I did not know the movers and shakers but I heard the names on the street. Kevin and Brian Bledso, Steve Dunbar and the like. I thought these Cats were like WAY older than me., but they weren't. The one I never heard of was Todd Johnson...little did I know I would come to meet the man who continues to be a source of inspiration and on some days perspiration he will work you like a Hebrew slave.. but he's funny so the work aint that bad. All in all he is a pretty good boss. He is my mentor and my friend. He also has a wing span of 80 inches...( I ask him that question..THATS how I know). I can't tell the story like he can. What I can tell you is this.
The 1st time I met Al Heath was at TV..I remember people coming up to this man like he was the Dom ( or something close to it) I was in total awe. The 1st time I met Steve Dunbar was at the Grasshopper- he seemed like a pretty shy guy but all business..I was a bit intimidated with that one. I met Todd via Facebook and I have been a fan ever since. He too is a writer ( Nasty As I Am)- pick your copy up today! Of all the ones I have mentioned I know Todd the best and I really don't know him at all.
What I like about these Cats is still after all these years, they remain relevant. This summer they will be hosting what is sure to be the most talked about event of 2014. What they have planned for you is nothing short of amazing.
These dudes were just KIDS and they made money damn near better than any CEO of a fortune 500 company. I can not tell the story, BUT I know someone who can.
Ladies and Gentlemen...the story of Charivari-yep I A'hem.. "borrowed" it from Clark Drive only he can tell the story of what made them great. I can tell the story of what made the picnic great..( but you will read about that sometimes in August) Pictures stol...um borrowed from Kevin Dysard, Kevin Bledso, Steve Dunbar, Al Heath, and Clark Drive.
Charivari
June 14, 2013 at 6:22pm
Charles Clark was a wide eyed, energetic ball of energy. He had an infectious smile and a appetite for adventure and spirits. I was introduced to Clark by a mutual friend, guitarist Randall Jacobs. I reminded Clark we had met briefly the winter before, as he was the last guest to leave the annual New Years Eve party I gave along with Tim Slater and Hassan Nurullah. We found Chuck drunk but friendly while cleaning up, laid out on the basement couch at the end of the night. Clark shared with me the story of his first Charivari party. He wanted me to listen, offer comment on his plans and design a flyer that would be different than the competition. Clark spoke passionately of his vision and where he saw his club's future as membership was increasing. I asked,“What do they get for membership?” Clark answered bluntly with a sly smile, “GIRLS!” He spoke proudly of his team and his partner, Brian Bledsoe and Darryl Harvey. I told him I would help him but only talk to him, Brian or Harvey. I’m not in the club and don’t need the membership perk. But I wanted all the equipment rental loot and to do an occasional flyer.
Brian Bledsoe was the dreamer and thinker. Brian came up with the clubs name from the iconic Charivari clothing store in NYC founded by Selma Weiser after reading GQ Magazine. The Charivari store was New York’s first avant-garde multi-designer boutique and was legendary. Brian saw the group as an avenue to bigger and better things. He wanted to write, influence fashion, produce films, and travel the world. Brian was interesting and easy to talk to. I talked to Brian for hours.
One particular afternoon discussing ongoing business at his mother’s kitchen table on Hessel, his brother Kevin never joined from the couch but did add at one point, “why do we need you?” My answer, you don’t. But a healthy Charivari means I make more money giving you lights, music, flyers and even funding. So why not help you. It’s to my advantage. We had already enjoyed a good working relationship over the months and I sweetened the pot when I explained I would fund the upcoming Christmas party at the Park Avenue but I want to do the flyer, decoration, dj, music and lighting setup, everything.
My split at the end of the night would be $500.00 and whatever I put up returned. I explained in my opinion, “ Charivari, could be more than just a party club, you guys are actually a brand and should treat the business as such.” And it was after seeing this group in action that I coined the phrase that would become their official slogan. Our parties will keep you together while you let yourself go!
Darryl Harvey was the businessman and strategist. Harvey considered himself an innovator and was always looking for the angle. Harvey spent many an afternoon at Northland skating rink with friends Danny Lee and Jerry Duvaull. There he would meet Mike Brown who he would go on to successfully pair with Darryl Shannon to start their own DJ company – The Ritz Sound Company. So named by a member of the party group GQ that they wanted to work for. Though that opportunity never materialized, as luck would have it another Man Oh Man coworker Jonathan Webb would share with Harvey that he and some friends were starting a social club and wanted them to do the music. That club, the popular Lettermen with members ( Jonathan Webb, Rick Benson, Marshall “Skip” Howard), put the Ritz on the map with their first major exposure to the party set.
