A guest series by Steve McLean
There should be a subtitled to this blog called The New Cactus Band’s Album ‘Son of Cactus’ is boss and everyone should own a copy.
There are very few success stories when it comes to a band named with the prefix ‘New’ (unless of course New Order are a revamped version of a band called Order in which case they did very well, although the original Kids on the Block have a lot to answer for).
The New Cactus Band are one of the few ‘New’ to buck that trend. Perhaps because they didn’t just hit the nostalgia or bar circuit, on account of the fact that they formed a few months after the parent band broke up. Their incarnation was official or at least semi-official, plus they actually recorded new material.
The original Cactus were a heavy rock outfit with some lightly sprinkled prog leanings. They were formed by former Vanilla Fudge members Carmine Appice and Tim Bogert. An early incarnation had them joined by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart before both being replaced by Rusty Day from Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes and Jim McCarty from The Detroit Wheels (not the Yardbirds geezer). Which feels a bit like the director of Casablanca getting rid of Bogart and replacing him with Chachi from Happy Days.
They shifted line ups a few times until the final version of Appice, Bogert, Werner Fritzschings on guitar, Duane Hitchings on keyboards and vocals by former Atomic Rooster man Peter French in 1972 wound up.
Appice and Bogert were given another chance to play with Jeff Beck which was, quite frankly more appealing than listening to punters shout Vanilla Fudge requests all night. They generously gifted the band name to Hitchings and his former Blues Image bandmate, guitarist and vocalist, Mike Pinera. Pinera had written Blues Image’s only hit single and hand been in the second most successful Iron Butterfly line up.
“We gave the rest of the Cactus name to Duane Hitchings, who was the keyboard player in Cactus, and who later on co-wrote ‘Do You Think I’m Sexy’ and ‘Young Turks’ with me and Rod. We’d been friends a long time, so gave him and Mike Pinera Cactus and they did an album for Atlantic called ‘Son Of Cactus’“ Carmine Appice Outsider Rock, Feb 2022
It seems Pinera was first enticed to Cactus before Appice and Bogert left. The band had ideas to try to finally score a hit record and Mike was the seen as the writer who could deliver it and was retained after the offer from Jeff Back came through.
“I was invited to join ‘Cactus’ and we wanted Michael Pinera desperately. Michael was from the ‘Blues Image’. He wrote ‘Ride Captain Ride’ and he was in ‘Iron Butterfly’.. he was such a phenomenal player and a great guitar player and wrote hit records which Cactus needed badly” Duane Hitchings, Classicbands.com
mp3: The Blues Image – Captain Ride
As the New Cactus Band, Hitchings and Pinera with Roland Robinson on bass and Jerry Norris on drums recorded the excellent album Son of Cactus. It’s something of an unappreciated 1970s lost classic, at least for the style. The fans of the original band were turning their nose up at the record as it lacks the heavy oomph of the parent band. In spite of poor sales, the album was well reviewed.
(Contemporary review of the Son of Cactus)
mp3: The New Cactus Band – It’s Getting Better
It’s Getting Better opens the album and is an earworm of gentle proportions. It manages to be both a pub-rock boogie and have an AM country feel.
mp3: The New Cactus Band – Ragtime Suzy
Ragtime Suzy is another driving radio gem. It’s a simple blues led rock about a woman. If this turned up in the film Roadhouse you’d say to yourself ”Why the fuck am I watching Roadhouse, I’m not a deadbeat dad in 1986”
mp3: The New Cactus Band – Senseless Rebel
Okay, so some of the songs like Senseless Rebel have a Status Quo feel but it’s like Quo’s cool, drunk older cousin that told Quo all their stories and then Quo re-told them as their own stories in school after the summer holidays. That’s fucking typical of them. Also, the song features a talk-box and talk-boxes are spit-fuelled-magic makers.
