Don't Pick a Flower c1971

I can't tell you a lot about this duo except that it was based around the work of Singer songwriter John Leopold who had been involved with various poetry and folk events at the Coventry Arts Umbrella in the very early 70's and although John often played in the Umbrella coffee bar as conversation raged on every subject - often to the wee hours, there's not much more to say except that around 1971 they played at the Umbrella Poetryand folk nights with a full presentation in May 1971. They performed both contemporary folk and their own songs. I seem to remember being impressed with their sound and their songs.

John Leopold had performed with the Umbrella Poets in the 1970 presentation of Geoff Pegg's Knotted Sheets (launch of his poetry chapbook for Outposts) at the Belgrade Theatre. He performed one of his songs called Dinosaurs Lament. I seem to think John play at other venues with the Umbrella poets during this period as well as folk clubs.

A short bio of John Leopold exists in the Knotted Sheets programme that reads -

John Leopold
The writer of the other song, Dinosaurs Lament. A talented songwriter and guitarist who takes personal preference to the 12-string variety. His songs are apart from anything produced by other writers and they use some excellent chord sequences.

All a bit vague now but if anyone can elaborate on John or Don't Pick a Flower - please do so! Roger Williamson played the next week's Poetry and Folk.

FOLKLORE
C    1969 - 81 (and beyond)
Traditional Folk Band.
(Barry Jackson is in the middle with glasses - Roland Mathews with the guitar)

I came across Folklore in 1974 / 5 while studying at Henley College. Although a Social Studies A'level course, I opted to take an Art O'level with Alex Murphy (former roady with Wandering John) who was taking art at A'level. Our tutor was Barry Jackson, who was always much more than an art teacher in that you learned about life in his class while developing yur artistic skills. A really nice and highly talented bloke. As the course went on I discovered just how wide his talent was - it was a revelation to us. Barry was an acknowledge artist in his own right - as the press cutting below shows and although I didn't realise until more recently when trying to put this site together, actully was involved in the Coventry Arts Umbrella in the 50's / early 60's and desinged the front cover of one of the issues of Umbrella magazine - illustrated here.

I started the Hobo Workshop while at Henley College and Barry was very encouraging. In the discussion about music it came out that Barry was a multi-instrumentalist and often brought in an instrument -often to use for drawing exercises but he would often play too. He revealed that he was one of the founder / organisers of the Henley College folk club at the New Inn, Longford with acts on such as The Yetties, Derek Brimstone, The McCalman's and their own longstanding folk outfit - FOLKLORE.

The band were formed around accountant Graham Holt, GEC Engineer Alan Rowe, Henley College lecturer Roland Mathews and artist / art lecturer andmusician Barry Jackson who could play more than 12 instruments - Barry Joined in 1973. Their 2nd album was called Eine Klein Folk and was produced by local radio presenter (Radio Mercia/ BRMB / singer songwriter / poet Norman Wheatley. Norman was the organiser of folk sessions at the Coventry Arts Umbrella in the early 70's and a prominant member of the Umbrella poets.

I attended the Henley College Folk club ( which had various homes including the Biggin Hall Hotel) for a short while in 1975 - doing a floor spot when Derek Brimstone was on (to get in free!) - the days of poverty! It always seemed well support with some great acts on and a great

atmosphere - good sense of humour going on.

Derek brim2

Brownsville2

Mccalmans2

I've put a few bands together as I don't have much material on them individually.

CHILDREN
Played Coventry Arts Umbrella Friday September 25th. They also played the Village (Colin

Campbell) Fri 1st Jan 1971. The Walsgrave Tues 12th Jan 1971. Warwick University Fest Sunday March 7th.

This was one of last bands that Al Docker put on at the Umbrella before I took over from him. It was a long time ago but I seem to recall they were an acoustic band with a hippy feel to the material. Not sure if they were from Cov or just played in the City but I remember liking their material.

CRYSTAL SHIP
This was another acoustic band at the Umbrella in 1970 which Al Docker booked. The title of a

Doors song although I'm sure I knew that until later - the image stuck in my mind and I like their music too - again can't recall it much except that at the time it had an effect on me - something progressive and poetic and inspirational I seem to think! I began organising mixed media events at the Umbrella  and have done periodically since - the latest being the Writers Cafe in Stockton on Tees but in the early 90's I organised one in Saltburn by the Sea where I had lived for a while and I called it The Crystal Ship (see the poster here). It brought in quite a few Doors fans from Saltburn! Another term for the earth too. The inspiration for called the Saltburn gig was more this early Cov band than the Doors although the Doors were faves of course!

                                                                              THE CLIFF COWLING TRIO

Were centred around the rock n roll and boogie piano playing of Cliff Cowling.  I think began in late 50's and weren't part of the hippy music scene of the early 70's but were obviously part of the Umbrella in the past. Cliff still rehearsed at  the Umbrella in the early 70's, probably playing the clubs accompanied by upright string bass and snare drum - almost skiffle. Cliff had greased back hair while the rest of us had extremley long flowing locks but his rock n roll piano was exceptional. I can't tell you much more about them really.

CARDINAL
Not to be confused with The Cardinals operating in Cov in 1964 - this duo were operating c 1972 led by acoustic

guitar player Nigel Clark.

