in america was $10 million. the average workers weekly pay increased by a little over 1% during that period. those are the headlines. "america tonight" with joie chen is up next. and you can see the latest news on the website aljazeera.com. an anguished father makes clear who he blames for the california campus rampage. >> chris died because of craven irresponsible politicians, and the n.r.a. could the police have kept the deranged shooter off the street or did the mental health system fail to protect the victim and the killer from his descent into madness collateral damage in the war

on drugs. casualties include the guilty and the enjoyment. >> reporter: did you think you would be convicted? we continue crime and punishment in america - how mandatory sentences wreak havoc on lives and justice. putting his best foot forward for more than 50 years. [ singing ] the classic sound of soul. now a new generation, but sticking with a promise - you know i'll still be around. good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. a young killer's raging out of control rampage on the streets

in southern california - it raised questions about guns and mental illness. six students died in the friday night attack, and a picture of the troubled young man that shot friends and strangers before taking his own life is emerging. what investigators know about the thought of the killer and the efforts to stop him, from "america tonight"'s michael oku. >> reporter: in this tight-knit college town students pay tribute to the friends they lost, while families mourned days after the rampage, trying to make sense of the tragedy. >> my son - his whole life. i'm so proud of him. he's very nice guy. >> she just went into everything with such vitality and enthusiasm. >> reporter: police say

22-year-old elliot rodger started his killing spree in his home, stabbing his two room mates and their friend. >> shot fired. shot fired. >> the carnage conditioned at the sorority house, where authorities say he fate atly shot two women, katherine cooper, 22, and 19-year-old veronica. his last victim 22-year-old christopher martinez. >> he was the most warm-loving kind-heart you could ask for. >> as authorities and family members searched for answers, a picture of a disturbed young man is emerging - one who left plenty of warning signs. >> tomorrow is the day of retribution. a day in which i will have my revenge against humanity. >> roger, who turned the gun on himself left behind this video,

signalling that the tyre aid was carefully orchestrated, his plan laid out in a manifesto, which he emailed to his parents. in it he tells the story of his life. his grew up in los angeles, and his father was an successful director. >> girls have never been attracted to me. i don't know why, and i'll punish you for it. >> his parents picked up signs, asking police to check on him. danger. >> the deputies contacted the suspect. incident. >> i tact fully told them it was a misunderstanding and they left.

if they had been made to search my room, that would have ended everything. the officers didn't know he was hiding three semiautomatic guns in his room. he had three other run-ins with police, in july, when he got in trouble at a house party and in january, when he made a house arrest on a resume maintain. the family got him help before, and there are reports he had as perking erg's -- asperger's syndrome. he turned his attack on woman. >> you denied me life. in return i'll deny all of you life. it's only fair. >> in their sorrow many of the victims' family members manage killer. >> i'm sad for everyone, including the young man, rodger, and his parents.

they've been through hell. >> a distraught father blames the gun laws for his son's death. >> chris died because of craven irresponsible politicians and the n.r.a. they talk about gun rights. live? >> reporter: if any good can come out of this, if the families can achieve a measure of solace, perhaps it's in trying not to point finger, but challenge. >> what i would hope is he would come together. he said "i want to work to prevent this happening again." following up now on michael oku's report, criminal behaviour expert joins us here. barry, it's in no way an exhaustive list, but there are warning signs familiar to those of you that look to this before and analyse it. a key thing is what your friends and family think you are doing.

>> absolutely. typically friends or family or people that you work with, room mates see changes in behaviours. sometimes these behaviours worry. when we start a case usually it's brought to our attention by the friends and family that see the individuals each day. >> there's other things, a pattern of disconnection, which seems like a special term what, is that in short? >> what you see is the people disconnecting from the people that sustain them in their social network previously. they start pulling away. they start being isolated. >> from their therapists. >> it could be a therapist, family, it could be every day connections. sometimes, you know, befriending people in social media, things like that. but you see that pattern and typically it goes on for a period of time until the person becomes more and more isolated, and there's nobody there that

they can rely on to give them a reality check. >> there are some other things here - the inability to cope with failure. this is something that has come well. >> we see if in almost every case. let's face it, all of us go through periods of our lives where we deal with failure and loss. what we see in the individuals that go on to carry out acts of mass violence is they have a hard time coping with it, and it stays with them. there's a quality to it that you see, in this case, going back to old. >> the last two we mention - not exhaustive, but seen as you look at the cases - a sense of hopelessness and despair and making attack plans. they are self-explanatory, but you do see this. >> absolutely. and pre-attack planning is a precursor to this. oftentimes the plans are thought

