Backstage Pass
A Manager' s perspective - behind the scenes
Joseph Jeto Jr. was essential to PULSE’s success, serving as the band’s manager and handling all business affairs with precision. By managing contracts, bookings, and finances, he freed the musicians to focus entirely on their craft. His steady leadership and organizational skill provided the structure the band needed to thrive creatively, ensuring their energy remained devoted to the music rather than the distractions of administration. Below are some of his recollections of the band’s beginnings, their evolution, and the people and places that shaped them.
Manager's Blog - "Who are they?"
Then one day in 1978, Joey Capone called Joe. “Hey Joe, listen to this” in which, over the phone he heard two songs, “Characters”, and “Apologies to the Czar”. Joe listened and asked what it was all about. Joey told him that he was in a new band, and asked him if he would be interested to become their agent, knowing that Joe knew a lot of people in and around the Boston area, and knew how to work the scenes too.
“They really sound good”, Joe said.
“How about if I come to a practice, and we all can talk?” Joe asked!
Joe was invited over to Mark McKenna’s house in Dorchester for their practice. After listening to a couple of more songs the band played, they had coffee, where Joe discussed of his interest to actually become their manager, in which they all agreed.
The future seemed good!
Joe always had a good business sense and repertoire with people.
He could always understand and see people as they were.
With PULSE, he could see each of their dedication, aptitude, and talents.
Fred Carfagna had this classical style, upright, stoic, and a thinker! His Bass methodology formed great timing with the drums and a clear harmonic tone for each song’s significance. His allegorical lyric writing drove the power in each of the songs.
Mark McKenna’s soft vocal tone, but powerful envelope, drove each of the song’s validity to an inspiring level. His melodic keyboard surrounded the lyrics as most obligated to.
To hear and appraise his talents would be appropriate, as his working with Fred on many of the songs united the whole band’s significance!
Joe Capone had this fine art finesse, of not only playing his “customized” Les Paul Custom guitar seemingly easy, but every note in his selective octave, pushed each song’s line and emphasized each of his poignant solos, to not only stand out, but prove quintessential in each of the songs.
Let’s talk about Jimmie Bacon who literally happened to be one of the best drummers around. His direct, but artistic beats, filled each of PULSE’s songs with that driving ergonomical rhythm sound, emphasizing each of the song’s ins and outs. People always noticed Jimmie’s white North Projection Drum kit, along with his “edgy” vocals, complimenting Mark’s tempered voice.
Manager's Blog - "The fan base"
Joe’s wife Gina worked at Warner Brothers Records, (WEA) north of Boston, along with a few other of their friends. Gina introduced Joe to a few higher ups who could talk professionally, or just fanciful. They would discuss the business with him.
PULSE also had some WEA fans who used to come to some of PULSE’s gigs and enjoy the many songs that PULSE played, each fun filled night!
The guys themselves were from working class cities: Dorchester, South Boston, Revere, and East Boston, and by no means had they had a bankroll of any kind.
They assimilated well with their huge fan base from all those same city areas, and even further out. Once people heard them it was easy!
In the days of no computers, Joe would leave a card set out on each of the club’s tables, for those interested to fill out their name and address, put a stamp on it, and snail mail it to us! And many did! What a Fan base!
Joe, at this early time, put together a list of over 600 names and addresses to mail out to those fans, telling them the next couple of places where they could see PULSE play.
A good for-instance – There was this “Battle of the Band’s that PULSE was invited to, at the Cinema Lounge in Leominster, MA, where for three nights they would play for the over-crowded hall. On the last night PULSE came in second place, leaving the $1000.00 prize off to another band, whom the crowd did not feel deserved to win that battle and monies.
Ironically, Joe found out when he saw most of the hall’s unruly people were PULSE fans outside the lounge who had also driven from Boston out to Leominster each of those three nights, Joe grabbed their attention, calmed them down, and asked for them to forget about it. PULSE loved them all for all they did and said we would take care of this small loss, etc., as Joe did not want any troubles for them with law enforcement and such, so he quelled the crowd and they left.
Joe also found out later, the band who supposedly won was the Lounge owner’s cousin.
Manager's Blog - "Some of the bands"
There were a couple of bands around town, who circumvented the clubs around Boston, including PULSE. More or less, they were all friendly toward with each other, as PULSE enjoyed the scene and would always speak up for them as they would for us.
We enjoyed working with the most of them.
To get clearer, Balloon, with Charlie Farren, were noted by PULSE and they always said what great stage presence and vocals Charlie had. Some of our roadies were also roadies for Aerosmith. We were good friends with the Fools, with Joe Haliday and meeting with Mike Girard at Red Sox games.
