Since Rich didn't know how to play he took some lessons from the high school band director along with tips from some of the players in band. Later on in the Agency, Rich purchased a nice white pearl finished set that consisted of a floor tom, 2 rack toms, snare, kick and a couple of cymbal stands for separate crash and ride cymbals.
Mike, Carl and Ron all sang lead along with background vocals. At the early stages of the Agency they ran their mics through their guitar amps. The mics they had consisted of a cheap crystal mic Ron got from Keith Berg, another cheap crystal mic that looked like an old RCA ribbon mic, and a Midland dynamic–the best of the bunch. After playing through a dedicated PA–courtesy of the Revolvers–during a battle of the bands at the Boone Drive-In, it was decided they needed to get a similar set up.
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The Agency bought a 35 watt Bogen amp along with one speaker column. The speaker column was built by Bob and was loaded with 4 Jensen Concert series 12 inch speakers. It was covered with black vinyl and the speaker grille cloth came in either a green/blue or a red/orange color—the latter being the color choice the group made.
The band practiced at least once a week. The first practice was held in Ron’s parent's garage. After that, Carl and his mom talked to Mr. Klockseim and secured the use of his "warehouse" facility for practice at no cost to the band. The building was the former office of the local lumberyard and was located directly west of the Ogden City Park. It had two rooms, both about 12x12, which worked out well. The photos here were taken in front of the building. The deal was the boys could use the building as long as they left the stores inventory stored there alone. The band could now practice without bothering anyone.
After using this building, the band practiced a couple of times in Rich’s basement finally ending up in an upstairs room at Carl’s house. This was due to the fact that the Klockseim building had very little heat and the lads needed someplace warm to gather in the winter. They rehearsed at Carl’s until they broke up.
The Agency did the usual popular tunes of the day. At that time many bands did songs like: “(In the) Midnight Hour”/Wilson Pickett, “Gloria”/Shadows of Knight–Them, “House of the Rising Sun”/Animals, “Come On Up”/Rascals, etc. Along with these tunes the Agency tackled songs like “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”/Stones, “You Really Got Me”/Kinks, “Hello I Love You”/Doors, “Sunshine of Your Love”/Cream and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone”/Monkees. They also did one original tune entitled “ZZZ”. Ron had come up with this instrumental that was inspired by the riff from “Wipe Out” with an emphasis on guitar instead of drums. It was performed out at least twice and to the bands surprise no one threw any rotten fruit or vegetables.
The best dance they played was perhaps at the Madrid Odd Fellows Hall. The Agency put the dance on themselves which was not uncommon at the time. Charging $1.00 a head admission, they pulled in around 145 people in a town where they were unknown.
The worst gig was their last one for the Ogden MYF youth group due to the fact that the band’s breakup was a short time away and it's presence was acutely felt.
All the members went on to play in other bands. Mike played in a band from Greene Co. named Purple Haze. It appears he left music after that group. He currently lives in Minnesota and had worked for a company that manufactures medical devices. Rich lives in Virginia and works for the American Red Cross. Carl, after spending many years as a Christian missionary to Taiwan, is currently in Omaha working as a counselor. Ron lives in Boone and is currently doing independent audio production for radio and web.
