BRITANNICA BAND MEMBERS-
TED SOLOVICOS - GUITAR/VOCALS
PETE TENTINDO - LEAD GUITAR/VOCALS
RICHARD MEADER - KEYBOARDS/VOCALS
ED MCNIFF - BASS/
TOM PASCHETTO-DRUMS
Don't Burn the Witch-Studio Version
TED HAS BEEN A MUSICIAN MOST OF HIS LIFE! HE GOT HIS FIRST GUITAR WHEN HE WAS 10 YEARS OLD AND HE'S BEEN PLAYING EVER SINCE!! TED HAS WRITTEN COUNTLESS SONGS OVER HIS YEARS! Ted started playing guitar at the age of 11 years old and wrote his first song the first week he got it! It didn't take long before he got his first amp and started shaking the neighborhood up back in the mid sixties! He found out that his old pal from 1st grade, Jim Rybicki, had a drum set and sought him out in his neighborhood and started jamming at Jim's house, much to the relief of Ted's neighbors! Another grammer school friend, Ed McNiff, found out about the two and bought a bass guitar so he could join and the band was formed! The Trio started playing out at coffee houses and teen dances under the name of NORTHEAST. Through the years they'd brought in different musicians as a fourth member as lead guitarists or keyboardists but most never stayed long as the fourth never really fit in as they were not the type that wanted to hang out or socialise within the band! That was very important in those days that 4 guys bonded with each other and all their friends around them! The one that did for a while was Joe Chalupowski on lead guitar. Odd enough, Joey wasn't a or partier like the others but always was at the parties just to fit in. That 4 went on for a few years, but in 1977, that ended and the band took a break! In 1978, Ted joined a band called STREET TALK along with Dan Stephnick, Joe Thompson, Howie Surhoff, and Bob Fallis. Street Talk lasted about a year and a half playing cover tunes along with some originals written by Ted & Joe Thompson. They played all the top clubs in the North Shore and New England. In 1980, Ted along with Joe Thompson reunited with old friends Jim Rybicki and Ed McNiff, formed a new group and called it SMUGGLER! Ted & Joe wrote many songs for the band and played all the top clubs along the North Shore again! Joe left in 1981 for reasons that we can't talk about and was replaced by Jim Foley! With Jim Foley as lead guitarist and back-up vocalist in the band, he was the missing link they needed and the Smuggler band really took off and started playing the Boston scene! The band started recording and before you knew it, WBCN, along with the help of Carter Allen, started playing some of their originals! The gigs were starting to pile in and Smuggler was getting to be one of the most popular bands in Boston, let alone the North Shore! Many newspaper articles were out about their upbeat partying style! A Smuggler show was really just a big party with their fans as they could rock out and party on stage with the best of them! The band was getting popular enough that they were opening up for many acts such as , Jon Butcher Axis, the Fools, Stompers, etc.... International acts such as Leslie West, and even Bon Jovi in 1985!! Atlantic records reps got involved with Smuggler in the studio in 1985 for which was going to be their first album and had a big time producer involved with the band. Ted was being forced to write all his songs with the same distorted guitar riffs and without the harmony's and keyboards that he wanted to express himself and the band with! Ted wanted to go forward, not backwards with the band! " We'd all written about sex and drugs and rock & roll the past 4 years and thought we could shock everybody with some politics and news of theworld songs along with somewhat the same rocking sound ". Bad blood was starting to flow as the restrictions were a little too much not being able to express what he wanted to do in the studio! Ted was extremely pissed that his new tune "Don't Burn the Witch" was rejected for a cover of an old TROGGS tune for their first l.p. One night,Ted just stormed out of the studio, never to return! The threats of court and written contracts didn't matter to him! Ted was blackballed from playing in Boston and abouts as a result from his departure in 1985. Ted had just about enough and quit music for about 3 years! Ted, his wife and 2 daughters moved up to Maine in 1988 just to get away! 'It was impossible to go anywhere around the north shore without everybody asking why did I break up the band by leaving it". So moving away was a temporary solution. In 1988 Ted opened a music store in Dover New Hampshire called " Lost Chord" that lasted 10 years! When Ted opened his music store, it was next door to a place called the " Workday Cafe'. The Workday had music 7 days a week and before you knew it, Ted was up to playing again. this time as a solo act. Ted started playing acoustic and before you knew it, he was getting popular in the Southern part of Maine & New Hamphire. Ted was friendly with all the dic jockeys at W.H.E.B. in Portsmouth and they started playing some of his originals in 1998. Ted was all of a sudden playing sometimes 8 gigs a week in the summer of 1998. Along with that and running a music store, it was a little too much to handle, so Ted decided to drop the music store and just play again! In 1999 Ted released his "Time Machine" c.d. that had all originals on it. The first 8 songs were recorded during the summer of 1999 and were all written by Ted. Ted actually recorded "Don't Burn the Witch" on the c.d. and is one of the most popular songs on it! The songs were a combination of new material plus 3 older songs that were never recorded by Ted's old band "Smuggler". Ted thought it was about time he recorded the songs that he was forced to leave out of the "Smuggler" sessions back in the mid 1980's. Part 2 of the "Time Machine" c.d. are the "Smuggler" bonus tracks that were never released from 1980-1983. "Second Hand Romance" made airplay on W.B.C.N. (104.1) back in the day when that radio station catered to the Local Boston Rock & Roll scene!
