Florian Monday & Band were from Woonsocket, Rhode Island. This is their first record on Realm. The follow-up was "Rip It, Rip It Up", known to the real music lovers all around the world.
According to a Billboard snippet from 1964,
Boom Boom Branigan, WPTR (Albany), was so impressed with the Realm recording swingers, Florian Monday and the Mondos, after catching them at a record hop at Saratoga Springs, he booked the group for a week at Albany’s University Swing Club owned by a friend of his. « They’ll rock the place », he assured his friend. An dwell they might have if they could have gotten in. Seems all but Florian were under 18 years of age. [Billboard, August 22, 1964]
A deserved recognitionFlorian Monday memorial located in plaza in front of former courthouse in Woonsocket.
The sculpture is entitled "The Hiker"
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UPDATE (March 9, 2012) : A brand new blog, Rip It Up R.I., A discography of rock and roll vinyl records from the state of Rhode Island in the 1960s, has a detailed story of Florian Monday and His Mondos. Check it out !
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florian monday or al as I knew him sold used cars at Framingham auto city for A number of years. He is A very cool guy and I beleive he is well and liveing in bellingham mass. He once told me that the great Duke Roblard of providence R.I. was his second string guitarist.he played with florian when he was just 15 years old this was confirmed by Duke
ReplyDeletei played at saratoga springs with florian. (driving guitar) background
ReplyDeletehope he's doing well ... roland b
yes he did sell used cars in framingham and he goes by "Al". A very dishonest person!!!! Makes many promises to you, says that he is very "rich" but he takes you for everything you have.Also says he has connections with the Gardner Museum Art Theft??????? Anyone know where he is??? He owes me ALOT of money!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe person who wrote this passed away he worked with Al at auto city and al did owe him money but he had every intention of paying the money back but fell on hard times with his health and was not able to work
Deletehe lives in Bellingham Ma. & spent time in jail for the Art Heist he must be 70 by now
ReplyDeleteWOULD ANYONE KNOW HOW I COULD REACH FLORIAN TO INTERVIEW HIM ABOUT THE MONDOS?? THANKS
ReplyDeleteJACK RIVERS WWW.WNRI.COM
I'm from Woonsocket, but just recently heard 'Mondo Mondo” for the first time! Wild, wild stuff (+early Duke Robillard, too tho he joined the band after this recording).“Mondo Mondo” is STILL getting airplay. The original (scratchy) 45 was played Feb 4, 2014 at 10:30pm on WHRB 95.3FM Cambridge MA by Dinos on his show Our Little Rendez-vous (Two hours of looking in the universe for rock'n'roll from all dimensions, every Tuesday from ten to midnight) & he mentioned the Woonsocket connection (as it's on the record's label). Link to that playlist on Spinitron: http://spinitron.com/radio/playlist.php?station=whrb&month=Feb&year=2014&playlist=15395
ReplyDeleteLuckily as a fan of the show, I tape recorded it. The New England Teen Scene and Teenage Shutdown compilation series mentioned above are just the kind of things Dinos features on his show. His theme song (Simla Beat Theme by the Fentones) is super-catchy. Check him out. If 95.3FM is too close to WBRU at 95.5, WHRB does stream live at www.whrb.org
I googled the image of the "monument" pictured above .. It is a Spanish American was monuments built in the early 1900's. Not a monument to Florian Monday.
ReplyDeleteFunny, he conned people on the statue, too ??
ReplyDeleteI knew Florian extremely well, was his caregiver/ companion for 4 years. There was no one like Al Monday! RIP
ReplyDeleteI worked with Al for many years at Framingham auto city he was quite an interesting guy. I worked nights as a musician playing mostly blues he asked me one day if I knew of Duke robalard I told him that I did and he told me that he had a band in the sixty's and that Duke was his second string guitar player and that he played with him at palasades Park and the n.y. world's fair. I thought he was full of shit but I saw Duke at a guitar show in Waltham ma. and he confirmed the story and said that al or Florian Monday gave him his first big break Duke was 15 years old at the time that he played in Florian's band I loved listening to his stories we fell out of touch many years ago I had no idea he passed away r.i.p.al
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