THIS POST IS NOW COMPLETE!
At one stage the news columns of Hobo Magazine were called Street News and Shoestring
HOBO ISSUE ONE JUNE 1973 - NEWS
The Birmingham Streetpress hold regular gigs at the Fighting Cocks in Moseley on Friday Nights. Bands like Medicine Head, Trevor Burton Band, Graham Bond Organisation head the bill with a multi-media cast of other acts. A cheap and good atmosphere. More info as and when it comes.
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No need to mention that VIRGIN RECORDS have opened in the City Arcade, so we won't!! Keep on trucking
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Congrats to Colin Armstrong in reaching the semifinals in the Melody Maker National Rock/Folk contest. Also to Just Jake, Willow, Naked Light, Just Before Dawn, Bumble and all the others who entered. More on them if poss. later.
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So Hobo has been told, Bob Jackson (formerly of Indian Summer and Monster Magnet is currently playing with John Entwhistle's Rigamortise Band. Nice to see someone getting on Bob!
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Buy Friendz Today
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New L.P. from the Pink Fairies out this month!
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JULY 1973 ISSUE TWO (UNPUBLISHED)
Watch out for HOBO dances and Humpoesic Happenings and also alnight festivals
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Last month we told you that we believed that Bob Jackson (Ex. Indian Summer) (Listen to the great music on My Space) was playing with
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(You can hear this single on their My Space )
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Another band to emerge (bearing some connection to Indian Summer) is Al Hatton's band. Al used to play bass for Indian Summer. Al is now playing acoustic guitar with three others known as Trilogy. The group have another guitarist and percussionist and make some nice sounds, using original material.
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Anyone know of or can help obtain practice places for loud groups, venues for concerts at preferably not rip-off prices, please let us know, there is a great need. Advertisers don't forget we still need you, don't be shy.
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ONE DAY THOMAS is the name of Martin Jenkin's new band (formerly of Dando Shaft)
(Check their My Space here). The new band features other established personalities such as Barry Skinner on guitar and vocals / John Mckintosh on double bass and John Astle on drums. Martin plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin and flute. They are of course an electric band and most of the material is far removed from that of Dando Shaft. They play mostly jigs and reels and electrified folk songs.
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ISSUE TWO AUGUST 1973 (Published Version)
RO RO
Last time we mentioned that Bob Jackson (Ex. Indian Summer) was playing with Rigormortise and this is not
(You Tube shows Coventry's Bob Jackson playing on Come and Get it with Apple group Badfinger for whom he went to play for - now with the Fortunes)
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A BAND CALLED GEORGE
Released their first single on the 24th August entitled NCB MAN, which is out on the Bell label. their music, which is self composed, is in similar vain to that of Lindisfarne. The members of the band hail from both Coventry and Leamington. They are Bob Young on lead vocals and guitar. Colin Young on bass; Roger Prince on guitar; Nicky Trevisick on drums and Baz Andruszko on accordion. Not forgetting Ricky and Dave the trusty roadies!). (both Ex Indian Summer roadies).
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TRILOGY
Who are due to play the Windsor Free Festival during the last week of August, are a new band featuring Al Hatton (late of Indian Summer) on acoustic guitar; Ron Abelwhite (Ex. Torqwood) also on guitar and Roy Brewster on assorted percussion. All members compose and contribute vocals.
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FISSION
Whose individual componants are : - Johnny Adams - 2nd lead guitar /
Just Jake
A vocal group in the vain of Genesis and Yes, producing interesting and original material. it features the talents of Martin Barter on keyboards; Chris Jones on lead guitar; Dave Wickes on bass guitar and Richie Medlock on drums.
they all assist on vocals and help in composing their material with a lyricist friend. The band will be
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............................COVENTRY ARTS UMBRELLA CLUB
Are holding a meeting on August 29th at their temporary base in the Royal Navel Club, Spon End, at about 8.00pm. this is to discuss ideas for their events programme, for latter half of the year.
Anyone who would like to submit ideas, help organise events or is just interested in what's going on (and remeber these things are what YOU make them!) are welcome to come along. The meeting is an informal one and open to anyone. Please try and go along, as it's about time some things got off the ground again in Coventry!!
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WINDSOR FREE FESTIVAL
Starts Saturday 25th August in Windsor Great Park, London and is expected
Some of the more well known groups appearing are - Hawkwind / Pink Fairies / Skin Alley / Third Ear Band / Longdancer / String Driven Thing / Kraan (German Band) but to name a few. Coventry bands possibly appearing include - Trilogy (confirmed) / Fission / Just Jake / A Band Called George / Trev Teasdel and Don't Talk Wet (I didn't do it in the end -can't remember why but it was it was nice to be asked!).In fact Fission were the only ones that ended up playing at Windsor.
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LATE NEWS
Just Jake will be operating under a new name (not yet decided on) owing to the personal changes mentioned above. (Eds note - I think this was Wave but I can't be sure).
Baz Andruszko, the accordionist with A BAND CALLED GEORGE has left the group. A replacement is being sought.
(Ed's note - I think Baz left to join a reformed Dando Shaft to provide the sound track for a a pplay - You Must Be Joking (on the history of the car industry in Coventry) at the Belgrade Theatre. Rod Felton also joined Dando on this occassion.
Contributed by co-editor Babs Wainwright -
A great loss to the literary worl; - JRR Tolkien, author of (as if you didn't know) the HOBBIT and LORD OF THE RINGS. Our humble tribute to a man who gave so much to the world. Farewell friend....
Issue 3 Unpublished. (Issue 3 didn't emerge until Feb 1974 but in between there were attempts to restore it to it's monthly basis - cost of printing thwarted all efforts) Here are some of the entries that didn't get printed in between published issues. (NOT SURE OF THE DATES OF THESE UNPUBLISHED POSTS BUT ALL ARE FROM AUGUST 73 - to Jan 74 I think).
NCB MAN - NO AIR PLAY
NCB MAN, released on the Bell Label by A Band Called George has not been selected for air play on the Beeb, despite it being a highly commercial song, hailed by discos. The reason however is not owing to the lyrics erupting the Mary Whithouses or the pulsing beat inciting couples to copulate in bus queues, but is, I'm told, the fate of 90% of the singles that are submitted to the BBC. So everyone bombared the Beeb with requests for ti!
The band have ceased live gigs for the time being, coming together for recording only. Bob Young is writing and producing at Snitterfield Recording studios. Rog has written and recorded a solo single for release on Bell called World War 1. Nick has joined Smack! and Baz is joining Dando Shaft.
RO RO to join bonds with Brown
Ro Ro, the band formed from Rigormortise, featuring Bob Jackson, Ex Indian Summer keyboard man, are currently rehearsing with Pete Brown, late of Bond and Brown etc. A British tour is a possibility (don't forget Coventry lads) and subsequent recording. (Sounds interesting)
SMACK! ...MISS UNDERSTOOD
SMACK! formed from the now defunct Pug-ma-Ho, are now completeing a tour of Germany. a single is due out around Christmas time on the (dreaded) Bell label.
The number is entitiled "Miss Understood" and was written by that old son of a gypsy gnome, Bob Young. The line up of the band consists of Gordon Reaney on lead guitar; Ollie Oliver on bass guitar; Nicky Trevisthick on drums and a female vocalist by the curious name of Margo- Buchanan-Reid-Smith (Later a backing vocalist with Mud).
DANDO - NEW PHASE
Dando Shaft may be reformed in the near future with original members Martin Jenkins on fiddle and mandolins, Ted Kaye on congos and other percussion and joined by Rod Felton on guitar and Baz Andruszko on bass and accordian. But at the moment they are fulfilling other commitments. Martin, who recently wrote and played the music for the Belgrade's production Little Red Riding Hood has another production in London. Rod is due for a tour of Germany, I believe.
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WINDSOR FREE FESTIVAL and FISSION
Fission, who were the only Coventry band to appear at the Windsor Free Festival, where I believe, they went down quite well, have suffered personal changes. Rick Thawn, lead guitarist, has left and is now involved in a jazzier type of group (Trigon - who later played the Hobo Workshop and involved Paul Samson who much later produced the Primitives). The group have a tour of Austria in the air (don't forget your parachutes!).
Simon Lovegrove, drummer, plans to leave the group when the group find a replacement drummer. An organist from London maybe added as a replacement for Rick. The group recently played the Q Artisites Club and when asked by Q why they weren't playing Slade and the Rolling Stones, Ant (the vocalist) replied "Because Slade and the Rolling Stones play Slade and the Rolling Stones!" Nice one Ant.