Nigel was Southam near Cov. I first met him in a non musical setting at the Butts Tech College in 1969 - we were both 18 and apprentice electricians. Nigel was apprenticed to the Electircity board and I to DF Gibbs (next to the General Wolf pub - where later I would meet Al Docker.). We were both on the Electro-technology day release course.

I became friends with Nigel as he was an intelligent guy and had a big interest in music. Although I didn't play guitar at the time - I was beginning to learn and certainly a prolific lyric writer from the age of 15. Nigel had a great interest in psychology and in the lunch hour he'd be introducing me to lots of books he'sd read - The Forgotten Language by Erich Fromm (which I read and which introduced me the symbolic language of dreams - I was already exploring Dylan's lyrics noting the use of language and this book had a bearing on my writing at that time -developing a personal form of symbolic imagery, then there was the Fundamentals of

Psychology - to get me started, followed by the Psychology of Thinking, R D Laing and so on. Later I picked a psychology mag up from the newsagents in Broadgate with its case studies. I was in admiration of Paul Simon's lyrics and these books and mags provided plenty of inspiration - later I moved into sociological lyrics when I discovered New Society and got into the Ray Davis lyrics.

I write a number of songs inspired by this and Nigel loved the lyrics and took some of them, set them to music and played them with his group at places like St. Osburg. One of his favourite was a song called The Ups and Downs in the life of Mr Toil and Strife (which now would be an embarrassment beign a very early lyric but Nigel liked it at the time and played it. I never got to one of the gigs where they played it unfortunately but Nigel left the Electricity Board and Came to DF Gibbs. Here he introduced he lent me Dyland and Beatles songbooks to encourage my guitar playing and songwriting, introduced me to the 12 bar blues (he would bring his guitar into Gibbs) and the alerted me to the new Joni Mitchell single - Chelsea Morning -which led to me buying here albums and adding yet another source of inspiration lyrically.

I didn't see Nigel for a couple of years after we both left Gibbs but bumped into him outside the Lanch Poly in 1972, By then I was healvily involved with organising bands at the Umbrella Club and just starting my first experiment mixed media session  - The Humpoesic Happening at the Umbrella and booked his band Cardinal for a gig. Cardinal had a residency at a pub in Southam but continued playing gigs in folk clubs and anywhere really, including parties. It would be a mixture of covers and their own material. I kept in contact for a while - swopping riffs on the guitar. I'd written a spoof blues song called The Rubber Frog, Spotty Hogg Blews with Steve Brimstone - Derek's son - just a bit of fun - and Nigel worked  on it too - it was fast becoming a communal song with different people adding in a verse. Nigel taught how to play a suitable 12 bar riff to it. Then we lost contact again and that's about all I can tell you about Cardinal.

The Rubber Frogg Spotty Hogg Blews song began as a bit of fun during a silly hour at the Shilton Cottage 1972 and the early version written up by Steve Brimstone in my Communication books - not meant to be taken at seriously by even us. Inspiration came from Captain Beefheart's Trout Mouth Replica album and sometimes we could be heard mumbling some of the quips from the album "Fast and Baulbous" etc! So it was very much in the spirit of that. Yet in some ways this became a communal song - with inputs also from the Umbrella club's Pete Webb and a musical input from Nigel Clarke. Here's the original from the communication book as as a pic and the later communal version.

The Rubber Frogg Spotty Hogg Blews
by Trev Teasdel, Steve Brimstone, Pete Webb, Nigel Clarke (1972)

Woke up did mornin'
Dusted my Rubber Frogg

Well, I woke up dis mornin'
Yeah, dusted my Rubber Frogg.
Goin' down the Railroad
Me an my Spotty Hogg.

Well I went past de churchyard
Turd turned in it's grave
Yeah I went past de churchyard,
Turd turned in it's grave
You know I should have known better
than to stand right by and wave.

Oh Mop my sweaty brow momma....

Yeah I went out dis even'
shot my derringer dogg
Yeah, went out dis even'
shot my derringer dogg
I sped down de highway
me and my Potty Trogg.

Oh Rock on Rubber Frogg.

I woke up dis mornin'
Shaved my hairy tongue
Yeah, went out dis mornin'
shaved my hairy tongue.
I slid down the staircase
wiv my bald-headed tongue.

Oh take it to the dry cleaners babe

My fairy godmom saw me
A star-topped waving wand.
Yeah my fairy godmom saw me
He hair was filthy and was blond
Den I woke my eyes to mornin' light
An seen I musta been conned.

Often rehearsed and played at the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club in Queen Victoria Rd. C. 1969 – 71. Although they

had their own unique sound and wrote their material, their sound was akin to early Fairport Convention. Cover versions included Sandy Denys “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” and James Taylor’s “ on my Mind”.

The band played both rock and folk venues and the Warwick University Arts festival. Their manager was Stuart Urquhart of .

Their blurb sheet says; -

A COMPLETE NEW CONCEPT IN MUSIC TODAY

“We really like what APRIL are doing. Their approach to music is really original and their sound is a full and complete one.” Magna Carta

What is so different about APRIL’s approach to music? Basically the way they get such a beautiful mellow sound with an unusual electric line up.

