Le Max formed in 1981 from three members of The Crisis; Jeff Fleming: Drums, Tony Cole: Guitar, and Mike Bush: Bass. The Crisis lost their singer/songwriter Mike Stanton, who wanted to relocate the band to Los Angeles. We wanted to stay here...so Mike left us with a deep hole in the band. We decided to change the band's name to Le Max, after Tony and Chris Coles' dog, Max Cole.
We decided to carry on and find a lead singer. We auditioned singers from Bremerton to Seattle until we found Mike Ward, from Central Kitsap, who had great song/poem writing talents. Mike and Tony Cole blended the words and core music ideas very well together then presented them to the band so we could fight out the arrangement details.
By 1982 Le Max had enough songs to play live. We played many different venues, including: house parties, Pioneer Square bars, Hibble & Hides 8 hours a night, to gay punk bars. We also managed to get booed off of a few stages, like a few "redneck" Shipyard bars, and a couple "Top 40" bars.
Also in 1982, bass player Mike Bush left the band and was replaced by Tony Winters, who went to school with Mike Ward.
In 1983 Le Max released a single titled Cope USA. That song reached number one on Kjet, a Seattle punk/wave station. Cope USA also led to a personal management contract with an LA based manager. That enabled Le Max to tape a live TV show at Seattle's Astor Park. The show featured Judas Priest and Night Ranger.
Le Max played their home town of Bremerton, the day after their TV appearance, to a sold out crowd at Olympic College. Le Max was shocked, as just the week prior they had played to only 13 people at the Gorilla Room Punk Rock Transvestite bar in Pioneer Square. Safe to say Le Max did not have to play those clubs again and started playing High Shools, Colleges, Universities and warm up national acts.
Around 1984 Le Max met Tommy Tutone of Jenny Jenny fame. We planned to tour together in 1985, but everything crashed. Tommy Tutone's new album bombed. Le max was offered a $50,000 recording contract with Hollywood Records that their manager turned down because he wanted $100,000.
1986 Le Max's LA based manager was arrested for illegal activity, hence the the reason for not signing the band as Le Max was his cover. Le Max signed with a new manager from Everett, WA. Hank Manzaneris, who had previously managed the drummer's brothers band Blue Sky, a great Northwest Bar Band.(check out their MySpace page) Hank entered Le Max in a Battle of The Bands sponsored by Seattle's KISW radio. Le Max won out of more than 500 bands. Le Max won equipment, studio time and a meeting with the record company's in LA. The meeting with the record company's went nowhere as Le Max was black listed for the LA based managers illegal activity. The studio time was a disaster, Le Max had a inexperienced weasel/producer.
1987 Le Max's drummer left the band and he asked Mike Parypa to replace him. Jeff had played with Mike's brother Gary, a keyboard player, in a previous band. Their brother Andy played in the legendary Sonics! Lot of talent in that family.
Le Max played for a few more years, warmed up some national acts then disbanded.
Then came Boy Blue and The MoonI edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V4.4 (www.strikefile.com/myspace)
