http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfEU27qLPh8

Hello Friends!
The Untamed Youth are honored to announce we have been inducted





into the Hall of Fame! Well, no, not the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame! Not yet, anyway. Ha! But we did receive enough votes to officially be inducted into the first annual Crusty Old Columbia (Missouri) Punks Hall of Fame! Mace and myself made the scene of the ceremony held July 24 at the legendary Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, MO. Our pal, KCOU dj and major Youth supporter, Julie Swanson inducted the band and toasted the occasion using our beer of choice, Pabst Blue Ribbon! It was great seeing lots of old friends of the band, many of whom made the trip to Columbia from all over the U. S.! Five other Columbia bands were honored including Three Legged Dog, who are still playing after relocating to Seattle, WA years ago! The biggest band in the history of our fair city, East Ash, also were inducted along with three others. Great times were had by all and many a PBR Tall Boy were consumed! I'll try to post some pics from the ceremony in the Photo Gallery sometime soon!
In other news, a few video clips from our July European festival appearances have been posted on YouTube. You can check out Double Whammy, Some Kind of Fun and Russian Roulette. Just search "Untamed Youth Sjock Festival" to check 'em out! There's also a very short (and silent) clip of the Youth playing at the Hangar Rockin' Festival, that appears in a montage primarily featuring hot rods and custom car footage. So check 'em out! While you're hangin' out on YouTube, be sure to scope out boat loads of Youth videos that no doubt got us elected to the Crusty Old Columbia Punks Hall of Fame!! And lastly, don't forget to visit our new Facebook page and "Become a Fan"!!!!
The Crusty ceremonies are covered in the September issue of "Inside Columbia" magazine. Check out pages 139 & 141 here! http://www.bluetoad.com/publication/?i=21192&p=1 The very same issue has a feature on this year's Roots'n'Blues'n'BBQ festival that includes quite the write-up on Deke, who will be playing the festival this year. The Deke section includes a paragraph or so on the Youth! Look for it on pages 47-49!

Keep on Dancin'!
Steve "Sammy" Rager

Hello Friends!
Can't say enough about how great of a time the Youth had at Hangar Rockin' and the Sjock Festival! Thanks to Elsie at Gig-Pix.com in Belgium, Pedro in Spain and Ronnie in Switzerland for posting photos, tagging  photos and emailing pictures to us! If you were at either of these rockin' festivals and took photos of the Youth, please email them to me at srager@centurytel.net


so I can post them. I'll give photo credits if you like or a special Thankyou in a future blog. Same goes for anyone who recorded the shows. If you did, post a clip or two on YouTube so everyone can see for themselves just how amazing these two festivals were! Heck of a job by Crazy Joe in his first and second appearances behind the kit for the Youth, don't ya


think?
Thanks also to those who dropped by the Youth's merch table and picked up our new black Surf Fink t-shirts and Show-a-Rama dvds. Special thanks to Pedro and Antonio at Antophonic in Madrid for the fantastic job they did putting together the brand new dvd of our show at last fall's Funtastic Dracula Carnival in Valencia, Spain! We'll have these again the next time we're in Europe, which hopefully will be in the not too distant future! In the meantime, check here on a regular basis for more swingin' pics from the Hangar Rockin' and Sjock Festivals and more from the ever-growing archives.
And yes, for those of you who can't get enough, the Youth are on Facebook! Just to keep it interesting, there is unique memorabilia, photos, etc. not posted anywhere else! So if you aren't on Facebook yet, start a page (it's easy!) and "become a fan" of the Youth! You can even start a discussion group should you be so inclined or post directly to our Wall! See you there!!

Keep Dancin'!
Steve "Sammy" Rager

Hello Friends!
Had a truly amazing time at the Hangar Rockin' Festival in St. Stephan, Switzerland!! I have posted a few shots I took from this fabulous event on this site. Check 'em out! I'll be posting photos of the Youth's rockin' set as soon as I get some emailed to me. So....if you were there and you took pictures, please send them to me: srager@centurytel.net
If you video taped the show, please post a clip or two to YouTube! If you have our entire set on video, contact me and we'll work out a trade! Same goes for this weekend at Sjock! Hope to see lots of you there! It's quite the line-up of both garage and rockabilly bands! It's great to be rockin' in Europe on consecutive weekends! Who woulda thought it was possible!!
If you're heading to Sjock, be sure to drop by our merch booth! We'll have the all new, black shirt edition of the classic Surf Fink design, as well as Show-A-Rama dvds and the brand new dvd of our return to ROCK at the Funtastic Dracula Carnival last Oct. in Valencia, Spain! It's got track by track advance, chapters, menus and a photo gallery! You gotta see it! PAL edition only available at Sjock!!

