Gross National Productions

1970 - Boston: 4 Mass College of Arts students and 3 Salem State students formed Gross National Productions (GNP). The group formed from a mutual love of the Beatles, raunchy comedy and a quick way to get women. For two months they played 2 shows a night, t days a week at the Unicorn in Boston. They played shows with Sha Na Na, Jonathan Edwards, the Beacon Street Union, Badfinger, Spirit, Jeremy Steig, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Frank Zappa, the Holy Modal Rounders and many more. Their house at 700 Huntington Ave became the party house 24/7. You would find Magic Dick, Danny Klein, Skunk Baxter there at some occasions. the joint Rocked. They were signed by Metromedia records and recorded the album P-Flaps & Low Blows . the single Can't we all be Bad recieved significant airplay.

After a split from their management and having most of ther equipment stolen. the group found itself traveling coast to coast doing promo parties and eventually called it quits. they tried a revival in 1975 on the recommendation of super producer Tom Werman. This ended when certain members wanted to go a different route. The group members were Doug Stevens(Matt Maverick) who is now known as Red Peters on vocals, Joe Botti on Drums(later replaced by David Pontbriand in the reunion band), Artie Johnson on Bass, Tony Bartolini on Sax, Tom Dempsey on Trumpet, Gary Rutstein on Keys and Guitar, Jonny Press on Guitar. The group was known for being a Multimedia act, mixing Rock, Comedy and Film.

Audio

2nd Part of Me

Fourth I've Had

She Must Be Crying Now

Spring Has Sprang

Video

Don't Romance Me

Pinch

1975 to 1977: When Johnny Press, Artie Johnson and David Pontbriand left the GNP reunion band, they decided to form an eclectic all original rock act. Bringing in former Sledgehamma Keyman Rich Ramuno and former Smokin' Joe Vocalist LJ Krain completed the band.

The group played throut New England at many of the larger venues and also were known to do large outdoor parties where hundreds rocked out. They did a number of recordings at Great Northern Studios with engineer John Savignano. At the studio Johnny and Ritchie got to spend the day with the Tommy Bolin Band and watched their live broadcast over WBCN. Tommy had a huge influence on John's playing from that day on.

Dave decided to become a keyboard player and left the band. Charlie Bosselman (Chinatown Chuck) replaced Dave. Bobby Young replaced Artie on Bass, there are a number of live recordings showcasing the bans original and their musical prowess. The band Pretty Poison had broken up and approached Johnny about Paul Coxx and Donni Thayer approached Johnny about a new original project. Feeling that they were not going to get any further with Pinch, Johnny took Bobby and Dave Pontbriand with him to form a new studio project with Paul and Donni. Pinch had many memorable shows, but because they really weren't a dance band and more of a musicians band they didn't have the following required to move further

Audio

Devotion (Live)
Gonna Try / Hell City / Saddened Man (Live)
Mexican Silver
Never Know Your Name (Live)





Smokin’ Joe

1971 to 1975: When Johnny Press left GNP he wanted to do more guitar oriented music. He was hanging out with Billy Squire, Aerosmith and roadie friends from GNP and listening to where they were headed. He brought in friends from his hometown who were hungry to do something.

The 1st version of Smokin'Joe included Ron Blais-vocals, Dave Pontbriand-Drums, Darryl Atanian-Bass Ken Larochelle-Guitar and Johnny Press-guitar. They were a loud and proud band. Ken eventually left and was replaced by Lee Vachon, in which many stories can be told of his time with the band. Lee and Darryl left and were replaced by Artie Johnson and Norman Lamoreaux. Ron Blais was replaced by Lil John Krazanik(LJ Krain).

This version of the band played up and down the East Coast 6 nights a week ans recorded a 5 song set of originals at Angus Studios mixed by Jesse henderson. The songs got airplay on WBCN and were brought to the attention of producer Tom Werman. Tom like the songs and thought he could make something of it..but..he really wanted a GNP reunion and thats what he was more interested in. So Smokin' Joe split up and Johnny, Artie & Dave moved onto the GNP reunion. The group was known for it's searing guitar arrangements and had a huge following in Massachusetts.

Audio

  Won't Take It