about for weeks, months, years ahead of time. probably it wouldn't be terribly unusual to have found out that this individual had visited a sorority several times before he carried out the shooting. >> in your case, in your work, you work with law enforcement and the mental health community. that puts us in a pivotal point to explain it to us. it seems if you want to stop somebody heading towards trouble or keep them reaching a crisis point where officers have to act providers. >> absolutely. that's the tragedy i have seen over the course of my career, in the 30 years we have been working in these communities, mental health and law enforcement. law enforcement has been pushed to the front lines of mental health delivery systems.

they are not trained to do that. with behavioural threat assessment there's a big difference between a mental health check and a threat assessment check. they are entirely different ways to conduct the interview and they are looking for different behaviour. when the police go out there to check on him at the family's behest, they are looking for things that have nothing to do with violence. they are not trained to understand the way to conduct a threat assessment interview. the secret services, they protect the president, the u.s. marshalls are, because they protect the judiciary. the capital police are, because they protect congress, but few other law enforcement agencies have that training. >> yet face that situation. thank you for being here. echoing the point police officers are often frontline

mental health workers, maybe inadvertently. 911 calls cause them to make quick decisions and assess people. it can be tragic, as we see in the shootings of mental health people. in an "america tonight" investigation our correspondent interviews the mother of a mentally ill man who met his fate at the hands of police. >> i decided to keep his door locked because i just feel it's his space, and i don't want anybody intruding in it. >> reporter: mary will si visits her son's room when he wants to feel close to him. >> come on in. this is keith's room. his drum set which he got for christmas. he was so delighted. i used to love listening to him

playing the drums. he was a good kid. he was very loving. and i just was hearing in, saying, "mum, i love you." sorry. keith's memory haunts every corner of the house. mother? >> he tried to hurt himself, decided to drink bleach, which i knocked out of his hands. came out here, had to vacuum out the cord and wrap it around his neck. >>. >> reporter: that day, with the help of police she got him to hospital for treatment. on january the 5th, chris picked

up a scrooufr -- screwdriver. >> he wasn't right. i asked my husband to call 911. >> the first two police officers to arriving created a dialogue. a third attended. the situation escalated and crust was dazed. >> i thought i saw something brown, it didn't connect with my brain that it was a gun. and then i heard the gun go off and saw my son bleeding. >> the third officer had shot keith. he died on the way to the hospital. the officer, brian bassy was indicted for voluntary manslaughter. his lawyer blames bassy had to make a split-second decision and was protecting the lives of the other officers. >> reporter: when you called the

police that day, did you imagine that this would end in a scenario like this? >> no. because it shouldn't have. because they should have been trained to handle this. >> keith's death is part of a troubling trend. recent shootings, like this in march, of a homeless man in albuquerque mexico have shined a spotlight on what many see as the excessive use of deadly force when dealing with the mentally ill. according to a 2013 report by the national sheriff's association, half of the people shot and killed in the u.s. have a psychiatric disorder. the report blames a prone mental health system forcing law and order to play the role of

provider. >> we receive almost no training through. >> reporter: captain attila dennis spent much of his career trying to improve police ill. >> we try what we can think of. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. sometimes we step on land mines that explode the situation into violent encounters. >> conventional police training can ipp flame encounters with the mentally ill. >> traditional tactics are rooted in logics , reasoning. >> barking orders at a person with serious mental illness does not work. >> reporter: after two high-profile police shootings of mentally ill people, colorado tried a new approach, cit, crisis intervention training.

>> when we were exposed to cit i recognised it was a smarter, faster way to deal with a problem, so why not train officers to situations. >> what are you doing? >> relax. >> i'm relaxed. >> are you okay? eporter: with cit officers are trained to look for signs of approach. >> what are you uptight about. >> this is a week-long 40 hour course in which we try to deal with folks to deal with the mentally ill. >> when walls the last time you took your medication? >> i give it to my brother. >> we do five role play scenarios where they apply their skills and what they learnt during the course of the day. somebody... >> i'm talking to you. >> i appreciate that, you are. >> what did you call

me? >> not at all. >> reporter: it seemed it? >> they are very realistic. during the scenarios, you feel shirt. >> reporter: officer chad walker found the training made them better equipped. >> mental illness is more prevalent thab we think -- than we think. we this three calls last night bipolar. >> reporter: can you give us an example of a call. >> absolutely. there was a call of a 10-year-old who has autism, who we dealt with, and had a knife. he was chasing his mother around the house. they started walking towards us with the knife in his hands. we knew the person by name, called them by the first name.

