1960s TEEN BEAT
Interview Site
THE CHANCELLORS (MA)
The Chancellors were Lincoln Clapp (g) (v), Billy Squier (g) (v), Jim MacNaughton (b), and Alan Gavotsos (d).
The four of them all were in the same class at Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts between their high school years of '64 through '68. Lincoln had a baby-blue Fender Mustang that he played through a Fender Bassman. Jim played a metallic-gold-faced Danelectro bass through a Silvertone 4-10 and Alan played a basic, Beatles-style, drum set.
Lincoln: "I don't know how we got together; guys in high school with guitars are attracted like magnets".
Lincoln: "My older brother went to high school in St. Louis and brought back the soul records of the time; Wilson Pickett, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Aretha Franklin. I was very influenced by R & B music. However, the Chancellors were thirteen years old when the Beatles came to America and I have to list them as the biggest influence on my musical taste and style. Our set-lists were full of Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kinks, and general U.S. and British rock."
The group started practicing once or twice a week in the Clapp family's basement. The parents were, as Lincoln remembers, "very understanding". The Chancellors started playing for friends' parties and, as they got better known, for dances, at the high school and at local churches and halls.
Lincoln: "Playing records for dances wasn't nearly as big, then, as getting live bands, which was great for us. One of my main memories was playing for the end-of-the-year all-night party, which took place in the high school parking lot. We played for about eight hours."
The band's marketing was mainly mouth-to-mouth, except for big events, when the group would put something in the local paper. Lincoln remembers that their gigs were generally well attended.
The group never had the chance to record their material.
The Chancellors ended because they all graduated and went in different directions. Jim became a lawyer, Alan went into sales, and Billy Squier took his music and playing to the next level, becoming quite well known.
After the band, Lincoln pursued the technical side as well as the performance side of music. He moved to New York and became a professional recording engineer at Mediasound, a multi-room studio on W. 57th St.
Lincoln: "I had many memorable experiences including mixing Stevie Ray Vaughn's first album, 'Texas Flood', and recording Whitney Houston singing her second album, 'Whitney'. I also kept writing and performing my own music and, briefly, had a contract with Expo Records, a label connected with Mediasound Studios."
Lincoln: "I have really good memories of playing in the Chancellors, mostly because the experience was all about the joy of playing fun songs in front of enthusiastic dancers without having to travel too far. We didn't deal with any of the negatives of the music business or the responsibilities of trying to be professionals."
Lincoln hasn't kept in contact with the other members of the Chancellors, so he doesn't know their stories.
TALKING
Teen
Beat
TALKING
Teen