7 posts tagged “dando shaft”
Ted always seemed to be a really nice and good humoured man and was the first percussionist I saw live playing tablas. I loved Indian classical music but had never seen anyone actully playing them at that stage and so I was particuarly fascinated by how he intergrated their sound with Dando's intermix of celtic and bulgarian fiddle playing and the jazz / folk elements of the guitars and bass. Ted's percussion playing was part of the intermix that gave Dando it's original sound and approach to folk based music.
Ted's daughter has told me that he was a wonderful father.
As I can't really elaborate on his life as a whole and his later musical and creative adventures, the best way to
here is a piece written by Pete Willow for the Coventry Telegraph -
"COVENTRY lost one of its great folk icons when "Bongo" Ted Kay died last weekend after a long illness.
Ted played tabla and percussion for cult folk band Dando Shaft in the 1970s.
He appeared with various local line-ups and teamed up in the
mid-90s with Dando's multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins and singer Kalinka
Vulcheva to form the celebrated Anglo-Bulgarian crossover band The
Vulcheva-Jenkins Incident."
Ted played in bands before and after Dando Shaft which I will add here as I find out which ones - Meanwhile I've added
some Music press ads for Dando Shaft and also to
mention that they played Whitley Abbey school in Cov c 1971 with Gentle Giant among the many gis they did nationwide / internationally.
Here is another Youtube of Dando Shaft - a short but sweet live snippet - (there's another vid on one of the other Dando posts on this site - Here
As first tribute to Dando Shaft member Ted Kay, who recently passed away, here is a later song (1989) by Dando live
Description: Dando Shaft track "Feel Like" Live In Bergamo Italy Shadows Across The Moon 1989 Original video footage davecoopz@mac.com 2006
circa 1968 -72 - also one-off reunions
Progressive/folk-rock band
Dando Shaft are one of Coventry's foremost groups and excellent musicians and songwriters.
Popular band made 3 albums during lifetime plus 'reunion' album in 1978. Jenkins later played with Bert Jansch. One Day Thomas / WhipperSnapper (with Dave Swarbrick), Hedgehog Pie, Mathew's Southern Comfort.
Albums:
An Evening With ... (Youngblood
1970 SSYB006)
Dando Shaft S/T (Neon 1971 NE6)
Lantaloon (Neon 1972 SF8256)
Kingdom (Rubber 1978 RUB034 )
Singles:
Sun Clog Dance (RCA 1972
2246)
From the Dando Shaft Compilation album - Reaping the Harvest.
Darrell Viner (Dave Cooper alerted me to the interesting story of innovative artist / sculptor / lightshow designer before Pink Floyds- Darell Viner - a long-time friend of Dando Shaft - click to view this post on the Hobo site)
“Some may be disappointed that Dando Shaft is not some exotic sexual appliance…The name, according to Kevin Dempsey, who was ever present during the group’s 5 year lifespan, was taken from a character in a novel, who advertised in the national press to become a ‘people’s millionaire’, which he achieved.” However “Fellow Shafter Martin Jenkins reckons ‘that it was a bawdy American comedy novel, which wasn’t at all profound.’ Written, he thinks by someone with a name like Guy Calhoun. One of the few surviving press cuttings about the band suggests ‘The name is misleading – cribbed from the title of a pornographic thriller, it suggests an abundance of well oiled sex” “The bottom line is the group chose the name because it had a nice ring to it rather than because they felt any connection with the novel or its characters and a number of bands were naming themselves after a book at the time.
