass player and to write a lot more songs. I wrote a lot of the songs alone and Dean and I wrote a lot together and we had some great times. We found another bass player, Tracy White, and I suggested we change the name of the band to The Sage’s Pages. We had a very polished progressive rock sound with incredible complex vocal harmonies and played often and gained in popularity.
At this point, we played a lot in New York in clubs like Trax and CBGB’s as well as New Jersey clubs like The Stone Pony and Big Man’s West sharing the bill with up and comers like Bon Jovi, who was “John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones” at that time. We secured management and had some serious interest, but it never panned out.
The other three guys wanted to play a lot more cover tunes and I was a songwriter first and foremost and I was against the idea – so they split and formed Tyrus. I believe Robert joined them as well. Robert had always been around Wonderspace and The Pages, just paying attention and learning to play in his spare time. When I built my first recording studio, Robert came in and he and I did an entire album together and had a lot of creative and productive sessions. He is an amazingly creative musician and great fun to be around.
During it's existence, Tyrus were doing three sets a night – two sets consisted of covers (Rush, The Who, Led Zeppelin, King Crimson) and one of original songs.
I then formed another incredible band called Elias with Rob Affuso, who would later become the drummer of Skid Row when they formed about six years later. We played Sundays at the Stone Pony opening up for Bruce Springsteen among other gigs.Tyrus disbanded in 1985. Dean and Robert moved to California and Tracy White auditioned and joined as lead singer for Pompeii. Several years later Tracy joined the band called Shotgun Symphony.
I became Sutton Thomas and formed The Sutton Thomas Band with my old friend and Wonderspace drummer Tom Contreras and some other guys and we had some regional success and recorded a lot. I also built a successful recording studio business and wrote a lot of big TV commercial Jingles like Sands Casino with Cher, Pennzoil, Liz Taylor’s Passion perfume, Sunkist and many more.
I moved my Production Company, Real Sound Media, to Nashville TN in the 90’s and concentrated on songwriting, composing and producing other artists and have done quite well at it and still enjoy it today.Wonderspace on stage (1976):
Tom and Dean. Sage's Pages days:
The songs recorded during the "Into The Hollow" sessions (not in order):
Weather Song
Revelation
Someday
Sandy
Travelin' On
Doomsday
Rubbertree Plant
Song for a Tree
Land
Along the Way
Into The HollowAlso, according to the copyright documents, there are songs called “As Always”, “Hold Your Dreams” and “Haven’t You Heard?” credited to Tom, Dean and Wonderspace. There was also a song called “The Graveside Of Your Life” that was reworked by STP in 1994 to become “Army Ants”.
Tom, Dean and Tom Contreras have been talking about getting back into the studio again soon. Time will tell.
In case you missed our exclusive #3 - The Wonderspace Jam, it's in our hidden Downloads section.
Thanks for everything, Tom.
Big thanks to Andrew for helping me out.
