Paul Vesco has been involved professionally in some form of the entertainment industry since he joined the American Federation of Musicians Union, Local #27, New Castle, PA, when he was 14 years old. Education His Dad, Paul E. Vesco,' was a professional music teacher, originally teaching only the accordion. To avoid confusion in the family, young Paul was then nicknamed Paulie', a nickname that is still used by close friends and family to this day. Paulie started music lessons on the accordion at an early age of 2-1/2 years old on a miniature accordion built by his father. Never really liking the instrument, he reluctantly continued on lessons until he was 12. At that time, his father also started teaching guitar and Paulie started taking guitar lessons and soon began helping his father teach beginner students on the guitar.
His "professional" career in those days consisted of playing accordion at mostly Italian weddings and the occasional supper club. Paulie didn't see any real career in music other than as a teacher and up until the beginning of college, he talked of becoming an electrical engineer.
In his senior year of high school, he had some experience playing a friend's Cordovox -- a hybrid of an accordion with the keyboard modified to also play organ sounds. With that, Paul thought he could play even more weddings and club dates, so he saved up $1,800 to buy his own Cordovox. However, there were none in stock and the store where he was going to make the purchase told him the delay was because of an Italian dock strike and no units were being shipped. After about 6 weeks of anxiously awaiting this new instrument, the salesman suggested that Paul buy an organ and Leslie speaker instead -- they were both in stock. He followed the suggestion and bought the organ and Paul attributes this incident as one of the first major coincidences that brought him to his current career.
While he worked occasionally as an accordion player, as soon as he bought the organ, he was quickly in demand to play in many local bands, sometimes working 3 to 4 times a week. He finished school and started college at Youngstown State University as an engineering student while continuing to play jobs at night. When he left school, he started working at the New Castle News, operating a machine to feed news stories into a computer typesetting machine. He then worked at the Beaver Falls Tribune in a similar position and after getting married, moved to Dayton, Ohio and started working at the Dayton Morning Star and Journal Herald in a similar capacity. It was here that the second and most important coincidence happened to change his career decision. The typesetters union to which he belonged, went on strike and stayed on strike for close to 7 weeks. During that time, Paul did strike duty, walking the picket lines 3 hours a day, and then played organ at a small supper club in the evening. At the end of the 7 week strike, Paul decided that he liked the work as a musician better and quit his job at the newspaper.
On the Road
Paul then began playing fulltime, professionally, first at local social clubs, dinner clubs and dances, and then moving onto joining several road bands travelling throughout the United States.
Eventually, he became musical director for Fortunato, a Syracuse-based Italian singer. He then left that job to form Music Box Revue, a band formed in the Pittsburgh area, but booked out of the Jolly Joyce Agency in Philadelphia (known as the original agents for Bill Haley and the Comets). That band lasted less than a year, but was re-formed to become The Good and Plenty Show Band. Although Paul reportedly hated the name a month after it started, the band became so popular and successful that he couldn't change the name. The Good and Plenty Show Band was formed in New Castle with most of it's members from the Pittsburgh area. It went on the road for 8 years, travelling across the country and occasionally out of the country into Puerto Rico, Canada and Aruba.
As it traveled across the country for 8 years, eventually band members left the band for one reason or another and auditions would be held in whatever city they were in at the time to replace members. Eventually, the band was no longer a "Pittsburgh band" and it was inconvenient to take time off no matter where the band was. So Paul kept the band booked almost constantly. In the 8 years it was on the road, it had exactly 8 weeks off. One stretch of bookings lasted 72 weeks without a week off -- over a year. Most of the bookings were in hotels. Although it was called by many as the "Holiday Inn Circuit" (because of the many Holiday Inns that were stops on the bands' travels), it actually included many brands of hotels, including, Ramada Inns, Marriotts, Best Westerns, Adams Marks, and more. The typical booking for Good & Plenty and the other many bands doing this circuit was 6 nights a week with Sundays off (most states at that time had similar "blue laws"). Bookings might last 1, 2, or usually, no more than 3 weeks, and then the band would travel on Sunday to the next hotel to restart the cycle.
Atlantic City
Eventually, the band was booked in the new gambling city of the East, Atlantic City. Booked originally at Harrah's Bay Casino, Paul didn't like the way the slot machines were very close to the stage (about 30') and thought the constant sound of slot machines ringing was distracting. He also didn't like the fact that there was no dance floor and the volume of the band was very controlled. While playing Harrah's, Paul and the band would visit other casinos and favored the Sands Casino. At that time, they had a huge lounge where the band played with no apparent volume constraints and the customers could listen or dance to the band on the dance floor. Paul contacted his manager, Stan Klein, and asked that his next booking in Atlantic City be at the Sands Casino because it would be more fun and conducive to the band's material. Several weeks after leaving Atlantic City, Stan called Paul and told him the band was now booked into the Sands Casino.
Current
Paul is the current conductor for Frank Stallone and is a licensed talent agent in the State of Florida. He recently conducted the orchestra for Frank Stallone opening for Don Rickles at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas. His own band recently appeared at the El Conquistador Hotel in Puerto Rico for a corporate even.