Bill Jackson – Vocals / guitar / recorder / piano

Mick Thompson – 12 & 6 string guitars / steel guitar / vocals

Ron Lawrence – 8 string bass, guitar / vocals

Gary Richardson – Assorted percussion (including congas / bongos / claves / drums)

Pat Lawrence – Sound balancer extraordinary

“April are an ultra-contemporary group turning in their ideas and music towards a folk influence. 80% of their material is original and so is their approach to material written by others. As can be seen from their line up, the group comprises a great variety of instruments (& effects) which go together to form a very interesting show, with good music the aim in mind.”

……….

Group had split up by March1971 as we had them booked for the Umbrella club and it was cancelled.

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.

 

The Coventry Arts Umbrella Club began in November 2nd 1955 at its base 97, Little Park St. Martyn Richards tells us

"The Umbrella Club opened in November 1955 by  Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan. The trio were presenting their Goon Show at Coventry 'Hippodrome'  Theatre,  now demolished.  The Umbrella's Golden Jubilee celebrations were held in the city in November 2005. The club is now run from the home of its secretary but once its poetry group was a 1000 strong. The Umbrella magazine (to be featured on this site)  had entries from Coventry born poet Phillip Larkin and Susan Hall."    Martyn Richards

This concerns the bands that played or rehearsed at the Umbrella between 1969 and 1972. It's not all inclusive, just the

one I know about.

(CBR Card opposite - one of the sources of bands. Their office was near the Umbrella.)

I got involved with the Umbrella from October 1969, after seeing an ad in the Butts Tech for the Transcendental Cauldron Underground festival. Al Docker, a drummer / songwriter and workmate at DF Gibbs got me involved. He put the bands on at the time and I used to do the door and go the rounds of music agencies, networking in pubs like the 'Dive Bar' (Lady Godiva and the Golden Cross, Jaguar, Lanch etc.). After he left to concentrate on his band Tsar, I took over his role around the autumn 1970 until summer 1971.Later in 1972 I took over the Poetry and Folk evenings creating the misxed media Humpoesic Happenings blogs below this.

Some of the bands that played or rehearsed during this period were - Last

Fair Deal, Asgard, Whistler, The Chris Jones Aggression, Whistler, April, Cliff Cowling Trio, Love Zeus, Railroad, Nack ed en, Rogation Sunday, Acorn, Jessica's Theme, Fresh Maggots, Children, Wandering John, Gentle, Tea and Symphony, Ghost, Judas Goat, Don't Pick a Flower Unless You're Sure, Toadstool,  Dando Shaft, Tsar, Rocking Chair, Ra Ho Tep, Indian Summer Slitnitza , Dent Beaufoy, Gothic Horizon. I tried to book Medicine Head (see story), Al & Steve Varney ran the disco with Pete Webb. This went under various names - Purple Haze, Alestapeda, Al's Heavy Rock or progressive disco, Atom. Al Varney later became a bass player and played with Fission in 73.

 More will be written about the bands in the forthcoming band directory but here are a few personal snippets from the Umbrella during that period.

Asgard -

I first saw Asgard at the Umbrella Oct 69. Neol Davies orginally played lead guitar for  them but left to  form Mead. Asgard were a Pink Floyd styled group with Bill on Farfiza Organ, Terry on Drums and a bass player (Can't  remember the surnames ).  They used to rehearse in the Umbrella theatre, and I used to watch them. They did a cover of Carful with that Axe Eugene and Set the Controls for the heart of the Sun but also their own material. I saw them at Warwick University Arts Fest, the Lanch and Pete Waterman's Walsgrave Gig also. They split up c 1970. Bill taught me to play  Set the Controls on guitar and one day some one came in to the reheasal and said 'Bloody hell the sun's hot!" and Terry quipped back "You shouldn't touch it then!". Later, 3am while walking the 3 miles home to Willenhall I recycled his quip into a song. I often wrote songs on the way home to pass the time, using a Jew;s harp to get the melody and jotting the words down on bus tickets. We'd been listen to Black Sabbath, who were out at the time, and a black cat crept out of the shadows and ran across the London Rd. I looked up at the sky and black menacing clouds were crawling across the sky - It inspired a heavy rock lyric called Black Lizard Stream. The quip is recycled in the bridge (the line is italics). The song, written in symbolic language, describes the feeling of wanting something so badly but when the opportunity arrives, you blow it, get embarrassed or get burnt - it might be love, it might anything. The quip was a useful image to use therefore. Here's an excerpt-

BLACK LIZARD STREAM by Trev Teasdel

Black cats creep out of the shadows

Liquid black and evil faced

Black clouds crawl over the sky

Like turtles over the sand

Pin-stripe pain within my frame

I have lost my way

We have lost our way.

(Skipping some here to go to the bridge -)

Bridge

The mountain peaks they touched the sun

But promptly burnt their hands

A herd of hills leave their homes

Searching for a match to strike

And I’m so low, I’m bound to go

Cos I have lost my way

We have lost our way.

