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PATRICK
& SYLVESTER
Left: Patrick on tour with Sylvester's band, in The Coliseum,
Rome.
Center: prepairing the arrengmenents
for a show.
Right : Resting by day, performing by
night, on a tour of Florida.
Silvester James, such was his name, was a gay star. He was a transvestite
who was very successful in the gay disco comunity in
Patrick's performance with analog synthesizer work, electronic instruments,
modified guitars and self-constructed equipement became in synonymous of
Sylvester's sound and covered with synthesized sounds the edition of hits
like “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”, “Dance Disco Heat”, and “Can’t
Stop Dancing”.
Patrick and Sylvester working on 'Do Ya Wanna Funk' (1982)
" It's almost amazing that Sylvester had Patrick
tour with us, because synthesizer technology was so primitive at the time that
Patrick was constantly patching and unpatching his board to make sounds when we
were performing. Frecuently he had problems on stage due to the technical
limitations of sound systems vis a vis live use of synthesizers But one
night at Roseland Balroom in New York Patrick played a solo that was so amazing
that Tip Wirrick, Michael Finden and I were just in awe.
I remember Patrick shrugging in a humorous way and telling us : Some nights it
goes well !! "
(ROBERT KINGSOM
)
This
gave life to the "Step II" album that skyrocketed Sylvester to
international fame. It was Patrick's recording work which really pushed
Sylvester's 'Step II' album into a highly marketable category, to the point
that it sold more than 500.000 records in
Left. (1979) Robert Kingsom playing bass for Sylvester at
The Roxy Theater (Hollywood) .
Right: (1979) Patrick
on synthesizer and Robert Kingsom on drums performing for Sylvester at the Roxy
Thether.
"Patrick was a really fun person who was also very spontaneous, in example,
he frequently yelled at me publicity (but then, I was 18 or 21 years old and
totally folish, so i couldn't blame him. But in the same moment he would hug me
and we would laugh it off. " (ROBERT KINGSOM )
Left: Patrick on travel.
Center: working with Sylvester after
hospital.
Right: Healthy Patrick performing at
the studio.
A PART OF
HISTORY
Back
in the 70's John Hedges was living with Gerry McBride and Danny Williams. John
Hedges was the person who in many ways invented disco/ dance music. He was a DJ
at Mind Shaft . One night he happened to listen to the song 'Rock
Your Baby', he liked it so much that he figured out a way to make the song
last longer, he mixed it and made it danceable. And ever since more and more
dance sounds started to
appear.
John
went from the 'Mind Shaft' to 'Oil Can Harry's' and then to
'City Disco' where he was the head DJ. John and Gerry Mcbride were from
Elyria,
" More music things followed and eventually Patrick Cowley
joined the DJ family, although he never lived with us. John Hedges and
Marty Blecman were finding all kinds of musicians along their careers such as Barry Beam and others. i wrote the lyric for a hit called 'Castro
Boy', and also did the vocals on the recording." ( DANNY
WILLIAMS )
1: Marty
Blecman, Sylvester and John Hedges at Megatone Records.
2: Right Up : left to right, Rock Sands, Richard Dearborn, Michael Lee,
Lee Horning (sitting) Larry Francis, Christine Matuchek, Ed Mendez, Marty
Bleckman, Dale Pelegrino, Michael Garret, John Hedges and Cindy Baker.
(standing)
3: Hedges photo in 2001
PATRICK & MARTY BLECMAN
Even
though he was on tours with Sylvester, Pat remained close to San
Francisco 's disco scene and joined forces with his friend Marty Blecman (
Martin Sander Blecman) to found 'Megatone Records' in the
summer of 1981, whose offices would be located on 470 Castro
Street, Suite 3209, San Francisco. At that time, Marty was employed as DJ at The
City Disco; formerly he'd been working at Fantasy Records.
