When Surrender Rocked the Bongo Room
Surrender's audition on Aug. 2, 1977.
The South Jersey bar scene might have peaked in the mid- to late-1970s, a peak that probably can never be duplicated. The drinking age in New Jersey was 18 at the time and the Jersey Shore from Margate to Diamond Beach was home to some of the biggest and hottest nightclubs in the Delaware Valley. There were lines every night of the week on the Seven Mile Beach at the Rock Room, Fred’s, and Jack’s Place.
But nothing can ever match the lure of Sunday nights at the Bongo Room. It’s difficult to relate to today – so much in our society has changed, but suffice it to say that social distancing could never be practiced at the Bongo Room. And it was not uncommon for there to be a line down that high staircase, back down the sidewalk, around the corner, and down 7th Street with patrons hoping to get in – all night!
As Phil Judyski, the longtime manager of The Avalon Hotel and Bongo Room tells it, “We were looking to ‘fill’ Sunday nights. To complement what was already happening so successfully at the Rock Room – which was legendary at that time. People were shocked when we outgrossed the Rock Room on Sunday nights. Yeah, it was pretty special.”
Inside, long before air-conditioning was the norm, it was body-to-body, literally. No real windows or ventilation to speak of. Wall-to-wall, sweat-laden bodies. And no one seemed to mind. You did not walk through the Bongo Room. If you weren’t there to experience it, it’s almost impossible to describe the feeling and the attraction at the Bongo Room.
About 10 years ago, Harry Pasquito, the lead singer of The Fabulous Greaseband, told Judyski: “Phil, we’ve played a lot of places over the years. There will never be another Bongo Room.” So true, for many reasons.
So what made it all so special? The Fabulous Greaseband on Sunday nights was a lock. A tradition, especially for those in the service industry. Sunday night was their night off. Some people took Mondays off from work. Others started their weekend trek home and started their commute to work after last call. Every Sunday. Again, it was a different time.
Some big-time bands headlined on Friday and Saturday nights at the Bongo Room – The Flamingos, The Drifters, and Southside Johnny, to name but a few. But the house band that played every Friday through Sunday, along with the incredibly popular midweek teen dances for the summers of 1978, ’79 and ’80, was a group of friends from West Philadelphia that had gotten together in some form in 1974. Before the Bongo Room, they played some smaller gigs, mostly closer to home. At the Bongo Room, they played on a mirrored stage that was fronted by a lighted dance floor. This is the story of Surrender.
It all started for Surrender at the Bongo Room on Aug. 2, 1977. It was the middle of a heat wave. The temperature outside when they stepped on stage that night was still in the low-90s. Inside, it was probably warmer. It was a Tuesday night, teen dance night. That meant that kids from all over South Jersey would be dropped off in Avalon for the Bongo Room teen dance. They began lining up over an hour before doors would open. The band stayed upstairs in the Avalon Hotel after the audition.
“I remember that it was so damned hot,” says Jerry Corrado, a founding member of the group. “The ‘air conditioning’ was hoping that a breath of air would come through the open window. I think that we may have ended up sleeping out on the porch because of the heat.”
But they didn’t let that shake them. “We were always confident,” Corrado says. “Not cocky, we just believed in ourselves. There were some memories of the house band that summer, Impulse, being just a tad territorial.”
“They had songs that were ‘their’ songs,” one member of Surrender was saying recently. “We just said, ‘Fine, we have enough of our own songs to do.’ We knew that we were pretty good.”
They were good enough for a call back the weekend after Labor Day.
“We played the Rock Room at The Princeton that night,” recalls Lou Mancano, the keyboard player and lead singer. “I think that Phil [Judyski] wanted the opportunity to have other some other people hear us before they made their decision.”
The Rock Room date must have also gone well because around the holidays, Surrender was offered the opportunity to become the house band at the Bongo Room. Keep in mind that at this time Surrender was composed of a group of friends, some of whom were enrolled in college or had other jobs.
It is believed that in 1978, Surrender became the first “part-time” band to be offered a full-time summer gig at the Jersey Shore. Not bad for a bunch of guys who had to save money as well as borrow from one member’s grandfather to purchase their music gear and whose banner was made by another member’s mother.
It seems that a key to the success of Surrender was its chemistry. The band lived together in Sea Isle City first in 1978, and then in a big neighboring house on Avalon Avenue in 1979.
“We always got along,” recalls Jeff Carlson, the band’s bassist.
“We ate our meals together, practiced together and we even went out together,” says Mario D’Angelo, the drummer. “We all got along really well.”
And they were also treated well in Avalon.
“I remember being treated like royalty around town,” D’Angelo says. “Whenever we went out, people who owned businesses were so nice to us.”
Several members joke that the crowds and the energy in the room made them feel like “rock stars.” Mancano remembers their first teen dance and how they all learned very quickly how big a deal this summer job might be.
