Artist description Majic Ship “Songwaves Project” Majic Ship originally left port in the late 1960’sand saw chart success alongside some of the most prominent acts of that time. After a long hiatus, founding members Mike Garrigan and Tommy Nikosey have joined forces with Dave Amato, Ron Wikso and several special guests to record and produce the third stop on Majic Ship’s journey. The result is a 13 song CD that includes 12 new original songs and a re-make of the ‘60’s Rolling Stones track “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back)”. This track is quite compelling as it comes complete with a special guest vocal by none other than Cher along with musical contributions from former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and former Stones keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (fittingly performing here on the last track he recorded before his untimely death).   “Songwaves Project” spotlights the trademark vocals and harmonies of Garrigan & Nikosey combined with the musical and production talents of Wikso & Amato (whose combined credits read like a Who’s Who of the music industry including artists such as Foreigner, REO Speedwagon, Cher, Richie Samboraand many others). The resulting tracks encompass everything from their roots to the present with evidence of the musical influences that helped to shape their careers early on.   “Songwaves Project” has been likened to such contemporary artists as Hootie & The Blowfish and The Lemonheads along with such classic artists as The Eagles and Dave Mason. Tracks like “It Could Be You” and “Turn The Beat Back On” have a distinctive ‘early Beatles’ feel to them while “Images” is evocative of later Beatles. “Keep On Trying” conjures up Roy Orbison or Jimmy Buffett. “Don’t Tell Me”, Dream About Mary” and “Think About You” flat out rock while driving home strong melodies and great harmonies. There’s enough here to satisfy people with just about any taste. This is one voyage you don’t want to miss!!

Music Style Melodic/Vocal Harmony Driven Pop/Rock/Country with 60's influences. Some psychedelic tinges too.

Musical Influences The Beatles, The Byrds, Dave Mason, The Eagles

Similar Artists The Beatles, Dave Mason, The Byrds, Hootie & The Blowfish, The Lemonheads, REO Speedwagon, Cher, The Eagles

