Bay Area native
Roy Loney, a founding member of the great
Flamin' Groovies, quit the band in the early '70s, ostensibly to pursue a solo career. Oddly, his first solo recording didn't appear until 1979, nearly seven years after leaving
the Groovies. In the interim,
Loney had taken a series of record industry jobs, at one point working as a sales rep for the now defunct ABC Records, and at the funky and fabulous Jack's Record Cellar in San Francisco. Despite the delay,
Loney's return to rock & roll performance was auspicious; there was a tremendous EP, A Hundred Miles an Hour, dedicated to
Sissy Spacek, which was followed by the wild and woolly full-length LP Out After Dark.
Eschewing the
Byrds-ian pop direction that former partner
Cyril Jordan had now taken
the Groovies,
Loney's records were wild-eyed, rockabilly-fueled chunks of joyous noise, with much shaking, rattling, and rolling provided by the great guitar playing of ex-
Groovies James Ferrell and drummer
Danny Mihm. Now fully integrated into the late-'70s/early-'80s rock scene,
Loney, retaining his deservedly hip credentials, released a string of fine records from 1979-1983 on mostly small indie labels, eventually dropping out of sight in 1984. Actually, he just withdrew from the rock scene for a while and continued to play in the Bay Area and work at Jack's.
In the late '80s, recording for roots rock label Norton,
Loney unleashed The Scientific Bombs Away, which was a terrific, if almost totally ignored record. Loaded with raving guitars, hiccuping vocals, and his thoroughly original sense of humor,
Loney had made a triumphant return to rock. Too bad no one seemed to care. Later,
Loney recorded a great cover of Sam the Sham's "I Couldn't Spell !!*@!" with the Seattle band
Young Fresh Fellows.
In 2009,
Roy Loney and
Cyril Jordan teamed up for a joint concert tour focusing on the early
Groovies material. 2013 saw
Jordan put together a reunited edition of the
Flamin' Groovies with latter-day vocalist
Chris Wilson, and in mid-2019, when
Wilson was unavailable for a tour of the United States and Europe,
Loney stepped in to take his place. However, a bad fall at an airport forced
Loney to drop out of the European leg of the tour due to head injuries. He died on December 13, 2019. ~ John Dougan