APRIL -

April were Coventry's answer to Fairport Convention but with their own style. I loved their sound. Sandy Denny is a hard act to follow, but Bill Jackson's voice  on Who knows Where the Time Goes did the business! other covers included James Taylor's Carolina On My Mind. Mostly they did their own songs. I loved listening to them and while laid off from the GEC and living near by in Brunswick Rd., I used to open the Umbrella for them to rehease and got to hear them lots!  They played in BIrmingham at the Swan, The Lanch, Warwick Uni, The Walsgrave. I booked them for the Umbrella but they split up days before. What a great shame - this was a very talented band. Ron Lawrence, bass player, used to play an 8 string bass using a bow for special effects. Ron later played bass with Sniff and the Tears in the 80's along with Loz Netto. Ron lived in a cottage in Shilton. In the autumn 1971 Al Docker and I moved in after they vacated. Al formed a new Coventry super group with Ron called Runestaff (after the Michael Moorcock novel). The band consisted of Al Docker - Drums; Ron Lawrence

Bass; Bill Jackson (Ex April) Piano / Vocals / acoustic guitar; Roy Butterfield (Ex Indian Summer) on lead guitar; Al

Hatton (ex bass with Indian Summer) on acoustic guitar. And they reheased in our dining room. I'm probably the only non member apart from Ron's wife Pat, who was the technician, to hear them as they never got to the giging stage. Great shame they split up - it was begining to sound really good.

RAILROAD

Around Jan / Feb 1971 Drummer Steve Harrison (who I knew from Junior School) asked me to write some lyrics for his new band Railroad. yhey were a blues / roack band consisting of Mick

Green on lead / Rhythm guitar, Tony (Mojo) Morgan (later in EMF (Coventry version) who won Battle of the bands in 1980) on bass (I also knew Tony from secondary school and he'd written music to one of my first lyrics The Elusive Metallic Idol (about the rat race) Coventry's a Car town - hence the opening phrase! An Extract..

There’s a maze of minds

Designing all kinds of cars.

There’s a surfeit of time to kill

So the people do what they will

Living in flats, so very high

Working so hard till they finally die.

I wrote some fresh lyrics for them, liking the idea of the poet / lyricist with a band like Pete Brown (lyricist for Cream) and Pete Sinfield (lyricist with King Crimson). They were the ones I looked up to (apart from Paul Simon, Dylan and Joni Mitchell). Railroad asked me to try vocals with them. I booked the Umbrella for the rehearsal in advance and phoned Pete Waterman to see if he  knew anyone who could loan us a PA ! It was the first time ever tried vocals with a band and it wouldn't be until later in the year that I played guitar and could write my own music and sing solo. Ultimately the band didn't gel and split up. Here are excerpts from the specially written lyrics - I think I was trying to steer them into a sort King Crimson mode!

BENEATH THE PHAEIC SKY by Trev Teasdel (Excerpt) 

The Black Knight's spectre prowls the battlement

Beneath the phaeic sky, sounds his sad lament.

The phantom pillion rider groans

as he leaps a lazing stile.

The faceless henchman totes his gun

and points it with beguile.

And the shivers of my uncertainty

Cloud my mind so I can't see.

And a full lyric about the illusion of life (Glaik is an archaic word for illusion)

GLAIK (The Illusion of the Lake) by Trev Teasdel

I tried to catch the sun

but it was only a reflection in the water.

I was only seeking treasure

But I ended up 'kissing the gunner's daughter'

The velvet coated bard I followed

was just a caird who was in a play.

I looked up to the sky to see

they had blackened the 'eye of the day' 

chorus Glai - Aye Aye Aye ack (3 times)

           The Illusion of the lake.

I went to see the archimage 

but he turned out to be just a javel.

I pulled the bedclothes back

to see a snake unravel.

I almost made the rainbow's end

when it suddenly turned wan

I gledged upon a peacock

who suddenly lost his fan.

NACK ED EN

Prior to Railroad, Drummer Steve Harrison was playing with a group called Nack ed en.  He took me down to the Binley Oak where the were rehearsing and asked me to bring some lyrics. The group consisted of Loz Netto lead / Rhythm guitar (Loz was with Sniff and the Tears later in the 80's),

Neil Richardson bass (Neil was previously in a band who played the

Umbrella - Acorn / Rogation Sunday)

and afterwards Drops of Brandy - who were big on the national Rank circuit. I went done the next sunday to the rehearsal only to find  Steve had been replaced on drums by Brad (John Bradbury) (later of the Specials). This was the first time I'd met Brad. I was disappointed for Steve but had to admit Brad was a brilliant drummer. I arranged for them to rehease at the Umbrella and often sat in on their pratices. I noticed how Brad worked with a band. He was never one for long boring drum solos that often were more about ego than skill. His solos employed brevity, were were skillfully deployed and enhanced the song rather than distracted from it. He was very technically proficient and yet amazingly creative with it. This was rare! Listen to his solo in Gangsters. At the Umbrella practices I noticed how he worked with bands. It often led to disputes but Brad was concerned for the structure of the song, the tightness of the band, the trasition between sections of the number. A lot of drummers offered the thrash bang approach where as Brad was seemed more concerned with the sense of the number, enhancing it with skilful embellishments. After the Oak session, we ended up in the Dive bar. Guitarist Chris Jones

