BELIEVERS
Popular band from Waycross, Ga formed while in high school.
Members L-R:
Ric Wilson (keyboards), Harvey Yermovsky (guitar), Mike Bunch (guitar/vocals), Babs Bunting (bass, Vocals), and Tommy Johnson (drums, vocals)
The group was together from 1966 to 1968, playing mostly around Waycross and Blackshear. Mike left for school at UGA
but the group managed to play a few gigs when he would come home. The group billed as an R & B band and covers of everything from the Beatles to Wilson Pickett. Mike did most of the singing, with Babs and Tommy doing backups and some solo or lead work as well. Among the group's accomplishments was a series of dances for the American Cancer Society (chaired locally by Babs's mother). Bab's father, Luther Bunting, managed the band. Mike used a Hagstrom III and a Fender Super Reverb amp. Ric played a Vox organ. Tommy played Ludwig drums.
In 1978 the group underwent a major change as Ralph Lloyd filled in briefly as lead guitarist (Ralph then left to play with the Looney Tunes and The Woods). The band replaced Babs with Jimmy Highsmith on bass. They also added a brass section of Ray West and Gordon Ferrell and began playing soul music exclusively.
During this interval Tommy filled in and sang lead occasionally with the Faux Pax (later Bill & John Smith would leave this group to form The Rebelaires who are still writing songs and performing today). Many nights in the summer of 1968 the Believers rehearsed at Tommy’s home on Magnolia Avenue, while directly across the street the Henchmen would be practicing at Tooker Dell’s, and directly behind them would be the Changing Times practicing at John Crichton’s house – all within a radius of about 75 yards from one another!
The Believers and the new brass section played throughout south Georgia and north Florida. They performed with The Strange Bedfellows and Swinging Medallions. The group finally disbanded in 1969 when Tommy left for UGA and Jimmy became bassist for the recording artists Southern Sounds of Soul who then became the very successful Poppa Fox. Jimmy could always be identified on stage because of his dark sunglasses.
Info and pic courtesy of Mike Bunch
Memories from band member Tommy Johnson:
Those were great times as Waycross was indeed the center of the universe for the state of Ga when it came to bands. I remember that Wayne Scarborough from King David & the Slaves was the "Blue Eyed Soul" disc jockey at (WAYX?) We would all wait for his show to hear what everyone needed to "work up" at the next session. Wayne and I worked together at Billy Harrell's music store on Tebeau St. and all the bands around would come in and jam all the time. A distinguished Black gentleman named Harold Smith worked with us and he played saxophone for James Brown and the Famous Flames. There was a lot of trash talking in those days about who had the best band and it eventually came down to the Saints from Waycross High School and the Wild Oats from Ware County High. So it was ultimately decided that they would have a battle of the bands at the old Rec Center. Every customer who paid a dollar to get in got to vote and the Wild Oats won by about 4 votes out of hundreds. That was the first time that any band from Waycross performed a Spencer Davis song as the Saints took an audience bet that they couldn't do it and exploded into "Gimme Some Lovin." They were on fire that night. Not to be outdone Ross Pead was electric. The whole thing was surreal. I wish someone could have recorded the entire night.