Two of my favourite bands in the late 70's early 80's (and today for that matter) were two local Southern Ontario bands, Goddo and Moxy. I saw both several times live, had all their albums, and knew most of what there was two know about them. That is why I was so surprised when I came across this LP a few months ago on Ebay. I was doing a search for one or other of the two, when this Bongo Fury LP came up in the search results.
I read the item description and it said that it was made by members of the two bands. Billy Wade was the drummer for Moxy and Gino Scarpelli, the guitarist for Goddo. The vocals were attributed to Bongo Fury who it turns out is Billy Wade with the other members doing backing vocals.
The record was still factory sealed and cheap so it was an easy decision to buy it. What a great decision! The album rocks with a bunch of fun songs and it sounds like they were having a great time recording them.
I asked Gino Scarpelli about the LP via Facebook ...
Hi John,
Bongo Fury was me and Billy Wade recording for fun. We wrote those songs impromptu. I'm glad you like the album. Enjoy Peace,
Gino.
The rest of the band members were Buddy Caine (guitarist also from Moxy), Terry McKeown (guitar and bass) and Paul Lachapelle (bass)
The album was recorded at Paul Lachapelle's Quest Studio in Oshawa, Ontario and released on Pure Noise Records. The band also toured under the name Pure Noise before recording as Bongo Fury in 1979. The record contained the song "Young Legs" which was a cover of the Moxy song released two years earlier on their "Ridin' High" album.
Bill Wade had also played with Gino Scarpelli in the Canadian band "Brutus" (Ooh Mama Mama)under the alias Hally Hunter. Sadly, Billy died of Cancer in July of 2001
