The former Coventry Magazine - Broadgate Gnome launched their new Co-operative Record Label! The idea began in Coventry in 1970 as an alternative to the music business - an early form of the music collectives that formed in the 80's, along with gig-swopping networks to enable bands to play further afield. TwoToner Neol Davies and Selecter Producer Roger Lomus were among those who performed at the initial gigs years before Two Tone.


"We work on the principle of Mutual Aid and devote our time to actively promoting an alternative to the big business of the Music Industry.  We have no paid employees but rely on a collective of experienced people who  believe in the ethic of cooperation.  This is a project that has been 40 years in the making, which is now made possible by  new technology.."
The Gnome are aiming for four releases each quarter and to develop from there (keep an eye on their site for details and developments) -  Gnome Label and Gnome Fest

 

The Gnome wrote -
"Songs from the Coventry Underground Is a collection of the earlier songs from poet and performer Trev Teasdel. 

 

All important music, songwriting, poetry and art isn't created in a Commercial vacuum. It reverberates with meaning, maybe with protest, towards a better way of living, often one that has tolerance for different creeds and cultures and respect for gender, race, the environment, peace and love, co-operation as opposed to exploitation,

The wider, international context of the 60's counter culture movement is well documented and here's a time line from 1960 to 1969 - HERE. There are a lot of stereotypes of what a Hippie was / is - the site linked tries to clarify that.

Much inspiration had been received from Gerrade Winstanley's Digger Movement in 1649 - influencing the formation of

the San Francisco Diggers in the 60's and the notions of Flower Power (the ideals of which became watered down with commercialism and derision).

In Coventry, in the late 60's / early 70's we had our own Diggers developing co-operative ventures and producing a magazine which was the first to give the Coventry music and counter culture a consciousness of itself - The Broadgate Gnome - represented here in it's new form.

The object of this post is to stimulate discussion / thought or research on how both the ideas of the 60's and growing up in post war Coventry helped to shape / characterise Coventry music, poetry and art. (Maybe somebody will rise to the challenge and study it - and there are plenty of primary sources and contacts on this site to facilitate it! If anybody does this - let us know - we'll help with sources). Here's some pointers -

During 50's and 60's, Coventry was in throes of a major regeneration programme as a result of the city centre being flattened in bombing raids during world war two. The regeneration programme wasn't just down to Hitler though, the process had begun in the 1930's - Trinity Street area had been redesign and plans for a new City Centre were on the drawing board. The bombing raids brought plans forward and widened their scope and significance. Musicians grew up in the a city that was at once highly industrialised with the Car factories and engineering and yet had brand new open-spaced city centre with the greenery of the Broadgate / Lady Godiva Island in the centre - a Phoenix city rising from the ashes! Many of the city's young musicians, writers and artists, growing up in the 60's balked at this bland 'Grey' industrial landscape, where all you could be, mostly, was someone who put bolts on cars on the Assembly lines. The symbolic image of this 'Grey' existence occurs in some of the songs that came out of the city -

The 'Grey' is mindless conformity, the 'default', the 'inevitable' - no one thinks for themselves in the land of 'Grey'. They get their opinions from the tabloids or the conventional opinion handed down to them.. They take the path of least resistance and not the one less trodden by. Their environment shapes them and they accept it (albeit begrudgingly sometimes).

The great thrust which came out in the music was to transcend the 'grey',  To escape the Rat Race, the Ghost Town, the Concrete Jungle - all images which have come out of Coventry songs. The Broadgate Gnome called it 'Throb City'' - in reference to the background throb of the car factories all through the night - I think!

ESCAPE FROM THE 'GREY'

In Whispering Ned (by top Coventry folk band - Dando Shaft) - 1971 they sing -

Well he came to a land
where heads were banned
and the land was grand
and the people were grey
and they worked all day
in a diligent way
trying to keep out heads
and Whispering Neds

In the Selecter hit Three Minute Hero - Neol Davis  wrote 

-

THREE MINUTE HERO (Neol Davies) The Selecter
They asked you if you’re alright,
You say yes,
But all the time you know, It’s a mess,
It’s 5 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone.

(Chorus): Three minute hero, I wanna be, a three minute hero, I wanna be,
a three minute hero, I wanna be, a three minute hero,

Drag yourself along the road, Sit on the bus,
Switch on your transistor, Cause a fuss,
It’s 11 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another night with that endless grey drone.

(Chorus) I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be, A three minute hero, (Chorus): A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero,

It’s too early in the morning, Stupid job,
Don’t wanna eat, can’t think straight,
Same as yesterday, It’s 7 am and you’re leaving home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone, (Chorus):
A three minute hero, I wanna be, (Repeat to fade)

Escape from the ' Grey' Comes into some early poems by Dave Clarke (Printed in 1970 by a group of Diggers intheir magazine The Broadgate Gnome)

AN EXPERIMENT WITH TRADITIONAL RHYME AND STRONG STRESS METER

Dave Clarke

From  Broadgate Gnome 1971

City you cannot last

Nor must you think that time gone past

Will remember you and say

This is how it should be today.

You have no roots, only bricks and mortar.

Conceived in conflict, concerned with slaughter

And shall your offspring, sons and daughters

Pay homage, or plot your doom

Perhaps in the fields at

Their eyes will turn towards your

Shadowed graves and marvel how once

Men lived like slaves.