The group formed in Coventry during 1968. One
intersting aspect of Dando Shaft's direction was that they were keen on traditional folk. Jenkins having launched his musical career as a guitarist in a ceilidh band, but rather than selecting material from the traditional repertoire and modernising or rearranging it, they resolved to to write their own material in the style of traditional folk musch, much as did Fairport Convention did during the same era. Apart from stylistic orgininalty, the group's major weapon was the stunning interplay between Dempsey and Jenkins, which continued in Whippersnapper (the quartet formed by Dave Swarbrick when he left Fairport Convention. Perhaps surprising in view of his remarkable prowess as a guitarist, Dempsey started his musical career as a drummer, following in his father's footsteps, and in fact was a drummer in several bands in the 60's - Dando was the first band in which he played guitar. Jenkins also took up fresh instruments upon Dando's formation - previously a guitarist around Solihull, he toured Germany with a band in 1963, but returned to Britain broke, at which point he sold his equipment to pay his debts and bought an acoustic guitar, because he felt a greater affinity with folk and blues, than with what was then called 'beat music. During the mid 60's, he led a traditional folk group - The Cockade - by which time he had moved to Coventry where he met Kev Dempsey, who was also a prominent local musician'. Kevin Demsey was friends with Dave Cooper, and after jamming together, they got on so well that they decided to form Dando Shaft, which was when Jenkins took up Mandolin and Violin. At this point the band began to be influenced by Bulgarian music - although it was evident on their first album 'we were at John Martyn's house and he played un Music of Bulgaria' - it took our breath away!' said Jenkins 2 I had a big old house without electricity for nine or ten months and that was where Dando rehearsed - we would play solidly for hours on a tune. Dave Cooper was a great songwriter, which inspired us all, and because the house didn't have electricity, we couldn't even listen to the radio during the band's formative period.
The first stab of at recording came when they went down to Pye Studios in London to cut a single. As Dempsey
remebers, 'The session had been booked for Johnny Silvo' (a long-time staple of the UK folk scene) So our manager, Sandy Glennon, suggested using Silvo's studio time to record a demo for a possible single - which was how they started working with Miki Dallon, who produced all three albums. Dallon was impressed and immediately suggested making a complete album. We all sat in a semi-circle and recorded the album live and because he was an old rocker, he found us interesting and unusual. So we made our first album in two four hour sessions on a Sunday - An Evening with Dando Shaft - which was released on Youngbood in 1970, a small label which also released such hits as In a Broken Dream - by Python Lee Jackson (with Rod Stewart as lead vocalist) and Don Fardon's Indian Reservation and according to Dempsey, the record was favourably reviewed by NME and MM, and in America, where it was released on US Decca, in Cashbox and Billboard.
In 1970, after the first album was released, the group expanded to include Poly Boulton, a dynamic and criminally unrecognised singer from Leamington Spa, who later appeared on albums by Ashley Hutchings - By Glouster Docks I Sat Down and Wept and a live album by the Albion band as well as recording a solo album in 1988. Dempsey said - We always wanted a female singer, especially for my songs - Martin and Dave both sang the songs they wrote but I didn't and I wanted someone else to sing the songs I wrote.. we also knew who we wanted -we'd heard Polly because she used to sing with June Tabor nad Roger the bass player and I went down to the Sidmout folk festival and invited her here to audition. We also auditioned Linda Peters (who became Linda Thompson and turned her down - mostly on stylistic grounds rather than ability. Polly sand Riverboat, a song I'd written but couldn't sing.
Polly Boulton tells a slightly different story - I wasn't aware of them wanting me until I joined. As far as I know they
had only heard me sing choruses from a bar in a folk club in Coventry - and I had no ambition to become a singer. I joined the band in 1970 when I was still at Swansea University doing a Zooology degree (I wanted to live in the Jungle - well the music business is quite a jungle I suppose! We all lived in a big overcrowded house in Ealing.
The group moved to London after a change of mangement, which came about after they opened for Mathew's Southern Comfort, who were overseen by a notable managerial duo Howard and Blaikley, best known for the long run of hits they produced for Dave Dee Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Ian Mathews was sufficiently impressed with Jenkins to use him on the second Mathew Southern Comfort album - Second Spring.
It was perhaps Howard and Blaikley's successful track record which partially convinced the short lived (and nowadays incredibly collectible) Neon Label (an RCA subsidary) to sign Dando Shaft in 1971. (Another top Coventry band - Indian Summer were also signed to RCA Neon in the same year). The groups's eponymous second album (and the first with Polly Boulton) was unleased and despite even greater critical acclaim, commercially vanished, probably due to large extent to the Neon Label folding. Even so it was the band's biggest selling album of their first three. "We'd developed as songwriters, we had Polly and we were on a bigger label. We toured a lot at that time, working with acts like matheew's Southern Comfort, Status Quo, Brian Auger and Osibisa, who we supported at the
Lyceum, and we also played a lot at the Roundhouse.