As a live band, the Robinson and Norris line-up didn’t last long. Charlie Souza of The Allman Brothers and Bobby Caldwell of the Edgar Winter Band and Captain Beyond came on board to tour the record.
I joined the Allman Brothers in early 1973 and went up to New York.. I stayed with Gregg (Allman) in the same room where he had a mountain of cocaine on the dresser. (He was) constantly sniffing it when he brought in a groupie (and had) sex in the bed right next to me, the week before I attended his wedding! I freaked out and luckily an old friend, Drummer and leader of Captain Beyond called me and asked me to come over to Long Island to join the new Cactus band. I didn’t have a second thought about leaving Gregg and hopped in a cab over to Mike Pinera’s apartment where I met Duane Hitchings – Charlie Souza, The New Cactus Band April 2025
Once again, unlike other “New” bands, the authenticity of this outfit is hammered home by Carmine Appice aiding the new band to get up and running.
“We rehearsed the music, Carmine (Appice) helped us with vocal rehearsals at Mike’s place” Charlie Souza, The New Cactus Band April 2025
But in reality, it seems that the name New Cactus Band was little more than a legal swerve to put their record out as more often than not the band were still getting booked and promoted as simply Cactus (and sometimes Cactus Featuring Mike Pinera). Some of that may have been cavalier promoters but it didn’t seem to bother the group much;
“Neither Mike or Bobby cared at all, as they were really stoned. Duane didn’t talk about the business part, so I wasn’t really aware what was going on” Charlie Souza, The New Cactus Band April 2025
(Various adverts from 73 / 74 for Cactus, The New Cactus Band and Cactus featuring Mike Pinera)
The New Cactus Band continue to tour around the US with smaller headline shows and high-profile support slots, indulging in everything rock and roll has to offer.
“We played Most all of their album plus a few standard blues tunes and toured the northeast for a couple of months and then we started opening concerts with Bob Seger. I had an affair with one of his background singers” Charlie Souza, The New Cactus Band via Email April 2025
By moving away from the original line up songs, they were able to make the band their own. They were cementing something of a live reputation. The record may have struggled but as a live act they were still a going concern.
“They went out on tour and must’ve grossed through the year like 7 to 800,000 thousand in a year, which was big money back in the ’70s.” Carmine Appice Outsider Rock, Feb 2022
For context though, while that figure may seem sizable, when totalled after tax, insurance, agents fees and tour costs, it’s unlikely the band were pulling $100,000 a year between them. Okay money to live on but not exactly the rock star millions.
In the 1970s live shows may have been more popular than ever and a band with even a little bit of stardom could make a living if they had the right kind of support. Unfortunately, the long fate of Cactus or the New Cactus Band was never going to be much more than that of a curio. A splinter from Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly.
If a band had an album to promote and record company backing then they could command top dollars since promoters knew that they could charge more for the tickets and the record company would be plugging their songs on the radio and to record shops. Since the Son of Cactus albumhadn’t done as well as hoped, the record label stopped pushing Pinera and co. The two-fold strike of less record company cash and less record company backing hit hard and the New Catus Band started to feel the pinch.
“In around November of the same year, I missed my flight out of Tampa where I lived and was late getting up to Long Island for a rehearsal. It was then that Hitchings had decided to play the bass parts on his keyboard so that the three of them would make more money, so I flew home and joined White Witch on Capricorn Records. We did an album in Miami with Eric Clapton’s producers, Ron & Howie Albert called “A Spiritual Greeting.” Charlie Souza, The New Cactus Band via Email April 2025
The New Cactus Band would eventually morph into Thee Image, who released two middling 1970s rock albums. Caldwell went back to Captain Beyond and they recruited Buddy Miles‘ drummer Donny Vosburgh. The new band filled in the space between Led Zepplin and the Bee Gees. The recordings are patchy and reeks of a band just looking for a hit in any style.