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JUST JAKE no longer exist, martin Barter (keyboards_ and Richie Medlock (drums) are currently working things out with Trilogy, whilst Chris Jones, lead guitarist and Dave Wikes, bassist, have joined the the Jazz Rock group Khayyam (formerly Wave). The group have residencies at the Earlsdon Cottage on Thursdays and the Carousel in Hinckley on Monday nights. Other bookings include Ronnie Scotts, Pheasantry, Speakeasy and possibly the Rainbow. Apologies to Dave Wickes for calling him Dave Sweet last time and apologies to friends of Dave Sweet who thought he'd suddenly become a pop star!!
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SUNSHINE - COVENTRY MUSIC AGENCY
The Sunshine Agency, formed three months ago by Craig Ward, Bob Young and Graham Ward (of Silk Disco fame) are always on the look out for groups and artists that are available for work here and abroad. They also have a musicians register for musicians looking for bands and vice versa. They have half-shares in the Snitterfield recording studios. If you wish to know more about it then you are welcome to pop in for a chat and a coffee to their base in Gulson Rd.
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MAD CAT MOLLY are another band set to make a single for possible release on the Bell label. Again it is a Bob Young composition (no relation to Neil Young Jamie!!) called Dancing to the Music originally going to be done by the Earthquakes who hail from Derby. The line up is Steve Lore on lead; Mick Murphy on Rhythm; Paul Wright on bass and Chris Potter on drums. They have quite a few booking lined up around the country thanks to Sunshine Music Agency.
HOBO ISSUE 3 (Published Version) February 1974
SUNBIRD - HATCHING
Bird Recording Studios at Snitterfield, not far from the land of Shakespeare, has been converted into an 8 track stereo unit and will re-open at the beginning of Feb. The rates of recording there willremain the same as they were for the previous 4 track, for the first six weeks of opening. The rates at the moment are: - £4 an hour inclusive of editing. Copy tapes 50p, sur charge of £1 for use of Master Tape. For discs (Albums) 6 cost around £9 and a 1000 cost 75p each. This is a 24 hour service. Session musicians can be supplied on request with of course additional charges.
Plans for the future are quite ambitious and include producing their own equipment at cheap prices and their own record label, inconjunction with Sunshine (Coventry's Music Agency) and the label will be called (would you believe) Sunshine! The label will occur if they can overcome the problems of distribution.
THE DREAM MACHINE
This is one of the most advanced lighting systems in Europe and has taken about two years to develop. The computer can be coupled with existing conventional equipment or any of the £2000 worth of equipment designed by Dream. The lighting computer itself costs in the region of £550. Dream both sell and hire out this equipment for mobile nd fixed discos. They also do their own disco shows incorporating the gear it Beckett's and Ceasars in Nuneaton. If yu are interested in this and want to know more, Dream can be contacted by phoning Rob Dalton on Rugby.....
Q - SPICE OF VARIETY (Q ARTISTES)
A showcase of talent has been amongst the activities of the Q Artists club. Talent in a variety of guises emerged on
ROSS Bob Jackson Bio (including Ross)
ROSS, the new name for Ro Ro, have just completed an LP for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The album will
The current line up is Coventry's Bob Jackson (ex Indian Summer) on keyboards and vocals. Tony Fernandz on drums, Reuban White - percussion, Steve Emery - bass and vocals and Alan Ross - guitar and vocals.
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JOHN GOLDING - DISCARDED VERSE
Daventry folk singer and songwriter John Golding has made an LP. This
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COME ON ADE TAYLOR - "get it together man!" It's been a long time since Wandering John!!
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MONSTER MAGNET
Musicians from a selection of Coventry bands, past and present, have formed a local 'Super Group' calling themselves MONSTER MAGNET. The band, which first hatched at the beginning of 73, has a loose line up of about 9 musicians and only do selected gigs, owing to the size of the band and the cost of keeping such a band on the road. It also depends on the availability of the musicians involved as some are currently with other bands. It also gives musicians who are in between bands a chance to play whilst out of work. The line up (although this varies) consists of such 'devastating musicians' as Mick Smithem, Phil Street, Tim James, Paul Hooper, Col Williams, Steve Cotterill, Bill Jackson (Ex April lead singer) , Bob Jackson (no relation), Roy Butterfield, Ron Lawrence (Ex April bassist and later with Sniff and the Tears), Dave Pennycock and Little Jimmy Osmond and all! A cool band full of top Covnetry musicians.
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KHAYYAM formed from the Jazz/ Rock band Wave, are now set to make an album, privately, which will be produced by Roger Eames, who produces the jazz club on zee radio. Members of the band are, for persons interested, - Steve Tayton - Saxaphones, clarinet, flute; Harry Heppinstall - drums and percussion; Rodney Joyce on congas (Ed's note - don't swoon Lesley!) and 'paint cans!); Chris Jones on lead guitar and vocals. Dave Wickes on bass and keyboards.
SOUTHERN COMFORT
Southern Comfort has, I'm told, been graced with the talents of Coventry's Martin Jenkins, late of the Coventry band Dando Shaft. Martin, who writers some incredible songs (Whispering Ned, Waves Across the Ether) and plays Mandolin, flute and fiddle (etc.), has been featured as a guest on a previous Southern Comfort album.
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SMACK! PLAY GERMANY
Just returned from a successful tour of Germany are SMACK!. The group who are Coventry based, hail mainly from Matlock. This phunky rock band who play original material, consists of these curios Smackeroos - Gordon Reaney - lead guitar, Ollie Oliver - bass and vocals, Margo-Buchanan-Reid-Smith on Vocals and smiles and Nicky Trevisthick on drums.
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BAND WAGONS ON THE RUN
"Uh know anyone with a van-man" is a question on the lips of a lot of bands. So below I will priovide what information I have on the subject, which doesn't amount to very much. If anyone either has or knows anyone who has a transit van available for group transportation, with or without a driver, then let us know the details at Hobo and we can communicate it to the great unwashed!
Here are some contacts -
Bob Hopkins of 127, Overslade Cresent, Kersley 3185 has such a van but is playing in a band called Natural Gas and is thus not always available (as is many the case).
Then there is a transit for hire (with driver) from Rogers, 78, Fenside, tel Cov 412331 / 413113 of whom I know no more about. Then of course there are firms that specialise in van hire generally and who tend to be more expensive in many cases. These can be contacted through the Coventry Evening Telegraph small ads or the Yellow Pages. Brady Van hire (cov 867680 have transport of the following description, 8, 18, 22, 35 cwt. to 3 tons from £2.50p daily. If you live in the Brum area, a guy called Rob Cowlyn runs the GREEN GOBLIN which is a monster Merc. He does cheap removals nd general trucking and can be contacted by dialing 021 4496184 / 021 4491021. Any more for many more? Next month, if the petrol shortage gets any worse, we'll be doing an article on Horse and Cart hire!. So if youknow of any groovy farmers, then let us know via the next Pony-Express or Pigeon Post.!
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MUSICIAN'S CLUB
On Monday nights, the Coventry branch of the Musician's Union hold the musician's social club at the Charterhouse pub in Terry Rd. Stoke. You don't have to be a member to attend and there is no obligation to join. Addmission is 10p which goes towards paying the band which changes each week and has included the bands - Geneva, Willow, Drops of Brandy. Also musicians of quality who happen to be in the area. This Covnetry club seems to have a high attendence for a Coventry club and attracts both young and old musicians in congenial circumstances.
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ISSUE 4 (Unpublished Version c May 1974) Note - the issue was printed but the they reduced it so small it wasn't very readable so we scrapped it and had it updated and reprinted on a Duplicator a month later!)
COLIN ARMSTRONG REACHES SEMI-FINALS
Coventry singer/songwriter Colin Armstrong, who reached the semi-finals in the Melody Maker contest last year, is to enter agin this year. Lotza luck Colin.
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Reports reach HOBO that FRIARS PROMOTIONS have gone bust!
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SHADES OF NIGHT - have split up and also WILLOW. Joe Reynolds and Willow's other saxaphonist are to join a reformed version of A Band Called George.
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FISSION - are currently reforming with the return of thier drummer - Simon Lovegrove, to Coventry. Other members include Al Varney on bass / Johnny Adams on lead / rhythm...
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Interesting things happening at the SMITHFIELD ARMS (opposite Cov Theatre) on Mon, Thurs, Fri. Free admission. Live groups and musicians geting up and jamming.