was there and Brad and Chris looked through the lyrics Steve had asked me to bring in. Chris wanted me to write sonme lyrics for his band Chris Jones Aggression - we set up a meeting but I think the band were falling apart about then - Chris moved on to a Jazz Rock band called Wave, based at the Earlsdon Cottage.. Unfortunately bands split up and reform with great regularity at this stage and nothing came of it all. I think Nack ed en played a few gigs but the bass player joined his old band mates and manager in a new band Drops of Brandy doing 10 cc style covers and they became hot on the Rank circuit for a while. Loz became a good friend - on one occassion we went to see ELP at the Lanch - after the show we met Greg Lake and Carl Palmer outside the Lanch at the Hot dog stall. Loz was interrogating Greg about his work with Robert Fripp. It wasn't the best

moment to do that, Greg had just split with King Crimson, but he did focus on the positive and respected Fripps work. Carl Palmer told us he was from nearby Nuneaton. On another ocassion I went to the Warwick Uni Arts Festival with Loz. The Pink Fairies and local bands - Whistler, Asgard were on too. Loz and I went into the band's dressing room - Loz was after a go on their guitars. It was there he gave me a few lead guitar lessons. Meanwhile the Pink Fairies were having fun in the loos putting a condom over a switched on tap! By the time the condom was about to explode, two academics walked in in suits in time for a cold shower!

An extract form one of the lyrics they read - An early one I'd written in 1968 after leaving school -

Mr Opulent V Mary Annabella (Trev Teasdel 1968)  

Mary Annabella wears a face she does not own

and her teeth are in a jar on the table in her home.

She walks the dog around the street

hoping she might meet

Mr Perfect and his family called 'Elite'

All mod-cons are incorporated in the kitchen that she admires..

LOVE ZEUS - Loz Netto moved to Love Zeus after Nack ed en broke up in 1971. Love Zeus was very much an umbrella Club band with Tony Cross (who was on the Umbrella's executive overseing all the music events) and was a classically trained keyboard player. Al Docker on drums, Loz Netto on Guitar, a female violinist, as for vocalist - it may bhave been Paul Feltwell or Paul King (can't remember now and now documentation) - but both had been at Brookland's Annexe Drama college. It may have been too early to be Paul King. This group played the Umbrella and a prestigious gig at the Belgrade Theatre. The Again the group didn't last long and soon split up.

In August 1970 (see ticket above) Al Docker booked Birmingham band

Tea and Symphony who we had heard on John Peel and who

recorded on Harvest. They were booked through the near by CBR Music agency in Queen Victoria Rd. They played in the Umbrella's little theatre and had a great lightshow. Another Birmingham band was -

Ghost -

UPDATES NOV 07

Bands organised by Cliff Cowling until Al Docker Took over 1969-1970 and then Trev Teasdel 1970-1971

May 1970 Postcard

July 1970 Trad B Jefferson & April

July 1970  Asgard

August 1970  - Steve Tayton and his Jazz Quartet

Fri Aug 14th 1970 Vic's Heavy Rock Jam session (See Transcendental Cauldron post)

Fri Aug 21st Tea & Symphony and April (Groups wishing to practice should see Al Docker)

Fri 18th Sept  1970 Ghost and Asgard (Contrasting Styles)

Live Music May 1971

Live Music by Al Docker's group Tsar with Atom Disco (Al and Steve Varney) - Al Varney later became the bassist with Fission c1973. A piece in the Umbrella programme read "A freaky night for anyone who wants to listen to some good sounds!"

April 1971 Toadstool - John Brown's folk duo.

May 11th 1971 Don't Pick a Flower - John Leopold's folk duo. Poetry and Folk session. Contemporary and own songs.

May Tues 18th 1971 Poetry and folk with ROGER WILLIAMSON

Oct 19th 1971 Heron (London based contemporary folk group)

Members joining at this time Early 70's (although some of them had been coming to events a while before becoming members.

Jan Gage and Jan Coombs (Helped with publicising bands when Trevor was organising them in 1970 / 71)

Rosemary Jones (involved with the Folk and Poetry) Charles Bullen (Guitarist with Tsar) (Joined Sept 1971. Also Andrew Court and Nick Day.

Sectretary of the Programme Committee in 1971 was Lindy Watson (now Lyndie Brimstone) and on the committee were Esther Breakwell, Jim Ashworth, Maggie Heath, John Pinder and Gaynor Penton.

Other regular members at that time include Tes Walker, Malvin Preece (later DJ at the Village), John Scott, Jim Porter, Mick Cuttifoot, Lance Goodey, Sally Birch, Jenny Bowden, Doug Deakin, Pete Webb, Heather Lovatt

.

Updated Oct 2007

In September 1969, I saw a poster in the Butts Technical College in Coventry. I was on day release from an electrical contractor DF Gibbs. The poster seemed just up my street with underground bands and films. Up until then I was pretty isolated in terms of like minded people. I wrote song lyrics and loved music but didn't know many others that shared my interest. I was about 18 then. Al Docker who also worked at Gibbs said he was involved with the Umbrella, organising the band nights on a Friday. I went along with him to Transcendental Cauldron, a weekend Underground fest in October 1969. This was my first involvement on the Coventry music scene.

On the back of the above poster it says " During the weekend 31st October -

2nd November the Umbrella Club is to promote a Fringe Arts Festival. Events planned include Films, Music, Drama, Poetry, Lights shows and an exhibition of posters. I'm not sure what was on in terms of drama and poetry as I don't have that part of the programme. I mainly saw the music events.

