Sources
Every date, figure and quotation on this site traces to one of these. S0b and S0 are Graham himself, and where he contradicts the published record the published record is the one that gets corrected. Where two other sources disagree, both are shown rather than the flattering one. Anything still unconfirmed is labelled as unconfirmed on the page where it appears.
Graham Nicholson's own written notes
Four typed pages in his own words, and the highest-ranking source on this site. They supply his birth on 16 May 1940 in Brooklyn, Wantagh, Litchfield at seventeen and the Westleigh Inn; the year at UConn with Tom Bosse; the July 1959 near-fatal crash and the Naval Academy refusal that followed it; Pennsylvania Military College, 1962 with honors, and the TWO bands he formed there, the Chevrons and the Magnums; the industrial career the published record omits entirely — Sayford Paper Specialty Products, the Watertown printing plant that made every Howard Johnson place mat and Whitman Candy liner, Schick, TRW, System Contracting and Mersick Super Supply; the State Police in 1965; his 1973 marriage to Sandy Levesque and her death in a January 1976 crash he was called to investigate; Middlesex Hospital; the Lady Maureen delivery to Palm Beach for Jack and Maureen Roberts, the 100-Ton licence and command of the 500-passenger Jungle Queen; his own corporations High Performance Tools LLC and High Performance Music LLC; Kyocera's Salesman of the Year in 1982 and again in 1983; the fifty-capacity Japanese lounges; the 1984 Airstream and the cassette every singer took home; Pioneer giving him the laser-karaoke rights; his marriage to Bonnie Griffin on 14 June 1986; Beverly Digmus and the roller rink at Beverly's on Bantam Lake; the New Year's Eve party in Copake, New York; Gil Deschine and the Star Rockets and Gil's lottery win; over thirty-five years of lead guitar with Claude Lamy and the Roadrunners; Good Fortune, Roger Mac, After Hours and "The Reason Why"; the 1962 Philadelphia Stratocaster and the first Telecaster; the 1969 Pink Paisley bought from Larry Cox for $400 in 1974 and the seventeen instruments bought since; Smokey Tyler's strap; every boat from the Lake Dunmore rowboat to the Seadoo Switch, including REALESCAPE, the 56-foot 1981 Hatteras bought from Frank Rogers at Saybrook Point Marina, and his retirement from chartering; and on the Ranch, Bill Petit, the 1992 lease, Bonnie naming it, Paula Frohn, bar stool racing, Judy Clark at 92.5, John Saville, the 1996 telephone call, the first date at the Hall of Fame, Art Secondo opening it in 1978 as Connecticut's first sports bar, David Kersh and the Metallica riff, over $200,000 to St. Jude, and the Star Spangled Banner every Friday and Saturday at nine.
Interview with Graham Nicholson
His spoken account. It supplied the first guitar in a bedroom in Litchfield around 1959 and the mandolin before it; the band's name, the Chevrons; New England country rock rather than "Waterbury rock"; the Music Box and its later name, Beverly's; his police dates, April 1967 to July 1976; meeting Bonnie forty-two years ago at a club where his band was playing, and her walking up to buy him a drink; the Mosrite; a New Year's Eve date in New York; the Airstream coming from a Memphis amusement park rather than Graceland; that the trailer was a recording booth and not a karaoke booth; and the twelve to fourteen years of charter work, the 200-ton licence, and the fifty passengers. Two things said here are superseded by his written notes: the boat is fifty-six feet, not sixty, and he has since retired from the charter business.
Loosening Up With Lyrics, Karaoke Style
The primary published document. His age, the Waterbury bands, UConn, the nine years at Plainville PD, the Kyocera job, the Kyoto trip, the Elvis Airstream and its $25,000 price, Bonnie's job at The Stanley Works, the re-mortgage exchange, the revenue figures, the Aetna booking and Pat Pettit's quotation, and the Elvis Presley Museum case all come from this one profile. Its Graceland attribution for the Airstream is corrected by Graham; its "four locations" is three trading rooms plus the New Britain room that was only ever planned; and its two band names are about a fifth of the real list.
About Us, Karaoke, and News & Updates
The company's own history. Source for the 1982 Kyoto trip, laser-karaoke distribution, the February and April 1997 milestones, the 2003 fire, the 2007 mechanical bull, and the house motto. Its 1984 date for Lake Compounce is now confirmed by Graham's own notes.
Elvis Back On Board At Nightclub
The stolen Elvis mannequin, the police teletype, and the note reading "I'm back".
The 5,000 sq ft Plainville start, the goal of merely paying the rent, and the "largest country dance club on the East Coast" line. Its count of 185 acts is a 2018 figure; Graham's own current count is nearly 200. Its version of the Metallica story is corrected by his notes, which name David Kersh.
Cadillac Ranch Is Getting Ready To Reopen
The COVID closure quotes, the 1992 Plainville to 1997 Southington move, and 180 artists over thirty years.
Cadillac Ranch Restaurant in Southington re-opened Tuesday
The sixteen-month closure. Graham's own figure is fifteen months.
History of Karaoke and Longest Running Karaoke Spot in Connecticut
A community account. It gives Lake Compounce as 1986 and Starstruck as 1988, and it acknowledges Dimples in Los Angeles. Its 1986 date is superseded by Graham's own notes, which give 1984; its 1988 for Starstruck is still one of the two candidate years, the other being the Courant's 1989.
Captain Graham Nicholson at Real Escape Yacht Charters
April 1967 to July 1976 at the police department, the firearms-instructor duty, the Connecticut Police Academy in 1970, and the 200-ton Merchant Marine licence. The policing dates are corroborated independently by S1 and confirmed by Graham. The charter business is described here in the present tense; his notes record that he has since retired from it.
Obituary of Jean (Nicholson) Murphy
His sister's obituary, which names "my amazing brother, Angus Graham Nicholson and wonderful sister-in-law Bonnie who live in Plainville, CT". She is the sister who took the piano lessons and quit them.
Public record for Angus Graham Nicholson, Plainville CT
Age 86, and University of Connecticut, Business, 1958 to 1959 — both now confirmed directly by Graham, who gives his birth date as 16 May 1940 and his single year at UConn.
Graham Nicholson named 2026 Gail DePaolo Community Service Award recipient
Announced 22 December 2025 and presented at the chamber gala in March 2026.
This register lists the sources the site actually draws on. A small number of further published items about the businesses were read during research and deliberately not used. They concern matters outside the scope of this account and are recorded in the project's private research notes rather than here. Not yet consulted, and likely to hold more: the Hartford Courant's paywalled archive before 1992 and between 1993 and 1999, the Record-Journal's Southington coverage, the Bristol Press and New Britain Herald for the 1967 to 1976 policing years, and Lake Compounce's own historical records.