THE UNTOLD STORY OF CHARLES MICHAEL (Singer, Songwriter, Leader & Founder Of The Christian Heavy Metal Band: MESSIAH
This is the untold story of Charles Michael (Gugel) - the founder and lead singer /songwriter of the band Messiah! I was born in Detroit. Michigan and raised a Catholic. I went to St. John Berchmans grade school and Servite High school and both were run by Catholic Nuns and Priests. I was an alter boy all through my grade school years, so naturally I was greatly influenced by the religious life and hoped to one day become a Priest. But everything changed in 1964, when America was introduced to a band from Liverpool, England called The BEATLES. I, along with most other teenagers became hooked on Beatlemania. For me, making girls cry or scream or even pass out when I was in their presence and being the most popular Rock & Roll Band of all time, with a #1 radio hit - one right after another - year after - year, AND GET PAID FOR IT seemed like a good life to have! So I grew up and was influenced by both, The Beatle era and my religious teachings. As I look back in time, I can see that it may have taken 15 years but I eventually took the two things I was passionate about and brought them together - and formed MESSIAH. While in grade school at St. John Berchmans We were urged to attend daily Mass before school started, we were taught mainly by Catholic Nuns and priests and a religion class was a mandatory subject - everyday! I remember The whole class walking with reverance past the coffin of a Capuchin Franciscan Monk named Fr. Solanus Casey. Today the cause for the Beatification of Venerable Fr. Solanus Casey - is before The Pope! There was religion throughout High School too - but, The Beatles played a louder tune. I put together a band and we played High School dances at different schools and private parties. After I graduated, I went to Henry Ford Community College plus held a job and played around the city with the band, on the night club circuit. Needless to say, after a year and a half I was a walking Zombie and something had to give - so I quit college! Eventually we made enough money playing out that I quit my job, and became a full time musician in 1969.
The Above Photograph is of my first band in High School/Early College years. The band was called TOTAL ENERGY - we were largely influenced by the MC5 (The Motor City Five). From left to right: AL - Guitar, Lee - Vocals, Charles Michael - Guitar & Vocals, Dennis - Bass Guitar, and seated left to right Mike - Drums, and Mike C. - Keyboards & Vocals
The photograph Above was the Detroit based club band called Plain & Fancy which featured Left to Right: Charles Michael - Guitar & Vocals, Mike Samyn - Drums & Vocals, Chuck - Bass Guitar & Vocals. Michael Cornwall - Keyboards & Vocals, Kitty & Linda Vocals We guys were the Plain part of the band and the girls were the Fancy part of the group - or so we were told! Photograph Taken in 1971
I made contact with a booking agent who wanted me to take the band down south for 8 weeks to Fayetteville, North Carolina and do a 2 month stay at the Circus Lounge playing for the 82nd Airborne - stationed just outside of Fayetteville. The main requirement for the job was your band had to have at least one female singer in the group. It paid $250.00 a person a week and PA & Lights were provided just bring someone along to run it . We went over so well that the club asked us to stay on another 8 weeks. I accepted the offer, which was a bad mistake because this was most of the young band members 1st time away from home - some became homesick and it was a struggle to finish the engagement!
This is the band that went down to Fayetteville, North Carolina for an 8 week stand at the Circus Lounge. Kitty Cobis Sang like Janis Joplin or Kim Carnes - a gravel voice perfect for the blues. She won the hearts of the GI's in Fayetteville, N.C.
