It took 12 years after Franklin Park reunited, but we finally found some very old photos of Franklin Park's performance at the State Battle of the Bands, held at Muskegon's LC Walker Arena in May, 1969. As these photos illustrate, people change in 53 years. A lot!
Left to right across the stage looking at photos:
Larry Lewis, keyboard (at very far left)
Mike (Mondo) Reid, guitar
Tom Jones, drums
Bernie Rosendahl, vocals/tambourine
John Arendshorst, guitar
Jim Lievense, bass guitar
The guys were excited to learn yesterday that our 1960s music show is confirmed at Holland's beautiful Kollen Park, on the shores of Lake Macatawa. The great music of the 60s got the 800-person crowd off their chairs, on their feet and dancing last summer. Join us on July 1 and do it again this year! Special thanks to the City of Holland's Kemri Hilton for working with us on the date of the show and for her confidence in Franklin Park.
Franklin Park was very excited to learn, on the same day (!), that both Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and historic Lake Superior Theater have confirmed Franklin Park shows for August, 2022.
See and hear our great 60s music on August 16 at Frederik Meijer Gardens' Tuesday Evening Music Club and on August 25 in Marquette (it's worth the trip--Marquette is THE place to visit in Michigan's UP with great restaurants and breweries, on Lake Superior with great hiking, and Pictured Rocks NP just an hour away. Be there!)
Franklin Park's last performance of Summer 2021 was very fun. Lake Superior Theatre, on the harbor in Marquette, is a historic boathouse converted each summer for summer stock stage plays and for the first time ever, a rock and roll band.
The sold out audience was very knowledgeable about our great 60s music, applauding every solo and even giving a shout out to our always dependable, always great but never flashy drummer, Tom Jones. And it was certainly time to finally play in the adopted (in 1971!) home town of our very humble front man, Bernie Rosendahl. We are sure that Bernie appreciated not having to make the 900-mile roundtrip to West Michigan for a Franklin Park show.
One other note--Marquette is a wonderful place to visit. The Hewitt Onion Tower (airbnb), the food at Vango's and the Delft and the beer at Blackrocks and Ore Dock were among the highlights. And our bass guitarist Jim L was brave enough to jump off the real black rocks into pristine and chilly Lake Superior.
(L to R) Mike R, Jim L, Bernie R, Tom J, Mike J, John A
"Rock" Stars ?
(L to R) Mike R, John A, Tom J, Mike J, Jim L, Bernie R
The band returned to its roots, Holland, MI, for a show at beautiful Kollen Park on Lake Macatawa, before a big crowd that stayed to the end. Much fun for an oldies band to return to a park that was the scene of teen hijinks so many years ago.
The City of Holland did a nice interview with our very humble front man, Bernie. Link below:
City of Holland Video Interview
Franklin Park performed in front of an enthusiastic audience of 1,751 live, in-person (!) people on July 13 as part of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park's Tuesday Evening Music Club series. It was great experience to be able to do our full 2-set show in West Michigan's premiere outdoor music theatre. We are very grateful to Meijer Gardens and its TEMC coordinator, Ted Bufkin, for their faith in us and in the great music of the '60s.
And after all our 2020 gigs were cancelled, it was so much fun to see a big crowd of real live people enjoying great music.
Video of our Set 2 is available on the "Audition Tape" page of this website.
As a seasonal band, Franklin Park is always eager to again reunite each Spring to start its new season of 60s rock 'n' roll. The band's 2-day May rehearsal in Holland was a great success, greatly energized by the news that all COVID-19 capacity restrictions will be lifted on July 1! Rehearsing to get ready to play the great music of the 60s in front of large, enthusiastic crowds at great places like Frederik Meijer Gardens, Holland's Kollen Park on Lake Macatawa and Lake Superior Theatre on Marquette's harbor is very energizing.
Musically, after a long winter of working on it in personal practice, performing together the final 3 songs from Abbey Road was great fun. Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End all somehow run together into 5+ minutes of great music--fun to play, fun to listen to.
We were very pleased to get together in both October and December for garage band socially-distanced open air rehearsals. (December rehearsal was a relatively "balmy", for December, 40 degrees).
We are very, very pleased that both Frederik Meijer Gardens and the City of Holland have again asked us to do a Franklin Park show this coming summer. Hopefully by the July 13 and August 13 dates live summer music shows will again be in full swing.
And in a Franklin Park first, the band will be in Michigan's wild and beautiful Upper Peninsula in the UP's queen city of Marquette on August 26-28. Franklin Park vocalist Bernie moved to Marquette 50 years ago, fell in love with it (and with wife Mary) and never left (except for Franklin Park shows, of course!). Date and location of the Franklin Park show in Marquette will be announced at a later date.
See you then!
COVID-19 ended up cancelling all three of Franklin Park's gigs, with yesterday's announcement from Meijer Gardens that a planned delayed Tuesday Evening Music Club series would be cancelled instead because outdoor crowd size limits in MI remain at 100 persons.
Both Meijer Gardens and the City of Holland have told us that Franklin Park will be booked for 2021! Hope to see you then!
Fortunately, the band was able to get together in June for a great 2-day rehearsal. We were ready, ready, ready for FP's 2020 "season" (we are a seasonal band). The virus would not cooperate.
See you in 2021. Stay safe, be well and rock on!
As a seasonal band, Franklin Park greatly looks forward to getting together to start its new season in April after the winter hiatus. Musical "rust' shaken off, new songs played and perfected, and great meals and camaraderie for a bunch of guys who first got together in 1968.
But, like so many of our individual and societal collective experiences in April, 2020, couldn't happen! Respecting the various government Stay At Home and Social Distancing orders issued, the April rehearsal was cancelled. But, at this time, the June and July gigs (on the Shows page) are still on the schedule.
Finally, DO NOT USE THE FP STICKER YOU RECEIVED LAST SUMMER AS A MASK !!!!!
4 Weeks!!! Tuesday, August 14, 700pm! All the guys are working hard preparing for our August 10-11 rehearsal for the biggest show in FP history!
Franklin Park "Deja Vu"? Well, we didn't play that song (it's from 1970, not the 60s!) but we were all back again at Big Whitefish Lake's annual social event, which had record attendance (due to FP show? :>) ). Much fun in an outdoor setting on a nice evening with lots of good people.
At its October 20 rehearsal in Holland, Franklin Park auditioned for Ted Bufkin of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. We were very excited to learn from Ted that the Gardens had selected Franklin Park to play in its beautiful amphitheater next summer as part of its very popular Tuesday Evening Music Club. Hope to see many family, friends and classmates there along with the 1,000+ Gardens members that attend these shows. Will be FUN!!!
With the long distance between our homes and that UP winter weather, FP has decided to do one show a year.
Our show on June 23 for the annual Big Whitefish Lake Association event at the Whitefish Lake Golf Course's beautiful clubhouse and restaurant was attended by over 100 people, most of whom knew nearly every one of our 60's music songs. Many highlights, including a full Beatles set of 8 songs and one encore, the first appearance of the "Franklin Park Dancers" and Mike R's great organ solo on a new song to us (and 50-years old this summer) A Whiter Shade of Pale. Good job Mike R, and Bernie, and Jim too, with that song's seeming ever-descending bass line.