Big
"Fantasy's" stars (Tip Wirrick, Martha Walsh, Jeanne Tracy, among
others ), would later be in Megatone. Patrick Cowley and
Marty Blecman began their productions on "Studio C"
of "Automatt Recording Studios" , on 829 Folsom Street in
Letter to Megatone Records from The Dixie Dance Kings.
The Automatt had three recording studios,Its owner was David Rubinson
and its studio manager was Michelle Zarin. Studio "C" was on
the second floor of the building .It was large and had very good technical
equipment. It was similar to Wally Haider's ( several engineers who were
working there went on to work at the Automatt at that time). This
legendary recording studio in which Patrick recorded Megatron Man and
Mind Warp albums torn down in 1984.
" Usually in Patrick's sessions, were his singing
vocals, two technicians and sometimes Marty Blecman would show up, but Marty
was always there for the final mix. His sound engineers were Maureen
Droney (my wife ) and I. I recorded and
mixed the most of Patrick's productions , and Maureen took an active part on
Mind Warp. After Pat was finishing to fine tunning the sounds, it would take 3
days to record them and one day to mix.
Obviously it was Mind Warp album the hardest one, because Patrick was
very weak because of his advanced decease." ( KEN KESSIE )
Original handwriting of Marty Blecman. Notice the names he
filled in the poll.
Before
establishing himself in the Automatt Studio, he worked at
his home studio. Many of his first hits , like "Menergy", "I
Wanna Take You Home" and "Right On Target" were recorded
there with an 'eight track analog machine'. He showed there all his ingenuity
and his talent potential since he spent lot of hours working and modifying
programs to be able to fit all his sounds into just eight recording tracks .
Patrick Cowley's home studio was near Fulsom and Mission, it was at 8th and
Minna. He rented a small space in what looked like a bombed out building,
occupied by squatters. A brick warehouse building. His place had a
door, and when entered, recording machines and a desk for mixing, with wires
running could be seen just about everywhere.
Left up: the famous PROPHET-5, Patrick's best hits were
performed with it.
Right up: Eight Track Analog
machine, Patrick recorded 'Menergy' and 'Right On Target'.
Left below: front view
of the PROPHET-5.
Right below: The
Pro-One, former model synth used by Patrick.
" The walls were just 2x4 , with insulation covering them for sound
proofing. Patrick shared his space with Tip Wirrick and there was a heavy
dividing door that went to another space where Maurice Tani had the
studio. They worked with Katie Guthorn who was later in Modern Rocketry . Some
years later, Jo-Carol Block and Lauren Carter rented the space upstairs and had
their recording studio there. For
recording his songs, Patrick played all parts on an '8- track recorder
machine', meticulously mixing down the first 6 tracks, and recorded 4 more,
then mixed down once again, added vocals, and then mixed it all finally. He was
an obsessed man , and surely each song took weeks of work, sometimes twenty
hours continuosly ! (PAUL PARKER )
Patrick
Cowley composed and worked all his wonderful productions almost exclusively on
his "PROPHET-5 poliphonic analog synthesizer" ( five
voices) , about
Patrick
played his Robotic voices with an "studio effect box" .
Most of his effects were adapted onto the synthesizer as he played it. He also
used a "drum machine".... Everyone could say that Patrick could make
a song with just his "Prophet V" and a drum machine.
Sights of Automatt Studio. 'Megatron Man' and 'Mind Warp'
were recorded here.
"Patrick did not need special scores, by the time
he would be in the studio with me and he would have all the parts written in
his head. He would just spend a little time fine tuning the sounds,
then he would record." (MAUREEN DRONEY )
"While recording 'Megatron Man' we didn't talk much cause we had a lot of work
to do in a short time. He was the best synthesizer player I have ever met. " (KEN KESSIE )
Left: Morey Goldstein and Ken Kessie, co-founders of
“Modern Rocketry”. Morey Goldstein sadly passed away on July
5th, 2008 from a brain tumor. Ken Kessie was Patrick’s sound engineer on
‘Megatron Man’
Right up : Ken Kessie .
Right below: Morey Goldstein in ‘Modern Rocketry’
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