Above is the 2nd Detroit based Plain & Fancy band to paly at The Circus Lounge in Fayetteville, N.C. From Left to Right are: Charles Michael - Bass Guitar & Vocals, Linda - Vocals, Rick Hall - Guitar & Vocals, and Joe - Drums & Vocals Photograph taken 1972
After the second trip down to North Carolina it was quite clear that this band wasn't going to stay on the road very long either, so the club owner asked me to stay on and put a house band together for his club. He gave me my own furnished house to live in and a job at his club at night - and during the day I practiced and auditioned new musicians. George, the club owner, told me to model a house band after a group that played his club a lot called The Malibou Ron Revue
The Malibou Ron Revue were a show band that worked an audience and kept them captivated. They had three girls up front that sang, danced, and played percussion. I watched this group 6 nights a week for almost 6 months. The Malibou Ron Revue left Fayeteville and I took over with the new Plain & Fancy Revue (4 musicians & 3 girl vocalists). We stayed at the Circus Lounge for almost 2 Years. We learned to put on a different floor show each night to keep our G.I. audience captivated! The songs we played + the good looking girls we had singing + a different floor show each night kept the Circus lounge packed every night! We constantly rehearsed new material and worked on new floor shows during the day and played 6 nights a week! It got to a point that we were running out of ideas, we needed fresh material for our floor shows which was our drawing card. Instead of being like the Malibou Ron Revue and having our shows centered around the 50's - I came up with the idea to modernize the band and to do floor shows that were relevant to todays music scene....Alice Cooper - Kiss - & - Black Sabbath. On the nights we did our tribute to Alice Cooper there was a line out the door to get in the club. This club was pretty big (650 seat capacity) I estimated once that at 12 midnight when the show went on to a standing room only crowd there must have been over 700 people! Remember, 3/4 of the audience were young, drunk GI's out to have a good time and the bouncers had their hands full. It was so obvious what the audience liked because there was standing room only on the nights we did the Rock 'N' Roll floor shows! When we did the 50's floor shows the club was almost full, but on the nights we did a Tribute to Kiss or Alice Cooper, there was a line out the door to get in. The club owner was making more money than he ever did with the Malibou Ron Revue - so much so, that when they called to come back George turned them down - He didn't want to loose us!
 Above Photo taken from the UNO GUNO THE MAGIC MAGICIAN Floor Show at the Circus Lounge Fayetteville, North Carolina |  Above photograph of the Tribute To Alice Cooper Floor Show |
Above Photograph Is A Live Shot Of Our Tribute To Kiss Floor Show
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The two above photograps are also taken from a live Tribute To Alice Cooper floor show at the Circus Lounge In Fayetteville, N.C. Notice the live boa constrictor around my neck!
 Above is another shot of our Tribute To Alice Cooper Floor Show |  A rare photograph (Above) of our Tribute To Black Sabbath, again taken a t the Circus Lounge. |
We played as a house band at the Circus Lounge in Fayetteville, N.C. for almost 2 years. Our shows were of such a high intensity that it was common for fights to breakout between intoxicated young GI's every night. The police were called and broke up many fights between patrons and club bouncers. We were never to stop playing during a fight, and I have to admit there were times the whole band wanted to exit the stage because the fight was getting out of hand. On one occasion a bouncer was shot and died, on another occasion bouncers dragged a guy out of the club and beat him so bad that he died two days later in the hospital. It cam as no surprise to anyone when the police paddle locked the club and shut it down in late 1975.
From this point on I decided to take the band on the road and perform these shows in different cities, no more two year stands in one night club! The only problem I ran into was our female singer Vickie couldn't stand all the travel time away from her boy friend so it wasn't long before she had to quit her music career. It was such a shame because she was very talented and had a excellent voice.
We had to revamp our set list and floor shows and ended up with all guys and only three floor shows: Alice Cooper - Kiss - and Black Sabbath! We even branded our band the "Kings Of Shock Rock" which caught on quickly with our audience. Club owners were advertising heavily on the radio and in the newspaper, as there was no other bands doing what we were doing. A different Rock Floor show each night went over like gang busters and clubs were packed, owners were making money, and people loved the controversial Kings Of Shock Rock "Plain & Fancy" The first two 60 minute sets of the night we played the latest radio cover song and the final 60 minute set was either a Tribute To Alice Cooper - or - Kiss - or - Black Sabbath, a different show each night!
There was controversy where ever we went...The above newspaper article was about an old discarded coffin we had. We had a new one made as the old one we used in our shows was falling apart. It seems our road crew threw it in a dumpster and some guys retrieved it and set it on some ones front lawn around midnight! The poor guy works the late shift and comes home 3 a.m. only to find this coffin on his front lawn. Of course he called the police! Of Course the newspaper had to run the above story. It seems I had publicity everywhere I went . If not from the radio ads, then it was newspaper articles or television appearances and of course word of mouth!