Jenkins also feels that Dando Shaft was a signicficant improvement, although we always had a problem with the way
our albums were mixed - for example Kevin and Dave played these fine guitar patterns but the engineer just didnt seem to understand what we were trying to do, and Miki Dallon didn't really have enough knowledge of our kind of music. We moved to being managed by Howard and Blaikley soon after making the Youngblood album, and in retrospect, its hard to know whether things could have gone any better than they did, but we were nver their highest priority, because apart from Mathew's Southern Comfort and Dave Dee Dozy etc, they also looked after The Herd and Flaming Youth. Peter Framton and Phil Collins!.
After Neon was extinguished (by the departure of its founder, one seems to recall) the group transferred to the main RCA label for what turned out to be a final album before going thier separate ways. Lantaloon was less successful than Dando Shaft and it's not regarded by Dando Shaft as the album for which they'd like to be remembered.
Jenkins reckons the group split up before the third album was released. Polly felt that she wasn't contributing much singing despite all the travelling and nobody seemed interested in her problems - she felt she'd abandoned her career in Zooology for this music which she wasn't getting much from - To be fair 'I felt I didn't share their 'missionary zeal' as I wasn't with them from the very start of the band. Polly ws the first to leave 'I got a job in apub' - Kevin and Polly moved to the States until1976, working as a duo and part of Blue Aquarius, an immense 26 person group with Jazzy inclinations. On their return to Britain, the duo played in a Coventry rock band ABOUT TIME
with sax player Paul Dunmall who has also played with both Johnny Guitar Watson and Danny Thompson. Martin Jenkins joined The noted Newcastle folk group Hedgehog Pie, appearing on their Green Lady album before becoming involved for around five years with Bert Jansch on whoose album Avocet he also appears as part of Bert Jansch's Conundrum. It was Martin who was approached in 1984 by Dave Swarbrick to join Whippersnapper, and it was Martin who suggested that Kevin Demsey should also join the group. On Kevin's return to Blighty, he joined a jazz/funk outfit known as Pzazz, from where he rejoined Martin in Whippersnapper, while Polly moved to Shropshire (where she still lives) and gave up singing for six years while resetabilishing her own horticultural business after returning to college to take a teaching diploma - until Ashley Hutchings asked her to perform on Gloucester Docks. Dave Cooper became a sculptor after taking a fine art degree and left Britain for a year in Australia at the start of 1990. Ted Kay's now a photographer and Roger Bullen is a folk singing instructor!
Abridged form John Tabler on the sleeve of Reaping the Harvest - a Dando Shaft Compilation from the three albums
published in 1990”
And here's a review off the net -
‘Starting as a five piece folk band, Dando Shaft initiated a completely unique mixture of acoustic folk (none of the instruments were electrically amplified!) with driving rhythms and impeccable inventive musicianship. The lyrics are largely concerned with the relationship between man and nature, resulting in titles such as Rain / Cold Wind / September Wine. As the first three tracks on their first album. They marvel in complicated structures and textures and are able to weave very intricate patterns, especially between mandolin (played in a highly original manner) guitar and violin. Very characteristic is also the combination of hand-beaten percussion and double bass. After a change of label they acquired the services of a female singer, Polly Bolton, who had a pure and very expressive voice. Their second album brings in some elements of Bulgarian folk music (asymmetrical time-measures) but is very stamped by Polly’s vocals and superb original compositions such as Whispering Ned, a rather funny drug song and above all the achingly beautiful Riverboat. Preoccupation with travelling becomes discernible in Railway (a live favourite) and Kalyope Driver. After Neon folded, they made another album on RCA, very much continuing in the same direction, although not as good as their previous effort. Road Song is another pulsating travel-song and Black Prince of Paradise equals any track on the second album. Rumour has it, that another album was recorded at RCA, but due to lack of commercial
Personal Recollections from Trevor -
My first knowledge of Dando Shaft came from former school friend turned hippy Mick Burns slightly before I was involved with the Covnetry Music scene in 1969 - I saw the poster here on his wall and he gave it to me - I had to see this band and indeed I saw them many timesin Covnetry at the Umbrella club, Lanch Poly, Warwick University, The Walsgrave (One of Pete Waterman's Venue), The Mercers Arms, The City Arms, the Plough Club and who knows where else. I met the band on a few ocassions mostly in the light of trying to book them for the Umbrella Club or to talking to Martin about his post Dando Shaft bands in 1973 /4. The last time I spoke to Martin was at the Fletch in 1981 where he was playing with Bert Jansch - Martin came over and spoke. I had moved to Teesside by then and was just visiting home. Whispering Ned and Waves Across the Ether were some of our favourite songs along with some of Dave Cooper's early songs - Pass it on etc. Here are some pieces from Hobo magazine in 1974 about the re-formed Dando and some of Martin's other bands.
