Jack Williams has had a long and successful career as a musician. In an earlier interview, we asked about his stint working with Ray Ruff and The Checkmates but, both before and after that group, he was a member of a very active combo named The Invaders. From dying their hair blue (to capitalize on a Beatles-like "hook") to recording both as a group and as a backing combo, The Invaders certainly left their own their mark on the Amarillo, Texas music scene--and Williams was front and center.
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| The Invaders (1965): Ray Williams, Joe Williams and Jack Williams |
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| Joe and Jack Williams (1967) |
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An Interview With Jack Williams
60sgaragebands.com: You were actually with The Invaders prior to joining The Checkmates, and then again after leaving The Checkmates. Did you return to the same set of guys, or did The Invaders make any personnel changes during the one to two years you were gone?
Jack Williams (JW): Actually, it was the same guys: My brother, Ray Williams (bass, rhythm, and vocals) and our drummer Billy Roach. Ray kept the band going during my absence under a different name, The Rhythm Kings. Ray added a lead player named Don Underwood who heard them play at a teen club, which they opened in Amarillo, called Dance Land. Don was an excellent musician and they created quite a following in the area, including a TV show. As it happened, about the time I left The Checkmates, Don had served his time at Amarillo Air Force Base and I took over from there.
Larry Marcum (The Checkmates) and I had set in with The Rhythm Kings and Don and I became good friends as well. We had a pretty good recording studio built in our old garage and Don, about a year after he left Amarillo, showed up on our door early one morning. He had hitchhiked all the way from southern California for one purpose. He wanted us to jam and record it so he could take it back home and show the "surfer bands" he was dealing with that Texas boys could rock.
60s: Why did you leave The Checkmates? And do you recall who replaced you?
JW: I left The Checkmates when Ray Ruff hired Ray and mto do a session in Clovis. We were to record four sides and drove the 120 miles just to find that The Fireballs were still in the studio and we would not be able to record that night. I have been told that session that The Fireballs recorded 'Sugar Shack' (that night). Ruff refused to pay us anything for our time and after all the other times he had cheated me out of money, I decided it was time to go on. It was kind of ironic when I drove to his house in Amarillo and told him. We hugged and said goodbye and the last thing he said to me was, "Dough-Dough," (that was my nick name with The Checkmates), "don’t you dare show anyone else our steps." My reply was, "I was doing those steps before I met you!"
Galen Englebrick, a friend who I had played with a few times and was friends with Larry Marcum, the lead man for The Checkmates, was my replacement. Galen was a talented musician and vocalist. He wrote the two songs for The Checkmates first record without Ray Ruff. After that The Checkmates toured and played without Ruff.
The Original Invaders were: Jack Williams (me), lead guitar and vocals; Ray Williams, bass guitar, rhythm and vocals; and Billy Roach, our drummer. We had used several names over the years--The Rhythm Teens, Jaguars, Playboys--but the name Invaders stuck and it was our name before the (Quinn Martin science fiction) TV series came on.
When I left The Checkmates for a little while it was just me, Ray and Billie. Very soon we picked up Phil Hickman who we trained on the bass (he picked It up extremely fast). Phil was actually a drummer and was much better that Billy but we needed a bass man. Phil was also an excellent vocalist. This was just about the time The Beatles were becoming super popular. We learned every song on the first two Beatles albums and even did a full 45-minute set in our shows of nothing but Beatles. We even combed our hair down and wore a nehru-type suit during these sets.The kids really loved it!
In February, 1964, a terrible ice storm basically shut every thing down in Amarillo. My Dad was off work and we were out of school, so Dad decided we’d take a trip to California to see relatives. Dad, Ray and I went all over Hollywood so Dad could try to get some of his songs on record. We must have hit 100 studios and publishing companies. What a treat for two young musicians! At that time, for Dad's style of music--country--he was told basically that if you were not an established writer, they were not interested.
All over Hollywood we kept seeing these life size posters of The Beatles pushing 'I Want To Hold Your Hand.' I had seen in Newsweek an article about the "Moptop Boys from Liverpool" and really didn’t think much about it. On the way home, listening to the radio, about every third song the deejays played 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and told how it had already sold one million copies before it was released!
Dad and I discussed how we needed a hook like the Beatles' haircuts and we decided we’d dye our hair blue. When we got home I ordered posters that said, "The Invaders." Just back from Hollywood, we bought spots on KIXZ Radio and rented the National Guard Armory in Dumas, Texas. The choice of Dumas ended up not being the best we could have done, to say the least!
To get our hair blue we had a beautician friend come to the house and bleach all of our hair white then to get the blue she used food coloring. It came out bright blue! As we played that night and started sweating, guess what? The blue started running down on all our faces. I think we had a total of about 20 kids show up and half of them were cowboys. One of them took exception when we played 'Long Tall Texan' and when he headed to the stage to kick our butts, he had to be escorted out of the building by my Dad and uncle. So much for "the hook." When Ray and I went back to school we got suspended for the white hair so we all died our hair black.
Phil Hickman was electrocuted in 1965 and we didn’t play for a few months after that. Jimmy Lafavers took over as our bass man and my youngest brother, Joe Williams, became our drummer that year. He was just eleven years old but was a very good solid drummer from the start and became one of the best in the next few years. In 1967, brother Ray left for California and I hired a rhythm guitar/vocalist named David Moore. This was the last bunch.
