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Click here to read what State Rep. Thomas Kennedy has to say about the band.

By Maria Papadopoulos, Enterprise staff writer
BROCKTON — Tapping a tambourine to the beat, Dan Sweeting stepped up to the microphone to belt out a song Friday at the Westgate Pub & Grille in Brockton.

Don Altobello of the Cavaliers and Mudslide R&B band plays the flute Saturday as people dance at the Westgate Pub & Grille in Brockton. (Marc Vasconcellos/The Enterprise)

For the 58-year-old Sweeting, flanked by three other vocalists who are part of the Cavaliers and Mudslide R&B band, every performance is a chance to play with his "family."

Five of the band members, Sweeting, Joe Morana, Walter Holland, Richard Shanks and Peter Akeke, grew up together in the Hill Street section of the city.

"It was like a real tight family," Sweeting said.

The five men formed the Cavaliers, a popular Brockton vocal group, in 1961 after playing at a Brockton High School social, said Akeke, 59, of East Bridgewater, who plays the guitar and sings.

"It was a rah-rah dance for the football team," Akeke said of the band's first performance. "We worked out a couple of tunes. We had such a great response that we said, well, why don't we hang in there and see what we can do with this?"

The group took on area gigs, playing for radio disc jockeys, at local church dances, at the Lakeview Ballroom in Foxboro, the Canoe Club in West Bridgewater, and "working the surf with Arnie 'Woo Woo' Ginsberg at the Surf Ballroom in Nantasket," Akeke said.

"You would come in, the DJ would introduce you and you'd probably play 40 minutes and go home," Akeke said. "We were lucky if we got gas money."

In the mid-1960s, following high school graduation, the band split up. Several members went on to serve in Vietnam, Akeke said.

It took the funeral of a close friend in 1986 to reunite the Cavaliers.

"After seeing all these people at the wake, I said, 'I don't want to meet like this,'" Sweeting said. "We started (playing together) every year."

Some musicians associated with the Cavaliers hit it big.

Lenny Baker, a Cavaliers saxophone player from Whitman, went on to play with Sha Na Na, the band cast as one of the musical acts in the movie "Grease."

Baker is slated to appear with the Spellbinders at the Capeway Manor in Brockton on Nov. 12.

A decade ago, the Cavaliers merged with other band members to form the Cavaliers and Mudslide R&B band.

The Brockton-based band will play at the Red, White and Black Ball at City Hall for the third time on Nov. 20.

In addition to private functions, the band plays mostly in Brockton at venues that include the Capeway Manor, Joe Angelo's and Mulligan's, said Bernie Hassan, 52, of Brockton, who plays keyboards and sings.

Other band members include John King of Kingston, who plays drums and percussion; Steve Hudson of Stoughton, drums and percussion; Larry Vallee of Raynham, bass and vocals; and Don Altobello of Weymouth, saxophone, flute and keyboard.

The band plays rhythm and blues, oldies and classic rock.

"We basically have our own sound," said Hudson, 42.

The band is unique because of "the amount of people, the brass instruments," he said.

"We just have a lot of fun doing it," said Morana, 59, of Brockton, one of the original band members.

"We feed off the audience," Morana said. "The older crowd that knew us back when we were teenagers come to see us."

Before joining the band, some members were part of other area bands, including Baby Grand, Roundhouse, The 4 Musketeers, Everyday People and Eastern Standard Time — "Very famous dance bands in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s," Hassan said.

Akeke said he feels best when people come up to him and say they remember him from the early years.

"The ties for me are incredible to Brockton," Akeke said. "It has always been good, solid memories."

Maria Papadopoulos can be reached at mpapadopoulos@enterprisenews.com