By Maryann Teal Snell Ask a bunch of guys if they remember their first gig as a band back in the mid-'50s, and you're bound to get a few variations. Some say it was a cocktail party in a campus fraternity house, and since a couple of them were freshmen, they had to get the dean's permission first. Another tale has them booked at RPI in the wee hours of the morning and then watching the sun come up over Route 2 on the drive back to Williamstown.
Legend has a way of being modified over years.
Within days he'd met up with Fred Clifford '58, a cornet player who was also game for getting a group started. When Kingsbury and Clifford arrived at Williams, they found role models in a band called the Spring Street Stompers. They were our idols. The Stompers played Carnegie Hall, won on the Arthur Godfrey Talent Scout Show , did a concert tour of Europe, and made a number of recordings. And from there, it's just history.