From Hobo Magazine -
ONE DAY THOMAS is the name of Martin Jenkin's new band (formerly of Dando Shaft)
The new band features other established
personalities such as Barry Skinner on guitar and vocals / John
Mckintosh on double bass and John Astle on drums. Martin plays guitar,
fiddle, mandolin and flute. They are of course an electric band and
most of the material is far removed from that of Dando Shaft. They play
mostly jigs and reels and electrified folk songs.
...................................
DANDO - NEW PHASE (Reformed with Rod Felton for a Play on the Car industry - You Must be Joking at the Belgrade Theatre 1974
Dando Shaft may be reformed
in the near future with original members Martin Jenkins on fiddle and
mandolins, Ted Kaye on congos and other percussion and joined by Rod
Felton on guitar and Baz Andruszko on bass and accordian. But at the
moment they are fulfilling other commitments. Martin, who recently
wrote and played the music for the Belgrade's production Little Red
Riding Hood has another production in London. Rod is due for a tour of
Germany, I believe.
.......................
Mathew's SOUTHERN COMFORT
Southern Comfort has, I'm told, been graced with the talents of Coventry's Martin Jenkins, late of the Coventry band Dando Shaft. Martin, who writers some incredible songs (Whispering Ned, Waves Across the Ether) and plays Mandolin, flute and fiddle (etc.), has been featured as a guest on a previous Southern Comfort album.
..............................................
Got this via My Space Bulletin - Dando Shaft
Hope all is well with you. A brief note to say that Ted Kay (Bongo Ted) tabla and percussion after suffering a number of years of ill health is very poorly you can mail him at ted-kay@hotmail.co.uk
Regards Coopz
One day in March 1974 (I think it was in the Coventry Journal Office (opposite The Coventry Evening Telegraph), I met
We were planning another magazine around 1974 called Trenchcoat that would deal with more social issues had available resources worked out better, and we thought they could have space in that magazine. Hobo was then going to be a part an important cultural section of Trenchcoat. Unfortunately Hobo folded in 1975.
However there was an entry in the Hobo News section of an unpublished issue of Hobo (unpublished because the printers had reduced the size to unreadable proportions and we couldn't put it out. It was redone and updated.
The piece read
SOMETHING TO SAY
Every Monday at the Lanch Polytech in room B 315, a meeting of the People's Awareness Group will take place.
Anyone who is interested in getting things together in this fair city - who has any ideas - who can help or is just intersted - bring them and yourselves and your friendz, friendz friendz...
People awareness need you...
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Below are some lyrics to in relation to the ideas -
MR BUSINESSMAN - RAY STEVENS c1968
Itemize the things you covet
As you squander through your life
Bigger
cars, bigger houses
Term insurance for your wife
Tuesday evenings with
your harlot
And on Wednesdays it's your charlatan
analyst, he's high
upon your list
You've got air conditioned sinuses
And dark
disturbing doubts about religion
And you keep those cards and letters going
out
While your secretary's tempting you
Your morals are exempting you
from guilt and shame
Heaven knows you're not to blame
refrain:
You better, Take care of business Mr. Businessman
What's your plan?
Get down to business Mr. Businessman if you can
(Before it's too late
and you throw your life away) 1st time
Did you see your children growing
up today
And did you hear the music of their laughter
As they set about
to play
Did you catch the fragrance of those roses in your garden
Did
the morning sunlight warm your soul,
Brighten up your day
Do you qualify
to be alive
or is the limit of your senses so as only to survive
Hey
yeah.....