Artist History The year was 1964. It was a February Sunday night in New York City. We were all very young and impressionable and consumed with the buzz that was going on about these "Beatles" everyone was talking about. This particular Sunday night, The Beatles were scheduled to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and we would all finally get to see what all the hype was about. Shortly after 9 pm, every young kid in America knew that their lives were about to change because The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show had just brought a new kind of excitement to our shores. About this time, Tommy Nikosey called his friend Ray Rifice to find out if he had seen the show. He did...along with about 73 million other people. The next day, on the walk to school, Tommy told Ray that he had an old guitar in the closet from the lessons he used to take and Ray reminded Tommy of his Gretsch electric guitar. Like millions of other kids, they decided to form a band. For the next several months, the two practiced together, struggling through versions of 'Pipeline', 'Perfidia', 'Penetration' and any other instrumental songs that were easy enough to play (apparently, we were fond of songs that began with the letter 'P'!). All the while, our other close friend, Rob Buckman, watched closely and reminded us that we needed a drummer to supply the beat. The Primitives, as we called ourselves, were officially a band when Rob finally got his hands on a snare drum. A couple of other friends tried their hands at playing bass guitar but ultimately opted to just stay friends. We heard that another classmate, John Kharouf, had a bass guitar and was taking lessons so we knocked on his door after school one day and suddenly we had a bass player to round out the lineup. After a couple of weeks of practice, we all realized that we desperately needed a singer. We also knew this would be a much harder search. Every Friday, we would all go to the local church dances...not to dance, but to check out the competition. The girls would dance and we would listen to the other bands. One particular Friday night, we noticed someone singing along with the band from down in the audience. To our surprise, it was Mike Garrigan, another classmate from the neighborhood. We immediately grabbed him and asked him if he'd like to audition for our band. After rousing renditions of 'Twist and Shout' and 'Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter', we all knew he was the one and he became our singer. It was now the summer of '65 and we practiced cover songs all summer long with the goal of landing some of those church dance gigs when they started up again in the fall. We landed our first gig, at St. Anselm's dance, in September. We played all over the neighborhood for about a year and during 1966, we composed our first original song. It was called 'On The Edge'. We went in to Sanders Recording Studios in Manhattan to record it. The result was our first 45-rpm record. The B-side was a cover of 'Mustang Sally'. In September of 1966, John decided to leave the band. We already had a gig booked but we were now without a bass player. Mike's cousin introduced us to Gus Riozzi. Gus brought an excitement with him that was infectious and he introduced us to songs by The Yardbirds, Them and Cream. We now had a new bassist, new songs and a new look. We decided to call ourselves 'The New Primitives'. The New Primitives kept up a very busy schedule over the next year and, along the way, added the keyboard talents of Jeff Bilotta to round out the sound of the band. In June of 1968, at a local gig, Johnny Mann approached us, an ex-50's singer turned manager. After seeing our performance he came up to us and said "I'm gonna make you kids famous!". A couple of days later, Ray informed us that he was moving to Florida to attend college. With the promise of a recording contract, we scrambled to replace Ray. We soon met James Polimeni, a drummer that was new to the neighborhood and looking for a new band. He told us that his brother Phil was a good guitarist and would fit the bill perfectly. He was right and Phil joined the band. Johnny Mann and a team of managers brought us a song called 'Night Time Music', recording contracts and....a new name for the band. They wanted to call us 'The Majic Ship'...with a 'J'. They also introduced us to 'The Tokens', who were to produce our first single. Shortly after we released 'Night Time Music', it was selected as WMCA Radio's "Pick Hit of The Week" in New York City. It was December of 1968 and we were stunned. Johnny wasted no time and chose 'Hummin', from our set list, as the follow up single. In a short time, our new record was getting rave reviews from all over the U.S.!! During August of 1969, the national radio charts were sprinkled with 'Hummin'. WPTR in Albany, NY listed it the highest at #2. A sampling of other stations around the country showed KNUZ in Houston listing it at #12, WKNX in Detroit at #14, KIRL in St. Louis at #18 and WMCA in our hometown of New York City at #31, just to name a few. This was a 'majical' time for 6 boys from Brooklyn! We spent the whole summer traveling around the East Coast promoting the records, performing in clubs and doing personal appearances at radio stations and TV studios. One memorable TV appearance had us lip-synching the words to 'Hummin' while standing in a plastic rowboat amid cardboard waves! What a laugh! After recording 2 new singles, the band went through another personnel change...Jeff quit. It was the summer of '69 and things like Woodstock and Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon had everyone excited about new and different things. For Majic Ship, this meant a return to the original 5-man lineup and a return to our rock roots. The Tokens and Johnny Mann had crafted an easy pop kind of sound but we wanted to rock.  After many insistent discussions with them, we ventured back into the studio to record 9 original songs and 1 country/rock cover medley. Our experience had taught us that we needed to maintain the things that had become our trademarks with audiences...good vocals, blending harmonies, strong melodies and a tight, driving beat. The results of those sessions reflect our feelings at a time when youth was questioning, rebelling and reacting to both personal experiences and the world around us. (You can hear these recordings today on the CD "Majic Ship-The Complete Authorized Recordings", which is available through Gear Fab Records.) In preparation for the recording sessions, we rented out a 3 bedroom, top floor apartment in Staten Island, New York, where we carried out our rehearsals. Following the release of the album, we continued to play gigs and maintain the "Ship House" for rehearsal for a follow up album. On January 22, 1971, we had a late night practice. We took a short break and returned an hour later to the squealing sounds of fire engines racing in the night. When we reached 539 Bay Street we found, much to our horror, a charred shell of a building. We were speechless. Thousands of dollars of musical equipment was burned beyond recognition. The only surviving piece was a Gibson EB-3 guitar. We had no insurance. It was the end of The Majic Ship. After that, Tommy and Philip formed the band "Fox" which later took them both to Los Angeles. Mike Garrigan also moved to Los Angeles and went on to work on tour with such successful acts as Bon Jovi, Cher, Ted Nugent, Chicago, REO Speedwagon and many others. Gus Riozzi continued to play bass in various bands in and around the New York area. Phil Polimeni also moved to Los Angeles. Rob Buckman moved to Miami to play in 'Ex-Primitive' with former band mate Ray Rifice. He also worked with the group 'Cotton' in Dallas.  For more information on the individual band members, please refer to their individual pages on this site. In 1996, Majic Ship was brought back together in the form of the Cozy Beef Publishing and Songwriting team featuring Mike and Tommy. This was initiated by Roger Maglio of Gear Fab Records who had contacted them and was interested in releasing all of their old material on CD. The result of that was "Majic Ship-The Complete Authorized Recordings" which features all of the original Majic Ship tracks from the '60's and '70's and one newly written and recorded track called 'Blow Me Away'.  For the recording of 'Blow Me Away', Mike enlisted the services of Ron Wikso and Dave Amato whom he had met while on tour with Cher. This collaboration proved to be a lot of fun and subsequently led to the writing and recording of the current Majic Ship CD "Songwaves Project".

Group Members Primary members are Mike "Beefboy" Garrigan and Tommy Nikosey. Producers/main musicians on "SongwavesProject" are Ron Wikso and Dave Amato.

Instruments Vocals, Guitars, Drums, Bass, Harmonica, Keyboards, Hammond Organ.

Albums "Songwaves Project"

Press Reviews Coming soon!

Additional Info This CD features a rare performance by Cher and guest appearances by current and former members of The Rolling Stones, Foreigner, REO Speedwagon and many others.

Location Los Angeles, CA - USA

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