AMBUSH Band History Page 1

So the story begins...In the early 1980's a young Drummer Sal Flamma met an inspiring guitarist and wanna be singer Steve Russo in a High School art class in Vineland, A small town in Southern New Jersey. Both were painting a picture of their favorite member of the band KISS on the opposite sides of art class. After a few talks and calls they got together and jammed in Sal's basement, playing Cheap Trick, KISS and Cars Tunes.

But as fate would have it, nothing else would happen until 1984 when after playing with a few different people, Steve hooked up with a girl singer who was trying to put a band together for an outdoor Labor Day concert and they needed a drummer. That's when the call was made and Sal and long time friend and Bass player Gabe Guaciaro joined Steve and Local Singer Gina Warzbok and Local Guitarist Clint Rhuebar for what would later become, AMBUSH. The show was a success but this band would end soon after. Clint was soon replaced by another local guitarist Bill Jerrell and Gina was asked to leave shortly after that. Sal and Gabe felt that Steve should be the singer. "I had no choice in the matter, we didn't have one and I agreed to do it until we found someone else" Steve said. Little did I know that I would still be there 16 years later! The band booked their first show in January 1985 at a small club in South Jersey called the Brownstone. We didn't have a name for the band and the club owner needed a name for the news paper ad, So I told him, "Call us back in 15 minutes and I'll let you know" Steve Said. I had a list of 12 names and no one could agree on any of them. Ambush was the last one on the page and it was the only one they didn't have a problem with. The show went well, considering the P.A. blew up half way through the show and it snowed, but we played our asses off for the 50 people who came and it was the birth of the band. We played Schools, Campgrounds, Parties, anywhere they would let us play. "We were a cover band and a bad one at that" Steve said! When we played a song, It didn't sound anything like the original. And that's why we decided to do our own music. If we were going to play songs bad, they might as well be our own! In the spring of 1986, Bill Jerrell left the band. We wanted a permanent member that had the same vision we did. The word and ads went out, and the only person that called was a young guitarist named Robby "Sassa" Millard from Millville New Jersey. "He was young but he had his shit together", Steve said. The kid could Rip, but he also had a good sense of melody and that's what counts! It turns out that Robby had also been at that same Labor day concert the year before and seen the band play and he said at the audition, "I always knew that I would be in this band"!

After writing 10 songs the band started playing the local club scene, which was any place that would let you play your own music and that was about 2 clubs! We played our first show at our old High School for about 75 people and it went great! After seven months of playing, the band parted ways with original Bass player Gabe Guaciaro. In January of 1987 Robby suggested bringing in a hot new Bass player he discovered, which happened to be his younger brother Billy! It turns out that Billy was learning all the songs and show moves just incase anything ever happened to Gabe.

So by early February, Billy was ready to go, and that's when things took off! We landed a gig right away at a club in Somerdale N.J. called the Galaxy opening for a band that would later go on to hit it big...Cinderella. It was a great place to play and we opened for some great bands like Teeze, Britney Fox and Tangier to name a few, Steve said. We started playing bigger clubs up and down the east coast and even flying out to the clubs on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood like the Roxy and Gazzarri's. On top of that, our 4 song demo was getting airplay on radio stations on the east and west coast. It was a great time for the band! Then in early 1989, with a Loan from Long time friend and band manager Frank Bruno and from Robby and Billy's Aunt and Uncle, the band released their first album, AMBUSH on their own label. Family and Friends were our biggest support team, without their help, who knows what might have happened! Every label you could think of rejected us, But the band had the final laugh. It went on to sell 19,000 copies! The best part of all of this was, we had 2 songs that were added to a few Top 40 stations play list. On Your Knees and Still In Love With You were in the top 10 most requested songs on 3 radio stations at the same time. "We would be in a store shopping and suddenly you would hear a song being played on the radio that you wrote in your bedroom at 3 in the morning and talk about weird! Steve said. It was Very Cool, but weird!