Barooga Bandit of Detroit, Michigan

 

The roots of this brotherly, 1979 pop-rock single from Matt and Franz de Raad date to the Wha?, an unsigned and never-recording Detroit local band from the late ’60s. Between used record stores, book stores, and thrift stores: cheap copies of this single have popped up on several occasions.

The Wha? formed in the Spring of 1965 with vocalist Bob Demster and his guitarist-brother Tom, lead guitarist Tom Tasseff, and the rhythm section of bassist Daniel O’Connell and drummer John Milkovich. According to legend, the burgeoning group formulated their name after a trip to New York where they watched a then-unknown Jimi Hendrix performing live at the Café Wha?, the infamous Greenwich Village club of Hendrix yore.

Becoming friends with Russ Gibb, the operator of the soon-to-open Grande Ballroom—by passing out posters at the Northland Mall for another Gibb promotion—the Wha? became the “go-to band” warming up audiences for Gibb's Grande shows with bands such as the Yardbirds and the Velvet Underground.

So, what's the connection between the Wha? to Barooga Bandit? Their bassist-in-common: Daniel O’Connell.

 

While the many may not heard of Barooga Bandit, they’ve probably read about the Detroit band in the rock autobiographies regarding the careers of Bob Seger and the Irish rock band, U2.

Under the direction of Bob Seger’s long-time manager, Ed “Punch” Andrews, Barooga Bandit issued two albums on Capitol: Come Softly (1979) and Running Alone (1980). Silver Bullet band members Drew Abbott (he got his start in the late ’60s with Third Power), Charlie Martin, and Alto Reed each make appearances on Come Softly; Reed co-produced the album with Punch Andrews. The “cheeky” album cover of Come Softly—which features a young woman’s derriere poking out of a pair of denim cutoff shorts and a ribbon tied around her finger caressing her bottom—was originally intended as the cover of Bob Seger’s six million-selling album, 1976’s Night Moves. Thomas Weschler, the designer of the cover, was responsible for several of Bob Seger's albums; the band’s photo on the rear cover was courtesy of another long-time Seger associate: photographer Tom Bert.

While Cheap Trick released the better known version on their 1977 self-titled debut album, Barooga Bandit offered their own, rousing post-Cheap Trick (and more-faithful-to-the-original-version courtesy of vocalist Bruce Mechan) cover of Terry Reid’s “Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace).” In promotion, the band toured the U.S with a then-hot Dire Straits and Van Halen, as well as for numerous shows with Bob Seger and fellow Detroiters, the Rockets.

Bassist Daniel O'Connell, guitarist Bruce Mechan,
drummer Franz de Raad, and keyboardist Matt de Raad.

 

Courtesy of U2 guitarist Dave “The Edge” Evans remembering the band, it’s learned Barooga Bandit’s most infamous show was when the Irish upstarts opened for Barooga Bandit at The Paradise Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts on December 13, 1980. The Paradise show was U2’s second gig in the States; in-country for a week, they played their first show on December 6 at The Ritz in New York City. The Boston show was the debut of four northeastern headlining, mid-December club dates for Barooga Bandit.

At the time, WBCN-FM in Boston programmed a CBS-import copy of U2’s debut, Boy—before it officially came out in the states on Island Records. Coincidentally, the station offered the same radio airplay to the Japanese-import of Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan—which was never intended for stateside release. The on-air support by WBCN broke both bands to a nationwide audience.

So, as result of the radio airplay: While Barooga Bandit was the headliner: the crowd was there for U2. When U2 came back after their set to check out Barooga Bandit: everyone had left, as they were there to see U2. For the remaining three shows: Barooga Bandit opened for U2.

U2, on stage at the Paradise Theatre, December 13, 1980.

“Our show in Boston was a real surprise for us because we opened for a band called Barooga Bandit in a cramped little club and noticed we were getting a particularly good reaction. We left the stage feeling incredible because the audience was so enthusiastic. Then we went back down to check out Barooga Bandit, only to find that everyone had left. It was then we realized they had come to see us.”
—Dave “The Edge” Evans, from the pages of “U2 by U2,” 2006

Sans bassist Daniel O’Connell and guitarist Bruce Mechan—with Chuck Moses and Lou Abraham in their place—and truncating their name to Barooga, the de Raad brothers released the their final album: the 1980 sophomore effort, Running Alone. Moses went on to join another Detroit band, the Look, for their second and final album issued on A&M Records in 1984. The rest retired from the music business.

Terry Reid went on the road with Cheap Trick in 2024. The below video features Terry Reid on lead vocals from a July 24, 2024, show in Rancho Mirage, California, doing their song-in-common.