The above article is from a battle of bands in Brownsville, Texas. The newspaper wanted to interview me and my snake Eve - from the tribute to Alice Cooper show. The snake was always a big topic in every city we played in. I remember one time in El Paso, Texas the snake was missing. We had a two week stand at a club and the owner provided an apartment for us to live in. Its a long drive from anywhere in Texas to El Paso, and the snake needed room to crawl around after being cooped up in a small cage. So I put water in the bath tub and closed the toilet seat lid and turned on the heat lamp and went to bed. I had told everyone staying with me that the snake was in the bathroom, and if they had to use the restroom to please close the lid on the toilet when they were done and don't forget to close the bathroom door! In the morning I found the bathroom door partially open and the toilet seat lid up and no snake! Everyone searched and we couldn't find the snake. I remember a story I heard about Alice Cooper and his snake. It seems the same thing happened to him, except his snake crawled down the toilet into the drains and into the sewer. It lived down there and grew to an enormous size because of all the rats it had to feed on. Snakes grow in size depending on their living area. If in a confined space they don't grow very big, but in an open area such as outdoors, they can grow quite large! I began to wonder if that is what happened to my snake, except we were in a apartment building which ment the snake might have crawled into somebody else's bathroom! It was early in the day, so the apartment manager checked the surrounding apartments attached to ours but found no snake! He then called the city to check the sewers. The next thing I knew the city showed up, the police showed up, and the television crew showed up! The camera's were rolling as the city workers went down into the sewers and found nothing! One of the maintenance workers came out of my apartment building and said he found the snake. Of course the police and camera crew all crowded in the bathroom as I retrieved the snake! It seems the snake found a spot open on the rubber molding going around the sink cabinet and crawled into the cabinet where it was dark and cool and went to sleep. Someone hadn't glued the molding down good, and of course the snake found that one isolated spot! Milking the situation for what it was, I put on some thick gloves and went down under the sink to get the snake. I didn't need the glove because the snake knew my scent and was just fed, so it was harmless - but the TV camera's were rolling and I was an entertainer, so I put on a show. The snake was about 8 feet long so it made for a good story on the 6 o'clock news. The newscasters had the perfect story line on the 6 o'clock news that evening. They interviewed me and the snake and I talked about how the snake could have crawled into an adjoining apartment bathroom, while they showed film footage of the city crew going into the sewers and the police with their hands on their guns. They titled the story "Look before you sit"! I'm telling you publicity like that you can't buy because the club was jammed packed that night, and of course we did the tribute to Alice Cooper show because we knew they all came to see the snake, Eve! Another incident involving my snake, Eve occurred at a motel we were staying at. I had gone to lunch and when I returned I saw people standing outside my room looking in my window. It seems the snakes cage door wasn't shut tight and my 8 foot boa constrictor got out and was stretched on the window ledge sunning itself. Of course it was in the room on the ledge and the people were outside looking in through the window. Needless to say, the motel manager kicked us out! It seems this snake was a good source of trouble for us because I went to lunch and came back another time and at another motel and found people gathered around my motel room. I found out from the motel manager that a maid found my snake in the bathroom. Again I had let it loose for some exercise while I went to eat. It was later in the day, so I thought all the maids were gone. This sweet little black maid didn't want to wake us to change the bedding and towels, because she knew we were musicians and played at a local club until 2 a.m. She saw us leave to go eat so she went in our room to clean it up! She had no knowledge about the snake because that is something you don't talk about when you check into a motel! The snake wrapped itself around the sink pipes in the bathroom and went to sleep, meanwhile the maid was mopping the bathroom floor and noticed what she thought was a rag wrapped around the sink pipes and tried to pull it off! The motel manager told us she quit and we were to pack our stuff and get out!