asked them how he was feeling and he dropped the knives and came and started listening to us. it was awesome. it was a deadly force situation, that we solved using our mouths and training. >> reporter: half of colorado's police stations are trained in cit. they save money dierting the mentally ill from prison. 80% are hurt less in actions with the mentally ill. >> it's about keeping the officer, the community and the person in crisis safe so we can de-escalate the situation, get them with whatever outcome is appropriate. >> despite the record only 25% of the nation's police departments require the training. in north carolina, where keith

was shot, only one in five soldiers received the training. >> there are more veteran soldiers coming back from the war and have mental illness problems, and we are having to deal with that the best way we know how. >> the chief of police wants to provide her officers with the cit. >> that is the training that i would like my officers to have at some point. he's a small agency and a small budget, it makes it hard. >> how concerned that something on your watch end in tragedy. >> it's a big concern. if i'm not able to send an officer to learn how to use the weapons, and if he gets into a situation. me. >> reporter: since keith's death. mary is an advocate of crisis intervention training.

>> what happened in my home, i felt there were people not qualified to handle a mentally ill person, and if you are not qualified, what the heck are you doing in my home, get out. you should not be here. >> she submitted a bill to a state representative to keith's law, making c.i.t. mandatory to all officers in north carolina. >> this programme is a commonsense programme. train them so they can handle the population that they deal with every day. my goal is to prevent another family from going through a terrible tragedy that has ruined our lives. this is not meant to bring back my son, but it mite save somebody else's son or daughter.

tonight.".. >> of course, they can't lock me up for this, this is crazy. mandatory minimums - maximum damage. the war on drugs, and the continuing battle for justice. later. can the chocolate king suite talk opponents in moscow and at home. ukraine's new president and the fight to keep his country out of consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america

>> don't miss

the system with joe burlinger al jazeera america's highly acclaimed investigative series the los angeles times says... "beringer tells gripping stories..." new york times... "large complicated, sometimes heartbreaking..." >> to keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate... >> see what everybody's talking about the system works... says variety al jazeera' america presents, the system with joe burlinger on an unintended consequence of crime and punishment the attempt to crackdown in the war on drugs created a punishment judges raised objections to - the requirement of mandatory

crimes. case in point the story of twin brothers, college students, with plans for careers in criminal justice, but found them instead on the wrong side of the war. sara hoy on how sentencing laws hijacked their futures. >> lawrence and lamont were about to graduate when two u.s. door. >> heard the banging on the door. there was flash lights. ground. >> reporter: the garrison twins, 25 years old, had plans to attend law. >> they tested them for drugs. they made them responsible for a table of drugs - marijuana, guns, bullets. >> reporter: accusations that the garrison, who had never been

deny. >> reporter: did you partake in a multistate drug matter? >> no. >> reporter: are you incident? >> yes, we are. >> reporter: no drugs were found in their possession, and no drugs recovered, lawrence and lamont were mound guilty after a -- found guilty after a 4-day trial. guilty? >> because i wasn't caught with any drugs, photographs, anything i thought they can't locus up. >> reporter: the once inseparable twins were torn apart. it's nonviolent, mandatory sentencing laws sent lawrence to prison for 15 years in kentucky, years. >> the scale was not balanced when it came to african-americans. at that point my brother knew

they were railroaded. we were young black men. >> when the verdict was red, their mother couldn't believe what she was hearing. >> when they said guilty, i passed out. >> reporter: she returned from mother to activists, refusing to give up on their boys. >> reporter: what did they decide to do. >> i didn't make a conscious decision, i just went to work. >> reporter: she talked to anyone she could. >> anyone not making a constructive comment or doing their job needs to go. >> reporter: the laws sent her son to prison grew out of a crack epidemic. in response, congress passed the antidrug abuse act in 1986. the law said mandatory sentences for five years for possessing

crack cocaine. the same sentence, someone trafficking 500 pounds of cocaine would receive. three days later george w. bush unveiled his antidrug policy. >> if we face the evil. this will be nothing but a handful of useless chemicals. >> according to the u.s. sentencing commission. 83% of those convicted for crack cocaine offenses were black. 32% were sentenced to 10 years or more. >> one thing i know in this universe, numbers were constant. the draconian laws were created to locus up. >> crack cocaine was a new drug, it was cheep. >> reporter: julie is the founder of family against