And there were many more, like Ami Mann from Til’ Tuesday, Bad Sneakers, with John Muzzy, The Muzz, Phobia, Storm, Pastiche, Thrust, The Flaherty Bros., Charge, Blues Cousins, Kleen Cut, Buzz-barians, Vengeance, Trademark, Haywire, Stone Cross, Trouble, Harbinger, Jinx, Panda, Trapper, and may I point out, a few more!
Manager's Blog - "Some of the clubs"
There were many club owners who really enjoyed us playing in their clubs, not only that they liked our music, as I was told by many of them, but also and naturally, we brought in the crowds. We played at “The Club” in Cambridge quite a few times and always had the place full. Phil, the owner, told me one night that they ran out of glasses from their three bars, as there were so many people PULSE brought in!
Ted Cantone, who owned Cantone’s, on Broad Steet in Boston, told me constantly how much he liked the band, and Ted was a great guy himself. One night gig, as the guys and I were approaching Cantone’s in our Blue bus, down Broad Street, we noticed a bunch of lights and a crowd of people in the street! Then noticed it was a firetruck, and were stricken that obviously something was wrong! Later finding out that one of the road crew put one of our lights too close to a sprinkler, triggering it to flood the place!
After apologizing to Ted and asking him how we could help, he said, not to worry about it, as the insurance would take care of it all. He did ask me to keep PULSE playing there as many times as we could for him! That was a definite yes from me!
We played in many good places around the Boston Area, as mentioned, like The Cinema Lounge in Leominster, Jumbo’s Lounge, The Rat, Bunratty’s, Ding Ho’s, The Livingroom, in Providence, Pegasus, The Modern Theater, Johnathan Swifts, Jaspers, and more!
We also liked working and playing for some welcoming Benefits like the East Boston Arts Festival, through the Boston Council for the Arts and Humanities, the Hillcrest in Waltham, Boston University’s Haydon Hall, and the WERS Benefit, where one of my most favorite performers, Buddy Guy, told me how much he liked PULSE!
Manager's Blog - "We had good friends"
There were a lot of good people who helped us along the way, like the friendly people who worked for Warner Bros. Records, and with some of the bands, and other fine people. We had close people who did a lot for us.
Like my wife Gina! Who worked at Warner Brothers Records and was the one who helped me get in touch with everyone there. Her putting up with my late nights away or donating money to help the band. I still love her so much just because of herself!
PULSE decided at one point that we should get our songs down on tape, so we went to Northern Sound, in Maynard, MA, to two-track ourselves on tape. Just Instruments and Vocals. The idea was to present some songs to those who might want to hear us.
The tapes, for a two-track, were impressive!
Naturally it was hard to scrape up the recording costs, but good friends like Kim DeSalvo, our lighting controller, donated a few hundred to help us. Thank you, Kim!
I myself am a Certified Professional Photographer. I took some occasional shots of the band, but was always working with and for them with no basic time for myself.
I remembered another Professional photographer friend of mine, David Fox, who got screwed along with me by one of my clients who did not pay his bill.
You could say, I owed David.
I asked him to take pictures of the band whenever he could, to which he did so gladly at many of the gigs and other times. David Fox started with PULSE in the beginning and is still with us now. He is not only a real professional, but a great guy and constant friend. He took most of our pictures and footage shown on our videos, that you can see!
I loved Mark’s mother Bella! She was quite a lady and a good friend to the band. She was also the Director of the Strand Theater in Dorchester. Mark’s father was an accomplished singer himself, who used to sing there. As we were growing, Mark and Bella noted that we needed a place to practice with an easier way for us to get our equipment in and out, than from Mark’s apartment’s basement.
With Bella’s approval we were allowed to practice right on the stage in the Strand. The Strand itself liked us.
We would go around repairing and painting areas that needed it. I took our main PULSE portrait photograph right after we painted one of the white background walls!
You can never give enough thanks to our Road Crew! – We had a great bunch of guys who never complained, but did each of the gigs as a hearty bunch the best way they could! They were in and out quickly for set up and breakdowns, and I knew a couple of them well. We paid them some soft money when we got paid, and/or tried to help them out when they needed it.
Billy Banville was always there and close to us all. You can see him in our “Stiffs” video. You can see some of the others in “Taking the High Road” video too. Let me say thanks to Jesse, Kevin, Fletch, Phil, Zach, Kenney, David, and Wayne Kapustin who occasionally did some audio. Jessie Reeves was huge for us in many ways. We would pay only for the gas money for him to drive us to gigs. He was also a main part of our lighting crew. He was a warm funny guy that loved working with us whenever we needed him.
When your band is coming up, there are many things needed for you to do. You always have to stay positive no matter what you hear or take in, although we got a lot of good praises, but things in this industry work fast and you have to be ahead of the game!
You always try to make more of the big friends and show them how true your band is. You also have to have some testes! As there are times!
