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Line-up A 1965 [Business Card]; B 1966 [Photo]; C 1967-68 [Photo].
This southern Wisconsin band originated in 1965 when Joe Accardi, his cousin Mike Mealey and a couple of high school buddies got together to play at parties. The original band (line-up A) was short-lived. One high school friend, Carl Chekouras, a very talented but somewhat eccentric musician, had a little stage fright. Not long after the first No Left Turns gig, a less-than-stellar YMCA teen dance, he opted out of the group. Chekouras was replaced by another very talented musician, Tony Mauhar, who was playing bass for a band with a dubious name, The Klansmen.
With Mauhar now on lead guitar, the band (line-up B) clicked and was soon playing a steady stream of gigs in the Stateline area. They played covers of Top 40 numbers by the Monkees, Rolling Stones, Beatles, and a handful of soul tunes. The No Left Turns were heard regularly at high school and teen dances, particularly those held at the American Legion Hall in South Beloit, Illinois under the watchful eye of promoter Fran DeSarbo. A turning point occured in March 1967, when The No Left Turns won first place in a Battle of the Bands contest sponsored by the Beloit Jaycees and broadcast live on WGEZ, a local radio station.
Bookings for the No Left Turns began to increase and Accardi started to look for someone who could play organ to join with them and add to their growing repertoire of songs. At the same time, the band was approached by a booking agent who worked for Ken Adamany Productions out of Madison, Wisconsin. Adamany, and a competing agency, Sperry Ram Productions, had two of the largest stables of local bands in the region. The boys began booking under Adamany [Contract] who distributed a promotional poster for the band created with the help of a professional photographer. (It should be mentioned that among the many bands Ken Adamany represented, one in particular was especially noteworthy. Adamany represented a band from Rockford, Illinois called Grim Reaper. They later recorded under the name, Fuse and then changed their name to Cheap Trick.)
In the spring of 1967, Jim Forrestal joined the band (line-up C). An accomplished pianist and master of the Farfisa organ, Jim added another dimension to the No Left Turns who began playing more album and psychedelic covers. One of the first new songs added to their repertoire was an extended version of the Doors' hit, Light My Fire.
Confined to school and teen dances because of their ages -- they were all still in high school -- Adamany booked the band in small-town halls around the Wisconsin-Illinois stateline area. The No Left Turns flourished in this milieu until the "winter of discontent" when adolescent disagreements over money, girlfriends and equipment ownership split them apart. The last gig for the No Left Turns was after a basketball game in the St. Jude school gym in Beloit, Wisconsin. By that time their repertoire included songs by Hendrix, the Doors, and the two last songs the band ever rehearsed: Eric Burdon and the Animals' When I Was Young and Sky Pilot.
The No Left Turns made a few rehearsal recordings toward the end of their run on an old AIWA open reel tape recorder that belonged to Accardi. Unfortunately, they broke up just at the point where they began talking about ideas for original songs. None of the tapes were preserved.
Accardi and Mauhar eventually joined up with members of another splintered group, the Jaywalkers, to form a very talented but short-lived band. Calling themselves Volume One, Accardi gave up the bass to share frontman duties with a second vocalist. Volume One played Beloit's popular teen night club at that time, "The Pophouse," and placed third in a regional Battle of the Bands sponsored by a number of area music stores. The competition was held at The Meadow, Janesville's mini-version of the Filmore. Their repertoire included some show-stopping extended numbers: Sunshine of Your Love (Cream), I Love You (The People) and You Keep Me Hangin' On (Vanilla Fudge).
Volume One played a gig at the E.J. Dalton Youth Center in Rockton as a supporting act, alternating sets with a band called One-Eyed Jacks. Before the gig, the two bands compared set lists and were asked by the Jacks specifically not to play You keep Me Hangin' On and Jumpin' Jack Flash so as not to conflict with those numbers from their set. The Jacks were good (they did a dynamite version of the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations), but Volume One thought their own versions of the two songs in question were better. So for their last set, with nothing to lose, Volume One included those two songs followed by an electrifying version of Purple Haze, bringing down the house. The One-Eyed Jacks were mad but there was nothing they could do. People were seen leaving during the Jacks' final set.
Volume One recorded one of their rehearsals for demo purposes, but it never saw the light of day and has since disappeared. College, military service and other pursuits dashed any chance of full-time musical careers for most of these guys. They split up at summer's end, 1968.