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BANDS WANTED FOR FESTIVAL
Anyone who would like to play at the third Windsor Free Festival, which takes place at the week beginning 24th August 1974 (and this includes bands, singers, poets, theatre groups etc, then Contact John Bargent (BO), 21, Lorenzo Close, Willenhall, who is organising things from this side. There will be no payment but partcipants will get great publicity throughout Britain and the Continent. Also anyone who can help with supplying things like generators, food (nearer the time), stamps and envelpopes (unused) - it would greatly help. Addm to the 3rd People's festival organised by COMMUNES is free. Last year they had 20,000, this year they anticipate 100,00.
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ROSS - NEW SINGLE - ALRIGHT BY ME
Ross have released their debut single and album. The LP is called ROSS and is released by the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The single is called Alright by Me and written jointly by Alan Ross, Steve Emery and Coventry's Bob Jackson. The band recently appeared on (would you believe - Crackerjack). I believe an American tour is in the offing also...
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SEX STARVED FOLK CLUB!
The Rude Bear Folk Club is starved of sex - anykind!, male or female. The club which closed down owing to a lack of support recently, re-opened last month in the hope of attracting more interest. Addmission is cheap (some times free) and takes place at the Hand in Heart, Far Gosford St. on Tuesdays. Resident singers are Dave Coburn (just returned from a successful residency in the Canary Isles) and Rod Felton who is doing some interesting things these days. LETS SEE SOME MORE PEOPLE THERE!!
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MUSICIAN'S SPLIT
The Musician's union holds it's social club to which all musicians are welcome, on Monday nights at the Bantham, Hen Lane. Whilst a splinter group from the Musician's Union, for reasons yet unknown to me, have formed the Musician's Association which is held at the Mercers Arms also on a Monday night! All musicians are welcome.
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ANYONE HELP HORACE!
A student band, playing a varied amount of rock music, not too loud, seeks gigs in clubs and pubs, will play even for expenses at a push. Horace says the music is pretty tasteful and they just want to be playing somewhere.
If you can help contact Horace Panter at 12, Binley Rd. Coventry.
(Note this was five years before Horace rose to fame with the Specials
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SOMETHING TO SAY
Every Monday at the Lanch Polytechnic, Covnetry, in room B 315, there will
PEOPLE AWARENESS NEED YOU!
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Ex Wandering John guitarist - John Alderson, returned from Sandersfoot in Wales, where he was reported to be living in Hobo issue 2. John met up with Trillogy -
TRILOGY
Trilogy were also reviewed in issue two. An acoustic band. They are expanding their line up to include keyboard player Martin Barter who also sings, Rog Jackson on bass, John Alderson on lead and slide guitar along with the original members of the trio - Roy Brewster on congas and percussion, Ron Abelwhite on acoustic guitar and vocals and Al Hatton on acustic guitar and vocals. They write all their own material which without classifying it too much, is, suffice to say, funky with harmonies. The band appeared recently on Midland's Today and are entering the Melody Maker contest. I caught the original band at the White Bear pub in Willenhall Wood recently with blues soloist Mick Stuart.
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STOP PRESS - INFO FROM NUNEATON
A new band from Nuneaton - Highway Man - consisting of Steve Williams vocals, Don Ross - bass, Paul Bainbridge lead, Mick Ison Rhythm. Thanks to Brian of Nuneaton for the info. (PS Your other info came too late for this issue - sorry!).
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ANALOG
A new original rock band freaturing Mick Hartley bass (Sound City 120 watt
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TRIGON
Are another newly formed band to hit the scene. Featuring Rick Thawn (Ex Fisson) on lead guitar, Gary Kirton on drums, (Ex Whistler), Paul Samson (Ex Mick Green Blues Band - later Bung / Reluctant Sterotypes - Producer of the .Primatives). Terry Hyde on bass. There music is jazz rock orientated, heavy with percussion, although they try to make their music as comprehensive as possible. Plans include entering for the Melody Maker contest and a possible tour of Austria. (Trigon also played the Hobo Workshop later in 1974).
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SPLINES
A Jazz- rock unit doing Keith Jarret Osibisa, Mike Gibbs as well as original material. Featuring John Rogers on bongos / percussion / Gil Monks - Barritone, Tenor, alto, flute, clarinet; Brian Johnson - Trombone; Graham Dent (Ex Wave), guitar; Fergie Maynard drums (Ex Sid Lawrence) Baz Andruszko on bass.
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KHAYYAM
KHAYYAM seem set to knock the rocs off the music scene.. A group of very accomplished musicians making some incredible music in the Jazz rock field. They are currently negotiating a recording deal and a fortnights residency in both Brussels and Amsterdam. After blowing the minds of the clientele who frequent the Speakeasy and Ronnie Scotts in London, they are set for regular spots at these venues. Said Sound Mixer John Bargent (BO) (former HOBO co- editor) " Most places we've played have agreed to rebook us, it's incredible". Catching them in the act at Coventry's new rock venue - THE STEAM PACKET at the Tree Tops on sundays, I spoke to some of the audience to see what they thought. Some felt their music was 'too complicated' for them while the majority were amazed at the sounds theat were emanating from the stage. All agreed though that the musicianship was a of a very high standard. The audience at the Tree Tops was not the audience Khayyam normally play to it has to be said. Hobo wishes Khayyam success in the future.
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Issue 4 (Published) summer 1974
KHAYYAM - STIRRING THE DUST
On the outskirts of Coventry, fair city, looms a big world which Khayyam have been pioneering, leaving their mark firmly embedded in the eardromes of their audiences in colleges and universities around the country, not to mention the Speakeasy and other haunts in the City of Royal! Word reaches me that they are one of the most talked about up and coming bands. The band are full of enthusiasm for the continental scene too, where they played LE PUSSYCAT ROCK in Brussels; The TIME MACHINE in Lieges; The RITZ in Antwerp. Their enthusiam and that of their promoters is so great that already they have another tour arranged for Blegium and Holland. And a certain caged bird whispered to me on the quiet that a tour of the continent could occur in the near future, depending on developments. Those familiar with Khayyam's music from the Golden Cross or the Earsldon Cottage in Covnetry maybe interested to know that their music is retaining that essential Khayyam sound, although it has become more funkier and rocky, loosing some of it's jazziness. This is owing to the recent departure of Sax player Steve Tayton. The stage performance has become funkier too.
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HARK THE OTTOMAN COMETH
It could be said that they produce music in a similar vain to the Doobie Bros, with a touch of Santana in the percussion, but such a classifications are intended as only a rough guideline to loosly indicate their style. They of course write and play music like Ottoman, who else? Having only been formed a few months, this band has the distinction of having appeared on BBC's MIDLAND'S TODAY programme. The lead and slide guitar is performed by Ex Wandering John guitarist - John Alderson, whilst the keeyboards ring to the tune on Martin Barter. Al Hatton lends his wieght to the battle charge on electric rhythm, ably supported by Ron Abelwhite on acoustic guitar, defended by Roy Brewster on percussion and Richie Medlock on drums and a bass player, of whose name I am not yet clear on! All members contribute to the sound. (Ed's note - Ottoman was an an electrifical and expansion of the group acoustic group Trilogy).
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BANDZHATCH......Column...
SCOTCH MIST
A Birmingham band, playing electric folk similar to Fairport Convention. This band, managed by Mike O'Hare of the Coventry Virgin Records store, have been around a fair while, and Mike assures me that they are an exceptional band. The line up consists of Keith Jones fiddle / mandolin / dulicmer / Melodian. Ken Jones guitar / Melodian / dulcimer. Mike James lead vocals / guitar / banjo/ harmonica. Kevin Whitehouse bass / madolin / Lute. Steve Austin drums and percussion. They have gigs lined up at the Royal College of Art / Manchester University / Warwick University (2 gigs) and Coventry Cathedral Ruins for the Digger's concert Sat July 13th.
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ANALOG
Is a band that have been rehearsing an origianl set for about a year, without playing any gigs. They have written and composed a 40 min long suite which they will perform in the first half of their set. This will be followed by a high energy piece. The line up consists of Mick Hartley bass (sound City 120 watt amp = cab); Steve Edgeson 2nd guitar / clarinet / recorder (park combination amp + cab), Paul (Babbling) Brook - drums and vocals (Pearl double bass Drumkit); John Rushton (multi tracking maniac) lead guitar and backing vocals (Park 100watt amp = RPA cab and horn unit).