mandatory minimums. famm. >> the drug war was this full fledge at that time in the mid '80s, and so congress said we will stop the problem, fix it by creating mandatory prison sentences and that will discourage people using drugs, and we'll be a happy country. it didn't quite work like that. >> the u.s. has less than 5% of the world's population, almost a quarter of the world's prisoners are incarcerated here. >> in 2010 the tide began to turn. president obama signed the fair sentencing act into law, increasing the number of crack cocaine needed to trigger minimums. in january attorney general eric holder called for reduced sentences for offenses. >> people corrected of low heavily crimes will face penalties

commensurate rather than the mandatory. >> 70% of drug offenders were effected. if approved the guidelines will go into effect november 1st. >> it's too little, too late. my brother and i will never feel the effects of this. we were given a lengthy sentence for fires-time offenses. -- first-time offenses. there are so many m prison because of these laws. they change it now, what about the people still in. >> sara hoy tells us the garrison twins have real estate innocence. tomorrow we'll have a closer look at mandatory minimums on the series "the system", with joe berylinger, a lock at what works and doesn't in the justice system. wednesday night at 9:00 eastern. next - gunship diplomacy.

ukraine's new president acts tough and talks soft. can a billionaire oligarch save his country from an all-out law. violent in the street. a new debate over men, women and sex.

now, a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight". for the first time medium pay for corporate kingpins broke eight figures. a record high of 10.5 million for the typical c.e.o., earning 257 times the salary of an average worker. >> controversy over mexico city's breastfeeding campaign. it features topless celebrities

saying don't turn your back on them, give them your breast. 14% of women in mexico breastfeed their babies. >> countdown to drawdown. president obama announces plans to cut u.s. forces in afghanistan to less than 10,000 by the end of the year. the mission will end, the troops will stay in country to train afghan security forces. crisis in ukraine beginnings a new chapter with the election of a new president, and more clashes between security forces and armed separatists. a view of what may lie ahead here is sheila macvicar. hours after the president failed to reclaim donetsk, the military went on the offensive, retaking the air force from pro-russian and well-armed militants. militants control government buildings in donetsk and elsewhere. increasingly they are on their

own as russia's president vladimir putin has signalled his support for the new ukranian president. dozens were reported killed, including, said the militants, wounded in this truck, on the way to medical treatment. >> the airport is absolutely under our control. the other side has serious losses. side. >> the new ukranian leader made clear that his government will not tolerate instability staying it will happen in hour, not days. >> petero poroshenko is a ukranian billionaire. most of his fortune made in chocolate. he has business interests in russia, and a reputation for prague mettism and deal making. me talked about engaging with ukraine. >> stopping the war and bringing the peace to ukraine, and

stability on the eastern part of ukraine. that would be impossible without representatives. >> in moscow, russia's foreign ministers promise that russia will support petero poroshenko as he tries to make a deal. >> we expect him to act in the interests of the entire ukranian people. >> if russia keeps the promise, it may be a big if, ukraine may be starting down a path towards a return of stability. >> back with us on the set. what does petero poroshenko do now. what are the first stets. >> two important meetings. he'll meet president obama in europe, when he is in europe for the d-day anniversary. the second, with the russian leadership. that will take place, the first part of june.

we don't have a date. what will he talk about. there are hints that they may want direct military aid from the united states. >> that may be hard to win over in washington. >> absolutely. >> what do we know about the chocolate king. >> he made a fortune in confectionary. he has substantial business interests in russia, he has done business with the russians, and is well known for them. in the tit for tat sanctions applied, the russians hit him with sanctions and have $80 million of his dollars tied up in one of their banks. he is a man known to be, as they say, handshakable, meaning he's a guy that can do a deal. that's a one of the reasons why the ukrainians voted for him. >> we'll see what he does next. thank you so much.

leaders meet in brussels in the wake of elections expressing discontent with the union and how it is run. the anti-european party took a quarter of the seats, and the vote will influence poverty. we begin the report on the south-east of britain. >> it's been a bumpy ride for the british beachside town. struggling like much of britain with high unemployment and a stagnant economy. brian has been making fish and chips here for 14 years. at 69 he hoped to retire, but can't find anyone to buy his business. he blames the conservative government and uses the local and parliamentary elections to send a message. >> i voted conservative for years. in the end, new policies, and what they would do - i decided it was time for a change.

