Danger Danger drummer Steve West used to have an interesting process when it came to buying records. If he heard a song by a band and he liked it, he would buy the album. If the band looked cool, he would buy the album. If the band had a cool name and logo, he would buy the album. If the band were on Casablanca Records, he would buy the album. As Steve recalled in his written contribution to Rock Candy’s 2009 CD reissue of Trigger’s self-titled album they: “met three out of the four criteria. They looked cool, their name and logo were cool, and they were on Casablanca. I bought the album without hearing a single note. After one listen, they had met all my criteria. I loved the record!”
Trigger drummer Derek Remington has just self-published a thoroughly fascinating book on this wonderful, New York-based band he was so very much a huge part of. It can be ordered directly from Derek via the official Trigger Facebook page or through Amazon. Titled ‘When The Last Song Ends’, the book not only documents the trials and tribulations the group went through in their career, but also the sheer fun and camaraderie they enjoyed along the way. As with many of the subjects I’ve featured in this ‘Bands That Time Forgot’ series, the problems generally began when groups gained a significant record deal. As we shall see, Trigger was sadly no exception to this scenario.
Trigger offered great, fun Hard Rock with a Pop edge. It was a sound very much hewn from their journey towards becoming one of the leading lights on the New York and New Jersey club scene of the late 70s. They possessed both strong musicianship and great songs. Another plus was the vocal harmonies that betrayed their collective youth. Time well spent growing up immersed in the rising new sounds emerging within the Rock and Pop music scenes of the late 50s and, particularly, the 60s... the Beatles and the Beach Boys perhaps more than most.
Steve West’s record buying process was, I’m sure, not that dissimilar to many of us in those pre-Internet days. Another determining factor in buying records though was in paying significant attention to the album credits. Who produced it? Who played on it? Who gained special thanks? Well, in the case of Trigger not only was KISS’ Gene Simmons the first name on that special thanks list, but the keen-eyed and eared would also note more connectivity to the “Hottest Band In The World” beyond the mere fact they shared the same record label. Songs like ‘Rockin’ ‘Cross The USA’ and ‘Deadly Weapon’ had the same musical feel as their label mates, but the production team of Corky Stasiak and Dennis Ferrante had worked on a number of KISS albums up to that point as well. How much cooler could this four-piece actually be?!
The group had originally been formed as a quintet in New York State in the summer of 1973. Derek Remington had been contacted by a keyboard playing friend of his, Tom ‘Sebastian’ Ayres, to see if he’d be interested in putting a new group together. The intention was to play original music, rather than the covers every other band on the New York/New Jersey scene seemed to be playing (mainly because they had to, in order to get the gigs). This was an attractive idea to Derek, then playing in a local covers band called Apricot Brandy. However, he was very much aware that, at the time, you certainly couldn’t make a living out of playing original music, unless you were an established group with a record deal.
Sebastian and Derek would swiftly be joined by guitarists Richie House and Jimmy Duggan and bassist Tom Nigra. While Derek had previously played in bands with Nigra (who was at the time in another local outfit called The Farm), and knew local guitar hero House, he hadn’t previously met Jimmy Duggan. “Jimmy played, sang and looked great,” Derek once recalled to me. “If anything persuaded me that I was making the right decision by leaving my then group to join this new venture, then it was seeing Jimmy play.”
The new group’s first ever practice took place on September 9th 1973, and the band continued to rehearse at Sebastian’s house for about three weeks before they were told that they would have to find somewhere else to play. Ayres’ parents, or perhaps the neighbours, had heard enough, and it was time for them to move out and onward.
When it came to playing their first ever gig, with a brief, off-season residency at a bar called Bill Hennessey’s Mountain Lodge Inn, they had quickly utilised the name of Applause as the band moniker. They would swiftly change it to Trigger, after gaining a new rehearsal space in the basement of their friend Maddy Goldberg’s home. Trigger just happened to be the name of Maddy’s pet kitten!
Things moved fairly slowly at first, but once the group had gained the assistance of a local booking agent by the name of Jimmy Lamar they were able to develop a strict routine of rehearsals and gigs. They worked on new original songs as well as an interesting array of cover tunes to keep the club goers happy, dancing and the bar staff busy! While there was a need to keep their ears finely tuned to what was being played on the radio and therefore popular, Trigger would also throw in material from the likes of Ringo Starr, The Allman Brothers, Mountain and Stories for good measure.