Luckily for the trio, Brown had a driver’s license and was able to load and drive the equipment in his car. They were later joined by Joe Davison as he had built his own light show and had much needed technical savvy. Shannon brought in Davison with a phone call. “You ready? You need to get with us, bring your lights and we are doing the first Charivari backyard party.Though Shannon did not join Charivari, instead wanting to just be the DJ, Harvey saw the definite synergy between growing his music business and creating a loyal party clientele with a popular party club. Harvey had a party side but he was the most pragmatic of the bunch. He was the last of the trio to come aboard once completing the unusual initiation designed for all potential members in the beginning. Attend and participate in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, watch Animal House in its entirety and be able to hold your liquor. No problem for Harvey and he received the standard, “your in!”
There was more than coincidental overlap with this bunch. Many had been together since Elementary school. Many grew up on or near Appoline Street on the cities Northwest side. But pivotal to their future success were jobs at Northland Mall. The center of flyer passing and networking for most party hosts. Northland Mall, situated in the southeast corner of Southfield, Michigan was the areas most popular shopping destination for African Americans. This mall had Bledsoe and Clark at Father and Sons shoe store and Harvey at the popular Man Oh Man clothing store along with Kevin Mallard, Darryl Shannon, Brian Fuller and soon Jonathan Webb, William Phelps and Dwayne Gill.
A frequent customer of the store who volunteered his services as security free of charge just to hang out would also later become Detroit party history himself, Dwylan Spencer. Northland was a Charivari party nexus.The parties were drawing so much clientele the owners of Man Oh Man would eventually put up money to fund the functions in return for the blow back in sales they were enjoying in the store. Sponsorship before anyone understood what it even was.
Rounding off the rest of the hard partying cast, Kevin Bledsoe - older brother to Brian and mostly an outside advisor in the beginning, due to his involvement in the clubs, Fifth Avenue New York, J’Carrand the Key Club, Charles Holsey, Billy Shanks, Lloyd Yancey, Darnell Smalls,William Phelps, Shaun James, Greg Odum, always steady Grant Grey, Reggie (YuckMouth) Brown, Morris Dunbar, Steve Dunbar, Danny Lee, Marc Brogdon, Kenny Bryant, Reynard Hines, Chris Duboise, Tony Bowen, Darryl (Duck) Scott, Joe Davison, Darryl Sanders, Shawn McDaniel, some dude named Hassan/Toiussant and probably more I don’t know about. Not known to most, one of the original members was Anthony Claxton who could attend all the club meetings but not the parties as he was destined for the ministry. He is now a pastor at the Life Line Christian Center Church in Detroit.
Charivari member, Danny Lee recently reminded me he was originally a member of Courtier recruited by friend Jimmy Gibson. But joined Charivari as these were the guys he grew up with. Lee who helped me organize Gables recounts that back then the more clubs you were in, the more status you had with women. And in his own words, “It was all about the women!” Lee along with Chuck Clark and many others would agree that membership did have its privileges.
This group was fearless. One of my favorite stories being the group entering Benedictine High, a small Catholic High school in Detroit. And did I say private which didn’t stop the group from sneaking in, entering the lunch room, Charles Clark jumping on a nearby table to loudly announce, “Hey, can I have your full attention? We are Charivari and we are having a party this weekend at the YWCA. And you need to come! That it all!” And that was all after being chased from the building by approaching school security.
The parties got bigger, the money box filled. The Roostertail. The Park Avenue Club. Ten thousand large at Luomo Seven Mile. Renting an entire floor of the Michigan Inn. The boys were on fire and success brought about excess as membership swelled with affliates brought on from everywhere. Member William Phelps was popular from his Cut Above barber business in high school. Member Kenny Bryant was recruited because girls loved his ponytail and he wore safety pins down his Levi’s.
The Charivari model was that every member would have a particular purpose. Grant Gray and Greg Odum were artists and oversaw flyer design. Darryl Harvey and Kevin Bledsoe were the wordsmith, Joe Davison had access to a large motor home/van appropriately named the Love Den. Members would kick in $2.00 each for gas and they could drive all week in their own mobile party transportation. Unfortunately, the businessmodel of most party social clubs of the time was very much George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Everyone was equal but some more equal than others.