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TRIGON
Who have been featured periodically at the infamous Golden Cross, play Jazz orientated rock music. Line up is Rick Thawn - lead guitar; Gary Kirton on drums; Paul Samson lead guitar and Terry Hyde on bass.
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SPLINES
A unit playing a varied reportoir of Jazz music, swing, Jazz, Cuban, rock material. Material consits of numbers by Keith Jarret; Osibisa; Mike Gibbs + their own material. In the band we find John Rogers bongos and percussion; Baz Andruszko on bass guitar; Gils Monks - Barritone / Tenor / Alto / Flute / Alto Flute / Clarinet; Brian Johnson on Trombone; Graham Dent (ex Wave) on guitar; Fergie Maynard (Ex. Sid Lawrence Orchestra) drums. The band can be seen at the MERCIA every Thurs evening.
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BLUE JAYS
Out of the ashes of Fission awakens a new group called the BLUE JAYS featuring the lead guitarist / songwriter / vocalist from Fission - Johnny Adams; Fission bassist Al Varney and a drummer known only to me as Mick. This time around though the band are playing more commercially orientated music including Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree!! in order to earn enough money to finance new gear for the band. When a 'Rock gig' comes up though, they revert to their own rock material.
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THE THIRD WINDSOR FREE FESTIVAL
August 24th August sees the start of the third Windsor Free Festival, organised by Communes. Last year 20,000 were gathered together in Windsor Park. This year they anticiate 100,00 with over 100 bands and artists participating. It is expected to last about 9 days in all. Being a Free festival, they are relying on people contributing with things like unused stamps and envelopes to helop with the heavy mailing list and food and drink nearer the actual time. If by any chance anyone can help supply genorators, they would be greatly appreciated. The address to write to is UBI Bill Dwyer BM Circle London wc1 6XX.
Any bands, singers, poets, street theatre groups interested in participating, contact John Bargeant (Bo) at 21, Lorenzo Close Willenhall Coventry. There is no payment but a great deal of publicity is recieved in the continental and British press.
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ROCK IN THE RUINS
Once mroe the Cathedral Ruins will rock. According to Digger Arol, following the success of the Digger's concert in 1970, when several Coventry bands were featured, 'STREETMASSE have got it together to present a concert on Sat July 13th at 6.30pm - admissionn (at the gate only) 35p and among others, they are relying on the appearance of Monster Magnet, Scotch Mist, and another band as yet un named. This is a benefit concert in aid of the Digger's Hole (the bomb hole opposite the Golden Cross. With any luck they will be re-opening as a collective Art Gallery which will exhibit work of local artists. If this proves successful and is well supported there may well be a sequel in August and also possibly a 'Folk Concert'. So let's have a good turn out for the Diggers. Any artists interested in the Digger's 'Hole' (the collective art gallery should contact Digger Arol.
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ROSS - CLAPTON TOUR
Ross, the band led by Alan Ross and featuring Coventry's Bob Jackson on keyboards, have just returned from thier American tour and are set for another which forms part of the Eric Clapton tour. Into the bargin they have their debut album called Ross out on RSO label and from the album comes their debut single - Alright by Me, which is the only track not entirely answerable to the pen of Alan Ross, Bob Jackson had a hand in writing it. Looking forward to Bob doing his own material when he eventually gets his own band together again.
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PETE WATERMAN ON RADIO ONE
Dave Simmons - DJ of Radio One's Saturday soul programme, dedicated last weeks programme to the Philadelphia Sound, thanks to the efforts of Coventry's own top DJ Pete Waterman, who has just returned from Philapdephia with a hoard of interviews and information about the production of the Phi8lly Sound. Pete was interviewed throughout the programme by Dave Simmons and Pete's interviews were aired. Next issue, if Pete get's it together, we'll have an article from him on the Philly Sound - from the expert himself!
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SPACEMAN DAVE TAKES TO THE AIR
Appearing on ATV's NEW FACES on June 29th 1974 will be Dave F. Eastman. A Coventry songwriter who sings his own compositions, accompanying himself on piano and guitar, on which he is self taught. The number he will be performing on New faces is called Spaceman Blues. Dave has been writing for over a year and has about 160 compositions to his credit. His career is being guided by Q Artistes who i recently interviewd at the Leofric Hotel.
THE HERMIT
Mountain Ash Band
Research and original concept, music for songs – Colin Cripps
Lyrics – Ray King Narration - Sean Mansley
Featuring Lynda Hardcastle / Alan Rose / Martin Carter / Geoff Bowen / Graham Jones / Kevin slingsby
Job
Senior was a hermit. There are many ways of being a hermit. It was only for a
short time towards his later years that Job lived on Ilkley Moor away from
other people. For most of his life Job was a hermit in a crowd. The facts of
his life, as far as they are known, are narrated on this album. The songs are
not an attempt at story telling; more a series of glimpses of his world as we
imagine it would have been seen by Job at the crisis points of his life. Yorkshire Tales - The Hermit
For the introduction by Colin Cripps click HERE
Recorded on
13th / by Look Records, September Sound
Studios, Golcar, ,
The tracks need to be listened to in order as there is a narration followed by a song.. For more background on the group click HERE
BIRTH (Narration)
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Guitar – Colin Cripps
BIRTH (Song)
Vocals – Lynda Hardcastle, Alan Rose, Martin Carter. / Guitar – Colin Cripps
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones / Drums – Kevin Slingsby
On crimson wings the sun comes up
Across the eastern sky
Who sees the early dawning hour
When some may live and some may die.
Bent on the earth beneath the sky
A new born cry is heard.
The silent sky is split in two
The first eruption of a word.
Your life is started
Your life’s begun.
Be quick, the years wait for no one.
A million things are left undone.
Before the winking of an eye,
Before the setting of the sun
A chance is barely waiting,
A chance is barely anything.
Please know your hour will come, ( too soon, too soon, too soon)
Your time will come.
Mother’s in the kitchen and father’s on the land.
They’ll tell life is only what you’re holding in your hand.
They know the price of hardship, yes they know the coins of sweat.
They know the price that pain affords. They know, they know they know it all and yet
Your baby hands are open
And clutching for a star
But still they stop and warn you
You will never reach that far.
Be quick time’s waiting,
Be quick it slips away.
A lifetime will not leisure
In the
measure of today.
JOURNEYS (Narration)
Tune – Goddesses
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Descant Recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
JOURNEYS (Song)
Vocals - Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones.
Guitars – Colin Cripps, Martin Carter. / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
Bass Guitar – Graham Jones / Drums - Kevin Slingsby
The long and rolling road
That carries all the way to
Is calling me…Is calling me…
Where the road kisses the skyline
On that rolling green horizon
Is where I’ll be.. Is where I’ll be.
I don’t care if they say I’m ugly
‘Cause I’ll shed my tears alone.
My thoughts they do not haunt me,
I willfind another home.
For I have youth to face tomorrow. The Hermit Inn and Restaurant
I am stronger than today.
I am stronger than the strangers
Who are sending me this way.
I am bigger that he whispers
That they send to torment me.
I will reach the furthest star. Hermit Inn (site 2)
I will reach, I will be free.
The long and rolling road
That carries all the way to
It carries me ..It carries me.
The man is young, the sun is old,
It paves the streets of with gold.
Oh let it be that way…
…………..
Tunes; Rosebud – Pigeon on the gate – Dust in the Lane.
The grey and ugly streets
That slowly stretch away from
Are made of dust…made of dust.
I am hungry, I am thirsty.
Have my soul but give a crust.
My clothes are dirty.
My shoes are full of water
And my mind is full of hate.
I knocked the door of providence
They said I’d come too late.
I thought to stay forever
With the corpses at the gate.
Now the streets of are empty
As the faces stop and stare, and stop and stare.
I’ve no money for the alehouse
So I’ll find no comfort there, no comfort there.
Give me anything for pain.
I am truly so alone, Yes I’m alone.
I will face all the slander.
I am going home again, I’m going home again, I’m going home.
…………….
STONE ON STONE (Narration)
Tune – Leapfrog
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Tenor Recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
Fiddle - Geoff Bowen
STONE ON STONE ( Song)
Vocals _ Martin Carter / Guitar _ Colin Cripps /Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
Bass Guitar – Graham Jones
I’ve ostled and I’ve bustled,
I’ve trod the straight and narrow.
I’ve seen the road in yesterday
That stretches through tomorrow.
I’ve reaped and sowed,
I’ve bent and bowed.