The following bands played over the 3 day festival - Last Fair Deal, Asgard, Ra Ho Tep, Chris Jones Aggression and Dando Shaft. The Light Show was directed by Alan Worral. The following underground films were on too -

Scorpio Rising - Directed by Kenneth Anger 1964. Occultist believe that the year 1962 was the end of 2000 years of Christian domination nd the beginning of a period of pagan domination coinciding with the Aquarian age in astrology. Anger, seeing pop music, drugs use, American Nazi style motor cycle cultists as evidence of demonic forces at work, made Scorpio Rising to illustrate the death throes of the Old Age and the transition to the new.

Relativity - Directed by Ed Emshwiller 1966 This is an experimental feature made with the aid of a grant from Ford Foundation. This metaphorical work about man's place in the universe uses ultra high speed photography, pin-point lighting in black limbo together with careful framing and superimposition to achieve complete visual control of time flow.
NB both these films were refused a certificate by the British Board of Film Censors.

Sins of the Fleshapoids - directed by Mike Kuchar 50 mins 1964 and features a cast of robots and overdeveloped women intent on taking over the world.

On- Off 10 min supporting short directed by Richard Bartlett.

Such is the information on the poster. In 1995 - I organised a lottery funded three week Arts Festival in N. Yorks and Tees Valley called Merlin's Cauldron. Although quite different and much wider in concept - the name was inspired by the first event I attended at the Umbrella. I only remember seeing the bands so can offer no information or opinion of the rest of the events at the Umbrella.

Update Oct 2007
From the Umbrella newsletter -
The Transcendental Cauldron will be a festival or 'Happening' to take place on Halloween. The theme is the new undeground art forms as exemplified by the work of the Arts Lab in Dury Lane.

We hope for several types of participants - Umbrella members who attend parties, local teachers and other intelligentia, students of the current scene, hippies, new left etc. We are expecting 50 visitors from Birmingham, Leamington and London.

The idea came from the Umbrella Film Group - Jo Petter saw this as a nucleus of a more ambitious event. A catalyst for a great mixed media event and experiment and party. Jo Petter organised the Drama, Mike Taunton organised the Poetry, Doug Dekin organised the films, Jo Petter organised the lights along with Daryl Weiner, Posters organised by Jo Petter, Music by Mike Taunton and Martin (Lre??)

About a month later, and the second event I attended in November 1969 was a weekend Music Marathon. I think

more or less the same bands played. I have no documentation on this although I attended the weekend. I don't know who organised these events it was a few months before I got more involved with the  Umbrella.
Update Nov 07
Some of the events included Fri Night in the Lounge - Terra Buena Jazz Band with Chris Jones Aggression and Whistler. In the Theatre Asgard and Phoenix played also more Jazz. Sat Night saw performances from Tobias Heat / Trad B Jefferson and the Folk Club was also on. In the Theatre Last Fair Deal and Andy Jam Session. Sunday saw a folk session with Jackie and Bridie, Dando Shaft, The Rocking Chair Blues Band. In the Theatre Wandering John, Down Country Boys, Dave Beaufoy's Trio, Rod Felton and Cliff Cowling, White Heat, Joy Hyman, Terry Wisdom.

However in March 1971 I mooted the idea of doing another Music Marathon No 2 and Lyndie Watson (Brimstone) offered to help me organise it. Through most of April that year we worked hard on the project. Lyndie was an actress, training at Brookland Annexe Drama College and a poet.

There were no shortage of local bands and had most of the contacts but we wanted a few from the wider area. Lyndie placed an ad in the underground newspaper Friendz and we got a

lot of interest from Birmingham. Steve Knopinski was one of the first to contact us from Birmingham.

This was my first shot at orgainisng a festival and we had built up a good ahead of steam in terms of getting bands to play and volunteers to be involved. The crunch came when the Umbrella Executive - who initially had been very supportive, broke the news that the building had been condemned and that we would not be able to hold the Marathon at the Queen Victoria Rd premises. They did suggest that we might hold it at the Charterhouse on London Rd. (where the Umbrella would ultimately move to. There would be no problem with noise there from local residents. Lyndie and I went through to see the building, however the police, fire brigade and local authorities warned us off, saying that it will cause all kinds of traffic, security and health and safety issues. They seemed to have scaled the project up to a rock festival status. All we had proposed was a faily humble affair similar to the one the Umbrella successfully held without hassel in 1969 when I joined. After more negotiations we realised the project wouldn't be allowed and the musicians who generously pledged to play were told the news. We spent that summer living in a communal house in Birmingham and making new contacts. We were pretty gutted!

I'd given up putting the bands on over the summer. When I returned to Cov in the autumn I developed my first mixed media nights - The Humpoesic Happening. More on that in another of the Umbrella posts. Opposite the notice in Umbrella News about the called off Music Marathon.

THE NEOL DAVIES MARATHON JAM SESSION
Called Vic's Heavy Rock Jam Session on Friday August 4th 1970

Update (Oct 2007) - looking at source material and Neol's own site it seems that Neol didn't actually initiate this - someone called Vic did. Possibly Vic was a jazz drummer but can't remember now -if anyone knows who Vic was - let us know. Borrowed this programme from Neol's site. Not quite sure now if Neol had a role in bringing some of the musicians together for this or if he just played. Al Docker was probably involved with this from an organising side as he was still putting the bands on until autumn 1970 when I took over.