In the depths of your swollen womb

Perhaps in green grey gardens through

Mirrored moons

They will sit peacefully and reflect

Upon your ghost forms, cold and derelict

None here will mourn your mutilated form

Nor yet will fevered eyes still gaze

In tomorrow’s dawn.

Upon your profit priests in suited grey

Atheist children all robed in nature

They will laugh aloud to read your beasts

Yet see no traces

Of your golden age of your super race

No gods or ghosts will walk this

Wretched ruin of yours

No angry groans or tortured moans will

Pour molten shapes, mutilated forms

That writhe in fear

No super races here

Only the watchful glare of shapeless

Moon and the eternal gloom of your

Quick, unlit tomb.

ON MOVEMENT AND PURPOSE

Spilling from the city's noise they come,    

Slipping past evening's first opportune hour.

From the swollen abdomen of the factory some

Drone their weary way, through gate and tower,

Belched out at five.

They, faceless for a time, molten seep

Into human channels, consumed deep

In the irregular flood, at first a patterned tide

Split only by an aching, frenzied halt,

As, like tributaries unperceived, others join, match stride

-Ooze their thoughtless path, eager to assault

Drawn blank in an organic ritual.

Happy those who conjure imagination

Avoiding the fact that they bear no relation

To cloth arms and unknown feet

That move annoyingly close, almost familiar,

with their own purposeful, aimed retreat.

Many tread homeward with ideas similar

Hurrying towards some mystic meet.

                                      Others from college, peacock daubed, set apart,

                                      Flaunt homeward, promiscuously apparent for an early start.

                                      Outcasts but design these, yet not quite free

                                      from economies, or traditions or laws, or all that abstract oppose

                                      The natural instinct. Chained in society;

                                      Yet suspended for a time in freedom's awkward pose,

                                       They, warlike, gimmick a possible future.

                                       Condemned to learn, no tax form claims them or cares

                                        Subtle in her wooing, society hides her snares

                                        Challenging and extreme in her ultimate offering.

Parallel, roars man and machine

linked in dash-daring unison.

Revved hearts spurt mean

Grimaces, turned to defy, shun

Limits with limitless power.

Tailored for destruction, they combine in one

Machine, motor, mind and gun.

With fear streamlined in oiled silence

Watch how they move, slip gear, accelerate away

Substitute war or violence

with symbol. Linked thus, they may,

Fuse metal and power with hand and feet

Hide stature on cushion and seat,

'Till mover and moved blurr totally.

But more likely, they will use the thrill

of combining, creation and will,

To risk a future -

To answer in part the constant need

For measuring life, in space and speed

Seeking pleasure or praise or lust.

Watch though, how death rides too a wheelspin away

Rears at a junction, reducing move or stay

To mere instinct. Til machine and man

Lack purpose, unless the purpose be....

To eliminate the lapse between A and C

Between movement, pause and movement.

Dave Clarke - Coventry 1970

FLOWERS OF THE WAYSIDE

Song lyric By Trev Teasdel 1970 Coventry

As I pass the streets lined with tears of unexpressed souls

Rows of tins of compressed talents chained in their folds

Lines of ‘I could’ve been if I tried, but didn’t pursue my goals’

Chains of the ‘same as the day before and day before that’ plastic moulds

Boxes of ‘shun the new, it’ll be our ruin, stick to the beaten path’ holes

Chorus

I just put my face to my hands

My fear for to hide

That I might yet become just another

Flower of the Wayside.

Their bins are full of screwed up dreams from the morning of their youth

and yes they still have their dreams in the straight-jacket of their lives.

They follow convention down the steps, in his drunken waltz

To fall into the waters deep, to find they cannot swim, to find they cannot think.

They’re too busy not being busy trying to be themselves,

They’ve been hung up upon society allocated shelves.

They pay homage to the idle with numerals on his face

And as his arms rotate, they start their diurnal chase

Machines I once thought were extensions of men’s arms

But men have just become extensions of machines,

Turmoiling in their cogwheel confusion

While I stage my independence – the water bearer’s revolution.

r

 

                                   A BAND CALLED GEORGE
                                                          Listen NCB Man and others here (My Space)

C. 1974 Visit their Website HERE

Developed from  Sweeney Todd (on My Space)

Bob Young – Lead vocals and guitar.  Colin Young – Bass.   Nicky Trevisick – Drums

Roger Prince – guitar.  Baz Andruszko – accordion. Roadies Ricky and Dave.  (Dave wrote something for Hobo under the name of Just a Guy - I think about van hire). Ricky played guitar  - I jammed with him a few times and introduced him to  guitarist Andy Cairns - they formed a  Jazz funk band with Horace Panter on bass and they played at the Hobo Workshop (Golden Cross ) in 1975 among other places.

A Band Called George were planning a tour of late August 73.

Joe Reynolds (Joined a reformed version of the band in 1974)

Original material in similar vein to . Members from Coventry & Leamington area.

Single NCB Man  (on Bell Records) released .

According to HOBO the BBC did not select the single for airplay and this led to the band’s demise. CET described the song as a ‘ light hearted song about coal miners’

Appeared on ’s Today. (CET) ‘It’s a fun folk rock song, not quite representative of the band live’ (CET)

Managed by Sunshine Agency (SAM) (Managers Craig Ward & Graham

Wood, Bob Young)

The Is aren't a Coventry band but have strong Coventry connections with keyboard player Al Docker and strong connections with the Broadgate Gnome digger community.

