Tom Campbell

Tom  Campbell  Historian

 

Contents:

 

History

Tom Campbell hosts a series of Interviews with many Local Band members and other music Industry Professionals from 1955 to 1975

Listen to interviews with The Stillroven, The Underbeats, and more using the links at right —>

About Tom:

Tom Campbell grew up in Bloomington in the 1960’s, just a few short blocks from the WDGY Radio Studio and the 9 transmission towers blasting out rock’n’roll 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with 50,000 watts of power.  It was on “Wee Gee” that Tom first heard the hit songs recorded by the local Twin Cities bands.  His first concert was at The Met Stadium in Bloomington on August 21, 1965, the band was from Liverpool, England… The Beatles.

In the 1970’s Tom began collecting 45’s and albums, with a focus on Minnesota rock bands and was a frequent attendee at the ARC Record Conventions, held on a regular basis at a Holiday Inn near downtown St. Paul.  It was at one of these record conventions that Tom first met Tom Tourville, from Winona, an avid record collector and Midwest rock’n’roll historian.  In 1981, the two Toms decided to pay tribute to the local bands by holding an autograph session during one of the record shows.  They rounded up about 15 musicians from various local bands and put together a flyer that featured photos of the bands.  This successful event would be the very first tribute event that recognized the talented local musicians from the 1960’s.

Throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and into the new century, interest in the local bands continued to grow, resulting in numerous reunion concerts and various events that promoted musicians and band members from Minnesota.  Over the years, Tom has been actively involved in various local music projects and events including The Heritage Festival, The Mill City Music Festival, Rock Country Hall (now renamed as The Mid America Music Hall of Fame), The Soma Records Story concerts, The Big Kids of Mid America film documentary and the traveling historical display, Music and Memories.  In addition, Tom has worked as a record producer, songwriter, musician, music critic, concert promoter and is the host of the underground radio show Minnesota Gold.

With 30 years of research into the local music scene, Tom has now joined forces with  Denny Johnson from Sunrise Sound Studios to document and preserve the history of the local music scene through minniepaulmusic.com.  One feature of the website is a series of audio interviews with local band members and other music industry people with a focus on the 1955 to 1975 time period.  Tom believes the best way to preserve the history of the local music scene is to get the information firsthand, from the band members who made the music and the others who contributed.

A Personal Message from Tom:

I would like to say thank you to everyone who has participated in these interviews.  Thanks to you the stories of the vibrant twin cities music scene during the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s will now be documented and preserved.  To all who may listen to these interviews I hope that you find them informative and entertaining.

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Photos  (Click a photo to see it full-screen, then click the arrows to see the next one.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where are they now?

 

  • Tom  Campbell  passed  away  on  February  5,  2021  at  9:07 pm

  • Tom  did  50%  of  everything  on  minniepaul.com  and  will  be  greatly  MISSED !!

 

Tom  Campbell

February  5,  2021

Today  I  Say  Goodbye  to  a  Great  Friend  and  a  partner  in  minniepaulmusic.com

who  has  spent  the  last  eleven  years  by  my  side  doing  Research  and  writing  Bio’s

and  also  doing  Audio  Interviews  on  many  many  Minneapolis – St. Paul  and  Mid West

Bands  that  are  posted  on  our  website  minniepaulmusic.com

 

We  spent  endless  hours  on  this  site  trying  to  get  as  much  information  on  everybody

as  we  could,  a  lot  of  people  thought  we  were  a  pain  and  in  some  cases  we  probably

were,  but  you  want  to  tell  the  story  right  and  with  accuracy  to  where  you  can  bring

the  entire  story  to  the  public  and  feel  that  –  You  got  it  right

 

In  the  beginning  we  worked  every  single  weekend  and  sometimes  during  the  week

trying   to  get  all  the  information  we  possibly  could  before  we  did  any  posting,  I’ll  say

this  went  on  for  8  years,   We  didn’t  mind  because  we  were  History  Junkie’s  to

give  the  people  a  clear  picture  of  what  it  was  like  back  then  in  those  bands  and

never  got  paid  a  cent  for  it — Because  we  Loved  it.

 

Then  we  entered  3  years  of  the  Website  crashes  do  to  Hackers  looking for  credit  card

and  Bank  account  numbers  to  Benefit  them  which  we  did  not  have.

 

I  don’t  know  anybody  who  would  give  up  that  much  time  of  their  lives  just  to  tell

a  story  on  Mid West  Bands,  But  we  did  it  and  still  are  very  proud  of  the  out  come,

Tom  and  I  were  both  extremely  fussy  people  who  had  to  have  things  a  certain  way

 

Tommy  Boy  you  will  be  missed  by  many  people  who  you  have  touched  their  lives

by  having  Interest  in  what  their  Life  was  about  without  even  bringing  up  your  Life,

you  were  an  extremely  generous  man  to  put  hours  of  your  life  into  someone  else’s

 

Tom  Campbell

Love  You  Lots  for  all  the  Good  and  Great  care  you  have  brought  to  people  and

We  Will  Miss  You  a  Lifetime…………………….Denny  Johnson

 

 

Interview

 

Interview 

Bill  Miller  of  The  Accents  was  Interviewing  Tom  September  1,  2012