this time i voted for u.k. >> ukip is the you k independence party, tapping into anti-sentiment. they are becoming a force. >> what do you hope they do? >> i hope they solve the immigration problem. there's too many immigrants, no work, no housing and most live off benefits. >> he hopes ukip will help union. >> we are controlled by europe. they control our immigration. it shouldn't be allowed. we should control our own country. america does. what they say goes. and that's how it should be. >> reporter: as the results came in, ukips message resonated, the party winning 160 seats at the local council level, and 24 at the european council in centrals

berg. all -- centrals berg. all of it making this man delighted. he is leading it charge for britain to leave the union. >> this is an earthquake. never before has an outsider party won an election. the implications are huge. we have momentum. >> reporter: across the channel in france, there's more anti-e.u. sentiment on display. the front party had a quarter of the votes. towns like vermont switched allegiances, making them wary of the party's racist situation. >> i feel it's the injustice, the politics, the way they make people believe what they want to.

all of this is basically racism. >> french president francis hollande whose party finished third spoke on tv. the european elections delivered their truth and it is pain. he said. it shows distranscript of europe and government parties. >> i think there'll be a comprehensive search for a fresh approach responding to the concerns that citizens are expressing. make brussels do what they ought to do. >> throughout the campaign he appeared smoking, drinking beer, an image to highlight the differences between him and government leaders. >> they will change rhetoric, but will not change. they believe open borders are good. they are good for rich people, for big businesses - they are a disaster for working families. >> ukip may not have seats, but the popularity has the ruling

conservative party listening. david cameron promised a referendum on whether britain should leave europe. election. >> throughout europe the turn out was low. the popularity of outsider parties doesn't mean they are about to take power at the national level. it upsets the political order, forcing established political parties to make changes, turning to nationalist right-wing policies. back at the british seaside. kerry and her mother, both voting ukip have high hopes. >> they are strong and powerful. as the years go on, they are getting stronger and stronger. this time next year, a couple of years, they'll be as big as labour and conservatives. when we return - sexual tension on twitter. the california killing spree sparks on online debate over how

men and women love and hate. families ripped apart... >> racial profiling >> sometimes they ask questions... sometimes they just handcuff people... >> deporting dreams... destroying lives... >> this state is literally redefining what it means to be a criminal alien fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> they're locking the doors... >> ground breaking... >> we have to get out of here... >> truth seeking... award winning investigative documentary series fault lines the deported only on al jazeera america

>> weekday mornings on al jazeera america >> we do have breaking news this morning... >> start your day with in depth coverage from around the world. first hand reporting from across the country and real news keeping you up to date. the big stories of the day, from around the world... >> these people need help, this is were the worst of the attack took place...

>> and throughout the morning, get a global perspective on the news... >> the life of doha... >> this is the international news hour... >> an informed look on the night's events, a smarter start to your day. mornings on al jazeera america that horrific rampage at the university of california at santa barbara has generated much heat, particularly with facebook pages, that have been taken down. it provoked a fears response, a battle of the sexes. the two big hash tags are at the center of this. >> absolutely, what we saw in response is as information about elliot rodger and his online manifesto and youtube videos came out, women in america related some of their experiences of sexism, things like entitlement towards sex, or

the idea of fantasies of violence for women that rejected him. women saw some of what he said and wrote and said i can relate to that. it started in the u.s. and spread over the weekend to countries around the world. so far there has been 1.6 million tweets and counting, and i wanted to share with you some of the hash tags that we have seen, some of the responses that we have seen that have come out. here is a sampling of a few. let's have a listen.

that's compelling. this "yes, all women", how did it become a hash tag. it was in response to, "not all men", it was something that men would use when they heard conversations about sexism and a response saying: it was an idea that some men were threatened by the conversation and felt the need to clarify saying not all men

are part of problem. some women thought that interesting, in a sense that it became a mean to describe men defending the defended, or the need that men that interrupted legitimate conversations that they felt needed to be had about violence and aggression against women that were taking place, and what it ended up with was this response - fine, yes, not all men are sexist, but, yes, all women are dealing with different forms of harassment and sexism, and this emerges for them to reclaim the space. >> this is different to what we were talking about with this individual who was destructive and apparently sye cottic. >> -- psychotic. >> yes, it engendered debate. some said it was the arab spring of 21st century feminism, some were unhappy saying it was about mental health, and the

conversation was detracting from other conversations we should be having. you'll see anger, but you have people saying, "i'm learning so friends.". >> thank you for being here. ahead in our final thoughts of the hour, a twist in the story of the spinners. >> atlantic released the first record. a disc jockey in buffalo new york turned the record over and played "i'll be around", and that took off, man, i'm telling you. that is so, so fast. from their first hit to the walk of fame, what the last original spinner says about the future. ♪ i want to know now baby ♪ ♪ whoah yes consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown.

>> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america al jazeera america. we understand that every news story begins and ends with

people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story. >> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you. al jazeera america, take a new look at news. there's more to finical news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can effect your grocery bill? could rare minerals in china effect your cell phone bill? or, how a hospital in texas could drive up your health care premium. i'll make the connections from the news to your money real.

finally tonight, the mo town sound. detroit in '50s, stevie wonder, soup reams, the spinners - they all got their start and moves there. the spinners are grooving and on tour with a new generation working hard to fill big shoes. there is an original in the mix. and tonight he gives us the twist in the spinners. something? >> go for it. >> okay. how you all doing? >> my name is henry. i am a member of the spinners vocal group. i'm 75 years old and still kicking.

not kicking, but i'm thinking du-whop is duwhop. [ singing ] >> this was the du-whop. this year, 1954, we were in our early teens and in high school. and i'm talking about the very beginning of the group existence. we was only a basketball court outside and every day in the summer time we gathered around, standing around seeing, and everyone said "you all sound good." these are the guys. they are on the right. jackson next to him, bobby smith, billy henderson and myself on the end on the left side.

at that time our name was domingos, and bobby came up with spinners, from a cadillac hub cap. we knew we weren't going to college. we made a pact that we would take this and make up a career out of it. if we make it, we make [ singing ] >> they came up with a song "that's what girls are made for", it went to top 40. mo town for us was a very, very good college. they taught you how to use a microphone, they taught you how to sit on a stool, they taught you everything. >> the spinners album - this is the first album on atlantic records. they released the first record. a disc jockey in buffalo new

york turned the record over and played "i would be around." that record took off. it was so, so fast. it sold so fast. [ singing ] >> we kept on doing it. it was five or so records. this was the star on the hollywood walk of fame. we were the second black group to get a star. the first was the mills brothers. we tested it at the time. we sold a million copies. and it was a great hit for us.

[ singing ] >> this was the 12th anniversary. there was a write-up in jet magazine. forms. concerts? >> i was too young. >> the first concert i saw was a spinners cop cert. i said to dad "i'll do what they are doing." >> i grew up listening to the spinners music, and i remember when "it's a shame" came out. i a remember saying "who is that?" [ singing ] >> i'm ronny moss, the newest member. i'm one of tenors in the group. [ singing ] >> could we not interrupt. hi. >> hi, i'm jessie peck. i do the base, and fill the large shoes of fergus jackson -

it's a dream come [ singing ] >> i'm marr von taylor, and i do most of the bobby's parts - well, i do all of bobby's parts. >> i just realised that this is what i have to do now. i have to step up and be bobby, so to speak and let him know that it is all right down here. >> with you baby. >> how are you all doing. >> i'm the spinners, i've been here all my life. [ singing ] oh, my god, they are going to book me. i have put four guys together, and the audience seem to have accepted the four guys i have with me now. they are doing an excellent guy

that is going away. we don't want nobody thinking i'm with the spinners now. you anti-nothing. >> i'm looking for tenors, base and barra tone. you have to get the sound that you created. because if you don't, you are going to get another sound. . >> when i brought the shoes to rehearsal five years ag, when henry first started refersing, they were good-looking shoes. >> when you go on stage, you know, you don't think you look good. you don't look good. that's how we started. they would be like one of a kind. when you go on stage like that, and you know that things are looking good, you can forget about that part of it. >> i feel like a spinner.

>> boppy was the -- bobby was the last member that went away. when we closed that night. me and him had dinner. he said, "look, i don't know what is going to happen, whatever you do, man, keep this going." it was the last time i talked to him. when we go on stage, the spinners, it's the same. the same ovations and excitement, and i see it in the audience faces. >> we go back almost 40 years. the new ones come along, and they are great, and they make a great sound. doesn't matter, doesn't matter. if they put four people in there, it's still the spinners.

[ singing ] looking back on our career, i wouldn't change a thing. [ singing [ singing ] ever. that is it for us on "america tonight". please remember if you want to comment on any of the stories you can go to the website aljazeera.com/americatonight. and find us on twitter or facebook. goodnight. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow, see you later. >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the

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