The networking around this site is pretty amazing with more and more Coventry musicians turning up, orffering comments and information, being put in touch with each other again. All important as new projects are slowly emerging, including the possiblility of a Coventry Music Museum. Pete Chambers is already organising a Cov Music exhibition at the Herbert.

Here is an example of the material coming forth now - The Is - a Cornish band from Truro have got their own Vox site and as well as a My Space.

They have just sent through an interview, which includes contributions from Al Docker. Quite an interesting interview actually.

Also Al's younger brother John Docker has just opened a Vox blog here - Covmusicsite and uploaded one the songs from his 90's Cov punk band - John plays bass - check his site out - find his icon in the  neighbourhood.

We may add some more audio and lyrics here and a few tales when it we receive it.

The name Al Docker resounds quite often on this site in the lyrics section and the 1971 diaries, the forthcoming band directories and other places. Not surprising as I set out on the Coventry Music Scene with Al from the tail end of 1969, after leaving school and Al was an important part of the scene and a respected musician and organiser.

The last time I saw Al was in 1974 - he joined Divine Light and was leaving Coventry - I hadn't heard of him since. Yesterday I got an e mail from his younger sister Jan and younger brother John - Al had died of cancer in Truro, Cornwall aged 44 in 1996, leaving behind 5 children and and two grandchildren. Some of us had been wondering what had become of him and so it was a bit of a shock.

In the early 90's Al had been playing in a great band down in Truro called

The Is (View their My Space). The Is had supported bands like Hawkwind.

Al played keyboards, wrote some of the lyrics and music, organised the gigs and drove the van according to his brother John Docker. He'd also been a prominant promoter down in Cornwall. (Have a listen to one of their tracks - Sleeping - here with Al on Keyboards). Interestingly The Broadgate Gnomes have strong connections in Truro who know former members of The Is and also know Al, although the connection wasn't made until we got the e mail from Jan and John Docker. As a result some further information might be forthcoming on Al. Such is the team work that is now happening around this site.

Al's younger brother John told me that the  tradition runs on in the family. John himself was "a former member of the Coventry music scene, come

artist, promoter and sound engineer (my era was the 90's)".  John organised bands at the Golden Cross - which still has a thriving band and unplugged scene. The Hobo Workshop was held there too in the mid 70's after leaving the Holyhead youth centre. John had also played in a band with the father of the drummer of Coventry's newest top band The Enemy who have just been assigned to Stiff Records.

I met Al when I was about 18. We both worked as apprentices at DFGibbs - an electrical shop on the Foleshill Rd. Coventry, next to the General Wolf (scene of many a gig in the later Two Tone period). Al was in the electronics

dept learning to fix TV's (alongside Mark Brown (one of Coventry's top DJ's next to Pete Waterman) (Mark used to DJ at the time at the Red House on Stony Stanton Rd) and I was in the Electrical dept. Al was somehow related to the Gibbs family although neither of us were model apprentices, our hearts and minds were more on music and songwriting and organising. This wasn't lost on the management who eventually made the choice for us!

In 69 we both did our 'Day Release' at the Butts (Coventry Technical College) as part of our apprenticeship. Most of the apprentices were into the Coventry Soul scene that the young Pete Waterman was part of as Coventry's Top DJ.  Ray King's Soul band were enormously popular (and Ray King later comes into the Two Tone story) and there was a thriving Ska scene in Coventry ten years before Two Tone put the Coventry Music Scene on the world map. Although I loved soul and ska (Max Romeo, Desmond Dekkar and Johnny Nash were in the charts at the time and the clubs through Waterman played imports) Al and I were into more progressive music. Sometimes we'd skip college and Al would play The Nice, Pink Floyd, Stones, Ten Years After, Beatles, Blodwyn Pig, Taj Mahal's Statesbro Blues, Tommy by the Who, early Genesis, King Crimson  - these were some of the albums Al would play. Gibbs had a record department so that was handy to browse the latest releases. Keith Emerson was a particlular favourite of Al's and I loved his style of organ playing too. (a year or two later we saw the Nice and ELP at the Lanch Poly. Emerson's stage act involved throwing knives in the keys to sustain the notes while he rocked and generally destroyed the organ at the end of the show. Rumour had it that he'd get the roadies to find a local musician with a Hammond - use their's on stage and then buy them a brand new (more expensive) model as relacement. I think Coventry musician Bob Jackson donated his to the Nice on this basis according to legend).

I'd started writing songs at 15 and after leaving school took it more seriously. I'd been at Boarding school (same one as Mojo Morgan) and wanted to get involved with the local music scene, meet others with similar interest. Al had been at school in Cov (Caludon Castle) and already had gotten involved with the music scene. One day at the Butts tech in 1969, I saw a poster for the Coventry Arts Umbrella - a special underground music and film festival over a weekend in October. There were local underground bands on and much more (see the Umbrella posts). Of course Al was already involved and was putting on bands there. Al took me along to the Umbrella and introduced me. Back then it seemed to be like finding Altantis in your own back yard, where you could meet creative people of all types and get involved.  Much of the creative work I've done since stemmed from that early experience at the Umbrella. This was the kind of apprenticship I was really after. Nowadays if you tell your careers officer that you want to be a musician, actor, songwriter etc they might direct you to a Performance Arts Course. Back then they would suspect that you also had tea with aliens and then ask what your dad did! My Dad was an electrician and so I was directed to Gibbs to sign up for an electrical apprenticship. I wanted to make creative electrons run and so did Al.