See ya at Sjock!
Steve "Sammy" Rager

Hello friends!
As we all know by now, Bob Bogle, former lead guitarist and later bassist for the Ventures, recently passed away. Deke was asked by the Washington Post to share his thoughts on Bogle's passing and on his influence on the music scene.  Check that out here:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2009/06/more_on_the_ventures.html
This coming Friday, Deke hits the road in Europe with the Ecco-Fonics! Mace and Sammy will be joining him and Crazy Joe on drums, next Saturday at the Hangar Rockin' Festival in St. Stephan, Switzerland!! Find out more here: www.crazyeventik.ch/Should be an amazing time! The following Sunday, the Youth will again take the stage in Antwerp, Gierle Belgium at the Sjock Festival! Get all the details at www.sjock.com or www.myspace.com/sjockfestival And while you're researching the festivals, get yourself a Facebook page and become a fan of the Youth!! There's a few things posted there that aren't posted elsewhere, such as the covers of all 6 (or is it 7?) issues of the long out of print Untamed Youth fanzine, "The Untamed Whirl"!! All of our 7" single picture sleeves are posted as well as the covers of all of our CD/LP releases. There's loads more to come so become a Fan now!! Go there now: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Untamed-Youth/67777368598?ref=ts

Hope to see you soon!!




Untamed Youth

Hello Friends!
The new issue of Holland's own, "City Trash", includes a Heap Big (11 pages!!) feature on the Untamed Youth!! Lots of memories, memorabilia and photos, to boot! Check out this flyer for ordering info or write to citytrash@hotmail.com
Rumour has it reps from "City Trash" will have this issue (#34) for sale at the Primitive Festival in Rotterdam next week!! You don't want to miss this! And what timing! Just over 2 weeks before the big summer Youth appearances in Switzerland (Hangar Rockin' Festival, July 4) and Belgium (Sjock Festival, July 12)!! Hope to see lots of you there!!

Hi there,
Just wanted to pass along a few more links to articles and photos of Deke's involvement in last week's Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans. Read a column from Deke's hometown newspaper, Columbia Daily Tribune, here: http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2009/may/07/they-all-call-on-dekeat-ponderosa-stomp/ Scroll to the last paragraph for mention of the Youth's upcoming European festival dates!
Next check out these great photo essays from both nights of the Stomp! A few cool shots of Deke sharing the stage with the likes of Dale Hawkins, James Burton and Wanda Jackson, amongst others! See night one photos here: http://www.33-13.com/data/web/stomp8_night1/
For night two pics, go here: http://www.33-13.com/data/web/stomp8_night2/
Hope ya dig 'em!

Steve "Sammy" Rager

Howdy Friends!
Just a couple of months until the big Hangar Rockin' and Sjock Festivals! Speaking of Sjock, our friends, Southern Culture on the Skids, just got added to the line-up! A guaranteed BLAST is now a definite!
In the meantime, our own Deke Dickerson just got some props in the LA Times music blog and the New York Times for his role backing rockabilly legends at the Ponderosa Stomp this past week. Deke and the Ecco-fonics backed such classics as Wanda Jackson, Joe Clay, Dale Hawkins, Johnny Powers and others. You can check the NY Times piece here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/arts/music/01pond.html
The Los Angeles Times Music Blog gives major props to Deke and the Ecco-fonics for the same reason, but goes into more detail and lists the artists he backed! Read all about it here:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_blog/2009/04/new-orleans-ponderosa-stomp-bringing-music-history-to-life.html
In other news, the Untamed Youth now have a rockin' Facebook page! And yours truly now has a personal Facebook page! There's similar content to this MySpace page, but I've tried to make each unique in one way or another. So if you have a Facebook page, and who doesn't nowadays, "friend" the Youth page here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Untamed-Youth/67777368598?ref=ts and feel free to check out my very own personal page here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1650561599&ref=name
I thought I could possibly get away with doing a personal page and actually keep it that way...you know, keeping it to just friends that I hang out with or have known thru the years. Whether it be old school mates that I've reconnected with or friends I made from the touring days of the band. But then I realized, what else is more interesting or exciting than what the Untamed Youth are doing this summer? Well, yeah, getting back on the tennis court today was great! Going to Arizona to watch Spring Training baseball games was definitely cool! Now it's baseball season and watching games on TV is cool! Working at the True/False Film Festival was a good time. Watching the Pacquiao/Hatton fight last night with friends was definitely way cool. But none of this compares with playing big festivals in Switzerland and Belgium this July with the Youth!
So I guess long-lost friends, neighbors, etc., who come across my profile will be in for quite the shock!

Keep on Dancin'!

Steve "Sammy" Rager