They would swiftly change it to Trigger, after gaining a new rehearsal space in the basement of their friend Maddy Goldberg’s home. Trigger just happened to be the name of Maddy’s pet kitten!
All was going well, until Sebastian confided to his colleagues that he had been offered an audition for a new four-piece band called Roundhouse. Put together by former Mountain keyboard player Steve Knight (who was now playing bass), Sebastian subsequently got the gig!
“He told us that he was going to audition, but he didn’t expect to get offered the gig,” recalls Derek. “It was tough hearing it, but speaking candidly, any one of us would have jumped at the opportunity.”
After wishing him well in his new venture, the band opted not to replace Sebastian. Astonishingly, not long afterwards a club owner noticed that, and as they were now only a quartet, attempted to pay them a fifth less of the fee!
The tale of exactly how the new four- piece version of Trigger were able to move onward and upward on the bar scene in New York and, with the help of new agent Sammy Boyd into New Jersey, was originally told in wonderful detail by Derek Remington on an online forum dedicated to the group well over twelve years ago now. These posts ultimately formed the basis of the band’s story now published by the drummer in ‘When The Last Song Ends’.
Still, with the four-piece putting their all into the live show – including a diversion into creating a Beach Boys tribute show for a prestigious engagement at The Beach House, a premier club in Point Pleasant, New Jersey in August 1975 – the desire to get their own, original music out there in the big, wide world had not diminished. This led to the recording of a self-financed, independently released debut album through Trigger’s own Parliament imprint in late 1975.
It was never an album that was widely known about outside of their New Jersey/ New York circles for many years, as there was an assumption that the Casablanca Records release had been their debut LP. However, ‘Trigger Treat’ pre-dates it, and significantly includes an early version of ‘Somebody Like You’, which would become, in re-recorded form, the opening song on ‘Trigger’ and, perhaps, their best known number.
‘Trigger Treat’ was recorded at Sound House Studios in Newburgh, New York, and finds a band searching for a direction. It features a mixed bag of tunes that only becomes a tad more cohesive on the flip side, with a better grouping of songs closer to how the band were on in a live environment.
“It sucked!” Richie told me. “We didn’t have amplifiers. The thing just sounded like the Doobie Brothers on mandolins.”
“The studio was padded from top to bottom,” recalls Derek. “The drum booth had more carpeting in it than my entire house! I can’t tell you how disappointed I was when the needle hit the grooves and I began to listen to it. I was expecting this great noise to come through my speakers, but what I heard was thin, tinny sounding and weak.”
Despite the band’s disappointment, the album (some 2000 copies of which had been pressed up) did serve the purpose of gaining some airplay on local New Jersey radio stations. It was naturally also well received by an ever increasing hardcore of support; those fans who would regularly attend Trigger shows at every venue they would play.
Richie House concedes that it did at least also help get the band into more clubs, but: “I think the problem was that we had so many different influences that we went in all kinds of different directions. It wasn’t until we started working with Corky Stasiak and Dennis Ferrante that we were put into the right direction. I think they took a lot at what we had and formulated the songs. They really worked hard at getting the sound together and the music had a real nice feel about it as a result.”
Corky Stasiak and Dennis Ferrante were well established recording engineers, based primarily at the legendary Record Plant studios in New York City. Stasiak was working with Bob Ezrin at the time, gaining an engineering credit on KISS’ ‘Destroyer’. He would subsequently work with Eddie Kramer on ‘Rock And Roll Over’ later in 1976. ‘Love Gun’ and the five studio tracks on ‘Alive II’ would be added to his CV in 1977.
Richie discovered that Corky was working at the Record Plant through a girl he knew who also worked there as a receptionist. A former musician himself, Corky had seemingly once played in a band together with Richie some years before. Upon also learning that Stasiak and Ferrante were putting together a production company, Richie decided to call them. Despite the way the ‘Trigger Treat’ record had ultimately turned out, Corky and Dennis saw a great deal of potential in Trigger and agreed to work with them.
Just around this point in time, Trigger unknowingly – at least back then – played a part in Foreigner gaining the record deal
Corky (who also has working credits on Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born To Run’ as well as albums by the likes of Lou Reed, The Clash, Blue Öyster Cult and Aerosmith) and Dennis (Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, The Raspberries, The Clash) attended a number of rehearsals, making various suggestions with regards the songs, before the duo decided that the band had reached the point where they were happy enough with the material to bring them into New York for sessions at the Record Plant whenever time and an empty studio allowed.