Chucky Clark original membership perk of “girls” also included props, jackets, buttons,handfuls of flyers, and a growing extended family. It didn’t always include a split. This would prove to be a sore spot for the group and some of the members. The first to depart over proper compensation to competing clubs was William Phelps who would briefly join the soon to be started Gables and go on to great future success with partners, Wil French (Will and Wil), Rodney Howell and Darnell Smalls,(Upfront), the Network crew (William Phelps, William Tandy, Wil French, Ron Scott. Roger Yopp) and his current solo endeavor, Will Phelps Global and its many offshoots.
Next Mark Brogdon would follow. And they did leave with their proper split after a brief confrontation and some negotiation in the Bledsoe family home. (In Marc's own words) That's only part of the way it went down. When we started Charivari, the rule was only 7 members at even given time. We were probably the most successful of the clubs in Detroit at the time. I never saw any money up until that point. I was the youngest in the group, so I didn't know any better. LOL.
You
somehow got involved with Charivari and the group dynamic changed. It
became more of a business. There became two factions. It wasn't the
Charivari I help build.
When
Phelps and I heard how much money was being made, we went to Bledsoe's
house to talk about it. He said, " Y'all aint' getting anything.
He pulled out a huge knife and sat on a table and starting stabbing the wood table with the knife.
They eventually went into the bedroom and came out with a wad of cash. Gave Will and I some money to quiet us, and it was done.
I didn't go to Snobbs or another club, I started Peeples.
Everyone
was trying to live up to that Charivari/Gables vibe, but it was done
for me. I left for College after that and they tried to recreate
Charivari with a younger crew, but to me it didn't work. There was a
fight or shooting and it was a wrap.
There it is...that's the story.
Even Harvey himself was kicked out of the group after suggesting they pool their earnings together and form an investment club. Pretty cutting edge for an 18 year old. Perhaps having a father that was an Economics teacher rubbed off. Or perhaps it was some jealousy brewing underneath as him being one of the main faces of the club brought whispers of people calling the group, ChariHarvey. He would be approached soon after this dismissal by rival club Courtier head, William Tandy to join with them. Harvey declined.
My close dealings with Charivari as well as the other party social clubs (Raphael, Courtier, Remnique, Next Phase, and GOG – an obscure but profitable group out of Cooley High and more) revealed by my conservative estimation, these combined groups were taking in over $50,000 monthly from 1980 thru 1981. And that’s CASH as I’m sure the statute of limitations of the IRS does not apply to minors and undocumented income generated over thirty years ago. This does not include the financial impact this party clientele created for Northland Mall (Donna Sacs, Man Oh Man, etc) Dennys, the Greektown arcades,record stores, printers, button makes (A Day Badge Company) and more. There were real dollars exchanging hands and I realized that the door or many doors was what you wanted. (That is another story) Back to Charivari…
I was currently persona non gratis with Charivari and some of the others as I was club competition with my recently started Gables. We went heads up a few times on the same night and efforts were made to extinguish my presence or influence on the scene. Steve Dunbar recently explained the walking orders that were popular at the time, “Todd Johnson is the enemy, taboo and those bullshiting ass Gables.” But at Charivari central, I was the least of their problems. The core shake up continued as founding member Charles Clark had enlisted in the United States Army in April. Followed later that year under the buddy plan, Brian Bledsoe and Morris Dunbar.
Kevin Bledsoe took over full lead and Daryl Harvey was returned to the fold. . The club was in turmoil but that didn’t stop the momentum. A meeting was called to announce major changes as Charivari was getting out of the high school party business as membership had aged to the bar crowd but to some members surprise they were told, “some of you can’t make the transition.” The cuts were deep but the group was leaner and more efficient. Legend has it that the early techno classic, Sharevari, released by Capriccio Records from group A Number of Names (Paul Lesley, Sterling Jones, Roderick Simpson) was based on the party club Charivari but changed the spelling to "Sharevari" to avoid any possible conflict with the Charivari party promoters. A lot of party promoters in Detroit around this time (including Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson with their Deep Space parties) were just teenagers, but were still raking in the cash. The song "Sharevari" sings the praises of cars, as well as L'Uomo Vogue,GQ, car cassettes, cigarettes, bread, cheese, fine white wine, and may thingsNorthwest Detroit party boys aspired to in 1981. A quote from Dan Sicko's Techno Rebel, "during the late 1970s/early 1980s high school clubs such as Bratts, Charivari, Ciabattino, Comrades, Gables, Hardwear, Rafael, Rumours, Snobs, and Weekends created the incubator in which techno was grown. These young promoters developed and nurtured the local dance music scene by both catering to the tastes of the local audience of young people and by marketing parties with new DJs and their music. As these local clubs grew in popularity, groups of DJs began to band together to market their mixing skills and sound systems to the clubs in order to cater to the growing audiences of listeners. Locations like local church activity centers, vacant warehouses, offices, and YMCA auditoriums were the early locations where underage crowds gathered and the musical form was nurtured and defined." Techno legend Eddie Fowlkes in his official bio stated, "I saw Darryl Shannon at the first party that I attended with my sisters at the Park Avenue Club in Detroit. Off the top of my head, I remember that he was playing B-52’s and Martin Circus` “Disco Circus”. He made the music sound seamless. The music was never ending until the party was over." This was a Charivari party. Never ending...