I hung around with Al and began getting involved with his Friday night band nights at the Umbrella, doing the door duty

(and building my own contacts up), going with him to the CBR music agency (pictured here) to book bands, then down to the Coventry Evening Telegraph to put in a small ad, going the rounds of the Dive bar, Golden Cross, Lanch Poly, Village and other places where muso types hung out, making contacts and getting interest in the Umbrella band nights. It seemed that Al knew everyone one in Cov. I soon had my own contacts, meeting old school friends who had become musicians like John Alderson, Mojo Morgan, Steve Harrison. This wasn't paying the rent but my heart was in this type of work. Some of the bands Al put on included Birmingham's Tea and Symphony, Ghost, Children, and many more.

Very soon Al was keen to move on from the Umbrella and persue his own musical path and I was primed to take over the Umbrella band nights in 1970. I was well trained, I'd shadowed Al for a good few months and now people knew me as well.

Al also wrote songs and poetry. Before me he had ventured to join the

Umbrella poets although it wasn't his scene so much. Sometimes we would discuss our songwriting. Walking home along the Foleshill Rd. he sang acapella his latest - a blues based song called Blue Train. Later on, in Shilton where we shared a cottage in 72, he wrote the words to Castle Stones (already posted on this site) in my Communications Book (A written form of communal blog). It was environmental and angry song he'd written on piano at the cottage after attending a pop festival. It was interesting to note that Al played keyboards in The Is in the 90's, as in Coventry he played drums. Al was a  self-taught pianist in a pop sense. I think he'd maybe had some lessons in his younger days, but the man had a great musical ear. I'd watch him at the Umbrella working out the melody and rhythm to Beatles songs such as Martha My Dear, Obla di Obla Da and Floyd numbers such as Careful with that Axe Eugene. He would work at it until he got it right and could co-ordinate the bass and melody - it was all in his head, no song books in sight and the result was really good, worthy of McCartney. Al got me started on piano, showing be bass lines and chord structures and got me experimenting. I took more to guitar as it was handier to take around but began to write some songs on piano and later in the 80's played keyboard parts on some of my later songs.

Al joined a London band first called Rocking Chair, playing drums. I think he'd had brief excursions as drummer with

the Chris Jones Aggression (a blues band that practiced at the Umbrella) before settling into quite an orginal sounding band called Tsar which became a popular local and regional band mentioned in the Broadgate Gnome. The band included a sax player from  Warwick and a female violinist. (more on the band in the forthcoming band profiles). After Tsar came Love Zeus with Tony Cross on keyboards a violinist (I think from Tsar,) Al on Drums and Loz netto on guitar (Loz later played with Sniff and the Tears). A short lived but great band who played the Belgrade Theatre and Lanch Poly. By 1974 he was playing with Kevin Harrison's Zoastra, an early experimental electronic band that was the forerunner of the excellent Urge. Zoastra  never got to the gigging stage but led to what became The Urge. This may not be the sum total of all the bands Al played in, just the ones I remember, but by 1974, Al had become involved with Divine Light and left Coventry.

However before that, in 1970, I'd shared a house with him for the summer with others from the Umbrella over the road from the Butts Tech  in Brunswick Rd. Periodically Al would come in about midnight and say 'fancy hitchin' to London' - after an hour I'd been persuaded. On one occasion we hitched over night to see a Hyde Park concert with Pink Floyd - performing Atom Heart Mother. As we strode into the park, a lone voice and guitar was filling the sky like no one else could fill it. It was Roy Harper singing I Hate the White Man. Roy didn't need a band to make a presence - he did it all on his own. That song and it's lyric is still one of my favourites. Whether it was working out a song, organising a concert or persuading someone to hitch with him, he had tremendous drive.

Late in the autumn of 71 he moved into a cottage in Shilton (a small village outside Cov, with a piano!). It had been

occupied by April bass player and his wife Ron Lawrence (who  was also later in Sniff and the Tears). I moved in and we spent time writing  songs, playing piano and records (Yes, Caravan, Loundon Wainwright 3rd, Joni Mitchell and many more). Musicians a plenty would visit us, Ade Taylor and John Alderson, Steve Brimstone (Derek Brimstone's son) who was also a talented guitarist as you'd expect and many more. I got down to learning guitar here and bagan putting music to my own lyrics. Al started a Coventry supergroup there with Roy Butterfield and Al Hatton (both Ex Indian Summer), Ron Lawrence on bass, Al on drums and some songs. They called themselves Runestaff after the Michael Moorcock trilogy that Al was reading. The band never came to fruition and I was privledged to be the only one not in the band to hear their music. The music was great and of course Roy Butterfield is a noted Coventry guitarist. Lyndie began living there and other friends from Birmingham, everyone of them creative in some way, drama, poetry, musical, songwriters and even candlestick makers - yes true - Al and one or two others started Bludor Candles for a while. It took over the kitchen and the guys were trying to make it into a business but in the end disputes arose and the kitchen became unusable for food with the smell of wax and so the idea was dropped. However the candles they did produced were artistic and tasteful. Sometimes they would go down the Lanch shouting Candletross - Get yours on a Wick, as a parody of Monty Python's Albatross sketch!

Monty Python was a fave of Al's - he knew all the sketches inside out and could perform them. One night in 1970, we walked home from the Umbrella along the Foleshill Rd with Neol Davies (later of Selecter, but then with Mead), Al stopped by the Cortina Club, it was about 2am with no one around, knotted handkerchief on his head and rolled up trousers doing the "I'd like to see Two Bricks thrown together" sketch.