Trigger initially cut ‘Let’s Rock’, ‘Hook, Line And Sinker’, ‘May’ and ‘Fly With Me’. They also re-recorded ‘Let It Show’ (this time with Richie singing lead, instead of Tom) from the first album, and released it as a 7” single on the Parliament label (backed with the instrumental ‘Bit O’ Shuffle’). By the autumn of 1976 they had added the Beatles’ ‘Drive My Car’ and ‘Darlin’’ by the Beach Boys to the recorded material. They would continue to work on demos into the summer of 1977.
Just around this point in time, Trigger unknowingly – at least back then – played a part in Foreigner gaining the record deal that would lead to untold fame and fortune for Lou Gramm, Mick Jones and friends. The soon to be legendary A&R guru John Kalodner was working at Atlantic Records at the time and picked up a demo tape from a band called Trigger in then label head Jerry Greenberg’s ‘Out’ tray. Having reportedly seen Trigger in a club the previous night and apparently been unimpressed, Kalodner thought he’d give them another chance having not heard any of the band’s demo tapes. The tape turned out to be a rough working of ‘Feels Like The First Time’ submitted by Gramm and Jones, clearly unaware that the Trigger moniker was being used elsewhere. Atlantic signed them and the name change to Foreigner ensued.
“I’ve long tried to figure out which show he actually saw. Every band sometimes has an off night,” remarks Derek. “It was weird. We got a call from someone congratulating us for signing to Atlantic Records. We had the name trademarked, so that’s why they changed it. I later bumped into Mick Jones at Penn Station in New York and he noticed I had a Trigger sticker on my bag or something. He remarked that he thought it was a great name for a band!”
Curiously bypassing all the major labels in New York City, Corky and Dennis opted to fly to Los Angeles with the demos to gain a deal for Trigger. One of those labels just had to be Casablanca, given the connections the pair already had with KISS, and particularly Gene Simmons.
“Oh, he was a big help with what he did,” enthuses Derek. “He was aware of us because of Corky’s previous involvement with KISS on the engineering side and he liked the band. He and Paul Stanley were known to come to see us, and I think what happened was that Corky and Dennis were in (Casablanca Senior Vice President) Larry Harris’ office and because Gene was there he walked past the office and enquired who it was they were playing – knowing full well who it was – and told Larry ‘if you don’t sign ‘em up then somebody else will’. That nailed it. Gene had a lot of influence at the time.”
Although Casablanca were now at the very forefront of the Disco revolution, they still had a firm footing in the Hard Rock market, not only with KISS but also having Angel and The Godz (albeit the latter were on the Millennium imprint) on the roster as well. Impressed with Trigger’s demos, as well as Gene Simmons’ recommendation, Harris decided to sign them. So Trigger found themselves celebrating the offer of a recording contract upon Stasiak’s and Ferrante’s return to the Big Apple. They were subsequently booked into the Record Plant in December 1977, this time as Casablanca Recording Artists, to cut their self-titled, major label debut.
With ‘Somebody Like You’ the only song to make the transition from the Record Plant demo sessions to the eleven chosen for the album, ‘Trigger’ was as strong as anything else out there at the time, if not stronger.
“The songs that made the album were very much Corky and Dennis’ decision,” states Richie. “But we all had the feeling that we wanted to keep the sound consistent. We didn’t want to put stuff in that was too left field. We needed to nail the band’s identity, although there was a buzz saw sound to the material that I personally would’ve liked to have had a bit raunchier.”
Despite being a band who shared lead vocal responsibilities when playing live, the bulk of the album features Derek fronting them. This was, it appears, all down to Larry Harris possessing the quite correct belief that Derek’s voice was very much suited to Hard Rock music. Derek comes over like a super cross between Steve Marriott and Rod Stewart. Yet the other members of the band were no slouches in the lead vocal department either, each offering terrific vocal performances.