As he tells it some 39 years later: “In the summer of 1979, we rented a house on 8th and First Avenue and could see the Bongo Room from our place. It was June, and we had already played some weekend gigs with The Greaseband. On the first Tuesday night teen dance that summer, Jerry, Paul, Anthony, Jeff and I left our house and immediately saw a very long line of people extending around the corner waiting for the Bongo Room to open. I wondered who they could be waiting for and if we maybe could be playing along with a headliner band that night.
“Then I realized they were waiting for Surrender. It was very touching, and in that moment, I felt like all the hard work and practice had finally paid off. I have never forgotten it.”
For Anthony Savini, that first night was an eye-opening experience. “We had played smaller events before the Bongo Room,” he says. “But once we were on stage, I remember thinking, ‘It’s literally impossible to get off of our stage.’ It was wall-to-wall people.”
Their playlist each evening was targeted to their audience. “We played to the crowd,” was a phrase echoed by numerous members of the group. They picked their hits from the most popular songs on the radio, regardless of genre. And they worked hard at their craft, taking a great deal of pride in how they sounded and how those in attendance responded.
“We worked really good on trying to perfect each song,” says Mancano.
When asked what their favorite song was to perform, they emphasized that what they all considered most important was to play what the crowd wanted to hear and enjoyed, not what they enjoyed. That said, two of their consensus favorites were Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” and Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky.”
Some of the respondents to our request for favorites from regular attendees included Surrender’s covers of “Rosalita,” “My Sharona,” slow dancing to “My Angel Baby,” and closing some of their shows with a cover of Boz Skaggs’ “It’s Over.” After almost four decades, the memories are still vivid. Gene Lloyd says: “Thanks! So much of my late ’70s and ’80s was there.” From Steve Giangiulo: “Always a great place to party. This generation only has the Princeton. The Bongo Room 40 years ago put the Rock Room to shame.”
Carlson has one memory that is still crystal clear some 40-plus years later: “We had finished for the evening and gone back to our house. Next thing I knew, someone was banging on our door. Apparently, Barry the bassist from The Greaseband’s wife had gotten sick and he had to rush her to the hospital. They asked me to fill in for Barry on bass for the final set. I ran back over. It was a riot! A blast! What an amazing night. Something I’ve never forgotten.”
Judyski probably paid Surrender the highest compliment: “They were all good guys. We never had a problem with any of them. They sounded good, dressed well and everyone loved them. Good guys.”
Despite capacity crowds and countless good times, like all good things, Surrender too had to come to an end. For Surrender in Avalon, that was Labor Day weekend 1980: Aug. 31, 1980, to be exact.
“I had been accepted to medical school and other guys were in school and working,” says Mancano.
They played one final date that they had contracted for at a club in Philadelphia the following weekend. And like Boz Skaggs and Surrender sang so well, it was over. The last song performed by Surrender was Rush’s “The Spirit of Radio.”
“I remember it being a sad moment,” D’Angelo says. “But we’ve all remained friends.”
Despite the breakup and everyone going their separate ways, the closeness that made them sound so tight onstage held true in real life. Thanks to social media, they are still in touch. In fact, several members had an impromptu reunion not long ago.
And from his home in California, Carlson probably articulated best, almost to a word, what band members said on a recent conference call: “It was fun with you guys, in the Bongo Room, in our house. I honestly do not ever remember us having a bad night. The Bongo Room was great. It was always beyond packed, and it’s provided us with memories for a lifetime.”
Thoughts no doubt echoed by thousands of fans who made the Bongo Room with Surrender one of those special places that we won’t forget.
THIS WAS SURRENDER
Mario D’Angelo, drums and vocals, 1974-78
Paul Edson, drums and vocals, 1979-80
Dave Frank, bass, 1978
Jeff Carlson, bass and vocals, 1978-79
Jerry Corrado, guitar and vocals, 1974-80
Lou Mancano, keyboard and vocals, 1976-80
Walt Rich, bass and vocals, 1979-80
Anthony Savini, guitar and vocals, 1974-80
A TRUE TIME CAPSULE
Thanks to YouTube and the magic of genuine magnetic recording tape cassettes from back in the day, you can use these links to hear actual recordings of Surrender recorded live at Phil’s Bongo Room. Are any of your favorites here?
Supertramp’s “The Logical Song” 1978: youtube.com/watch?v=uCRLQ1ew5p0
Boz Skaggs’ “It’s Over” 1978: youtube.com/watch?v=XcaLj4JwZdc
Toby Beau’s “My Angel Baby” 1978: youtube.com/watch?v=cOxd4mhy7jI
Sweet’s “Love is Like Oxygen” 1980: youtube.com/watch?v=SJbWiwwRO38