Al was a popular and energetic figure on the Coventry Music Scene with drive and talent and the ability to make things happen and it's good to learn his brother John has followed in the tradition in his own way. Al Docker remains one of the alumini that should be celebrated in any history of the Coventry Music Scene.

Thanks to Jan Docker for sending Additional photos of Al and his family.

Thanks to Broadgate Gnomes for all the addtional research they are doing on Al's musical work in Cornwall.

 

In 1974 another Music Agency kicked in Coventry that seemed earn

disapproval from Equity and some of the music scene before they had really begun. Like Hobo and others before and after, they needed premises to organise from and put on concerts. Getting any kind of facilities like that was a struggle in Coventry. That anything happened at all was down to the resilience and determination of the City's artists and promoters.

Many of the bands and musicians I knew were scathing of Q Artistes - Q were not part of the 'freak' scene and considered by some as 'rip-off merchants'. I felt that anyone who was providing venues and support for Coventry artists deserved a mention in Hobo and support and the fact that they had got up off their butt and tried to do something deserved recognition. Far too many people criticising and not enough prepared to do something!

Although it was not considered 'cool' for me to interview Q Artistes for Hobo in some quarters I was curious and felt an empathy with anyone struggling to do anything constructive on the scene.

I knew this was not going to be a run of the mill interview when the couple agreed to meet me at the Leofric Hotel! The

Leofric Hotel was the posh hotel in the Broadgate Centre. Although they had band nights in the 60's it was not the sort of place long haired hippy types would frequent. I dressed smart (for me!) in red flares and a blue Beatle Jacket I'd bought in a sale. Having limited funds I bought a coffee and waited for my guests to arrive. After some considerable wait and buying only one coffee - the waiters began to make hints John Cleese style. Just as I figured I was about to be kicked out judging by the looks, the phone rang. The head waiter's expression changed ( a bit like when Basil Fawlty realises the Food Inspectors are really there!). "Are you from a magazine sir?" "Yes". They had no idea what kind of magazine I was from and I was happy to let them imagine it was a Hoteliers mag! "Your guests are running late and they said that you could order something to eat and drink at their expense". Suddenly the waiters were falling over themselves to serve me!

I found the D'Brionnes a nice couple and acutely aware of the some of the reactions to them. They didn't have the right credentials for the 'freak' scene but hell they were promoting bands and providing places to play. Their ethos was more commercial than Hobo but I felt there was some integrity behind it.

Gail had been a singer and dancer in Cabaret and Pantomimes and the couple wanted to bring Variety into their

promotions. Their first promotion was the Zoomie Disco which provided an outlet for local bands like Mad Cat Molly, Warrior and Fission. Some of the bands they managed.

Fission played a few times but were taken aback when the D'Brionnes asked "Do you play the Stones?"  "No"  said Ant of Fission "The  Stones play the Stones, we play Fission!" That was an attitude that had put some bands off the commercial pop world. Indian Summer, for example, were expected to cover a Free Song rather than one of their own compositions for their first single. The idea didn't go down too well!

Q Artistes eventually settled in the Building Trades Hall near the Butts and advertised for Fire Eaters, singer songwriters, dancers etc and promoted Pantomimes. Some of their artistes were watched by Les Cocks of TV talent show New Faces. Middle of the road bands like Warrior probably favoured that but bands like Fission would not compromise their music to go on such a show.

Success came with singer songwriter (in a Gilbert O'Sullivan style) finally appeared on New Faces. (You can read the article for more details). Q Artistes groomed him for stardom, arranging for the release of his first single.

The entry in Hobo No 3 Feb 1974 was -

Q - SPICE OF VARIETY
"A showcase of talent has been among the activities of Q Artistes club.

Talent in a variety of guises emerged on the stage of the Building Trades Hall, including fire eaters, singers, songwriters, dancers etc. They were watched by Les Cocks of New Faces with a view to selecting some of the artists for the next series of the program. The results will not be known until the end of the month. Their disoc at St. Saviours Hall is no longer operational and Q are looking for new and suitable premesis for providing a variety of activities int he arts."

In Hobo No 4
SPACEMAN DAVE TAKES TO THE AIR

" Appearing on ATV'S NEW FACES, on June 29th, will be Dave F. Eastman. A Covnetry singwriter who sings his own compositions, accompanying himself on piano and guitar, on which he is self-taught. The number he will be performing on

Faces is called Spaceman Blues. Dave has been writing for over a year and has written over 150 songs in the last 18 months"

The rest of this piece was too faded to make out - this issue of Hobo was produced on a duplicator! There wer other entries on some of the bands but they will appear in the Band directories.

 

Once upon a time, in the town of Stratford, lived a famous playwright, William Shakespeare was his name. Perhaps the most famous lines he ever wrote appeared in his play Hamlet.

Those lines were:-
"To be or not to be, that is the question"

Upon those lines an established Birmingham Rock group, now base all their hopes and ideas. They are known as WALRUS GUMBOOT. Four highly talented musicians who have hit out at the dull rock scene in Birmingham with their fast and exciting music. Already acclaimed by many, to be the most outstanding group in Birimingham on the semi-profressional front.