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| The Invaders (1964): Jack Williams, Billy Roach, Ray Williams and Phil Hickman |
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60s: Where did The Invaders typically play?
JW: We Played all over the Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma and New Mexico. In Amarillo we played private parties, teen clubs, and a few bars just to pay the bills. We opened several of the teen clubs in the area including The La Roc Club, The Bo-Rah Club, Teen Town in Plainview and The Karate Club in Guymon, Oklahoma. One of the best money things we did was we booked a tour of all the teen clubs and hired J. Frank Wilson ('Last Kiss') and Patty Seymour (one of the famous Seymour Sisters who recorded at Norman Petty’s Studio). She had a song that was pretty popular in the area. It was her version of 'The Silencer' (a Dean Martin movie theme).
One of the last things we did as a group was a midwest tour. We played Taos, New Mexico; Red Lodge Montana; Shelby, Montana; Billings, Montana; Miles City, Montana; Fairfield, Nebraska; Rock Springs, Wyoming; and Saratoga Wyoming...among others I can’t remember.
The man who I dealt with at the Community Center told me Buddy Holly played there in 1957 and drew 125 kids. We drew well over 200 each time and felt pretty good about that. We got our first private party from the first show and got a pretty good start from there. Larry Marcum (lead man for The Checkmates) was with a guy , Charlie Ray Johnson, and made an appearance at one of our shows.
Larry and I stayed good friends over the years and were kindred spirits. I remember when we were with The Checkmates we almost always played some where when we weren't booked. My favorite time was when we played The Lion's Club over on the black side of Amarillo. Sad to say, Amarillo was still segregated until, I believe, 1970. Anyway, we played a show with nothing but black musicians, Larry and I. I remember cheap guitars--and drums with holes in the heads--but it was maybe the best jam I was ever in. No one cared what color we were. We all loved rock music and spent all day just playing and having a great time. I think it made Larry and I better musicians.
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| The Invaders, February 1964 |
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60s: How did The Invaders hook up with Jackie Allen, whom you backed on some recordings?
JW: I believe Jackie Allen got a referral from Chuck Tharp (the original Fireballs vocalist). We backed Chuck up for a few months after he quit The Fireballs. I believe Ray Ruff turned him onto us.
60s: Did you ever perform with Allen, or just back him on recordings?
JW: We never did anything live with Jackie; only the (recording) session in Clovis.
60s: What were the names of the two unreleased songs recorded with Allen?
JW: The unreleased songs were 'Sooner or Later' and 'Forget Me Nots.' Brother Ray and I wrote 'Forget Me Nots' at one of our practices for the recording session. Jackie only had three songs and needed a fourth.
60s: How did The Invaders land the recording opportunity at Checkmate Studios ('Love Is' / 'White Lightning')?
JW: As it happened, we played a battle of the bands in Amarillo which Ruff promoted and we won. The prize was the recording session.
60s: Was Ray Ruff involved with any of The Invaders' recordings?
JW: Actually no--other than providing the session time. A local deejay, Larry Cox, who worked part time for Ruff, did the recording.
60s: Did The Invaders write many songs?
JW: My brother Ray wrote several songs including 'Love Is' (along with me). We recorded several of his other songs in our own studio which wasn’t too shabby. We had two four-track recorders and made some pretty good cuts for the time.
Note: I once recorded a 12-piece Mexican band in that studio. It was our first paid-for session, and it came out very good since most of them understood no English. Music is universal! I also recorded (with The Invaders as studio musicians) ywo records which were released. One was a gospel record by Don Williams (my uncle) and a country-style/working man's record by my Dad.
60s: What other songs did The Invaders record that might not have been released?
JW: There are too many to list but, here’s a few: 'Scratch' (an Instrumental we wrote); 'You Thrill Me (written by brother Ray); 'Look Into My Eyes' (also Ray); 'Now You’re Gone' (Ray and I); 'Deanna' (Ray and I); 'Hot Rod Woman' (a remake of one of Dad’s country songs to a more surfer/hotrod-like sound).
60s: Did The Invaders make any TV appearances? Does any 8mm footage exist of the band?
JW: I do have some 8mm footage of a junior/senior prom we did in 1965. Ray and his group The Rhythm Kings appeared on a local (Bandstand-Like) TV show while I was with The Checkmates.
60s: Why did The Invaders dissolve in 1967?
JW: I pretty much lost interest after Ray left and had a wife and baby daughter to take care of and began concentrating on my "real job."
60s: Did you join or form any bands after leaving The Invaders?
JW: Ray, Joe, and I did a few shows in the next few years as The Invaders after he came back to Amarillo. I waited until about 1977 before I played with another group. It was a county/old rock group in Dallas called The Late Edition. That was fun, but I was building and remodeling homes in the area and it became too much so I quit.
In about 1988, I was living in the Cedar Creek Lake area of Texas and a friend of mine, Bill Harvel and I started a country/old rock group. We were together about a year when it started interferring with my work and I quit.
Lately, for about six years now, I put together a group called The Nut’n New Crew. The name says it all; we don’t do anything new. We do classic country, old rock, and gospel. We play for nursing homes, local city events and even a private party or two. If this one becomes work, I guess I’ll quit it as well.
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| The Invaders (1965, Top-Down): Jack Williams, Ray Williams and Joe Williams |
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