Jon



Jon "Baldheaded Jonny" Standridge has been a life long Madison resident. He started taking guitar lessons back in 1959 along with lead guitarist Mark Loder, although they never played in a band together until the Relics started.

Mark (on left) and Jon making their very first public appearance backing up the 6th grade choir at Crestwood School in 1959.
Budding guitar players Jon Standridge (left), Steve Anderson (middle), and Mark (right) doing their first paying gig at "The Roost" Youth Center in Middleton, Wi in 1962. Greg DuBois on drums.
Jon started playing actual paid rock and roll gigs in 1964 as part of a Madison based band called the Fugitives. (check out the 1965 photo below. He's the one on the right kneeling before he took on the "baldheaded" descriptor) The Fugitives played top 40 rock and roll cover tunes on the Madison fraternity party and beer bar circuit. They cut one record, You're the Kind Of Girl That I Go For, which Rockin' John MacDonald still plays on his annual WORT show featuring Wisconsin rock bands.

The Fugitives in 1965. Jon Standridge is kneeling on the front right.
He started out playing rhythm guitar for the Fugitives but switched to bass when the band down-sized in 1965. After the Fugitives disintegrated in 1967 because of the Vietnam war (everyone else in the band either enlisted or got drafted) he took six months off before joining The Changing Tydes Review. The "Tydes" featured a horn section and 4 singers doing a combination of top 40 rock along with lots of Memphis and Detroit based soul music. The band worked the Wisconsin weekend road trip bar circuit during the school year. Summers were spent playing week long club gigs in Lake Geneva WI and Battle Creek MI.

Jon retired from active playing from 1970 until 1996 to focus on other things like raising kids and working as a water microbiologist for the University of Wisconsin - State Laboratory of Hygiene.

Jon's view of the band: "The Relics band provides a wonderful way to not only keep these great old rock and roll songs alive, but also offers an excellent vehicle to share the fun. The only way to really experience this music is in a small club with everyone dancing and having a good time."