By Brad Gallagher:
This is a story about a rock band named “The Golden Gate Rhythm Section”. Who, you ask? Well, I am so glad you asked that question. You see, The Golden Gate Rhythm Section was a band that was originally formed with the intention of being a back up band for some of the prominent rock groups of the early 1970’s. The original members consisted of former members of Santana, The Steve Miller Band, and Frumious Bandersnatch. They dropped the back up band concept, however, after having a successful concert in Hawaii in 1973 and decided to write and perform their own music from then on.
The only problem they had was the name they had chosen for the band. They felt that they needed a better name if they were going to be successful, but they just couldn’t decide on a good one. So….
As The Story Goes:
The Golden Gate Rhythm Section, who had developed a nice following around the San Francisco Bay area, decided to hold a contest on a local radio station with the intent of finding a new name for their band. The way the contest was set up was that anyone who wanted to could submit their idea of a name for the band, and the person who submitted the name that the band chose to adopt would get free concert tickets for life to any or all of the band’s concerts.
This plan backfired, though, because they didn’t get any usable name suggestions. The names that were submitted were all terrible names such as, The Mound Pounders and Rumpled Foreskin. Yikes…
So, their producers decided to go with a name that was suggested by John Villanueva, who was working as one of the band’s roadies at the time. And, they make up the imaginary name “Toby Pratt” and announce on the radio that he had won the contest. A perfect solution, right? Well not really. You see, there was a real person named Toby Pratt in the San Francisco Bay area, and he was a regular listener to that particular radio station. So, when he heard his name announced as the winner of the contest he came forward to collect his prize.
Now, since the band had announced on air to the whole listening area that Toby Pratt had won the contest, they couldn’t back peddle and admit what they had done, so they had no choice but to give Pratt his prize even though he had not actually come up with the name himself.
And that is how Toby Pratt received tickets for life to shows by the band that now goes by the name “Journey”.
So now you know. Go tell a friend. And come back and see me right here really soon at As The Story Goes.
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AS THE STORY GOES 