One noteworthy curio about the Record Plant album sessions was that they feature an appearance from the then world renowned Argentinean tennis pro Guillermo Vilas (incorrectly credited as Guillerno Vilas on the album cover). He was actually ranked as the world’s #1 male tennis player at the time (and had won twenty-one singles titles in 1977, including two Grand Slam titles, namely the French Open and the US Open). Guiilermo happened to be in New York. One of his representatives had placed a call to the Record Plant to see if anyone was in the studio. Being a bit of a music fan, Vilas had never been in one. Trigger were laying down some overdubs that night, and he came to the studio to watch. The group put him to work right away, getting him to contribute some hand claps on one of the songs.
However, there had been a bit of a ‘Spinal Tap’ moment when the quartet saw the packaging of the LP for the first time a few weeks earlier.
The album was quick to see a release date, and arrived in early April 1978. However, there had been a bit of a ‘Spinal Tap’ moment when the quartet saw the packaging of the LP for the first time a few weeks earlier.
“The cover was a bit embarrassing,” claims Derek. “The make-up was a little over the top. Larry Harris had a cousin who was a fashion photographer in New York. We ended up looking like bozos. I had enough make-up on to win a Miss World contest! We were told that the harshness of the make-up would be smoothed out in the transition to cardboard, but seeing that cover was as much a let-down as hearing our ‘Trigger Treat’ album for the first time.”
Gaining some local airplay and very good reviews, Trigger spent a brief period touring in the Mid-west with Cheap Trick, but Casablanca’s promotional efforts left much to be desired. In fact, it’s fair to say they pretty much abandoned the record within weeks of it being released to divert resources towards a movie project the company had going on at the time.
“Of course, they were aware that they could’ve done more, but the problem was that the record came out just at the time Casablanca became seriously involved in the movie side of the business,” sighs Derek. “All the promotion guys were put onto ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ (a major motion picture and album project featuring Donna Summer and a number of other Casablanca Disco artists, that premiered in mid-May 1978). Everything was put into promoting that movie. Even our A&R guy was put on to working on that film. So it wasn’t a question of them not having the money to promote us, but it was a lack of manpower.”
Despite the lack of touring opportunities, Trigger did have one of their shows broadcast live by WLIR FM. Captured at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, Long Island on May 16th 1978, Trigger’s set features the bulk of the songs on the album and highlights just how darn good the quartet were as a live band. This show finds Trigger at the very peak of their powers, all of that hard work in the clubs, bars and bowling alleys over the years having turned them into a tight, well drilled and, yes, fun Rock band. Being on the other side of the Atlantic at the time, I sadly didn’t have the opportunity to see them. However, Steve West was lucky enough to catch them back in the day at a local New York club. He’s never forgotten the experience!
The fact that ‘Trigger’ was just allowed to disappear is one of Rock music’s greatest travesties. How many potential hits are on this record? ‘Somebody To Love’ (the first, and only single taken from the LP, and one of the greatest songs that’s ever graced vinyl or CD), ‘Baby Don’t Cry’, ‘Gimme Your Love’, ‘Rockin’ ‘Cross The USA’, ‘I Think I’m Ready’ and ‘Don’t Stop Your Love’... each and every one should’ve been huge, played 24/7 on the airwaves of North America and beyond. You do really have to scratch your heads as to why so many record labels signed bands and did absolutely nothing at all with them.
In retrospect, all sorts of things were going on behind the scenes at the label, so it was pretty inevitable that Trigger’s tenure with Casablanca wouldn’t last. The band had a distinctly varied bag of songs for the planned second record for Casablanca that they began to record at the Record Plant with Stasiak and Ferrante in late 1978. Tracks like ‘She’s My Girl’, ‘Bigger Than Both Of Us’, ‘Back Talk’, ‘Wasting Away’ and ‘Sore Loser’. There was even talk of covering Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’ at one point, long before Van Halen ever thought of it! Having heard this material, it was an interesting selection of tunes for sure. Yet while the new songs certainly showed progression, they don’t come across as immediately cohesive as the material on ‘Trigger’. Then again, the album never got to the stage of really being completed, so who can say how it may have sounded had it been truly finished and released?
“There were a few songs in the same vein as the first album, but a bit more polished,” remembers Richie. “There was a ballad with strings included and a song called ‘Sore Loser’ that was so friggin’ good.....”