In between time NEOL DAVIES

organised c 1970, a brilliant Marathon Jam session at the Umbrella. I can't remember now if it lasted all weekend or twenty four hours - but it was long and interesting, involving all the local musicians Neol could muster. Apart from the quality of the music over such a long period, the hightlight for us was during a break in the small hours, when a long-haired trench-coated guy went to sleep with his head in the bass drum (it had no outside skin on it). When the band struck up again, that bass drum took some pounding but the guy slept through it all. We speculated on what he must be dreaming about as he was not to be roused from his slumber. Mordor was one suggestion! Among the musicians playing were Al Docker, Chris Jones and his band, and members of Asgard, Whistler, Wandering John, Ra Ho Tep and included Loz Netto and John (Brad) Bradbury of Nack ed en (Loz was later with Sniff and the Tears and Brad was later drummer with the Specials.

One one occasion around this time, Neol brought in a sitar and sat in the coffee lounge playing it. He told us his earliest influence had been the Shdaows and it was interesting to hear Neol play the Shadows - The Stars Fell on Stockton at a gig in Stockton in 95 - with Selecter Instrumental. The Shadows also wrote Summer Holiday in Stockton while giging there.

Neol was involved in a jam at the Hobo Workshop - later when it was on at the Golden Cross.

In Philip Larkin - A Writer's Life, Andrew Motion writes (p500), "..Morrison's main recommendation was that Larkin should include the essay about his childhood, Not the Places Fault which had originally appeared in the obscure Coventry-based magazine Umbrella in 1959. Larkin replied gratefully but insisted, "I have rather a mental block about Not the Places Fault . In construction it is written as a kind of commentary on the original poem (I Remember I Remember) but this does not come through and in consequence it seems rather rambling. In addition, I think it said just a little bit more about myself than I really want known. These are the reasons Why I should prefer it remain in obscurity."

Above are two of the covers of this 'obscure' Coventry magazine - Umbrella - however Larkin's article is in Vol 1 No3 Summer 1959. Below is the poem I Remember I Remember - about Coventry. The Larkin article Not the Place's Fault is also in the book below apparently. It is

I Remember, I Remember

by Philip Larkin

Coming up England by a different line
For once, early in the cold new year,
We stopped, and, watching men with number plates
Sprint down the platform to familiar gates,
"Why, Coventry!" I exclaimed. "I was born here."

I leant far out, and squinnied for a sign
That this was still the town that had been 'mine'
So long, but found I wasn't even clear
Which side was which. From where those cycle-crates
Were standing, had we annually departed

For all those family hols? . . . A whistle went:
Things moved. I sat back, staring at my boots.
'Was that,' my friend smiled, 'where you "have your roots"?'
No, only where my childhood was unspent,
I wanted to retort, just where I started:

By now I've got the whole place clearly charted.

Our garden, first: where I did not invent
Blinding theologies of flowers and fruits,
And wasn't spoken to by an old hat.
And here we have that splendid family

I never ran to when I got depressed,
The boys all biceps and the girls all chest,
Their comic Ford, their farm where I could be
'Really myself'. I'll show you, come to that,
The bracken where I never trembling sat,

Determined to go through with it; where she
Lay back, and 'all became a burning mist'.
And, in those offices, my doggerel
Was not set up in blunt ten-point, nor read
By a distinguished cousin of the mayor,

Who didn't call and tell my father There
Before us, had we the gift to see ahead -
'You look as though you wished the place in Hell,'
My friend said, 'judging from your face.' 'Oh well,
I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said.

'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere.'

Umbrella was edited by Terence Watson (Vice Chair of Coventry Arts Umbrella, Poet and a school teacher at King Henry the 8th School in Coventry). The contents of the above two magazines may be put in a collection on here at some stage.)

Larkin's essay for the Umbrella magazine is some kind of apology or explanation of the above earlier poem to offset any offence caused but rambling in places with memories but there are some evocative passages.

The essay starts with an explanation -

"In January 1954 I wrote a poem called "I Remember, I Remember'...after stopping unexpectedly in a train at Coventry, the town where I was born and lived for the first eighteen years of my life. The poem listed, rather satirically, a lot of things that hadn't happened during the time, and ended;

'you look as if you wished the place in hell,'
My friend said 'Judging from your face.' ' Oh, well,
I suppose it's not the place's fault,' I said.

'Nothing, like something, happens anywhere."

This poem was not of course meant to disparage Coventry, or to suggest it was, or is, a dull place to live in, or that I now remember it with dislike or indifference, or even can't remember it at all."

A bit later in the essay he describes the area around Coventry station in early days -
"I should have recognised the outside of the station better, for I passed it and repassed it daily on my way to and from school. Coming up short, somehow rather unofficial road that joins Warwick Road by the Station Hotel took me past the line of station horses in their carts outside the Goods Office. When I went back at lunch time they were wearing their nosebags, and on my return at a quarter to two there was a scatter of chaff on the ground where they had stood. I like this corner best at summerteatime, when people in addition to the man selling the 'Midland Daily Telegraph' there was frequently a white Eldorado box-tricycle that sold lime-green or strawberry ices at a penny each. In those days newspaper placards bore properly-printed posters that today would look depressingly un-urgent. Beside the paper seller was a cigarette-machine, which gave ten cigarettes for sixpence and twenty for a shilling (but with the twenty you got a halfpenny back under the cellophane); One of my fantasises was to unlock it and rifle the packets for cigarette cards. I sometimes think the slight scholarly stoop in my bearing today was acquired by looking for cigarette cards in Coventry gutters."

