The Louie Report

The blog for all things LOUIE LOUIE

Menu
  • LOUIE LOUIE History
  • Richard Berry
  • FAQ
  • FBI Investigation
  • The Documentary
  • LLAMAS
  • Contact
Menu

Greetings from Portland – the Mike Mitchell memorial + the LOUIE plaques

Posted on October 11, 2021

Two weeks ago, yours truly made a little visit to Portland, Oregon.

I wanted to pay my respects to Mike Mitchell, a founding member of the Kingsmen. From 1967 until his passing this year, he was the only member of the original band that recorded LOUIE LOUIE that was still part of the Kingsmen in 2021. He passed away on April 16th – his 77th birthday.

On Sunday, September 26th, there was a celebration of Mike’s life at the Aladdin Theater in Portland. There was music and memories shared by friends and family of Mike Mitchell.

Mike’s last incarnation of the Kingsmen, led by longtime member Dick Peterson, featuring Mike’s Brother Dennis Mitchell, provided most of the music that evening, joined by Mike’s son Max Mitchell on bass, special guests Mike Skill (of the Romantics), Tommy Tutone, Greg Georegeson, Danny Schauffler, Jennifer Batten (Michael Jackson guitarist), and various others whose names escape me. Phil “Fang” Volk and Jim Valley also performed a short set as an abbreviated version of Paul Revere & the Raiders, assisted by Alex Hart (son of longtime Raiders manager Roger Hart) on drums.

The program began with assorted video testimonies from friends of Mike, which included both Paul Shaffer and Will Lee of David Letterman‘s old TV show, Merilee Rush, Gary U.S. Bonds, Arnel Pineda of Journey and original Kingsmen member Don (Gallucci) Caverhill, among others.

I was fortunate to be able to document this evening with the assistance of my friend and LOUIE associate producer David Jester of Pro Video Productions of Portland. You can see some of that footage at the end of this post, with more to come later.

All in all, it was a great evening to celebrate Mike’s life. Hats off to Terry Currier and Alex Hart for producing this fine event.

While I was in town, I was able to obtain some relatively rare archival footage and shoot some new segments for this documentary of mine, including some moments with the current caretakers of the two LOUIE LOUIE plaques (1993 + 2013) – Sean Ely (son of Jack) and Terry Currier (co-producer of event / owner of Music Millenium / chairman of Oregon Music Hall of Fame).

In closing, here’s a snippet from Mike Mitchell’s memorial. This is the big LOUIE LOUIE finale, featuring a lot of guitar solos as a special way of paying tribute to the guitar legacy of Mike Mitchell.*

I’ll try share more clips from that show…which are still being assembled..

– E.P. of LouieLouie.net

____________

* – Yes, we know that Mike Mitchell replicated Rich Dangel‘s guitar work on the Rockin’ Robin Roberts (Wailers) LOUIE LOUIE recording of 1961. Mike has acknowledged that in interviews.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Louie Louie Alliances

  • All of LOUIEs (WIki powered) 0
  • Andy's Louie Pages 4
  • LOUIE Day – LLamas 1
  • Louie Louie – Wikipedia 0
  • LOUIE LOUIE Party (Facebook group) 1
  • Mike's Louie pages 3
  • Phil's Louie pages 3
  • Theo's Louie Pages (1st LOUIE site – preserved) 2

Recent Comments

  • Mark Maye on The Pink Chunk / Conrad Uno – LOUIE of the Week
  • Norman Schwagler on Please Help Freddie Dennis! (singer w/ Sonics, Kingsmen) – LOUIE of Week
  • Elizabeth on RIP: Kerry Magness
  • Pamela Backstrom on RIP: Shirley Fisher, photo teacher + inspiration for LOUIE of the week
  • EP on Dorothy Berry – The World Needs Peace
  • Gloria A Jones on Dorothy Berry – The World Needs Peace
  • Teresa Wood on RIP: Barry Rillera, guitarist of Rhythm Rockers, Righteous Bros, more..
  • fred mello on July 7 = Rock and Roll History in San Jose
  • Nacy Keith on RIP: Bob Summerrise, legendary Seattle DJ / record store owner
  • John Shipman on RIP: Gary Abbott, drummer with Kingsmen
  • Todd T-Bone on RIP: Scott Long – musician, promoter, multi-talent
  • John A Davis on RIP: Robert Lindahl, audio engineer for Kingsmen, Paul Revere & Raiders
  • Jess on RIP: Anthony Randall, lost son of Johnny Flamingo
  • Selena Kamelamela (Alcain) on Hawaiian Kingsmen
  • Ron Fowler on Twas 60 years ago today…..
©2023 The Louie Report | Theme by SuperbThemes