Last September, Tom Richardson and his band,...

Last September, Tom Richardson and his band, Rockola, decided to withdraw from the Top 40 bar scene by taking a journey back in time to the early days of rock ‘n’ roll.

Not all the way back, Richardson said. Just half-way.

“All over San Diego, the first-generation rock ‘n’ roll of the 1950s was already being done, and done well, by a good handful of bands like the Mar-Dels, the Belair Boys and the Jets,” said Richardson, Rockola’s founder and bassist.

“The last thing we wanted to do was get lost in the oldies shuffle. We wanted to carve our own niche. As a result, when the time came to put together our repertoire, we decided to concentrate solely on the second-generation rock of the 1960s--something no other band in town was doing.”

So Richardson and the three other members of Rockola have been taking San Diego nightclub audiences on a magical musical mystery tour of the 1960s.

“I have always considered the 1960s to be the most creative period in rock’s history,” Richardson said. “In the 1950s, rock was still in its experimental stage, and a lot of the songs tended to sound the same.

“In the 1970s, everything started getting stretched out and complicated--there was too much emphasis on production and technical stuff.

“But in the 1960s, there was a perfect balance. The melodies were better, the hooks were catchier, the rhythms were more danceable, and the lyrics told stories to which everyone could relate.

“It was music made by young people, for young people. There was a real human feel that has since gotten lost in all the technological wizardry.”

One recent Friday night, Rockola rolled into Monk’s. Their stop at the Mission Valley night spot was typical of visits they have paid to other clubs around town. (They will be at the Old Bonita Store in Bonita on Sunday and Bunbury’s in Mira Mesa from Wednesday through April 4.)

Jeff Williams caressed his 12-string guitar with the psychedelic tenderness of Roger McGuinn.

The song: “My Back Pages,” a hit for the Byrds in 1965.

A thick-set man with graying sideburns, a cowboy hat and a fringe-leather jacket downed his beer in time to holler his approval.

Todd Hidden pounded a cheery Mersey beat on his drums and sang with the buoyant optimism of a British mop-top.

The song: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” which Manfred Mann took to the top of the charts in 1964.

A hefty middle-aged man in a three-piece suit dashed onto the dance floor and twirled around, all by himself.

Bob Tedde drove his fingers along his keyboard like a truck, producing a fuzzy organ solo straight out of some vintage horror flick.

The song: “Gimme Some Lovin’,” the Spencer Davis Group’s rhythm-and-blues classic of 1967.

A lanky youth in a “No Bozos” T-shirt and his neatly dressed date embraced each other and jumped up and down like pogo sticks.

Richardson authoritatively spanked his bass and mimicked the nasal whine of Mickey Dolenz and Mark Lindsey.

The song: “I’m Not Your Stepping Stone,” a late 1960s hit for both the Monkees and Paul Revere and the Raiders.

A heavy-set woman with too much makeup got up from her seat and lifted her cocktail glass in a toast.

Richardson said that, when he formed Rockola in December, 1983, the band played mostly current Top 40 dance tunes.

“But the songs our audiences always requested were the older ones,” he said. “Gradually, we added more and more old songs to our set, until we finally decided to do only oldies last September.”