Then why are they not a professional group you may ask/ Well, for a group such as Walrus Gumboot, it it the same old story - loack of publicity. But for a group that is forward thinking and holds such high ideals about themselves and their music, very soon everything will change. For believe me friends they will be a name to be reckoned with.

The personel of the group:-
Jim Slater - Lead Guitar (A fast flowing guitarist with an excellent showman streak in him)
Terry Lawson - Rhythn guitar and lead vocalist. (Many have said that the days of the Rhythm guitar are long gone, but Terry will tell you different.)
Dave Mullen - Drums and vocals  ( The  main driving force behind the group.  Songwriter, drummer, showman and vocalist - what more can one say)
Peter Slater - Bass Guitar and vocals. Establishing himself fast as a very funky and inventive bass guitarist.

After witnessing Walrus Gumboot live you will obviously agree with me that the days of lifeless heavy groups are

certainly numbered. On August bankholiday, quite recently, Walrus Gumboot supported Stackridge at Malvern Winter Gardens, Worcestershire. Stackridge, whose reputation stretches wide and far were always very good. The audience had obviously come to listen and enjoy their favourite group, but after Wlarus Gumboot played their set, the crowd screamed for more. Such is the very electric atmosphere created by the group. The need in Birmingham now is for a group with a different approach to pave the way on which others may follow. A new group to hold a guiding light as did Cream in the sixties. Walrus Gumboot might hold that light. The need for a group of this calibre is an obvious asset to any rock scene but especially to Birmingham's.

For the future Walrus Gumboot are certainly  'to be'.
See you around - Craig Ward -Sunshine Music Agency (1974) (From one of their Sunshine Bullsheet band profiles).

During the year or so of the Hobo Workshop 74 -75, I was also a full time student at Henley FE College on a Social

Studies Course. I was involved with the Student Union and the college magazine  - Flex. I was hoping to be able get Hobo printed through the Student Union but that didn't work out somehow - otherwise it may have continued. However I had to do a social work placement and as we had started the Hobo Workshop with a social element - the detached youth work with CCVS - I was able to nominate that as my placement! I had to do periodic reports. This one gives a synopsis of the Hobo work -

HOBO - Brief Histroy - 1974

Hobo began as a magazine in June 1973. It grew out of the need for a central grapevine to promote, in this culturally dormant city, anyhting that was happening in the area of music / arts and community ventures; to be an outlet for the creative talents of who ever took the trouble to contribute articles, poems, graphics etc. - and possibly inspire a bit of life into the city. The magazine was voluntarily staffed by myself and frineds and, although open to anyone, was youth orientated. It was financed largely by adverts and voluntary contributions but lack of substantial finance to keep up with rising print and paper costs, clamped a straightjacket on the magazine's potential. Also the quest for a relaible community based printer, that was less expensive than the commercial firms, was an equal burden. Many of the original ideas and intentions were kicked in the face by the cold facts of reality.

During this time we wanted to (having been involved with the Coventry Arts Umbrella) fill in the gaps caused by its abscence through it's lack of premises. We therefore wanted to start a music and arts workshop where people could come along and do whatever their particular 'thing' is. Somewhere where young people could do something contructive. However premises could not be found, that wouldn't involve paying a lot for the use of. Even somewhere for one evening a week only would have done. Beer bar rooms were reluctant to hire out their rooms  from past experiences.

In June 1974, through the Umbrella contacts, we met Bob Rhodes, a newly appointed Detached Youth Workser fro the Coventry Voluntary Service Council, who wanted to be put in contact with young peole who may have problems with drugs or alacahol abuse, unemployment, homelessness etc.  He was able to help facilitated use in regard to a venue to hold the Hobo Workshop and we asisted him in providing a base to operate an informal youth advisory service where people could get help with problems discretely and informally. This had been also been one of the aims of one of the founding editors of Hobo..

Thus we began to run the Hobo Workshop every Monday evening, in the Holyhead Youth Centre theatre. This served us well for a while. There we had use of the theatre and several small rooms. and held concerts with locla bands (rock, folk, blues, Jazz rock) and local folk or acoustic players, songwriters, poets etc. We also held a number of jam sessions ( a few unsuccessful ones too!). We tried against overwhelming oddities, to break down the 'them and us'' between audience and performers, and make people aware that, although we run the basic programme, they are welcome to participate or if they don't like what happens, to suggest things they would like to see happen. We wanted them to feel like they had a stake in it - that it was their place. Several acoustic workshops were held in the smaller rooms (where refreshments were served) and people could jam, swop songs, play to each other. The more competent musicians passed on tips to novices. Quite a few bands got together as a result of the jam sessions. It was somewhere to meet and try out musicians. Some of the musicians, notably Neol Davies, ventured downstairs and jammed with the West Indian musicians in the cellar youth club. Meanwhile Bob Rhodes were able to operate informally with their youth advisory service as well as building up a group of volunteers to train and assist with a projected Drop in House for Young People. I was one of the volunteers.

At first the venue was well attended, but the Youth Centre was too off the beaten track to consistently attract the youth that flocked into the city centre pubs. The Holyhead lacked a bar and many in the audience would disappear

half way through to the pub, returning later or bringing back bottles. When the Golden Cross appointed a new and enterprising landlord, the Hobo Workshop moved there. We had use of the upstairs room and a programme of music events bagan at the Golden Cross. The Cross was already popular among students from the Lanch Plytech and musicians and this cut the cost of advertising. However we wer more restricted interms of rooms.