I’ve scraped me way alone
But nothing pleases me as much as placing stone on stone.
Begone the song that others sing
In many voices loud.
I’ll sing me song and build along
Where no one else has ploughed.
Their voices strangle
In their throats
As years outstrip the bone
But my song is spelled in solid words, spelled out in
Stone on stone, stone on stone.
Stone on stone the walls go up
Beneath the massive hand
But sickles sweep the years away
While still the old stone stands
So here beneath the harvest moon
I build the big stones strong
And I think the things I’m building will outlive the sickle’s song.
Stone on Stone, stone on stone.
……………………….
A LONG WINTER (Narration)
Tune – Cliffs of Duneen
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Whistle – Alan Rose
A LONG WINTER (Song)
Vocals – Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter /Guitar – Colin Cripps
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones /Drums – Kevin Slingsby
Mary old dear draw closer
The night wind is blowing and shaking our stack.
I know that you’re older; I know your age
But none that I know can turn the hands back.
We had our share of hardship Mary.
Soon you’ll leave me too.
Though you’re old your heart is warmer by the fire.
We’ll see this long, long winter through.
Together mary, inside our house
We two are living close as one.
The years have robbed us, stripped our eyes
And to the night have taken and gone.
Count years away my Mary
For the wind is growing colder.
We may see a better time
Before we get much older.
Mary, Mary you can’t answer.
Are you gone away forever?
Are you gone?....
Are you gone?....
Are you gone?....
…………………..
WHO KNOWS (Narration)
Tune – Greenland Man’s Tune
Narrator - Sean Mansley
Fiddle – Geoff Bowen
WHO KNOWS (Song)
Vocals – Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones.
Guitar – Colin Cripps / Fiddle - Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar - Graham Jones
Drums – Kevin Slingsby
Who knows, who knows
What time has done to me?
Who shows, who shows
The things that I can’t see>
I wander home,
My house is broken down,
My money is lost
My life is scattered to the ground.
Who comes today
To rob me of my time?
I’d go insane
But still I hope the sun will shine.
Again. Who knows…
There’s little left to trust.
The tables never turned.
Who knows, who knows
Why all I touch just turns to dust?
I tried, I tried
But life’s an enemy.
I’ve trod the road.
They all lead back to me.
………………
I’LL SING FOR ME SUPPER (Narration)
Tune - Drive the Cold Winter Away
Narrator – Sean Mansley
Whistle – Alan Rose
Descant Recorder – Geoff Bowen
Treble recorder - Graham Jones
Tenor recorder – Lynda Hardcastle.
I’LL SING FOR ME SUPPER (Song)
Vocals _ Lynda Hardcastle, Alan Rose, Martin Carter, Graham Jones /
Guitar - Colin Cripps / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Bass Guitar – Graham Jones
Drums – Kevin Slingsby
I’ll sing for me supper
I’ll sing for me beer.
I’ll sing for you who heartily cheer.
You never will admit me
Not one into your door
But I’ll carry on singing
And then I’ll sing some more.
Now take my advice all you young men and true
Though you frown and you scwl for the want of a sou
Don’t wed and old widow with money galore
Nor love a young and a pretty maid who’ll always keep you poor.
Instrumental tune: Shooting
…………………….
THE OUTCAST (Narration)
Tune – Scollay’s Reel
Narrator - Sean Mansley
Treble recorder – Lynda Hardcastle
THE OUTCAST (Song)
Vocals - Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle, Martin Carter, Graham Jones
Guitars – Coin Cripps, Martin Carter / Fiddle – Geoff Bowen / Drums - Kevin Slingsby
If time has done me bad, then in this moment I’m not bitter
Or full with songs of hatred to the brim
Please think nothing of my anger in the days when I was younger still
I’m lonely now and breath my last.
Love me now – Oh love the Outcast.
The world was mine in bigger ways: my stones stand on the skyline.
The wind avoids the shadow of my walls.
I did my share of working and had my fill of learning.
I know that I am dying but I hear a baby crying
Far away across the moorland
Of my dreaming and my slowly closing eyes…
REBIRTH
Vocals – Martin Carter, Alan Rose, Lynda Hardcastle / Guitar – Colin Cripps,
Fiddle _ Geoff Bowen / Drums – Kevin Slingsby
On silver wings the sun goes down
Beneath the western sky
And sees this softly closing hour
When some may live and some may die.
Bent on the earth beneath the sky
A new born cry is heard.
The silent star is split in two
The first eruption of a word.
Your life is started.
Your life’s begun.
END................................
English Birds is an instrumental tht never made it to the final album, kindly sent to us by Colin Cripps.
Colin also provided a couple of other tracks that were played live after the Hermit project as part of another project. The other two tracks here are a couple of nos from their next project 'wind over the borderland'.
The Patient's Song and Leading Lady Thanks to Colin Cripps for these and his Mountain Ash Band introduction which is on another post here
In another post we have the 1975 album by the Mountain Ash Band, a concept album based on Job
To LISTEN to THE HERMIT click HERE
For more background on the group click HERE
Colin Cripps is author of Popular Music in 20th C (which takes you from Blues to Two Tone with musical exercises and background for use with music departments in schools and colleges)
Introduction to The Hermit by Colin Cripps - May 2007
From 1971 to 1974 I had had a life 'on the edge' in . Politically, I was running a community newspaper - The Willenhall Estate News - and organising rent strikes because of the state of the city's housing stock. I felt passionately about the situation In Northern and was under Special Branch Surveillance as a result. I was part of the squatter's movement in the city and was living in Ivy Walk (now tarquin Way!) with every drug dealer, racist and prostitute as a neighbour. I was doing a lot of grass and a few trips and i had a relationship that was gradually and painfully coming apart. Above all I was a guitar player/songwriter without a band or a voice. I was burnt out and desperate to make a change that would get my life back into shape.
In 1974 the opportunity presented itself to make a new start up in Yorkshire
in a kind of small scale 'commune' in Addingham on the side of Ilkley Moor. The setting was idyllic but unfortunately not enough to save my marriage and I ended up living in a box-room in the house of Geoff Bowen, the fiddle player in the Mountain Ash band - which, at the time, was a caileidh band I was playing in as well as having a line-up that was a regular feature on the local folk-club scene with ex-wife Lynda as part of the set-up.
I was attracted to the local folk story of the Hermit I suppose because it had resonances for my own situation at the time: I certainly could not claim that a centrally-heated box-room was anything like living under a dry stone wall on the moors but I guess i felt, like Job Senior, that an important part of me had died, that I was alone and and that I needed a rebirth. When Ray King, a friend from Willenhall, visited I told him the folk tale and he tuned in immediately and came up with a great set of lyrics. They had no verse and chorus structure because Ray was a poet not a songwriter, but there was enough to work with.
The track 'A Long Winter' was one that came from the kind of magical happening that comes once a life time. I was staying with some friends in a place called White Wells, halfway up the side of Ilkley Moor. I had been struggling with what to do with the lyrics to 'Long Winter' for a couple of weeks. I remember having an unsettled night and waking up early one morning before anyone else was up. I went outside with my acoustic and, where normally there was Ilkley, now there was just a floor of mist filling the whole valley. It came just up to my feet and i felt like i could walk all the way to Blubberhouses Moor on it. It was transcendent! I sat down with the guitar and the song came out whole, first go, complete, perfect, without any conscious thought or control. You have to treasure times like those.
Recording the album was a problematic affair. Martin Carter and Graham Jones were professionals on the folk circuit at the time and were good enough to make space to rehearse the piece but I was looking for a Richard Thompson feel that I never quite achieved: in retrospect that was because i couldn't play the guitar like him, especially not on a Zenta Telecaster copy! We recorded the whole thing in a converted church studio in with a guy who did the sound for ITV variety programmes on the desk. We could afford so little studio time and worked solidly over endless hours for two days: one day to record everything and the next to do any overdubs and mix-down. By the time it came to record the vocals we were already exhausted and by mixing time I had no ears left for nuance and no time to re-record anything.
We performed the piece in its entirety at as a multi-media
event ( we had slides! ) and managed not only to sell the place out but also to lose money. Nonetheless the whole thing seems to have been universally loved, both album and event, and lives on despite itself. I am proud of the songs and proud that we managed to record it despite the personal dynamics. It's a piece of music i keep coming back to thinking that I wish i could re-record it to sound the way it did in my head but the Mountain Ash band is scattered to the four winds and could probably not even co-exist inside a room together nowadays. Sean Mansley, the narrator, is sadly long since deceased and I have no idea what has happened to Ray King, poet extraordinaire; he was a reprobate of the best kind and I am so glad he passed through my life!
