EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the fourth and final installment in a series spotlighting noteworthy entertainers who performed at the Tony Mart’s nightclub in Somers Point:
By Carmen Marotta
As part of a new history of Tony Mart’s, “The Legacy of Tony Mart,” we have put together a list of more than 130 entertainers who performed during the 38 years of good times at the legendary Somers Point nightclub.
Over the past several weeks, we have been remembering some of the greatest and most musically important entertainers and groups that ever played at Tony Mart’s.
We have our favorites, but readers are also invited to weigh in. Send your comments and emails to: tonymartpresents@gmail.com. We will reminisce about them in the trivia segments at our shows. We look forward to including your memories in the book, along with comments from friends, family, and former patrons.
Ricky and the Rockets
In 1965 there was a group called The Lively Ones featuring the Identicals: Three guys in the band with twins upfront. They were popular and successful that year, but no one thought that their bass player, Jeff Troy, would come back as a star of several seasons in the ’70s.
Tony Mart created Ricky and The Rockets with Jeff Troy when he returned with a professional, but non-descriptive cover band. With all of the classic routines, including rolling cigarettes up in the short-sleeve shirt, Ricky and The Rockets were tremendous stars of the early ’70s, which helped maintain Tony Mart’s as a popular party and dance venue.
Full House
Bobby Hunter was the lead singer in this band. He often said that in the fall of 1969, he played his first professional gig at Tony Mart’s.
Eventually joining up with the great Kenny Jeremiah from The Soul Survivors, this was a beloved, popular, entertaining band that played several years at Tony Mart’s, and many years all over the Jersey Shore and elsewhere. It was a great horn band which eventually became the Jeremiah Hunter Band and ultimately, just as great and popular as Full House. It’s one of the wonderful Jersey Shore regional stories.
One For All
For most of the local patrons, especially the “Tri-City Burnouts,” this was probably the most revered and remembered band of 1978 and 1979.
An intriguing and entertaining chapter in the history of Tony Mart’s, One For All was the reason that Tony Mart’s rose like a phoenix from the ashes after almost being sold in a shaky real estate deal in the spring of ’78.
With the full percussion ensemble of Tony Galante and a killer, three-piece horn section starring the incredible Sammy Dyson on trombone and Ray Sydnor on saxophone, this group did it all, from Earth Wind & Fire and Bill Withers, to “Disco Inferno” and an astoundingly hot, mesmerizing version of Ralph McDonald’s “Calypso Breakdown” from the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack.
In the summer of ’78, this was the band that brought the biggest crowds of the last 10 years of Tony Mart’s and made Sunday nights the sexiest, sweatiest, most pounding and panting ladies’ night ever seen at the Mart. It was an incredible summer of ribaldry and fun! Everyone that was there remembers it with a smile.
Shotgun and Alien
After the summer of ’78, the Mart never really hit its stride in any summer except ’81 when the sexy and exciting Shotgun, the rage of the Main Line, led by the sultry Lenora, performed the emerging sounds of punk, rock, and new wave, especially Chrissie Hynde & The Pretenders, Blondie, Joan Jett, and groups like The Talking Heads and Elvis Costello.
They performed a signature medley of rockin’ tunes by The Kinks with our favorite being “Low Budget,” which epitomized the experience at The Mart in the last year of strong business. Shotgun and a tribute band called Alien brought hundreds of young people up from Cape May where many of the well-heeled students had drifted with their families.
On Tuesday nights, Alien performed the “Resurrection of Jim Morrison and The Doors,” in which they brought their frontman into Tony Mart’s in a white coffin.
Tony Mart’s family is forever grateful to Shotgun for the fabulous performances that carried The Mart into the last great summer, the summer of ’81.
Bob Campanell
and The Shakes
Throughout this list of the very best entertainers in Tony Mart’s history, there is a consistent theme of famous, world-class, multi-award-winning, and million-selling recording artists, including performers, like Del Shannon and Oliver. In the category of the very best to ever play at The Mart and not become famous, there are some really great ones, including Gunther’s Bus and One For All. Bob Campanell was one such performer.
Bob Campanell was one of the greatest performers to play the Jersey Shore and Tony Mart’s. As the star performer in The Shakes, he was powerful with a great voice and vocal ability.
He is deserving of recognition consistent with that of the greatest Jersey Shore/East Coast rockers like Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Gary US Bonds, and our magnificent friend, John Cafferty and Beaver Brown with Michael “Tunes” Antunes.
After Tony Mart’s closed, Bobby became so much a part of the Somers Point legacy music scene, including the AtlantiCare Concerts on the Beach in Somers Point, which he was rightfully referred to as our “Somers Point Rock ‘n Roll Icon.”
A world-class singer, a brilliant, charismatic and emotional performer, Bobby was a gifted songwriter and phenomenal rhythm guitarist. His band, The Shakes, were extremely popular, especially at Meral’s in Margate and all over the Jersey Shore. He was an important rock and roller in Asbury Park as well.
In the entire legacy of the music of Tony Mart’s, there is no one more deserving of superlatives, recognition and appreciation than the great Bob Campanell. We loved him and everyone loved The Shakes, whose drummer, Frank, was a pleasure with whom we always enjoyed working.
‘Eddie and The Cruisers’
As we often say, there was no real band named Eddie and The Cruisers. They were a group of actors with one true great rock star, Michael “Tunes” Antunes, who made a movie in May that carried The Mart into and through its final season of ’82.
Some of the greatest music ever written by John Cafferty and The Beaver Brown Band made the movie filmed at Tony Mart’s. It’s truly an important part of rock ‘n roll history.
These are the greatest, but there are many more bands with interesting stories that will appear in the book, “The Legend of Tony Mart’s,” which is being written now in real-time.
Let the good times roll!!!
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