Spending counterfeit incentive
Wasting precious time and
health
Placing value on the worthless
Disregarding priceless wealth
You can wheel and deal the best of them
And steal it from the rest of
them
You know the score, their ethics are a bore
Eighty-six
anesthetic crutches prop you to the top
Where the smiles are all synthetic
And the ulcers never stop
When they take that final inventory,
Yours
will be the same sad story everywhere
No one will really care, no one more
lonely than
This rich important man, let's have your autograph
Endorse
your epitaph
refrain
Summer in the City
The Lovin' Spoonful
(John Sebastian - Mark Sebastian -
Steve Boone)
Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting
dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in
the city
All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk,
hotter than a match head
But at night it's a different world
Go out
and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll
be alright
And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be
like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the
city
Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool
cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city
Till I'm
wheezing like a bus stop
Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the
rooftop
But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a
girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be
alright
And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be
like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the
city
------ instrumental break ------
Hot town, summer in the
city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a
pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people
looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match
head
But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a
girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be
alright
And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be
like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city
Coventry's Dave Cooper (Dando Shaft) showed this awareness in his lyrics as exampled here -
LAZILY SLOWLY -
Lazily slowly, flows that old river
I’m of a mind to dream a little while
For tomorrow comes with the morning
And there’s no time for troubles
Or bursting of bubbles tonight.
All the good guys, they’re on my side
And that old river, she’s playing tunes.
Come lay by me, I don’t mind sharing
We’ll dance with the water
Until we are caught by tomorrow.
In the morning there are soft sounds
Maybe the echo of some siren sounds
Will come creeping through your window
You reach for the sunrise
Your innocent eyes, they might open.
Lazily slowly, flows that old river
I’m of a mind to dream a little while
For tomorrow comes with the morning
And there’s no time for troubles
Or bursting of bubbles tonight.
RAT RACE (Roddy Radiation) THE SPECIALS (Written in the Lanch Union bar Coventry)
You're working at your leisure to learn the things you'll need
The promises
you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a
Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
You plan your conversation to impress
the college bar
Just talking about your mother and daddy's Jaguar
Wear
your political T-shirt and sacred college scarf
Discussing the world
situation, but just for a laugh
You'll be working for the rat race
You
know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of
mine
Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your
time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
Just working at your leisure to learn the things you don't need
The promises you make
tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a
Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me
Working for the
rat race
You know you're wasting your time
You're working for the rat
race.
Check out Another Tree Will Grow by
Indian Summer (You can listen on their My Space)
This information came to me via Dave Cooper of Dando Shaft about the Coventry born Sculptor / artist
Dave says -
Thanks for the mail, did you ever come across some of the Happenings at some of the early DANDO SHAFT Pilot sunday lunchtimes with
Darrell Viner he sadly left the stage 2001
Darell Viner Obituary
I think in 1968 he built the first sound activated lighting system
in the UK, before PinkFloyd or anyone. 20.000 Watt. I need to make a
link as Darrells early invovement with ambience was special.
Darell Viner lived in the attic flat in the end house in Barras lane (the other end from Martin Jenkins of Dando Shaft and where Dando started out). We had an ajustable lense projector quite powerful. We were into making our own acid slides oil,bubbles and dyes which we projected onto the synagogue wall down and opposite. The odd late night drunk got quite a colourful suprise. He lived in the Dando house/commune 'The Rest" when we all moved to London in '70, gaining his place at Chelsea in '71. The rest as they say is his story.
coopz
Born in 1946 in Coventry, Viner was five when his father, a factory clerk,
Darrell Viner gave enormously of his time, skill and knowledge, not only in his work, but also for his students. He taught in numerous institutions, and was Senior Lecturer in Sculpture at Portsmouth University from 1980 to 1989 (where he also taught computing, video, electronics, film, painting and printing), and from 1990 at Chelsea College of Art, both on the BA and MA sculpture courses. Friends and colleagues will miss his considered, forthright and honest feedback, as others will his disconcerting and poetic work.
Darrell James Viner, artist: born Coventry, Warwickshire 12 December 1946; died London 15 November 2001.
Darrell Viner began using computers in the 1970s as a way of exploring transformation, both in drawings and through animation.
Later he included them in his kinetic sculpture and interactive environments.
The tape is silent.
READ HIS FULL STORY ON THE LINK ABOVE
This concerns the bands that played or rehearsed at the Umbrella between 1969 and 1972. It's not all inclusive, just the
(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
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 -
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
.
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