I am eternally flattered that people still want to listen to The Hermit and forever sad that I cannot bear to put it on my CD player...
Colin
(The lyrics and audio are in another post on here.)
Here are a couple of links to wedsites that feature Steve. - Lieutenant Pigeon / Stavely Makepiece
Steve Tayton
Lives in Cotes d'Armor, France Steve Tayton on Sibelius Music
Steve Tayton [ Sibeliusmusic store name: ConnectMusic] Born Coventry, England. Started studying Clarinet at 12 years old, followed by saxophone at 16, and flute at 20. First performed in jazz clubs at 16. Steve began composing seriously when writing for electric jazz fusion band PZAZZ, (see You Tube below) with whom he toured Europe. He followed up this success writing for KPM, with his themes being played world-wide. Steve, who studied composition and saxophone at Birmingham Conservatoire, plays saxophone clarinet flute and piano. On stage he has played with, among others Cilla Black, Level 42, Ruby Turner, and was asked by Phil Collins to join Brand X. He has also made an appearance on Top of the Pops
with Staveley Makepeace, as part of his career as a session musician in radio television and theatre. On jazz gigs he has performed with,among others, Barbara Thompson, Harry Beckett, Joe Harriot, Spike Heatly, and has played several times at Ronnie Scott’s London, and various jazz festivals. As an educator, he has taught many pupils to diploma level in both the classical music, and jazz genres. His commissioned work includes a suite for brass band and jazz trio, ‘Dark to Light’ performed at Coventry Cathedral,and other venues. He received further Arts Council funding to adapt the suite for big band, and to add new music. Steve’s published books for Music Sales, are most notably the Saxmania series,including 'Great Solos','Rock Hits','The Beatles',1 and 2,'Blues Greats', 'Jazz Classics',and'Big Band'. Other books written by him are 'Stan Getz Sax Solos'[transcriptions of ten of his solos],'Absolute Beginners Saxophone','The Doors for Saxophone', and editing 'The Joy of Flute', and '101 Solos'.
PAUL BROOK - COVENTRY DRUMMER, PROGRAMMER / SEQUENCER COMPOSER / PRODUCER / GREAT GUY
- 1955 - 2007 RIP
Sad news came via a message from Pete Willow this morning about Coventry Drummer / musician Paul Brooke but I
PAUL BROOKE was drummer with Analog, Reluctant Stereotypes, the backing bands for Percy Sledge and the Marvelettes, Pzazz, Mummy Calls (On Geffan label) and more.
Paul was he was also a talented and accomplished Programmer, / Sequencer / Composer and Producer having programmed on Coldcut's Let's Play Album. Paul's band Analog did their first performance at the Hobo Workshop in 1974 and Paul worked on many projects at the Gighouse Studios in Coventry.
Trev,
I thoughtyou might like some details of a new and truely original rock band to include in your Hobo Magazine. The name is ANALOG and includes the following people -
Mick Harley - bass / Steve Edgson - 2nd guitar, clarinet, recorder / Paul 'Babbling' Brook - he plays a double kit + vocals and John Rushton - Multi-track maniac on lead guitar and backing vocals.
(Read the full letter signed by John Rushton - here)
ANALOG AND THE HOBO WORKSHOP
The letter went on to say they were working on a 40 min suite, as yet untitled, based on an original idea by Paul Brook. The first half of the set consisted of a 'Super high energy piece' called Custo's Last Stand. The set contains more words than Close to the Edge (by Yes) and has seven main parts. The band had been in existence a year, rehearsing their masterpiece. John Rushton's letter coincided with the demise (owing to lack of finace) of Hobo Magazine and the birth of the Hobo Workshop. Analog did their first gig at the Hobo Workshop to great acclaim and the Coventry Evening Telegraph were there to immortalise them (see photo) in an article about the lauch of the new Hobo project. Analog proved a popular band at the Workshop, reknowned for their innovative Jazz / rock work.
THE RELUCTANT STEREOTYPES
I didn't see the band much after the Hobo Workshop finished summer 1975. Many of the bands had split up and new formations created. Shortly after punk had broken, I bumped into some of the band again. Walking past the 'Dive bar' (Lady Godiva Cellar Bar) in Coventry, a group of leather jacket punks emerged and made a bee line for me. I was about ready to run when I realised they knew me. Two members of the early Stereotypes were from Analog - Steve Edgson and Paul Brook and another was from another band who got started at the Hobo Workshop - Paul Samson formerly of Trigon and Bung. They were excited about their new band The Reluctant Stereotypes and I went to see them shortly afterwards at the Coventry Climax pub.
The early work of the Reluctant Stereotypes built on the Jazz rock styles of Analog, Trigon and Bung but later, after Two Tone broke, the band split and reformed. Some of the band wanted to continue their innovative appraoch and some wanted to go down a more commercial road. Paul Brook was one of the members who left. (See the Pete Chambers Article for the full lineage on these abnd members). Paul King joined - later forming the Pink Umbrellas and the the chart topping 80's band King. Paul Samson produced The Primatives.
But back to Paul Brook - I never really knew how Paul's career in music developed after the Reluctant Stereotypes until the other day when I checked out Ted Duggan's My Space and discovered the sad news.
Ted takes up the story -
PAUL BROOKE 1955 to 2007 RIP
Current mood:
Tuesday 3rd May my dearest friend for 30 years
passed away after fighting a 2 year battle against cancer.
Paul was in and out of hospital for the last 2 years but he never let that get in the way of letting other drummers share his vast knowledge of drums and music. He was a major contributor to drum forums all over the World in particular the Mike Dolbear drum forum where he posted 7445 topics since he joined on .
Paul had his own website that he set up with Jason Bowld
Nufusions
Pauls Biog
Here is a history of Paul's playing career.
Started playing drums over 30 years ago on an old Olympic kit. Having upgraded via Maxwin to a Hayman kit, he began by touring abroad with covers bands, before playing in the backing bands for Percy Sledge and later the Marvelettes.
During this time, he was very passionate about fusion, his favourite drummers
being Billy Cobham and Bill Bruford.
Joined a Jazz-rock band in 1980 called Pzazz and made an album and toured
extensively, including two tours with Level 42.
From there, joined a band called "Mummy Calls". who were signed for a ridiculous amount of money to Geffen records in 1984, and made a record with Hugh Padgham producing. The band dissolved the following year and Paul co-wrote the track "Beauty Has Her Way" which appeared on "The Lost Boys" soundtrack.
In the years from '85 to '92 he divided his time between session drumming and programming, working with and for diverse artists including Nick Kershaw, Gary Moore, Greg Lake, Bonnie Tyler, Pino Palladino, Dream Academy, Coldcut, Danny Thompson, etc. etc.
Jason Bowld's Tribute
Paul had battled extremely bravely with his illness, so much in fact, that he managed to outlive his own doctors prognosis. This was typical of Paul's character though. He kept on drumming, in between having various operations – and when he didn't have the strength to drum, his mind carried on drumming. Even whilst being bed ridden in hospital or at home, Paul had a manuscript pad by his side and was constantly writing down new ideas and beats to inspire others – many of which, reside on the nufusions site. I know when I first met Paul six years ago whilst playing a drum clinic in
spa he had the aura of a 'Jedi drumming guru' about him! When I went round to his house to see him play shortly after the clinic he drummed like a Jedi too! He had incredible independence, technical ability AND musicality and was one of the best drummers I'd ever seen.Since then I forged a friendship with him that helped breathe new life into my drumming as I was truly inspired not only by his fantastic playing ability, but also by his style of teaching. This is how the nufusions column in Rhythm magazine was born. Two different playing styles meeting in the middle.
He was also a bit of a dark horse. I'd only found out last year that he worked with Nick Kershaw, Gary Moore, Bonnie Tyler, Pino Palladino, & Coldcut to name but a few as
well as co-writing a song in the film 'The Lost Boys'. He also created the world's first realistic drum sample CD "Masterkit" in 1992 then went on to create one of the best selling sample cd's of all time entitled 'Chemical Beats'.
Along with hundreds of other people – in and out of the drumming community I will miss Paul a great deal, but the impact he had on my drumming will never be forgotten and will continue to be a source of inspiration.