“We were downtown doing pre-production for the album,” reveals Derek. “There was something of a falling out with Corky and Dennis because we started to be a bit more assertive about what we wanted to do, as we felt that they were doing things that were kinda undermining us. They were bringing in acoustic guitars, backing vocalists and basically spending money on things that didn’t need doing. As far as we were concerned the record had been done in the two weeks we had spent at the Record Plant, but we then went through a bunch of other studios before Casablanca pulled the plug on it. I think that if we had had a manager by then things would possibly have been different.”
“There was a ballad with strings included and a song called ‘Sore Loser’ that was so friggin’ good.....”
Now, this is where the name of Sid Bernstein crops up in the Trigger story, the full details of which are, of course, in Derek’s book. Bernstein was an American music promoter and manager, who Remington described to me as “something of an icon in New York City, being the music impresario who had first brought the Beatles to the States”. He was also responsible for bringing the Rolling Stones, Herman’s Hermits, the Animals, the Moody Blues and the Kinks to North America too. Trigger had somehow come on to Bernstein’s radar, possibly through Casablanca. “Sid Bernstein had actually been interested in managing us,” reveals Derek. “He was looking to manage a Rock band... but he was also looking at Laura Branigan as well.” As it turned out, Branigan would gain the inevitable benefits of such a high profile link...
Without the Casablanca deal Trigger were back in the clubs, although now realising that to reclaim their place in that particular jungle they would have to freshen things up musically to make up for the momentum lost and, crucially, widen their following. Taking a similar approach to the Beach Boys tribute they had successfully launched back in 1975 on the Jersey Shore, they worked up a ‘British Invasion’ show that featured a set consisting entirely of covers of material by 60s British Pop Rock bands. They also issued another single, in 1980 on the Parliament label, which featured The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing’ on the A Side with The Searchers’ ‘Needles And Pins’ on the reverse.
“We tried to get out of our contract with Casablanca,” says Derek, “but the law firm we hooked up with were also representing the label. Jimmy tried to find another entertainment lawyer but nobody would do it. It was at this point that Jimmy decided to leave the band and train to become a lawyer himself because he was determined he was never gonna get screwed over again.”
Duggan had seemingly become a distant figure since the problems recording the second album had first arisen. He had also been against signing any management deal with Sid Bernstein. He played his last show with the band towards the end of the summer of 1979 at Trigger’s well established and popular home from home at The Colonel’s Garter, located in South Amboy, New Jersey.
With Jimmy having departed, Derek handed over his seat on the drums to Billy Drew, formerly with local outfit White Tiger, in order to front the band full-time, with another guitarist (Lee Fink) being added in Duggan’s place. However, circa 1981/82, and thanks to the noticeable popularity of female artists like Pat Benatar, they decided to go into a completely new direction with the recruitment of a female singer in the form of Chrissy Sparks. Trigger would continue playing a mixture of originals and cover tunes up into 1985, before deciding to bring things to a close later that year.
In the months that followed Tom Nigra would form a new band with Chrissy Sparks called The Party Dolls. The group, managed by Tom (who also played bass) and featuring Chrissy, began as a “60s Girl Group and Motown Review”. They quickly became one of New Jersey’s most popular club acts. Richie House and Jimmy Duggan joined forces again, putting another group together that had a particular Irish Folk feel about it playing “jigs and reels” on the Irish bar circuit in New York City before the duo reunited with Derek in 1990 to record more originals with a distinctly Eagles-ish feel at RCA/BMG studios. However, with no interest forthcoming, that renewed version of Trigger drifted apart.
Tragically, Jimmy Duggan sadly passed away on December 16th 2001 after suffering a heart attack. Only a few years later, a resurgence of interest in the band led to not only the long awaited, officially licensed CD release of the ‘Trigger’ album by Rock Candy, but a spate of reunion shows that featured the remaining trio of Derek, Richie and Tom. Sadly, Trigger’s world was thrown into deeper shock with the equally sad and tragic passing of Tom Nigra on January 23rd 2011.
Over a decade on from those reunion shows and the Rock Candy reissue, Derek’s book has reignited interest in Trigger once more. They still retain a loyal, ‘Trigger Happy’ following, not only from those local fans who were fortunate enough to either see the band at their late 70s peak or earlier this century, but from those of us living much further afield who also still thoroughly enjoy the band’s music. ‘Trigger’ certainly still stands up to this day as just an absolutely brilliant, brilliant album!
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This article appeared in Fireworks Rock & Metal Magazine Issue #107.
The physical edition is sold out, but the digital download is still available.
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