THE BLUE ROOM — Who can tell us the history of this place? Or share some experiences there? I remember that Mama did not want me to go there when I was a teenager, but I did sneak in a time or two. Steve Camp has related his experience performing there as a high school student in a band first called The Realistics, then Syndrome. As he recalled those “memorable days” (in a June 25 post): “I played rhythm guitar alongside John Henry Mitchell on lead guitar and Lee Flanagan on bass. Our horn section members were Willie Henderson, Jr. (Bill) on flute/sax, Ronnie "Goat" Davis on tenor sax, Grady Giles on trumpet, occasionally Walter Gilstrap on trombone. My cousin Ray Dean Hamm was the drummer, later replaced by Dickie Graves. The singers were Paulette Hill and Jerry Hill. These were the original members as I remember. Some other members to later come on board were singers Reggie Milsap, Dexter Holden, Fuzzy Graves. One period there was this older gentleman, whose name I don't remember, on Hammond B3 organ and a white guy name Gerald on solo rock style guitar. Most Saturday nights we had the Blue Room jumping and when we were not there Billy Rippleton and the "Wrecking Crew" or "New Birth" had the spotlight.

Portia Aikens-Humphrey recalls that her brother Eddie Jupe Aikens “was a Dj or a member of the Black Six. They would perform at the blue room and many street block parties in our hood. Mom never understood why she couldn't find our Christmas lights. My brother should've been an electrician because he was great with his light show and fog machine.”

Let’s hear more about The Blue Room! (We promise not to tell your parents!!!)

Submitted by E. R. Shipp, July 9, 2017 to the Black Heritage of Rockdale Facebook page

Don't know history of Blue Room but did have some fun times there. I was one of the original members of Syndrome band, originally called the "Realistics". I played rhythm guitar alongside John Henry Mitchell on lead guitar and Lee Flanagan on bass. Our horn section members were Bill Henderson on flute/sax, Ronnie "Goat" Davis on tenor sax, Grady Giles on trumpet, occasionally Walter Gilstrap on trombone. My cousin Ray Dean Hamm was the drummer, later replaced by Dickie Graves. The singers were Paulette Hill and Jerry Hill. These were the original members as I remember. Some other members to later come on board were singers Reggie Milsap, Dexter Holden, Fuzzy Graves. One period there was this older gentleman, whose name I don't remember, on Hammond B3 organ and a white guy name Gerald on solo rock style guitar. Most Saturday nights we had the Blue Room jumping and when we were not there Billy Rippleton and the "Wrecking Crew" or "New Birth" had the spotlight. We also played in other towns throughout the Atlanta metro. Also played on a few of those WAOK road shows. Two or three time we were on a tv show, I think it was called "Upbeat", that feature local talent from the area. Most of us were high school teenagers having fun making us a little pocket money. After graduating I left for a career in the Navy. I lost track of the band's activities, so can't say much more about them. Those were some memorable days.

Steve Camp June 25, 2017 responded to the Blue Room conversation on the Black Heritage of Rockdale Facebook page

Bryson Joyce did his 2019 Senior Class project on the Blue Room. He interviewed various people from the community that went to the Blue Room and or performed at the Blue Room; Ronnie Davis, Eugene Hamm, Eddie Giles, Paulette Hill McDermont and Annette Banks Heard. This is the finished cut of the compilation of interviews. The individual interviews follow this.

A special thank you to Paulette Hill McDermont for inviting former band members to be interviewed; Shelli Siebert, Executive Director Conyers Rockdale Council for the Arts for engaging with Jessica McLaughlin, Film Institute Instructor and the students at the Rockdale Career Academy for recording, editing and presenting the final package

Individual Interviews

Shout out to some of the former band members during the Blue Room period.