A GREAT MAN who will be sadly missed
Love you Paul
Ted xxxxx
This morning Coventry Folk singer / organiser / editor and folk columnist - Pete Willow left a post on this site with a news release from Gighouse Studios in Coventry where Paul had worked on many projects -
Here's Pete's transcript -
I recently received this sad news from about Paul Brook - it was circulated by Gighouse Studios...
It is
with great sadness that we inform you of Paul Brook's death on May
3rd 2007.
As a professional drummer, programmer /sequencer, composer and producer Paul worked with Gighouse Studios on many projects since we started in 1991. Paul programmed on Coldcut's acclaimed 'Let us Play' album, which he recorded and mixed with us, receiving many writing credits for his contribution. Incidentally, it was voted 'best album of the decade' by DJ magazine in 1999. He also recorded and co-produced his very successful sample CD series, Chemical Beats and Brutal Beats with Andie, our Producer/engineer. He was a regular session player at the studio and a close friend.
Paul had fought a long and brave battle against cancer and his funeral was held at Oakley Wood Crematorium. It was a fitting tribute to Paul that over 200 people attended the ceremony with standing room only, a great final Gig!
Our thoughts are with Jenny, Paul's wife, and his family.
I hadn't seen Paul for years and had no idea he was ill, but knew him quite well in the early 70s when he and I both worked in the Expediting Department of GEC in Copsewood. He was developing his talents then as a great drummer (used to practice with his fingers on his desk all day!!!) and an inventive practical joker.
A few years
later he worked with former Dando Shaft guitarist Kevin Dempsey and later-to-be
Fairport fiddle-player Chris Leslie. Paul produced (and played percussion
on) their superb 'Always With You' album.
Here's a You Tube of his band Pzazz with Steve Tatum on Sax (Ted Duggan asks if anyone knows where Steve is
today) and Kevin Demsey on Guitar.
From 1996 onwards, Paul got seriously into percussion and Jazz where he did gigs at the Montreux Jazz Festival and Ronnie Scott’s.
Up until the end of 2006, Paul was working with Coldcut and running his private teaching practice, and lecture in sequencing & production at Mid-Warwickshire college.
Paul’s kit:
Sonor Delite. – Amber Satin-Oil finish.
20 x18 Bass Drum, plus 24 x 8 Subwoofer w/ May internal mic.
Toms: 10 x 8 / 12 x 9 & 14 x 12 Snare Drums: Impact Tomcat hand made 14 x 5.5 Maple & Steel snares w/Trick throw-offs.
Cymbals:
Istanbul 20” Agop Sultan ride, 20” Agop
Special Edition Jazz ride, 20” Mehmet Ping ride. Classic series 17” crashes, one
thin & one medium thin. Ufip Bionic Series 13” hats and 8” splash. 10” Meinl
Mini-hats, plus LP cowbells & jamblocks.
E-Kit: Roland TD-6 plus Roland
amplification.
Percussion:
Natal Congas, Cajon, assorted
Darabukas, Rain Stick, “Hang” (Swiss-made hand played steel drum), Djembe,
Bodhran etc. plus Roland Handsonic.
All notation is prepared and published
using Sibelius 3 software, running on a Mac G5.
Great guy. Great loss.
Here are a few of the tribute paid to Paul on Ted Duggan's My Space -Message from Tim - "Sad indeed - I loved Beauty Has Her Way and still play it whwn I get's me Vinyl out! We don't make enough of our talents here in Cov/Warks and people need to know we've lost a good un!"
Message from Redbox Media "I looked upto Paul when I was about 19 (my dad had passed away) and I took up playing drums; paul became my first drum teacher: I asked him, he said yes straight away. He taught me my paradiddles/exercises and I never, ever, forgot them. He was always hospitable, professional, knowledgeable but never in a patronising way - he was a good music coach and just watching him do his 16ths and rolls on the high hat made me think...paul was the only person to match and in many cases eclipse someone like stewart copeland! What a great shame he has passed away. RIP Paul"
Especially for ex Wandering John drummer Jim Pryal - and anyone else.
Ade Taylor was the bassist with Wandering John - a Cov band from around 1970 71 - described by Neil O'Connor as 'A Spaceship of a Band' in his brilliant Song for Alex Murphy (Wandering John's former Roadie and cool all round guy).
The pic that's on the leading Hobo graphic as you load the site contains a pic of Ade Taylor. This first one is the orginal pic taken from Broadgate Gnome in 1971 (The magazine was produced on a duplicator - no luxury modern PC printers
then or photo shop!0 The rest are version I did of the photo on the computer.
I found this article in a radical magazine called WEDGE actually in Coventry's Wedge Cafe / bookshop in
Simon Frith's Sociology of Rock
Simon Frith is a former rock critic and a sociologist who specializes in popular music culture, and the brother of guitarist Fred Frith and psychologist Chris Frith. He read PPE at Oxford and did a doctorate in Sociology at UC Berkeley. He taught in the Sociology Department at Warwick University and the English Studies Department at Strathclyde University. In 1999 he came to the University of Stirling as Professor of Film and Media. Since 2006 he has occupied the Tovey Chair of Music at Edinburgh University. He is the author of many books including his first, The Sociology of Rock, ISBN 0-09-460220-4. He has chaired the judges of the Mercury Music Prize since it began in 1992. On January 1 2006 he took up the Tovey Chair of Music at Edinburgh Universit
HOW THE POP CHARTS WORK
By Simon Frith from Wedge Magazine Summer 1977
In this article, Simon Frith shows that the charts function in a
peculiarly contradictory manner. They are used by companies partly to
find out what people like. But they’re also used by the companies as a
device for controlling the market – which must tend to work against
their usefulness as a real indicator of public taste.
So by asking why the charts are important to the industry – rather than simply considering to what extent they’re rigged - we can perhaps get a clearer sense of the ways in which the commodity nature of mass music prevents it being of the people.
The charts have a good claim to be the most important institution in the record business. So many things depend on them – radio stations’ playlists, artists’. Performance fees, record company executives’ careers, retailers’ stocks, - that chart positions become fetishised, as the DJ’s read out the week’s list like it was a holy writ. It’s a strange sanctification for what is a routine exercise in market research.
For one of its commissions the British Market Research Bureau is employed by the British Phonograph Industry (the record companies’ trade organisation and a pressure group), the BBC, and the trade paper ‘Music Week’ to provide a continuing analysis of the record market in Britain. The singles and LP charts are only part of the service provided by BARS (British Analysis of Record Sales) to its subscribers and there purpose is quite simply, to give an accurate summary picture of the previous week’s sales figures.
The most accurate way of drawing such a
picture would be to collect the sales details from every record
retailer in the country. This is impossible, as a matter of both time
and expense, BMRB has to record the sales from a sample of shops. There
are two problems involved – the sample must be representative and the
returns from the shops involved must be accurate – and the solutions to
these problems are not always compatible. If, for example, BMRB follows
the BPI’s suggestion that their sample be increased from 300 to 600
retailers, of which only a half would be used each week (for security
reasons to which I will return) then it is likely that the retailers
themselves, never sure whether their sales diaries would be used or
not, would become less conscientious in their returns. As it is BMRB
are well pleased with the cooperation of their sample – 75% of the
diaries are returned each week, and the inevitable mistakes made by
assistants copying down record numbers are not common enough to be
statistically significant. BMRB is confident enough of the sales
figures it feeds into its computer; the problem is meaning and this
depends on the sample involved.
Sampling is the basis of all market research and there are no
particular problems involved in the measurement of record sales. BMRB
get sales accounts from record companies, shops are coded by their size
and type of turn over, the sample is drawn up accordingly. The
resultant formulas – converting the overall pattern of record sales
into a list of 300 shops, converting the returns from these shops back
into a national sales pattern – are complicated but not unusually so.
Regional record sales don’t vary much, for example and when BMRB did,
briefly, supply regional charts they proved unnecessary (the lack of
regional variations is reflected in the similarities of local radio
play lists.)> Account is taken of specialised outlets for such
genres as reggae, and classical music is the only form which is
genuinely under represented by the sample.
The only other obvious sampling defect is the continual refusal by
Boots and W.H. Smith to provide sales returns. There is little other
evidence tht BRMB’s retail sample is unrepresentative and a comparison
of its weekly sales estimates with companies’ final sales figures at
the end of each year reveals a reasonably good match.
The Industry’s Response.
From its own point
of view BMRB is engaged ina routine form of market research and
achieving more than accurate results. The importance of each chart lies
not in its activities but in the music industry’s response to them. In
the record business this measure of the previous week’s sales can –
through its effect on radio plays, on record company promotion, on
retailers’ stocks – determine future sales. Hence the bizarre situation
that in an industry paying a considerable amount of money for an
accurate measure of record sales there are people deliberately trying
to make this measure inaccurate.
