The Fugitives (band)

The Fugitives
The Fugitives in 1966
Background information
Origin	Sacramento, California
Genres	Garage rock, pop rock
Years active	1964–1966
Associated acts	Gene Clark, The Miniature Concert, Group B
Past members	Paul Houston : Guitar Jack May : Guitar Jim Phillips : Saxophone, vocals Recorded members Tom Fabian : Drums Frank Galindo : Vocals Tony Powell : Guitar and vocals Allen Purdy : Bass guitar Laramy Smith : Guitar and vocals

Paul Houston : Guitar
Jack May : Guitar
Jim Phillips : Saxophone, vocals
Recorded members

The Fugitives was a Sacramento, California group whose first big success was at the 1964 Surfer's Convention at the State Fairgrounds, when they set the attendance record for Sacramento rock and roll shows. The Fugitives opened for many famous acts, including The Rolling Stones, The Byrds, The Kinks, The Beau Brummels and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

After making a number of personnel changes (lead singer and both guitarists), the band's style had changed to pop rock, and they headed to Los Angeles. They recorded nine songs at Western Recorders (as The Grimfacqles) with The Beach Boys' engineer, Chuck Britz. The band's manager, Dan Steward, tried to interest a major label in the Western sessions but was met with indifference. Those recordings subsequently disappeared and have remained lost despite several research attempts to find them.

The band later returned to Los Angeles to appear on the nationwide television show, Hollywood A Go-Go. They returned to Northern California, where the band was a wildly popular center of the Davis-Sacramento music scene and known throughout Northern California for their playing of originals and cover versions of The Beatles and other top rock groups. Their success continued until the band finally broke up in late 1966, but not before the remarkable energy they expressed was captured. An early 2-track recording of The Fugitives' high-energy "Blowin' My Mind", written by the group's Laramy Smith and Alan Purdy, recorded in Sacramento at Bill Rase/Ikon Studios and engineered by Eirik Wangberg, was selected for inclusion on the CD The Sound of Young Sacramento, a compilation released in the UK in 2000 that was put together by Alec Palao for the London, England-based company, Ace Records, a subsidiary of Big Beat Records.