Devious Croll - History

Genesis:

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Guitarists Mark Kozma and Tony Roso had known each other for a number of years, mainly through other musicians in and around the Doylestown area. Circa 1978, Mark had left the band Iron Cross and Tony was searching for a group to settle into. Happenstancially, the two got together with the notion of forming a band. Though they did not know it at the time, Devious Croll was born.

But two guitarists does not a band make, and the search was on to fill the voids. Tony had heard of this guy Greg Webster, later to be referred to as Retsbew or simply Rets, a classmate reported to be a good drummer. Tony

stopped Rets in the hallways of Central Bucks West high school and asked if he'd be interested in hacking out a few tunes. Showing a bit of interest, he was subsequently hounded by Tony until the three set up a jam session.

After a few practices, the group displayed trace elements of promise, and this is where legend kicks in: Reportedly, Rets and a friend of his named Kevin McCarter were out "partying". Exactly what that entails for a couple of high schoolers, we'll leave that for you to decide. But Kevin, for reasons evident only to himself at the time, offers Devious Croll as a potential band name. Rets conveys this to Mark and Tony and, for better or for worse, the name stuck.

Bassless Trio:

Devious Croll was now official, and though they had no reason to be playing out in public without a bass player, they did so anyway, surviving mostly on Blue Öyster Cult: Secret Treaties songs and a few blues tunes.

Now, it's one thing to play in Scott Snyder's basement for a few friends, but quite another to be playing parties in front of strangers. It did prove they were capable, though, as no beer bottles or other injury-causing projectiles were hurled in their direction.

After banging their heads against the wall trying out this person and interviewing that person over a period of months, fellow classmate Craig Linke hooked them up with bassist Bob Thorn, a neighbor of Craig's from a rival high school.

Fourplay:

Devious Croll could now set out in earnest. They started showing up at parties (sometimes uninvited) and any place else that would have them. Either they grew on people or they legitimately improved, because they started developing the beginnings of a following.

This culminated when they had the unmitigated audacity to play a 10:30 PM weekend show at Doylestown's famous County Theatre on October 27th, 1978. Just who did these guys think they were? A relatively unknown band whose résumé included no more than a handful non-paying high school parties trying to fill up a 620-seat auditorium?

Thanks in part to $1.00 general admission tickets, they sold the place out. Security was awful, Hi-Z mics made them louder than a NASCAR race, and their song list was still heavily dependent upon a single BÖC album. All the elements of a disaster.

It was an unqualified success.

A Shot Of Jack Daniels:

In an effort to spruce up their song list, Croll decided to tackle a few Top-40 hits and other popular tunes. This presented a problem, though. Keyboards were needed to play these radio songs, and the only person with any keyboard talent at the time (and not much at that) was Tony, who was already responsible for the lead guitars.

Enter Greg J.D. Sadowski, a classically-trained pianist with a desire to play in a rock band. To say J.D. fit in right away would be akin to saying you can use Volkswagen Beetle parts on an early '80s Toyota Pickup. But they moved out of Mark's parent's garage and into the Sadowski family-owned Frame Factory store and made it work.

Armed with an expanded song list and a more mainstream sound, they took on the County Theatre once again on March 31st, 1979. This time, tickets were $2.00, more security was put in place, and the Zeo Brothers provided sound reinforcement.

Though not a sell-out, three-quarters of the seats were still sold and those who had attended both shows saw a measurable improvement in quality. And other than a serious loss of timing in their intro, an excerpt from BÖC's live version of Maseratti GT, which they miraculously recovered from, their performance was nearly perfect.

The Bell Crolls For Thee:

Devious Croll went on to play a lot more gigs, and were often seen driving around Doylestown in Crollmobiles I and II, a pair of parent-owned Grand Torino stationwagons.

But as the leaves fall off a tree one by one as Winter approaches, so did the members of Devious Croll. Mark joined the Air Force, Tony and Bob split off to form a Rush-inspired power trio, Rets and J.D. delved into academic pursuits, and by 1980 Devious Croll was just a memory.