SIX in History

In a scene not unlike the day Paul McCartney first met John Lennon, SIX's guitarist Walter Ogier first saw John Swartz playing at a private party in 2004 (where John was playing bass and singing "Brown-Eyed Girl"). The two started jamming at Walter's house with drummer Tony Clark on an occasional basis. In early 2006, Walter brought in friends Bruce Lauterwasser and Stephen Cole for some added vocals and guitar, and soon keyboardist Wendell Wickerham joined the band as well. Due to scheduling conflicts, Tony Clark (who played in a jazz combo) dropped out, and Scott Gilmour was quickly added to the mix.

Of course, trying to coordinate the schedules of 6 middle-aged guys with family and jobs is not always an easy task, and early rehearsals consisted usually of 3-4 members of the group getting together to jam and figure out songs. September 17th, 2006 was a momentous day in the band's history as it was the first time that the entire line-up practiced together. Sensors at the US Geological Survey no doubt recorded the tremors that must have resulted...

The band continued to rehearse on the third floor of Walter's house, and soon moved to the space above Wendell's garage (where there was more space, a little less chance of disturbing family members, and a refrigerator for the beer). October 1st, 2006 was another historical moment as the band played it's first official gig: for the annual talent show at the Second Congregational Church in Winchester. While neither having an official PA system (cobbling together some various speakers/amps, and microphones) nor an official name (billing themselves as "Mid-Life Crisis" for the evening), the band brought down the house with 2 rousing 2-song sets ("Secret Agent Man" and "Like a Rolling Stone", later followed by "Cinnamon Girl" and "La Bamba") and an encore ("Breakdown").

Bolstered by their first live performance as a group (and the reaction from their suddenly expanding fanbase), the group forged on, learning more material, and securing a decent PA system (monitors are a beautiful thing). With potential gigs in the Spring of 2007 looming, it was time to establish the band's identity. After month's of discussions and emails, consultations with family and friends, websearches, and voting on approximately 50 different names (see Our FAQ for a list of names considered), the name "SIX" was chosen on April 11th, 2007.

The first gig of 2007 was in May, at the Waldorf School in Lexington, MA - notable in that SIX played for the school's semi-regular "coffeehouse", which usually features only acoustic performers. After getting special dispensation from the school to bring in their vast array of amplifiers, they proceeded to provide the crowd with a truly "electric" performance. Two outdoor private parties over the summer in the band's home town of Winchester followed. The first was notable for being their first performance (and only, so far) to be shut down by local police. 2 additional gigs in 2007 came on consecutive weekends in November. First, the band played at the First Congregational Church in Winchester. The event was held both as a social event, as well as a fundraiser to benefit the Woburn Council of Social Concern. A week later, SIX performed at Winchester's Town Hall in support of a fundraiser for the Winchester ABC Program (Winchester ABC is a chapter of A Better Chance, Inc., a national nonprofit organization founded in 1963 to provide academically talented male and female scholars of color with expanded educational and career opportunities.). For the night, SIX first backed local singer Annette Farrington on a number of songs, and then proceeded to keep the patrons dancing with a more standard SIX setlist.

SIX kicked off 2008 playing for a friend's 50th birthday party. 3 months later, the band played as part of a fundraiser for Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA, opening for "Five O'Clock Shadow", one of the area's premier a cappella groups. A number of photos from this gig can be seen on the publicty page. June 2008 was a milestone month in the history of SIX as the band played from one end of the state of Massachusetts to the other - performing at Williams College (Walter's alma mater) in Williamstown (a power outage in the area prior to the gig almost forced the band to do the gig "unplugged"; and after power was restored, a neighbor's complaints of the volume almost cut short the performance), and 5 days later performing in Boston at Berklee College of Music's "Cafe 939". With this gig, the band had officially "made the big time at last", nearly packing the 200-seat venue in their first ever "club gig", and played 2 high-energy sets that could not be stopped, no matter how many guitar strings (2 - one by Walter and one by Bruce) were broken! The gig was also notable as an article about the club that mentioned SIX appeared on PAGE 1 of the BOSTON GLOBE (May 13th, 2008). Tickets for the gig were available through TicketMaster, and perhaps best of all, some video of SIX performing (and being interviewed prior to the gig) was released on the web - check the publicity page for a link to the video. One additional private party rounded out the month, and then the band took a "summer vacation", and spent most of the fall expanding and perfecting its repertoire.

Tragedy struck the band in early 2009 as keyboardist Wendell Wickerham passed away suddenly on February 4th. At his memorial at the First Congregational Church in Winchester (where over 500 family and friends gathered), SIX performed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (one of the songs we had been working on to perform as a band for the first time), "Soul Kitchen" (featuring a signature keyboard intro - handled by Bruce Lauterwasser on this occasion), and "So You Want to be a Rock and Roll Star" (because Wendell would've wanted us to "rock the house").

SIX performed again in Winchester in May of 2009 for a fundraiser for the Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence (tickets were $175 each!). Guesting on keyboards was fellow Winchester resident Shukong Ou. The evening also featured guest Winchester vocalists Carol Savage (singing "It's So Easy") and Margo Sprague (singing "The First Cut is the Deepest"). Prior to a return engagement at Berklee College of Music's "Cafe 939" in September, fellow Winchester resident Steve Bratt joined the band as the new keyboard player. SIX was "Six" once more. Following that performance (captured on DVD, which will perhaps be released some day as part of the band's anthology box set), SIX was invited to again play at Cafe 939 in December, as part of a corporate "Battle of the Bands". Rocking the house with six of our best tunes (which can be seen in their entirety on our publicity page, we almost won the audience vote (we fell short by just 2 votes), but had perhaps our best performance to date.

With the band continuing to expand its repertoire, SIX embarked on a summer "tour" in 2010. We again played the Winchester Foundation for Educational Excellence fundraiser in May. After two private parties in June and July (the second being notable both as the lead vocal singing debut of Scott Gilmour, but also a reunion with Tony Clark as a guest drummer), SIX rocked the hometown of Winchester on the Town Common. Three days later, the band travelled to Barnard, Vermont to take part in the town's annual street party on the shores of Silver Lake. The tour concluded in September with another outdoor party in Lexington (for the Waldorf School), and the band wrapped up the year with another appearance at "Cafe 939" in Boston in October.