Hello People

Hello People was a rock group that was created in New York City in late 1967 by producer Lou Futterman.

History

The idea for creating the group stemmed from Marcel Carné's film Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis). Etienne Decroux, the father of French mime, plays the part of Bapties's father in the film. During the sixties Decroux taught painting to a group of musicians. Since these musicians learned to paint so quickly, Decroux reasoned that musicians could also learn mime and apply it in some new way to create a new form. The manager of the musicians Decroux taught, Lou Futterman, decided he would implement this new concept, and put together a new group of musicians who would perform in mime makeup and do mime routines between songs, never speaking a word to the audience.^[1][2]

Hello People performed as Todd Rundgren's back-up band and background vocalists on some of his early tours in the 1970s. They also were part of his Back to the Bars tour, singing background vocals. In 1974 the group's album The Handsome Devils charted in Billboard Magazine at #145. The 1975 single "Future Shock" charted at 71.^[3]

Lineup

The original Hello People were:

• W. S. "Sonny" Tongue - vocal, guitar (stage name "Country")
• Greg Geddes - bass, vocal (stage name "Smoothie")
• Bobby Sedita - guitar, vocal (stage name "Goodfellow")
• Larry Tassi - keyboards, vocal (stage name "Much More")
• Michael Sagarese - flute (stage name "Wry One")
• Ronnie Blake - drums (stage name "Thump Thump")

Discography

Studio albums

• The Hello People (1967) (Philips)
• Fusion (1968) (Philips 80027 - PHS 600-276 Stereo)
• Have You Seen The Light
• Homemade With TEAC (1974) (Teac TCA 1)
• The Handsome Devils (1974) (ABC Dunhill DSD-50184)
• Bricks (1975) (ABC Dunhill 882)
• Lost At Sea
• Have You Seen The Light (Mediarts 41)

References

External links

• Hello People at AllMusic