Everything you ever wanted to know about the band

Derry Gale                     Okie, guitar, vocal
Spoo-c                            none
Bruce from NYC            cowbell, rented drums and cymbals
Bill P.                                flash on guitar
Bill S.                                ?
Ronnie Jack                     Rock and roll star, guitar
Dennis "The Thug"         atonal backup vocal
Brucie Baby                     special announcements
D.J.                                      comb, balloon, dictionary, assorted bottles & cans, organ
Eddie Angel                      sex symbol, vocalist, whistle, pianist, dramatist
Richard Jack                      organistic virtuoso
Tom & Barbara                 situation comedy when the lights go up
Steve S.                              model
Cisco                                   close range coyote call
Clawed                                brace
Dan O.                                 bouzouki, dulcimer, loud whistle
Steve A.                               assorted howls, piano, guitar, cowbell, exhibitionist
Rando the Magic Clown   magic show (supplies Coors)
Tom R.                                road manager, lines up groupies
Mud                                    groadie
Carbo                                 inspiration
Jerry S.                               Demolay Dad, flag bearer
Rusty                                  falsetto voice
California John                  visibility
Monte H.                           trumpet
Chromosome                   sax (heavy)

After several months of practice (sort of) we decided to have our first public performance on April Fool's Day. We thought it would be the perfect April Fool's joke! The night before, we chalked the campus sidewalks to get the crowds massed outside of Walker Tower on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman. We set up at the base of Walker Tower and were blasting away with our rented P.A. system (no monitor speakers) at nearby Adams Tower and other dorms further away. We opened  with Frank Zappa's Cheap Thrills. Brucie Baby gives the opening words of warning to the audience. After a rousing round of applause, we followed with the Buddy Holly teen love-anthem Peggy Sue, then Del Shannon's Runaway. Our keyboard player unfortunately passed out during his big solo and was out for the evening. He was intermittently replaced by various audience or band members for the rest of the evening.  We did House of the Rising Sun and the Fugs' Coca Cola Douche.   Then we thought the crowd was ready for our big bullet, an original After the Prom. We did this as a medley: After the Prom,  Frank Zappa's What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body, and Mark Dinning's teen tragedy classic: Teen Angel.  We then performed  what Richard Jack describes enticingly to the audience as our first "Beatles song", Twist and Shout. Never mind that this wasn't really a Lennon-McCartney penned song! Things were beginning to fall apart as the booze and  illegal substances imbibed by various band members began to take their toll and we finished the first set with a slow song, Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying. The band desperately needed to regroup and also determine how many band members were still able to function. Not enough as it turns out. The musicians, "the guys with talent" Richard Jack tells the crowd, take a long overdue break and Richard Jack and Eddie Angel entertain the audience. Note at the end of the break Richard Jack performing his rendition of the drum solo from In-a-gadda-da-vida which we titled In-a-gadda-diar-rhea.  Things went steadily downhill, and the night ended with a stirring rendition of Taps featuring Monte "Mr. Trumpet" H.,  with an Eddie Angel voice over surveying the damage, assessing the evening's performance, and offering a closing benediction for the first PDMSB performance. The evening ends as an audience member yells "Aw, shut up Ed!" 

All performances in Norman, Oklahoma unless noted otherwise. (*) indicates that an audio recording was made of the performance. (**) indicates that a video recording was made.

*November 7, 1970   original recording of "After the Prom"  in the Ironing Room

*March 2,10,14, 1971   practice sessions  in Three West Dorm, "The Ironing Room Tapes"

*April 1, 1971            outside Walker Tower dormitory, University of Oklahoma

*April 10, 1971           Walker Tower Lounge

May ?, 1971               South Oval

May 7, 1971               Walker Tower Lounge

*May ?, 1971              recording session for "Its All Right"

*July 10, 1971            practice session in Duncan, Oklahoma

*November 15, 1971        recording session in Boyd House, OU

*March 11, 1972           Kappa Sigma "Purple Passion Party"

*April 1, 1972            inside Walker Tower dormitory

*December 13, 1972        Wayside Inn (or the "Wasted" Inn)

*February 3, 1973         Wayside Inn

*February 14, 1973        Live interview on KGOU-FM radio

*March 2, 1973            Wayside Inn

*April 29, 1973           Country Club Apartments, Peace and Love Festival

*April 1, 1974            Wayside Inn

July 26, 1975             Yorkshire Apartments Recreation Room

*April 4, 1981            Kelly's Bar

**July 5, 1986            Russ's house outside Norman, Oklahoma

**July 5, 1991            Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, Colorado

**June 22, 1996           Twenty-fifth Reunion performance, Lyrewood Lounge, OKC

**July 14, 2001           Lincoln Center, Fort Collins, Colorado

April 2, 2005             Bill's Bar, Norman, Oklahoma

**April 1, 2006           Bill's Bar, Norman, Oklahoma

***April 1, 2011             Opolis, Norman, Oklahoma

• Phone call between Frank Zappa and Gene from the Penus DeMilo Swing
  Band on Mothers's Day, Sunday, May 9, 1971, approximately 8pm,
  Central Standard Time.
  
