THE MIAMIS
by Tom Wynbrandt
I loved being in The Miamis.
My brother James and I started the group in the mid ‘70s. We played guitars and wrote the songs. James’s college friend Dale Powers — always a favorite with the ladies — played bass. On drums we had Georgie Day, a good-looking kid who could really pound the skins. Everybody sang.
To take the music to a higher level, James and I recruited our friend Tommy Mandel, the keyboard genius we’d met in Paul Simon’s songwriting workshop. (The workshop was open by audition, and only nine people got in. Melissa Manchester was our most famous classmate.) Tommy joined The Miamis and our sound was instantly whole.
We played Max’s Kansas City, Coventry, Brandy’s II, Broadway Charley’s, Hurrah’s, the Mushroom, Monty Python’s, and a new club on the Bowery, a dive called CBGB & OMFUG. Besides composing for The Miamis, James and I kept busy by writing songs for Blondie, Jayne (née Wayne) County, Teenage Lust and other bands.
New York was in bad shape in those days, and no one had any money. Streets were dirty, subway cars were covered in graffiti, and one going-out-of-business sign after another plastered the vacant storefronts. Muggings were an everyday occurrence. People sold their ratty belongings on the street. It was like an endless loop of “Kojak.”
The New York Dolls were our closest friends. Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain lived near by, and the apartment James, Dale and I shared became a regular hangout for everyone. When the Dolls toured locally, we opened the show for them.
Blondie, the Ramones, Television and Tuff Darts were a big part of the scene as well. DeeDee Ramone was my barber. Television’s Richard Lloyd dropped over frequently. Deborah Harry, Chris Stein and I often spent summer days at Brighton Beach. Debbie would drive if I brought the beer.
Other musicians began to join us on stage and in the studio. Howie Wyeth and Rob Stoner from Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review, Sredni Vollmer from Rick Danko’s band, Steve Love from Spirogyra and Cris Cioe from the Uptown Horns all became honorary Miamis.
Lenny Kaye (from the Patti Smith Group) talked us up, as did legendary rock photographer Bob Gruen. Mercury Records A&R man Paul Nelson paid for some recording sessions. So did Mike Tyson’s manager. The tapes sounded good.
According to the record companies, though, we were too punk for the pop market and too pop for punk. We didn’t fit neatly into any niche. Couldn’t really get a handle on us. So we disbanded (literally) and, in today’s parlance, moved on with our lives.
That’s where it might have ended, were it not for chance. A young cousin of mine, Jesse Lauter, came to New York to attend NYU’s Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. Jesse was amazed to learn about The Miamis and their contribution to the CBGB scene. When he heard the tapes, he was convinced that others would love the music as much as he did.
As an up-and-coming record producer, Jesse helped me digitize and re-master the old tapes. He cleaned up the hisses and pops that reflected 30-plus years of existence. He re-mixed and tweaked them. I’m very proud of the result. I truly hope you enjoy the album.
So where are The Miamis today?
James Wynbrandt, my brother, became an award-winning radio journalist. Then he earned his pilot’s license and bought a plane. Now he’s a highly regarded aviation writer, flying himself to assignments all across the country. He’s also authored books on subjects ranging from the history of dentistry to the history of Saudi Arabia. He has a loft in New York and a winter home in Florida. He still writes songs, too.
Tommy Mandel, as befits his talent, has played and toured with Dire Straits, Ian Hunter, Todd Rundgren, Bryan Adams, John Waite and many others. When he’s not on the road, he composes sports themes for ESPN. He’s a devoted father to his two daughters.
Georgie Day has a grown daughter (his proudest accomplishment—just ask him), a comfortable life on Long Island and a second home in Puerto Rico. As a side career, he rehabilitates thoroughbred horses that are past their racing years, so they can enjoy life on the farm.
Dale Powers remains a man about town, south of 14th Street. He still lives in the large apartment he shared with James and me, but now he has the space all to himself.
Me? I live with my wife on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Judy and I own an advertising and marketing firm, dealing mostly with financial services companies (the ones that still survive). Very few of our clients have any idea that I was ever involved in music. But with the release of the Miamis album, I look forward to their finding out.
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