Lost & Found Sound: KISD Tribute to Steve Ellis

On August 31, 1967 Steve Ellis, leader of Steve Ellis and the Starfires, was killed in a motorcycle accident on Highway 23 just south of Pipestone, Minnesota. His death came as a shock to everyone in the local music community. How someone so vital, so alive, die? Two weeks following Steve's death, Tom Rambler from KISD radio assembled the three remaining members of the Starfires -- Barry Hansen, Mike Mulligan, and Dean Senthner -- for an interview to remember Steve. The interview was made into a half-hour radio program that also featured the band's music. The program aired on KISD in late September 1967. I recorded it off-the-air on my Wollensak reel-to-reel tape deck.