There was no entrance charge as a) that would probably have reduced the number of people coming along. B) it meant we would have to put on 'a good show' to give people their money's worth, which would dampen any attempts to promote the creative element and get people involved or join in the jam sessions which might not always work out. C) it would contribute to the 'them and us' concept which we wer trying to break down. Instead we passed the hat around and encourage people to make voluntary donations to cover ours and the band's basic expenses. Usually this worked well with those unable to pay still able to come along and those more wealthy contribute more. It usually worked out  the same as if we had a fixed charge for everyone but with a larger audience. however there was some heated disagreement between members of the organising team on this policy, but it ws more conducice to our aims.

POSSIBLE FUTURE ACTION
We are trying to expand the range of music and encourage people to attend and contribute ideas. Some of us are trying to form a Street-theatre group with some students from the Lanch Polytech. We also aim to try and organise something for the workshop in ocnjunction with the Lanch Arts Festival in February. It is also possible, time and money permitting , that we produce another issue of Hobo magazine for Christmas or January. Bob is trying to organise a Youth Drop in House and we want to put on a Hobo - Coventry Arts Festival., embracing all kinds of arts and people who are doing things in the city. If this materialises, it probably will be later in 75 when the weather improves. Amen!!

......................
Vallhalla was a band from near Birmingham who John Bo suggested for the Hobo Workshop - here is their letter and card.

MENTIONED IN BOOKS

The Holyhead Youth Centre in the mid 70's has been mentioned in two books that I know of -

• In the work of Rock Sociologist Simon Frith who was at the Lanch Poly Technic in Coventry for a while (80's I think). I can't remember which of his books but it was only a pargraph. If I find it, I'll put on here. His Books include The Sociology of Rock and Sound Effects
  
• Also more recently in Coventry's own retro music expert Pete Chambers's book The 2-Tone Trail (The definitive guide to Two Tone Coventry) which has a forward by Neol Davies. The book is in the side bar under books. In this guide to all things Two Tone - the Holyhead Youth Club (Lower Holyhead Rd) is mentioned. "Just a basement in the mid 70's, but a defining moment in 2-Tone history. It was here that blues influenced reggae was mixed by the likes of Neol Davies, Ray King, Lynval Golding and Silverton. "it was here where I first met Jerry Dammers". The Hobo Workshop was in the ground floor theatre. Neol Davies had gone downstairs and jammed with some of the guys as early as autumn 1974. The hope was that the guys from the basement would play upstairs at the Workshop. Already by the time the Workshop moved to the Golden Cross - Neol had a good working relationship with the guys (which included Charley and Desmond and Silverton, and some of them came to the Golden Cross although they didn't play for us. There would be a good four years worth of development before Two Tone would emerge on the world stage. Two years later (Neol was playing in Hardtop 22 - an early incarnation of the Two Tone bands).Selecter to be Charley Anderson, was a  Voluntary Youth Worker with Coventry City Council at the Holyhead. After the Hobo Workshop finished, the basement of the youth centre became the base of further developments leading to the Two Tone phenomenon. Pete Chambers reveals that Jerry, Lynval, Horace and Tim Strickland reheased there. Again according to Chambers, the Holyhead later recieved a rennovation grant from the Cadbury's trust and Amos Anderson created a youth based recording studio there - later the Glasshouse. It's clear the Holyhead Youth Centre story didn't end after Hobo finished in the autumn of 1975. After I moved to Teesside in 1980, I used to get reports of the developments at the Holyhead from some of the people involved.
  

The Hobo Workshop operated for roughly one year between June 1974 and June 1975 (ish). The regular Monday night mixed media music concerts, first at the Holyhead Youth Centre and subsequently upstairs at the Golden Cross, were the central focus of the Hobo Workshop. Although I co-ordinated it with Bob Rhodes, there were a range of people involved with the workshop (listed on the about the Workshop post) on a co-operative basis who were invovled in all aspects eg I even cleaned the toilets out and took a turn on the door as did others. Although many of the musicians below later made it in the music business, the intention was to provide a venue for bands to get started at, try out new material and get support.

Among the bands who played there were - Fission, Midnight Circus, Trigon, Analog, Under the Sun, Schizoid, Memories, Phoenix, Marantha, Breaker, Just Before Dawn, Warrior, Khayyam, Fisty, Vallhallah.

Solo or other artists that played in some form included singer songwriter Colin Armstrong, Phil Knapper, Dave

Bennett, Bob Rhodes, Johnny Adams, John Alderson, John Gravenor, Neol Davis, Colin Cripps, Lynda Hardcastle, Nikki Hawkswell, Bill Jackson, Andy Cairns, Ricky, Trev Teasdel, John Rushton,  Horace Panter. (This is not all embracing - just names I remember or on the gig lists etc.)

That there was a dearth of places for bands to get started or supported at that time was illustrated when one young band - maybe Under the Sun (can't remember) almost begged for a gig - they were a teenage band and about to give up) of course we gave them a gig and encouraged them. I think it was Gary Kirton who described us one night as the only human beings in the city - as we gave them a regular spot. Such was the state of things, that the Workshop for some bands was like an oasis. Many of the top Coventry bands had split up, the Umbrella had gone along with some of the other venues and new bands were struggling for survival.

• Fission  were one of the early bands we had one but split up soon after with Guitarist Rick Thawn joining Trigon. The other guitarist - Johnny Adams played solo for us. (He later played with Squad)
  
• Trigon became one of our regular bands with jazz rock feel. (Paul Sampson would go on to play with Ens /
  

  Trigon
  Reluctant Stereotypes with Paul King / Pink Umbrellas and became one of the country's top producers, producing the Primitives and Catalonia.
  