On music he writes -
"it was Arthur, who with Kazoo and a battery of toffee tins, lids, pens and a hair brush first introduced me to 'dance-music', sitting buzzing and tapping his way through pre-selected programmes of current hits and standard hot numbers ....Once a friend left a tenor saxophone at Arthur's house, and together we reverently handled it's heavy silver-plated intricacy and depressed the numerous cork-padded keys..."

He describes a visit to a friends house in Earlsdon -
"Peter must have introduced me to Tom and Jim, who lived further off in the Earlsdon area. We all went to the same school, and continued to meet for several years at Jim's house in Beechwood Ave that had a  tennis court and a sunk ornamental pond and two garages. Behind the tennis court was a line of poplars. I suppose it was not a really big house, but it was the first  I had known where people could be completely out of earshot of each other indoors, and which had a spare room or two that could be given over to a Hornby Lay-out or a miniature battlefield that need not be cleared up at the end of the day. I always supposed Jim's family to be richer than mine - at one time it must have been - but this was less because of Jim's many boxes of soldiers and Dinky Toys from Haddon's basement, and his frequent visits to the Astoria, than because of the airy hospitality informing his parent's house. The careless benevolence that produced Chelsea buns and Corona at eleven, and ignored the broken window and excoriated furniture seemed to me eloquent of a higher, richer way of living. The family were natural hosts. They had not to school themselves into accepting that a certain amount of noise and damage was inevitable if their son and his friends were to enjoy themselves; they took it as a matter of course. Looking back I can see we were a great nuisance...."

"One of my strongest memories of the house is of its long attic, that ran the length of their house, and which contained amoung many other things the debris of a hat-shop the family had once owned. There was a forest of hat-stands, small plush hemispheres on long metal stalks, like depetalled flowers, and cardboard boxes full of receipted invoices, wads of them, bearing dates of 1928, 1929 and 1930."

Back on music he wrote
"On Saturday afternoons we sat, frowning intently, in the glass cubicles at Hanson's, trying to decide whether both sides of the latest Parlophone Rhythm-Style Series of Vocalion Swing Series were sufficiently good to justify expenditure of the record's stiffish price of three shillings. Our standards were very high in those days. The idea of paying nearly two pounds for an LP containing only three tracks of real interest would have appalled me."

On fellow writers in Coventry
"I never knew anyone in Coventry who was interested in writing. There may have been little groups who met and discussed each other's work, but I never came across them; nor was there at school any literary society where talent might try itself out. No pipe-lighting dominie (I am afraid I am falling into the style of my poem) casually slipped a well-worn volume into my hands as I was leaving his book-lined den ('By the way you might care to have a look at this')"

"our house contained not only the principle works of most main English writers in some form of other (admittedly there were exceptions like Dickens), but also nearly complete collections of authors my father's favourites - Hardy, Bennett, Wilde, Butler and Shaw and later on Lawrence, Huxley and Katherine Mansfield....Knowing what it's effect would be on me, my father concealed the existence of the Central Public Library as long as he could...in the end the secret broke and nearly every evening I set off down Friars Rd. with books to exchange. Many were returned unfinished, chosen because I liked the thought of myself reading them. But for quite long periods I suppose I must have read a book a day, even despite the tiresome interruptions of morning and afternoon school.

Reading is not writing, though, and by then my ambition had pretty well deserted jazz drumming to settle upon a literary career. Apart from the School magazine I had still not got into print. I wrote ceaselessly, however; now verse which I sewed up into little books, now prose, a thousand words a night after homework, resting my foolscap on Beethoven's Op.132, the only classical  album I possessed.

Leaving Coventry for Oxford at the outbreak of war in 1940 Larkin writes "Within a fortnight Coventry had been ruined by the German Air force and I never went back there to live again."

This poem was not in Umbrella but mentions Stoke in Coventry.

Mr Bleaney - Phillip Larkin

'This was Mr Bleaney's room. He stayed
The whole time he was at the Bodies, till
They moved him.' Flowered curtains, thin and frayed,
Fall to within five inches of the sill,

Whose window shows a strip of building land,
Tussocky, littered. 'Mr Bleaney took
My bit of garden properly in hand.'
Bed, upright chair, sixty-watt bulb, no hook

Behind the door, no room for books or bags -
'I'll take it.' So it happens that I lie
Where Mr Bleaney lay, and stub my fags
On the same saucer-souvenir, and try

Stuffing my ears with cotton-wool, to drown
The jabbering set he egged her on to buy.
I know his habits - what time he came down,
His preference for sauce to gravy, why

He kept on plugging at the four aways -
Likewise their yearly frame: the Frinton folk
Who put him up for summer holidays,
And Christmas at his sister's house in Stoke.

But if he stood and watched the frigid wind
Tousling the clouds, lay on the fusty bed
Telling himself that this was home, and grinned,
And shivered, without shaking off the dread

That how we live measures our own nature,
And at his age having no more to show
Than one hired box should make him pretty sure
He warranted no better, I don't know.