I have to admit, when Chris Cameron’s wife alerted me of Big Bop
and the Choppers, I was a little confused, a little terrified, a
little skeptical.
I have to admit, when Chris Cameron’s wife alerted me of Big Bop and the Choppers, I was a little confused, a little terrified, a little skeptical.
She spoke of tutu’s and loin cloth’s and choreography and skits and songs.
She spoke of Chris’ involvement, of how he became a Chopper in 1989, and how he had alias’ like “Crankcase” and “CC” and “Guitarzan.”
Forgive me if at first I didn’t really believe any of this.
The head football coach? In a loin cloth? In a tutu? Performing to Are You Lonesome Tonight?
In what started out as a simple closing act for a faculty talent show in 1973 at Oak Grove High School, Big Bop and the Choppers quickly snowballed, selling out show after show after show.
“I’ve seen that,” San Benito Athletic Director Tod Thatcher said. “That was the big thing in June. Being a coach over there, you see it at a different perspective. It’s a great show.
“They were so good. They put together a few songs. They put in a two-hour production and it just went from there.”
The band played rock and roll songs from the fifties and sixties, and became so popular that they moved on from the confines of the Oak Grove theater and began performing at private parties and fundraisers, from Gilroy to Los Angeles, Eureka to Reno, Nev.
All proceeds the band raised went back to Oak Grove and to scholarships – Gilroy football coach Rich Hammond was a 1997 recipient – and even Seattle Seahawks head football coach Mike Holmgren earned Chopper status in 1975.
Cameron is known as the “high-energy” Chopper, and performs one number as “Guitarzan,” swinging onto the stage in a loin cloth, and, according to his bio, “screams a rather unmelodius tune.”
Really, forgive me if I didn’t believe any of this.
“It’s hard to tell people that come what to expect,” Cameron said. “But they shut my mic off years ago.”
Big Bop and the Choppers, which stopped playing in June of 2000, held a reunion concert in memory of saxophonist “Frogman” Henry Silva on May 30 and 31. Silva died in May of 2007 from cancer.
Both shows were sold out.
“The only true instrumentalist,” said Cameron of Silva. “He brought a reputation to the band … It was a celebration of his life.”
Cameron said 40 people from Hollister alone showed up on May 30, 41 people on May 31. The two shows, though, brought in 400-plus people each night.
“It was a really good thing,” said Cameron, whose two children were able to view the show. Even some football players, including Sam Doty and Joey Mancino, were present.
While Mancino graduated this past year, how the incoming senior Doty will use this information against his coach is still unknown.
“During a 6 o’clock weight training with Coach Cam … he told me about this concert they were putting on,” Doty recalled. “He couldn’t really explain it to me. He said if we came, you’ll understand. He couldn’t explain it in words.
“But it was the best experience.”
When asked what he’ll remember from the concert, Doty, a defensive lineman, recalled “Guitarzan.”
“I didn’t think Coach Cam would do that,” he said. “But it was awesome to see that.”
Although Big Bop and the Choppers are not scheduled to perform any more shows, Cameron says, “I’m saving all my stuff.”
—
In my previous column, where I went all Peter Gammons on you, talking about the athletes from San Benito and Anzar High who I believed would be making headlines in the near future, I left out a few athletes.
Actually, I left out more than a few. But, in hindsight, wasn’t that bound to happen anyway?
Even in the few days that I’ve had to consider who I missed, I’ll still miss a few names in the end.
With that said, Sam Doty (football), Shelli Reed (swimming), Jordan Schafer (water polo), Josh Ramirez (wrestling), Enrique Lucatero (wrestling) and Lauren Ademek (basketball) should have made the list.
Consider it an oversight.
—
The PJ Galvan Alumni Classic is this Saturday at Vets Park, and hopefully the masses of Hollisterites that follow baseball – and I’m pretty sure there’s at least one or two of you – will come out in support of the baseball program, in support of Galvan.
All I know of Galvan is what I’ve heard from others, but he sounded like a stand-up kid.
Nick Gonzales, who was close to Galvan and will coach the alumni team, could have gone all day talking about his friend when I spoke with him earlier this week.
Gonzales (Class of ’04) also plans on bringing a good baseball game, too.
“I would like to see a close ball game, a high scoring ball game,” Gonzales said. “We want to keep the crowd involved and just make it an enjoyable game for everyone.”
If anything, the game, which will pit San Benito alumni against the current varsity baseball team, will showcase some former ‘Balers, including Brian Rossi, Jason Sims and Eric Diaz.
Hope to see you there.