There was a Promoter in Boston who was well known, and a decent guy when I talked with him. Don Law liked PULSE, but I saw how busy he was with his constant workload. He suggested that I contact his next friend Promoter Frank Russo, in Rhode Island. Frank also praised the band and suggested ways that he could work with us.
So, now we are getting noticed through all of our hard work and beckoning demeanor.
One night when we were backing up Charlie Farren’s band Balloon at the Club in Cambridge, a nice gentleman came up to me and asked me if we could talk. I said sure, it would be my pleasure! After Chris Danley listened to a couple of PULSE songs in the Club, he claimed we were one of the most qualified professional bands he heard in Boston. He asked if I would like to have my band record a couple of our songs at his new 24 track, Bluejay Studios in Carlisle, MA, for free!
My jaw locked open as I shook his hand and we both smiled in agreement!
As I arranged and worked with both Chris, and Chris Lannen in the Studio, and Dave “DB” Butler engineering, in three days, we put three of our songs on 24 track tapes!
I also found out that many record labels, after hearing some of the tapes, would give you a decent amount of money up front to help you properly gear yourself up, if they decided to invest in you. I also heard that Arista Records would not only give you that same money for you to spoof up, but would also nurture you in many ways to help you move to make it! Naturally you would have to prove to them initially that you had something special and that you were somewhat of a winner in the field. We looked good and Arista liked us. They told me specifically how much they liked ‘Bedivere” and thought it could really become something!
Manager's Blog - "A good gig for us"
Things were picking up and the guys with our crew were working hard. It showed.
Joey told me about this agent he heard from East Boston, Phil Adler, of Tumbling Dice Music, that he wanted me to contact. I did. Phil mentioned to me that there was this new place opening in Lowell that was looking for some bands to start it up, and would PULSE be interested.
We talked further and Phil had this list of things that we would have to do to make this ‘Event” work! We would also have to come up with some money, of course!
The last band to play in this old “Commodore Ballroom” in Lowell, was Cream!
The first band to play in this new revised “Mr. C’s Rock Palace” was PULSE!
In putting together anything you would expect a lot of headaches, of bourse, but we got the best of the professionals to work for us to make sure it would be a hell-of-a-show!
Starfleet Mobile Studios, Capron Sound and Lights, Three B’s Rental. along with PULSE and our multitude of fans filling over three quarters of the Mr. C’s hall!
Leslie Palmiter from WCOZ radio was one of the nicest and most quality of professionals to work with. She loved the band and spurred us on. After presenting us to the crowd in Mr. C’s, she asked me if she could put PULSE on radio. for WCOZ’s Hour Playback!
“Of Course!”, I said! She also played PULSE tunes occasionally but often!
Quite a few of my friends would always contact me when they heard
a PULSE song! They were delighted as I.
One time I heard the Rolling Stones, PULSE, then a Beatles song!
The fit was perfect!
Manager's Blog - "What the?"
We felt like we were on top of the world! Just keep working hard, and it will come!
I think it was around early April of 1981 when my phone rang. It was one of the guys in the band Foghat! “Hello my friend. How can I help you? Thinking and hoping if it was to gig with them. And hearing his British accent, I asked where he was calling from. California.
He asked me if he could use the name PULSE for his next band. Sullied, I told him that PULSE was moving up and that I was sorry, but we would have to keep our name. After all, he knew about us in California! He seemed a nice guy and I even left him with:
“If you ever need a backup band!” Learning later of what was going on with Foghat, I felt bad for them. They were going through a rough time.
In May of that 1981, could I have become any luckier! Gina was pregnant with our first!
Whoops, what the . . . . ? Every time she would drink even a teaspoon of water she would throw up! She was becoming dehydrated very badly and had to be hospitalized.
Her mother Ann and I, had to take care of her! Each of us both working and giving time whenever we could.
“Guys, I still have a gig list for you. You are going to have to miss me for a while!”
As I mentioned earlier, Billy Banville was one of PULSE’s best! He happened to be gay, and in those days other people were put off with that idea, and Billy put up with some real shit from them. It became very hard for him, and from the rumors I heard,
in May of 1981 he committed suicide. That hurt all of us.
Around that early part of the year, Jimmy was having a few personal problems.
He had to leave the band, I tried talking with him, but it was decidedly out of my hands.
We got another drummer who was good, but Jimmie was a specialty for PULSE.
Unfortunately, the band would not be PULSE anymore.
And finally, to put the cherry on the cake. The Strand was broken into, and all of our equipment was stolen! Those working-class band members had to find a way to get some new equipment again, and with all of that other stuff, could not play anymore. Except . .
Manager's Blog - "Nowadays"
So, now, like always, PULSE never gives up. A very talented group of individuals still trying to make their fans smile! Fred putting his many talents to the test!
Why can’t we again present PULSE back to the people. We have all of David’s help with his videos and images. Let’s all get together and discuss what further we can do!
What a great idea!