For BMRB chart ‘fixing’ is not a problem of morality but of accuracy.
They don’t care who buys the records, their concern is that the sales
pattern revealed by their sample can be translated into a national
description. If a record company decided to buy 300 copies of its
latest disc in every shop in the country that’d be fine by BMRB and
into the charts the record would go; the problems only arise when such
buying is happening only in the sample shops, such that the results do
not reflect national sales. To give a concrete example: some record
companies distribute money-off record tokens in discos. This has an
immediate impact on sales, as the kids rush to the shops to get their
30p singles, and these are ‘genuine’ sales, BMRB measures; its only
rule is that such tokens aren’t specific to chart shops, in which case
the sales, while still ’genuine’ would no longer represent a wider
buying pattern.
It is not difficult for record company reps to put together a list of chart return shops and while BMRB is confident that it spots the clumsier hypes through its phone checks and security rules, it is difficult to see how it could counter a really systematic effect to utilise its ‘active’ list (hence BPI’s suggestion that the sample be doubled and used more selectively), but, on the other hand, it is equally difficult to see the long term benefits of such hypes – their effect is to undermine the industry’s trust in the charts. Such fixing may be an extremely profitable way to break a particular record, but success is not guaranteed and failure has ramifications throughout the business. If experience were to suggest that the charts were not a good guide to what to stock and play and promote, to what the public did want, then the charts would loose their function.
There is already some distrust of the bottom part of the Top 50 – many shops and playlists emphasis the Top 30 – the fact is that these 30, in both the singles and albums charts, account for about 80% of record sales. The difference recorded between the records in the lower part of the BMRB chart sample are often statistically insignificant (and their precise chart position consequently meaningless). The only point in taking account of events down there is if they anticipate sales to come.
Avoiding Overproduction
The charts, more brutally than any mohair-suited mogul, show what happens when music is treated as a commodity – if a record is music’s commodity form, the charts are essential for the realisation of that record’s exchange-value. Most obviously, they are a sales device, part of the process by which consumer demand is created. A good part of the record business revolves around the attempt to make records time-bound, to persuade an audience to buy a record at the moment of its release, to get bored with it after a few weeks, to discard it for yet newer release, and so on. Records are released with a fanfare of publicity, advertising, plugging on the radio, articles in the press; they have a definite and active life during which time they can be heard on radio, on juke-boxes, in discotheques. The charts are the symbol of this activity; the temporary measure of a record’s current sales power, they become the permanent measure of its value.
But the charts are more than a form of publicity and promotion, a part of the process goes through which demand is controlled and manipulated. They are also important inasfar as musical demand can’t be completely controlled and manipulated. Records are bought for their aesthetic use value and aesthetic tastes are difficult to predict and satisfy. Record companies have to make for more recordings than they are able to sell (the hit; release ratio is about 10% for both singles and albums) and to avoid overproduction they are dependant on a selection mechanism such that, having put their pieces of music on the market, they know which ones to mass produce, which ones to drop.
The charts provide by far the most accurate measure of consumer demand on which to base production plans, and if record companies issue a lot of titles, their profits are based on the big sales of a few of them. Because of the nature of recording costs, there’s a minimum number of sales which a record must reach to break even (an average of 15,000 for a single, 20,000 for an album – though the latter figure conceals huge variations). Beyond the break even point profits accumulate very rapidly and it pays companies far better, for example, to have one 100,000 seller and nine nil sellers than 10 10,000 sellers. The charts reflect this situation surprisingly accurately – if the discs in the Top 30 have passed their break even points and the discs from 30 to 50 reached them, most other records do not cover their costs.
There are obvious complications to this argument; records sell over time and over national boundaries, actual break even coasts can be reduced to a level at which profits are realised in sales that are not large enough to show in the charts. But the importance of such a selection mechanism for the industry is reflected in the fact that even specialist record producers, for whom a mass market is not the object, make use of charts of the sales of records within their genres.
It is the commodity form of the music that determines the use of the charts, not the musical form of the commodity, and, for this reason, most of the criticisms miss the point. The charts are usually attacked for lack of accuracy; the randomness of the lower placings is picked on and the suggestion made that the charts aren’t a real ‘measure’ of a record’s popularity; the argument is that the charts distort demand by granting to a few records the promotional attention denied to the majority. But the problem is not to investigate how, if at all, the charts distort market ‘demand’ the problem is to understand how the very notion of market demand shapes the meaning of music.
WORK IN PROGRESS!!
Several threads here which I will try and unravel as we go on. There are disco units and DJ's who operate at different venues throughout the area and fixed discos that operate at one venue and there are the venues of course. Some venues have several events with discos, bands, folk clubs etc. This will be illustrated with business cards and flyers etc. Pictures will be more or less in collections on this post (if it works out - a bit experimental!)
Disco Units and Solo DJ's in Coventry 1970's
Axis Disco - Places - Mercers Arms (Henry's Blueshouse)
Big Sounds Disco - Bear Inn, High St. Coventry Fridays c 1974
Clouds Disco (Advertised in Hobo) Thinking of Holding a party or a dance. Largest Mobile Unit in the Midlands - over 4000 singles and LP's. Biggest lights around / Any occasion at competative rates. Tony - Tell etc....
Courtaulds Social Club Weds c1974
Sportsman Arms Fri C 1974
A. Clark Promotions / Light Shows.
Dream Disco and Lighting
Ceasars Disco, Weddington Hotel, Weddington Rd, Nuneaton c 1974 Mon
FROM HOBO MAGAZINE No 3 FEB 1974 - News -
"Dream discotheque appears at first sight to be just another disco unit, but alas they have a phew innovations up their trouser legs. No not a new form of contraceptive but a lighting computer for discos. Designed and patened by Rob Dalton B. eng M.I.E.E. C.E. M.I.E.E.E. (U.S.A.).
This is one of the most advanced in Europe and has taken about two years to develop. The
AND FROM HOBO Number 4 summer 1974 - Small Ads
"DREAM DISCO AND LIGHTING COMPUTERS Rob Dalton, 20, Constable Rd. Rugby 3372 - Dream now have 3 lighting computers for hire, complete with all necesary lights, a whole range of liquid wheels, cassetts and graphic effects, projectors, strobes, U.V. P.A. etc. Our own unigue, high powered road shows are available for larger bookings. We are also offering a technical support service for those who are having trouble with their gear, sound or lights."
Glade Sounds Disco
Did the disco for Walrus Gumboot and Coventry Technical College c 1974
Marvel Lights and Disco
Paul Hooper - Dive Bar (Lady Godiva) Jorden Well.
Pete Waterman -
Soul Explosion - Baginton Oak Thursdays c 1974
Tiffany's / Locarno Ball Room - Dance Music Mon / Fri c1974. Longstanding DJ at this venue from late 60's to c 1975
Tree Tops, Foleshill Rd. Thurs C 1974
Mr Georges Nightclub Fri C 1974
Walsgrave Hotel - (Fro Friars Promotions)
Mercers Arms (Friars)
St. Osburgs
Charterhouse Disco (Jolly Roger), Terry Rd. Pete Waterman and Mark Brown star in the Ship Shape disco Fri C 1974
Rouguestar - Disco / Promotion - John Bargeant (Bo) / Co-founder of Hobo / Road manager with Khyyam c 1973. Promoted various artists including Khyyam and singer songwriter Trev Teasdel prior to John (Bo) and Trev starting Hobo Magazine in June 1973.
John also ran Moonraker Disco who did the disco for the Hobo Workshop at the Golden Cross c 1975. Using silent movie footage as the records were playing. Trev Teasdel sometimes did the DJ sessions for the Workshop or on a Sunday evening but mainly John.
Silk Disco Advertised in Hobo Graham Wood, Jim Silk Twynham and Paul.
Chums - Bear Inn, High St. Progressive Rock Thurs c 1974 - Relatively 'eavy Underground club
Plough Club, Plough, London Rd. c 1970
Cheylesmore Community Centre
Skeleton Disco
Sounds of Venue Disco
Coven 74 Club Radford. Progressive music Weds c 1974
Spode Sounds
Mobile Disco, Steve and Matt - Stoke Coventry.
Village Disco
DJ Melve Preece - Colin Campbell band nights and discos and The Climax (c 1974) Thurs Fri Sat Sun
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