That said the song Come to You is a fine slice of melodic Yacht Rock and a rare Hitchings vocal. It sounds like it should be featured in a CBS TV movie starring Bill Bixby.
mp3 : Thee Image – Come To You
By 1976 promoters and the press had reverted to using the Cactus name when referring to Thee Image, presumably with absolutely no pushback from Pinera. While this would have helped sell tickets, it would have also been confusing since the same year former vocalist Rusty Day from the Appice group had started touring with his own line-up of the band.
(Press Clipping for Thee Image / Cactus)
Pinera and Hitchings were seemingly happy to be billed as whichever band a promoter wanted to book. By now It was common to find listings for an Iron Butterfly featuring Mike Pinera and an Iron Butterfly without. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that there were several versions of Butterfly touring at the same time.
“I had the pleasure to go on a sixteen city tour with Keith (Surname withheld) in the mid-1970s with a “fake” Iron Butterfly band. I acted as tour manager, roadie, and bus driver” Jim (surname withheld), Marmalade Skies Facebook Group 2025
By the late 1970s Pinera’s name would be advertised alongside versions of Iron Butterfly, Cactus, Blues Image or Thee Image. Hitchings was also usually involved.
You might even find more than a handful of gigs that featured a line up of Cactus on the same bill as a line up of Iron Butterfly, with Pinera joining both bands. Cactus or Iron Butterfly were often also paired with one of the reactivated Steppenwolf bands that were kicking around in the 1970s. It seems they shared the same management.
Ultimately when Iron Butterfly and Cactus appeared on the same bill, it was highly probable that it was The Mike Pinera Band playing multiple sets in the same night. Unscrupulous promoters have always existed and artists need to pay rent.
(Press clippings for Iron Butterfly with Mike Pinera, The Mike Pinera Band supporting Iron Butterfly, Iron butterfly and Cactus on the same bill as Steppenwolf… four out of five of these bands feature Mike Pinera )
The real shame of this story is different to other ‘New’ bands. It’s not the crimes committed in the good name of the act, but The New Cactus Band only recorded one album. Seemingly caught up in promoter’s whims with short term gain being prioritised by the members rather than building their fanbase from the ground up. They had the solid foundations of a cracking album and decent musicians from which to do it too. It should be remembered that 1970s musicians rarely played a long game.
“We moved to Miami and all we did is party. We went on tour to rest. That’s how much partyin’ was going on.” Duane Hitchings speaking to ClassicBands.com
After an attempt at a solo career, which seemed to be sabotaged by the constant branding schizophrenia, by 1981 Pinera and Hitchings were both sidemen in Alice Cooper‘s backing band. Not just as a touring band, the duo where captured playing on the Special Forces album Hitchings co-authoring five tracks and Pinera, Hitchings and Cooper coming up with the song Vicious Rumours
mp3: Alice Cooper – Vicious Rumours
Pinera was also frequently in and out of Iron Butterfly through the 80s and 90s. His last registered IB involvement, according to wiki, was in 1994 but that means nothing given how many former members of the band there were and how unscrupulous promoters can be.
Duane Hitchings wrote a couple of big hits for Rod Stewart. In the 1980s he wrote songs for the soundtracks of Rocky IV (The fourth best Rocky film), Iron Eagle (the second best Iron Eagle film) and Flashdance (the film that Footloose wished it was).
He’s also written for or with Steve Perry, Kim Carnes, Eddie Money and a load of other people you know from Family Guy cutaways.
Bogart, Appice and McCarty reactivated Cactus in the early 2000s but they reverted to the heavy rock of the original band. It seems The New Cactus Band and the lost classic Son of Cactus is destined to be cast aside forever. Like Bill Bixby walking alone to sad music at the end of the Incredible Hulk. There’s been too much Bill Bixby in this blog.
Incidentally, the Steppenwolf bands that Pinera supported would have probably contained Tony Flynn or Geoff Emery or both. They would go on to become involved with Rod Evans to form The New Deep Purple…. But that’s another story.
I’d like to thank Charlie Souza for taking my questions.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 