Herb Miller Oral History

Interview Highlight

In this Interview Highlight, Herb Miller recalls meeting the Highlighters, working with their parents, and helping the young musicians obtain instruments and organize their performances. He describes connecting them with the vocal trio Tri-Dells for a Chicago competition, then meeting the Vanguards through WTLC disc jockey Spider Harrison. His story follows the partnership with Howard Ladin behind L&M Productions, the origins of the LAMP name, and his discovery that “Somebody Please” was still reaching listeners around the world.

Oral History Interview

In this longer interview, Miller traces his path from community fundraising and concert promotion to artist management, LAMP Records, record stores, and distribution. He remembers the Highlighters, Vanguards, Ebony Rhythm Band, and Amnesty; recording at Les Ohmit’s studio; and his ambition to build an Indianapolis music business inspired by Motown. He also discusses firefighting and investigative work, his decision to leave the music business, and the later archival efforts of Eothen Alapatt and Kyle Long that reunited him with recordings and musicians from his past.

Biography

Herb Miller’s involvement in music began with a desire to support his community. After graduating from Tech High School, he helped organize social clubs whose activities brought people together. With his friend and fellow firefighter Ed Rogers, he formed the Defiants Club and served as its president. Miller recalls that the club directed its net event proceeds toward community causes, moving from dances and local entertainment to appearances by nationally known performers.

Those promotions included a Circle Theatre show featuring singer Gloria Lynne and guitarist Wes Montgomery. Miller’s memories of booking artists such as James Brown and the Temptations describe the experience he gained arranging performances and working with talent agencies. The same interest in presenting good shows led him to become more involved with Indianapolis musicians.

When Miller encountered the Highlighters performing near Attucks High School, he saw a young band that could benefit from equipment and organization. He met their parents, bought instruments, and emphasized uniforms and a polished presentation. He also brought them together with the Tri-Dells, a female vocal trio, for a Chicago competition where, he recalls, they finished second. His role extended beyond booking performances to helping the musicians prepare for them.

WTLC disc jockey Spider Harrison introduced Miller to the Vanguards. A business partnership with boxing promoter Howard Ladin led to L&M Productions, and Miller established LAMP Records, carrying the partners’ names and the word “Productions” into the label’s name. The Vanguards’ “Somebody Please” became an enduring part of that work. In his interview, Miller expresses surprise and pleasure that a record he helped create in Indianapolis continued to find listeners far beyond the city.

Miller wanted Indianapolis to offer artists the kind of support he saw in Motown’s organization. Ebony Rhythm Band became LAMP’s house band, providing instrumental backing for vocal groups. He worked with Les Ohmit at Ohmit Recording Studio and recalls paying for the band to spend time there developing its music. His approach combined financial support with access to musicians, recording facilities, and opportunities to perform.

LAMP’s releases document a range of Indianapolis talent, including the Vanguards, Ebony Rhythm Band, Amnesty, the P.H.D.’s, and the Diplomatics. Rodney Stepp, a member of the Diplomatics, shares another perspective on that era in his Indiana Music History Project oral history. The surviving records, photographs, and promotional materials preserve the work of performers whose careers intersected through Miller’s businesses.

Miller was also a record-store owner. Through Good Vibrations Records, he operated several Indianapolis shops that connected customers with the music he was producing and selling. He recalls opening a store across from Attucks High School, decorating it in the school’s colors, and offering students a discount. Retailing gave him direct contact with local listeners and another way to bring records into the community.

His business interests extended to wholesale distribution through Indy Record Distribution Company. Miller describes supplying retailers and building record displays stocked around WTLC’s selections. Running stores and a distribution business brought its own challenges, including break-ins, operating pressures, and price competition from larger distributors. His account shows how much work lay beyond the recording session: getting records into shops, reaching customers, and keeping those businesses going alongside his family and fire-department responsibilities.

The fire department was a major part of Miller’s life throughout these musical ventures. In his oral history, he recalls joining the Indianapolis Fire Department in September 1962 and later serving as a lieutenant and arson investigator. He was building a music business while maintaining a public-service career and raising a family. The demands of those responsibilities shaped his decisions about how far to expand LAMP and when to step away.

His fire-department work also intersected with his relationships in music. Miller recalls helping Vanguards lead singer James Davis join the department, and the two remained connected beyond their recording work. His account of their renewed friendship years later brings together the musical and firefighting chapters of his life. Photography was another connection: alongside photographing musical groups, Miller developed skills in forensic photography and investigation.

By the late 1970s, Miller had stepped away from the music business and was concentrating increasingly on investigative work. He recalls leaving the fire department in 1984 and building a private investigative business, Herb Miller and Associates. Drawing on his arson-investigation experience and forensic training, he worked on cases ranging from equipment fires to bridge collapses. For years, that career occupied his attention while the records he had produced continued to circulate among listeners and collectors.

Eothen Alapatt of Now-Again Records helped reconnect Miller with that musical past. Miller recalls being surprised by how much material researchers had located and how much interest remained in the label. Now-Again’s 2019 anthology, LAMP Records: It Glowed Like the Sun — The Story of Naptown’s Motown, 1969–1972, brought together recordings and historical research, with Alapatt credited as the compilation’s researcher and producer.

Listen to LAMP Records: It Glowed Like the Sun, Disc 1, on Bandcamp.

Another discovery brought Miller back to releasing music. WFYI’s Kyle Long found previously unreleased Vanguards recordings in songwriter Tony Black’s archive, shared by Black’s son Evan. The songs “Ghetto” and “Never Never” became a new LAMP release. In his liner notes, Long explains that Miller estimated the recordings dated from 1969–1970 at Ohmit Recording Studio. The release reunited Miller with music from the group’s classic lineup more than five decades later.

The project also returned to the community purpose behind Miller’s early promotions. The limited edition supported Friends of Belmont Beach in memory of Mike Treez. For Miller, the renewed interest in LAMP brought opportunities to revisit old friendships and hear the music again. His oral history preserves his account of the practical work behind those records: supporting musicians, paying for sessions, organizing performances, and finding ways for Indianapolis music to reach an audience.

Image Gallery

Explore photographs, concert advertisements, record labels, covers, and liner notes connected with Herb Miller’s work in Indianapolis music. These materials follow his concert promotions and work with the Highlighters, Vanguards, and other LAMP artists, alongside later releases that brought their recordings to new listeners.