Ted's latest C.D. Titled " A Change of Scenery" was released in late December of 2005. It was more of an acoustic guitar project with less electric guitar than usual. It has lots of harmony and keyboard provided by Ted. The 10 new songs have more of a Beatlelish / Moody Blues/ Kinks, edge to them. Ted also went eclectric with a tune called "Mrs Glo" that was all keyboards and vocals only. It also had 7 more "Smuggler" bonus tracks at the end of it. "Same old Lies" made airplay on w.b.c.n. in 1984. "In the Longrun", written by Ted, made airplay in Boston and actually made airplay in Mexico and placed in the charts along side the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, the Cure etc... Also, closing out the bonus tracks section of this c.d. is Ted's tune called " X-mas Holiday Blues". W.H.E.B. (100.03) out of Portsmouth N.H. plays it every Holiday season.
Ted currently has a T.V. show out of Salem Massachusetts called "Classic North Shore Rock 'N Rollers" which just celebrated it's one year anniversay! Charlie Farren was Ted's guest for the show! Charlie played a couple a tunes and Ted & Charlie chatted for 20 minutes about Charlie's carreer. Season 2 has just started in Salem and the series has been distributed and is showing in Lynn, Swampscott, Beverly and Peabody! For those of you not familier with the show it consists of old R & R footage (pre-1990) from bands out of the Boston and North Shore area. There's an interview in the middle of the one hour show from x-band members who are willing to come on the show and talk about what they were about at the time. They get a chance to update their old fans at where they are at this point of time in their life, wheather they're still in the music business or not, etc... Ted's old band "Smuggler" was the first band to air on the series. The show was video taped from the "Grover House" in Beverly Massachusetts in 1982. Other bands on the show have been, Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, Gary Shane & the Detour, Revolver, Private Lightning, Blue Tiger, just to name a few!!
Ted is currently getting the band ready for the spring of 2008 and plans are being made for the first show in the North Shore area in the months of April & May! The band name will be "Britannica". Ted will be on guitar along with Ed McNiff on Bass, Richard Meader ..boards, and Tom Paschetto on Drums. This line-up did play a short 35 minute set as more of a practice at the Halloween Haunted Happenings concert on October 29th in front of a huge crowd in the middle of Salem, Mass. It was video taped for Salem Access Television and was played throughout the month of November on channel 3 in Salem. It's repeated at times on S.A.T.V.
Ted is also recording his new C.D. as of this writing! There are 6 new songs just about ready to master and about 4-6 more ready to record! Check out the "Kingdom Hall Follies" as one of the new tracks that is just about ready here on My Space!!
Below this bio is a video clip of Ted from Wakefield Access Television taped in May of 2006. Check it out!!
Ted, thanks for the add and right back at..cha. You and Pete sounded phenomenal. In reading your bio, I..m sure we..ve crossed paths before. I look forward to catching you guys again.
I had a great time watching you and Peter at In a Pig's Eye last night. You guys were awesome. Great covers! Excellent sound, and great harmonizing on the vocals. I loved it when you played "Paint It Black", and "Day Tripper". Great stuff. Cheers!
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