  (We had called Bizarre/Straight Records the night before and the
  operator connected us with the Zappa home, but Frank wasn't there.
  We had obtained that phone number as the "prize" for naming the
  Zappa record being played on KGOU, the University of Oklahoma
  student radio station. When we called Bizarre/Straight Records on
  Sunday, the operator actually gave us Frank's home phone number! We
  were shocked but called the number. The phone is answered by a
  woman, presumably Gail Zappa, but Frank has also picked up another
  phone and says "Hello" in the background. The band members are
  gathered in a dorm room with the phone hooked up to a stereo system
  so that everyone can hear what Frank is saying and Frank can
  probably hear the laughter and comments from the audience at
  various times during the conversation.)
  
  Gail Zappa: Hello.
  Gene: Hello. Is Frank Zappa there?
  GZ: Who's calling?
  Gene: This is Gene (last name omitted) from Norman Oklahoma.
  GZ: Who?
  Frank Zappa:  Hello.
  Gene: Hello. Happy Mothers's Day.
  FZ: Thank you very much. Happy Mothers's Day to you.
  Gene:  Yes, we called last night but your brother answered the
  phone and said you'd gone to the movies.
  FZ: Yep. We went to see "I Eat Your Skin," "I Drink Your Blood."
  Gene: Far out. How was it Frank?
  FZ: It was rancid. (Band laughs in background.)
  Gene: When is "200 Motels" Coming out?
  FZ: I expect the end of the summer.
  Gene: Far out.
  FZ: That's a United Artists feature release.
  Gene: Right. Are you going to be doing any more gigs soon?
  FZ: We go back on the road on the twenty-first.
  Gene: Where you gonna head for?
  FZ: The midwest.
  Gene: The Midwest!? We're here in Norman, Oklahoma right now. We
  ...
  FZ: How is it?
  Gene: Oh. Its nice in the spring time.
  FZ: Yeah. Well I'll tell you where we're playing. ... Des Moines...
  uh, St. Louis ... Let's see. Columbus, Ohio. Cincinnati, Ohio....
  uh ... Delaware. uh (mumbles) ... I forget the names. There's a
  bunch of small, smaller type places. We're also doing Chicago and we're doing
  the Fillmore East. But most of the jobs are in the midwest in all these various
  little towns.
  Gene:  Any places around Texas or Kansas or ...?
  FZ: No not really. I don't think we're going to be anywhere closer
  than 500 miles to you guys.
  Gene: Aw, bad to hear.
  FZ: Yeah, but one of these days we're liable to show up in
  Oklahoma, you never know.
  Gene: Good.
  FZ: ... I've never had so many communications from Oklahoma in my
  life since that radio station called here.
  Gene: Oh Yeah. KGOU.
  FZ: Yeah.
  Gene: Well we have a band sitting around here and we've been
  playing a little Mothers' music and ...
  FZ: Yeah.
  Gene: ... and we dig it.
  FZ: What ...
  Gene: We've got the Penus DeMilo Swing Band in action.
  FZ: The Penus DeMilo Swing Band?
  Gene: Right.
  FZ: That's fantastic.
  Gene: It's, It's heavy Frank.
  FZ: That's great. Are you the leader of the band?
  Gene: No, no, I just play tenor sax.
  FZ: (chuckles)
  Gene: We have fifteen people in our band.
  FZ: How many?
  Gene: Fifteen.
  FZ: That's great. Do you know about our song called "Penis
  Dimension?"
  Gene:  No we haven't.
  FZ: You haven't heard that yet? You guys should learn that. That's
  one of the songs from "200 Motels."
  Gene: Oh. Is the album out yet? The sound track?
  FZ: It'll be out probably two months before the film which would
  make it June or July or something like that. We're ...
  Gene: Far out. We'll have to pick up on that.
  FZ: It's a two record set.
  Gene: We've been doing "Stuff Up the Cracks" ... couple of other
  big numbers. People like it.
  FZ: Do you do (inaudible)?
  Gene: Caca Rocka.
  FZ: What did you say?
  Gene: We've been doing some Mothers, and some Fugs, and listening to
  Captain Beefheart, the newest Alice Cooper "I'm Eighteen" with
  a lot of instrumental riffs on it. (Band laughs in the
  background.)
  FZ: Yeah.
  Gene: Well we just wanted to wish you Happy Mothers' Day and we
  hope to see you soon.
  FZ: Great. Best regards to you and the boys in the band!
  Gene: All right. Thanks a lot. Bye.
  FZ: We'll see you. Bye.
  
  (Total time: 3 minutes, 50 seconds.)
  
  

(written by Ronnie Jack, October 1970. First verse written during a Math course in Fortran programming.)

The high school prom, it was so much fun.
Dancing to the funky beat, I nearly wore my new shoes out.
Sliding across the gymnasium floor
The high school prom we had such a time
YOu were all dressed up, you really did look fine
And I fell in love with you,
After the Prom

Parked in my car, when the dance was over
I told you I needed you now,
but you said you didn't go that far
I felt so lonely, so dejected,
After the Prom

Spoken:

And later, after I took  you home, I went out and drank some wine.
I was feeling, oh, so fine. But I remember this one thing baby,
I remember throwing up when I drove past your home, and the lights
were still on. And I knew right away what had happened: You'd taken
some other Jack home from the prom, and it tore me up baby.  Why
did you have to do it to me on this night, the one night every
teenager loves and cherishes. It tore me up baby, after the prom.

After the prom, after the prom
(fade)

During live performances, we then went into Frank Zappa's "What's
the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" and then  the Mark Dinning classic
"Teen Angel."