I remember playing a club in Chicago, ILL and a booking agent who was promoting dates on us came out to see us. Back in those days we were a hot commodity and traveled extensively up and down the east coast, so for our booking agents to see us, it was rare. Usually they got favorable reports from the clubs they booked us in, so they only came to see us when we performed in their town. On this particular night the club was packed beyond capacity and of course the agent was delighted and the club owner was happy - so much so - they kept buying rounds of drinks for the band. During the break, as the road crew set the stage for our Tribute To Kiss, the club owner, the agent, girlfriends, wives all crammed into to the dressing and did shots with the band. It was getting close to show-time and everyone had to leave so we could put our costumes and make up on! We were a bit rushed but who cared, we were feeling good and the crowd was electric as we hit the stage. The crowd went absolutely wild as I spit blood up, and the fog and flash pots went off. It came time for the song "Fire House" and we all wore the trade marked fire hats as the band Kiss did, and I had to spit fire! I saw someone spit fire at some carnival and learned the trade from this person and incorporated it into the Kiss show - as I had seen Gene Simons do so many times. I was a meticulous type of person and I usually checked things out before the show to be sure there were no mistakes and everything ran smoothly, I didn't want no accidents - especially where I was concerned. This particular night I was rushed and forgot we were breaking in a new roadie. He was given a simple job of preparing the torch I used to spit fire, handing it to me during the show along with the solution in the glass I drank to spit into the torch. At the end of the song "Firehouse" the stage went dark and the fire truck lights went on along with the siren and fog proceeded to spread across the stage knee high. I walked over to the side of the stage and drank the prepared solution and took the torch and held it while the new roadie proceeded to light it on fire. I noticed he didn't have a rag soaked in lighter fluid wrapped around the edge of the torch, so of course he couldn't light the torch on fire and I couldn't speak because my mouth was full of the fire spitting solution. The house was packed and the audience was waiting in anticipation for the ball of fire I spit to shoot across their heads, our booking agent was there...what should I do? THE SHOW MUST GO ON! I motioned to the new roadie to give me the bic lighter he was using to try and light the torch, and I prayed the flame from the lighter would be high enough to catch the solution I was spitting on fire. It did but because I held the lighter so close to my face, it shot backwards and the solution spread all over my face, my chest and arm - I WAS ON FIRE. My wig and the make - up and my costume went up in flames - and I immediately turned toward the side of the stage where another roadie was spraying the stage with fog (CO2) and he proceeded to put out the burning Gene Simons impersonater! I felt a little pain but nothing I couldn't handle so I went in to the final song of the show. As each second ticked by the pain was getting worse and I finally couldn't stand it anymore and I knew I had to go to the hospital. I cut the ending of the song short and headed back to the dressing room, and tried to take the make-up of my face but only ended up smearing the white and black make-up together because the pain was to great to touch my face and take it off. The smeared make-up made the burns look worse than they were, which was pretty bad! The agent came bursting into the dressing room as I was preparing to leave for the hospital with drinks for everyone. He said that was the greatest Tribute to Kiss show he had ever seen. He said "I've never seen anyone catch on fire like that before - it looked so real and the audience ate it up - they're still demanding an encore and we should go back out there" The band proceeded to tell him the only place I was going was to the hospital, I really was on fire! Would You Believe It, his comment was that I should try to figure a way to do that everynight - it looked so incredibly great! As I walked past him on my way to the car, he looked at me and handed me his drink and said "Here you need this more than me!" At the hospital, after the commotion died down - because they were all running in different directions, because of the make-up, they thought I had been burnt to a crisp - they told me the grease paint make-up probably caused my face to be burned worse because as the grease make-up heated it started to boil. THE SHOW MUST GO ON, and I was back on stage the next night to another packed house - I guess I was on the news and people came out to see the burnt musician who lit himself on fire! I was in massive pain at showtime because the shot they gave me at the hospital was wearing off and they would not give me another, so I had to drink. Now I was drunk and still in pain but I performed anyway! I remember the booking agent calling me the next day to see how I was, and he told me that all the acts he had booked over the years he had never seen anything like that before, and I told him as far as I was concerned he would never see anything like it again! The Original Plain & Fancy Band from North Carolina finally disbanded in Chicago, in the mid 70's and John and I took up residence in Chicago and looked for new musicians that would one day become Messiah. During this time off I decided to take a course in bible study and became an ordained minister!
