| The Coachmen
Original Members:
Steve Oder ’68 - guitar
Chuck Newby ’67 - guitar
Dean Atkinson ’68 - drums
Jim Smith ’68 - vocals
Later Members:
Jim Moran – rhythm guitars and vocals.Jim (class
of ’65) joined sometime in the spring of ’66 and stayed with the band
until the Woman’s Club gig in August ’66.
Tom Moran - bass guitar and vocals. Tom (class
of ’70) joined sometime in the spring of ’66 and stayed with the band
until joining The London Beats in June ‘66.
Robert Mansueto – lead guitar and vocals.
Robert (class of ’70) joined in June of ’66 because we really needed a
lead guitarist to get us through the big Woman’s Club gig.
The Coachmen Story;
Like most of the bands that came out of Coronado,
The Coachmen began as a group of guys jamming in someone’s garage just for
the fun of it. The composition of the jam session players was always
very fluid. But, of course, that was the whole idea - we each learned
from one another whether it was a complete song or just a cool new riff,
drum sequence, or chord pattern. The important thing was to have fun
making rock and roll music together!
But back to The Coachmen story. Steve Oder
begins by recalling “Chuck Newby and I were passing notes back and forth
in a class one day in the late spring of 1966 and ended up writing a song
together, so we thought it would be a good idea to start a band.
I remember coming up with the name for the band in a conversation with
Chuck, because like everybody, we wanted something British-sounding.
That version of The Coachmen with Dean Atkinson on
drums and Jim Smith on vocals did a gig at the VFW hall soon thereafter.
I didn't stay in the band long because I had a crappy electric guitar
and no amplifier of my own. I did have a really good acoustic and was
perfectly happy playing acoustic stuff already.”
Thinking back on those days, Chuck Newby continues
“I remember that in those days it seemed that just about everyone was into
playing either rock and roll or folk music so jamming at someone’s house
was a common occurrence. I remember playing my 1965 Harmony, a fairly
good Stratocaster knock-off, through an assortment of Fender amplifiers –
including a Bandmaster, Showman, and Bassman as well as others I’m sure
– until I was able to buy my own Super Reverb. Now that was a very
sweet amplifier!
Although the memories are faded, like Steve and
Dean, I also remember playing at all of the usual places around the island
that spring and summer including several pool parties, the VFW, the Woman’s
Club and the Mexican Village. I recall quite vividly how Dean was
always hustling gigs for us. And the price was always right – in many
cases, just free beer between sets!”
Dean Atkinson adds, “I remember that it was Steve
and Chuck’s idea to organize a new band named The Coachmen. They
were the original guitar players with various bass players including Chuck
Tesh and others filling in whenever we had a gig. (I had just left the
Rogues) I was the original drummer for The Coachmen and, as I recall, Jim
Smith on vocals joined right after Steve Oder left. Jim Smith stayed
only a short time and was replaced by Jim Moran on guitar and vocals and his
younger brother Tom as one of our bassplayers. Tom left the band to
join The London Beats in the early summer of ‘66 so Chuck and I where the
only members to stay ‘til the final gig at the Woman’s Club dance in
August of ‘66.
Dean continues, “After one gig at the VFW, Steve
quit because, in his own words his electric guitar was a piece of crap and
because there were too many guitar players, and nobody on bass. The
Coachmen in various forms played at EM clubs around San Diego for six months
before calling it quits in August of ’66. Their final gig was the
first half of a Woman’s Club dance that they had booked in May.
Since Tom Moran had already left the band for The
London Beats and Robert and I had just started the Cubic Feet with Richie
Heinz and John Chambers, the remaining members of The Coachmen decided that
they wanted to go out with a bang. So Jim, Robert, Chuck, and I along
with Richie on bass and John playing his ‘new’ Vox organ, played the
first two hours of the Woman’s Club dance – it was more like an
organized jam session – then turned the stage over to the Cubic Feet who
played out the rest of the night (see photos courtesy of Chuck).
There isn’t much more to tell except to say that that is the
true story of The Coachmen – a great group of Coronado guys who had a lot
of fun playing rock and roll music for their friends and anyone else who
wanted to rock out to the music of the late ’60s.
 
Steve Oder & Chuck Newby
And Dean back in the late 90's at the
Coronado HS Band Reunion...
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