There were the spin offs such as girl group Shiaparelli, Kevin Bledsoes Taxi and Steve Dunbars Hardware. The most successful of the three being Hardware. Hardware’ name was conceived by Kevin Bledsoe but saw its fruition after the transition under the business plan of Steve Dunbar. Dunbar stated to Charivari membership “I’m Charivari but you are leaving some grand money on the table. The high school loot is far from over. Many of my friends are now in the new group Snobbs and they're being funded and helped by Todd Johnson. Let me put together a crew under the umbrella of Charivari and I’ll make it happen” Steve assembled members (Lonnie Peek, Edlin Turner, Lou Allen, Pat Bell, Tony Ellison, Tommy Longest, Chris Simpson, Mark Jefferson, James Shipp, Steve Banks, Lamar Irvy) $50.00 got you in.
All members after a function split the profits evenly - $50.00 kept you in or you could reinvest more for a bigger split. Hardware's first party was a backyard party on Stout off 8 Mile. It was a huge success. But to Charivari's surprise it was further announced that night that Hardware is now its own thing. They would be a self contained unit.
Though I was taboo with Charivari core and affiliates, mutual friend Alan Heath brought Steve Dunbar to my house and he said he was looking for better sound. He explained any beef was not with him. Steve Dunbar was an up and coming DJ in his own right. His first records were a gift from Darryl Harvey and DJ equipment was bought by Charivari’ Kevin Bledsoe with a check that is probably still bouncing somewhere.
But we were kids; some got it done however you had to back then.This party was my first Hardware party as well as when I met DJ Al Ester on his first real gig. A shooting that night and a chance encounter with Darryl Harvey cradling the injured young lady until help arrived brought us to a realization that our squabbles were perhaps small when compared to bigger things. And all of us somewhat united as friends or maybe just friendly was more profitable than always being at odds. Some of the rivalries were beginning to turn violent.
There was a pivotal incident at the Knights of Columbus John R. where an opportunistic gunman with a shotgun thought youngsters would make easy pickings. His demand of, “give me the damn cash” yielded “I don’t think I can do that” from admission taker Kevin Bledsoe with Greg Odum looking on. To his surprise, two pistols on each of his ears in the hands of Darryl Scott and Steve Dunbar dashed his quick cash plan. But the incidents continued and ultimately were bad for business as there were numerous fights and threats, price wars, lowering admission down to a dollar, parents denying permission to attend some functions depending on the location and the clientele was starting to divide along lines of allegiance. Most clubs quickly realized there was no fun in the dwindling profits and exposure to escalating violence.
Charivari endured and continued throwing parties over the years with an ever changing and returning membership lineup and to this day, most members remain in touch and close. We have long since patched up any of our differences wink, wink. Various members will usually gather for a casual get together, sharing some cold adult beverages or another party at least annually.
I truly believe there is no such thing as an ex-Charivari member. There are just those who were absent when the current attendance was called. But nothing has ever rivaled the pure energy of the core group of the early 1980’s. Charivari was a force of nature! And in their own words… “What was IT about Charivari that made the experience so special?” The answer holds true for all social clubs who made their mark during that era. The "It" is the culture of the brand. Charivari’s culture was, has and will always be the energy, spirit, style and rhythm of the group. Our parties will keep you together while you let yourself go, is not a mission statement for us, it’s a way of life - Live it! As Kevin Bledsoe states emphatically, “Pure friendship! I love these guys.” In a recent Spin magazined article with new sensation Kyle Hall - "Detroit techno fans have long spoken of the movement's first, second, and third "waves" of artists who came along in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but Kyle Hall represents its second generation, literally. His father ran with the West Side's "preps" scene of middle-class kids who dressed in GQ-inspired fashions and gave their parties names like "Charivari," after a New York boutique dedicated to avant-garde European fashion." Spanning generations from father to son. One of Halls earliest Detroit party experiences. Charivari!
Update Thanksgiving 2013 - Let the adventures continue…. Join the Party! www.charivaridetroit.com
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