• Analog were another regular and very innovative band who hadn't played a gig until the Hobo workshop, having spent a year perfecting a 40 minute suite called Custers last stand, they were at last ready try it out in front of an audience. Mick Hartley, Steve Edgeson, Paul Brook all went on to form Reluctant Steroetypes with Paul Samson - the band that had Paul King as lead singer. The band King was a break away for the stereotypes in the 80's.
• Midnight Circus - were again a regular and very popular band at the workshop, led by singer / guitarist Neil O'Connor. Nobody would know at that time that his sister Hazel O'Connor would be such a huge success in five years in time. Bob Rhodes, the youth worker at the Hobo Workshop, himself  a musician, took to managing them.  later in 1979 (ish) I saw them after a punk concert at Warwick University, dressed in punk gear. They told me they had changed their name to The Flys and had just made a single - Molotov Cocktail and were going to promote it on The Old Grey Whistle Test. A year later Hazel broke through and Neil became the guitarist / producer in her road band.
• Colin Armstrong had gone solo after spliting from Music Box with Rob Armstrong.  Rob of course became reknowned for his guitar making, producing guitars for George Harrison and  Bert Jansch. Colin was a great supporter of the Hobo Workshop and played for us many times. We even formed a little band with Colin, Bob Rhodes and myself but it didn't go anywhere!
• Colin Cripps and Lynda  Hardcastle (later of the legendary Mountain Ash Band) came along to play and sing and always brought a crowd. They are written about elsewhere on this blog.

Neol Davies came along. I wanted Neol to organise a jam at the workshop like the one he'd done earlier at the

Umbrella club. Downstairs in the basement of the Holyhead Youth Centre was a group of West Indian musicians.  I went down to invite them to join us.  They said they would think about it - the group were unsure of the response I think at the time. In the end it was Neol Davis who went down and jammed with them on the blues and built a rapport with them. Apart from Charley, there was Desmond, Silverton and Lynval. In 5 year stime these musicians developing their confidence in the basement of the Holyhead Youth Centre would be causing a sensation as part of the Selecter and Specials. They still didn't play for us but Neol persuaded them to come along when we moved to the Golden Cross. A year or so later I worked with Neol for a temping agency at Argos in Daventry. He used to pick us up in the band van at some unearthly hour in the morning. By then he had formed a band with them called Hardtop 22. After a bit more evolution the Specials and Selector would emerge and the rest is history!

We got to have the jam session when we moved to the Golden Cross some time in 1975. Neol was there and a lot of musicians from now defunct top Coventry bands. Among the musicians who jammed at the Golden Cross were John Gravenor and Nikki Hawkswell who both sang some blues, Neol on guitar, Andy Cairns, Bill Jackson (former vocalist with April, Roy Butterfield (Ex Indian Summer, Tim James (I think), John Rushton of Analog, Horace Panter, Ricky, Phil Knapper, Carl , John (Brad) Bradbury (about 13 musicians took part).

Phil Knapper - was a regular supporter and a really good friend. A singer-songwriter who could play pop / rock

Classical and Bert Jansch. He would often back me on some poetry and music experimental pieces and we did form an informal band - mostly covers, with Andy Cairns. Phil's younger brother Stu Knapper would later head the punk band Riot Act. Phil has since passed away but I have some songs of his I recorded which I hope to up load in tribute to him. Phil suffered from Schizophrenia which held him back but he was actually a very talented guitarist and he taught me loads.

Andy Cairns - was another Hobo Workshop regular - a lead guitarist who I met at Henley College and got involved

with the music scene. Andy became a great friend and again some one who taught me loads guitar wise and vice versa. Andy formed a band with a guy we used to jam with called Ricky. It had Andy's friend Carl in it (I think) and Horace Panter (later of the Specials). They did Jazz rock material and I think they were called Breaker. They played for us at the Golden Cross. Horace had written to Hobo as early as 1973 to place an ad for a 'Happy Band'. As Hobo didn't always come out on schedual owing to lack of finance, Horace had found a band by the time the ad appeared but he did later come to the Hobo Workshop at the Golden Cross which I think is where he met Andy and Ricky. Later I formed a Pentangle type group with Andy c 1979. The bass player was Selecter's roadie and Van driver. o wever Andy went off to Aberystwyth to do a Phd in Biology and became a folkie and I moved up to Teesside to  do a BA in Humanities so that was the end of that band! Although we were folk, we did do a ska version of my song Mrs Stress and Strain I seem to remember. You had to get a gig after Two Tone broke! We also covered Pentangles Cruel Sister.

Bo (John Bargeant) who I co-founded Hobo with returned with Khayyam

from their european tour. Bo did the Moonraker disco for us at the Cross and Khayyam gig for us there, leading to a residency their. Other band nights were beginning to take off at the Cross before the Hobo Workshop finished after the summer 1975, with the Coventry supergroup - Monster Magnet taking a regular spot as well as Khayyam.

HOBO presents, Monday July 8th, a double bill at lower Holyhead Road

Youth centre, near Coventry Garage, Trigon and an Acoustic Workshop, featuring Johnny Adams, John Alderson & Trev Teasdel. 10p

(Small ad From Coventry Evening

Telegraph July 8th 1974)