Flip City Biogs. Page
Malcolm Dennis
Old school-mate of Mich's, although a
year or two younger. In at the start, having met Declan at Brinsley gigs, and becoming one
of the three founder-members of the band. Ok drummer, enthusiastic enough, but with no
discernible musical tastes other than 'good music'.
Strange sense of humour. Often the
butt of practical jokes by the rest of the band, he played the 'Brecknock' gig with a foot
in plaster following an attempt to retrieve a shoe thrown onto a roof by a playful Dickie
one night after an Indian meal.
Was working at the Fender Soundhouse when the band
started, which was useful for discounted amps., speakers etc., and progressed further into
the music retailing biz., which looked a better financial bet than waiting for glory with
Flip City, and handed in his resignation after a few months of gigs and a few laughs. Came
to the last 'Red Cow' gig and helped out on drums for one number, with Ian P. playing
guitar.
Richard 'Dickie'
Faulkner 
Another mate of Mich's, this time
through their work as toolmakers. Not a great musician, but his congas added an
interesting rhythmic dimension to the band's sound, and just as valuable was his harmony
singing. Broadly into the same music as the others, but with more of a leaning towards
Soul and R'n'B.
A great man with a drill, a hacksaw and a few bits of scrap metal; just
what was needed when the boys were renovating the old Transit they bought to replace the
original J4, and which was ready just about the time the band split. Dickie got married
and went into maintenance engineering, last known of working at the Gillette factory in
Brentford.
Steve Hazlehurst
Picked as guitarist after the
departure of John ..... who had been given the gig at the audition which they both
attended in March '74. Round about the time John left, it so happened that Steve had put
an advert in Melody Maker offering his services, and the boys decided to give him the gig
after all.
Born in Derbyshire in 1952, but raised in Cumbria, a fair all-round musician
without excelling at anything, he had come to London to seek his fame and fortune in late
'71, and this was his first regular band in the big city.
A big fan of The Band, mainly for
the vocals, especially Richard Manuel. Keen to join Flip City because of their musical
influences, but soon realised it was to be Declan's songs that got the prominence, and
therefore contributed only one song to the set, and probably didn't put in as much as he
could have to the overall effort. Lived in Crouch End, North London, but moved in with the
rest of the band to the house in Roehampton after Declan moved out.
Gave up playing after
the band's split, but returned after a year or three, heavily into Country music, and
played in various bands of that type. Had a brief stint in one version of the 'Tooting Frooties'. Tried more recently to
get a rootsy R'n'B band together but it didn't really work out. Last spotted playing
keyboards with third-rate Blues Brothers copyists 'The Blue Sharks' in South-West London.
Also has done some recording with singer-songwriter John Coughlin, whom he met while
studying Russian and Hungarian as a mature student at London University. Currently living
in Surbiton, he recently gained a BA in Linguistics and German at Birkbeck College, London
University, and now works as a translator, doing the occasional gig as dep.
Michael J. 'Mich'
Kent 
Another of the three founder members of the band, Mich (pronounced 'Mish'
as in the French name Michel, from the influence of his Belgian mother, surely
the grooviest granny in England!) provided the backbone of the band with damn
fine bass-playing on his rare old Telecaster Bass. Great harmony singer to
boot.
Born in Morden in Oct. 1950, his biggest influences were The Byrds, Little
Feat, The Grateful Dead, The Beach Boys and, later on, Barefoot Jerry. Also
of course a big fan of Brinsley Schwarz, and his respect of them went as far
as to build a replica of Nick Lowe's 'Shakermaker' 2x15" Bass cabinet,
although with Eminence speakers making do instead of the too-expensive JBLs.
Vague thoughts of getting something new together with Steve after Flip City
folded never came to anything, and from then on Mich more or less hung up
the ol' Bass for good -- a great loss to the music biz.
Mich worked as a toolmaker up to the time of the band's inception, but later
took up a driving job with an Audio-Visual equipment hire company, which drew
him into the world of Conference Presentations, and as Flip City came to an
end was beginning to make a new career in this field, working his way up to
an eventual position as production manager at top Conference firm Jack Morton,
where he works at present.
Married Carolyn Thatcher with whom he had a son, Sam, but they later divorced,
ex-wife and son going off to live in Leek, Staffs. He now lives in Kensal
Green with his girlfriend Karen Jackson, who is the costume designer for,
among other things, 'Never mind the Buzzcocks' and 'They think it's all Over'
Declan P. MacManus
Born in London in 1954, the son of
singer /musician Ross MacManus, Declan spent his later adolescent years in Liverpool
before returning to London to find an outlet for his talents, and met Mich Kent and
Malcolm Dennis at Brinsley Schwarz gigs, where they decided to form a band, which became
the basis of Flip City.
A prolific songwriter, Declan was influenced at the time by such
artists as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Gram Parsons, The Grateful Dead
(especially lyricist Robert Hunter, who wrote the words to many Jerry Garcia songs),
Little Feat and The Band. The emphasis was on the lyrics of his songs, but the tunes were
pretty good, too, and Declan probably saw Flip City as an opportunity to try out his style
in a band format, on his way to greater things.
Also a clever guitarist -- not great at
improvising but excellent at worked-out solos (eliciting the remark from one of the
audience at Wandsworth Nick: 'cor, he knows how to tickle them strings, dunnee?') and
self-accompaniment on acoustic guitar. He moved into the house in Roehampton with the
others, and was joined shortly afterwards by his on/off girlfriend, Mary Burgoyne. When
she became pregnant, they decided to get married, and moved out of the house into a flat
in Twickenham, their son Matthew being born in January '75, (a couple of days after the
boys had been to the Rainbow in Finsbury Park to see their heroes Little Feat in concert.)
The marriage only lasted until about the time of Declan's early success as Elvis Costello,
and Mary spent the next few years bringing Matthew up, but was to re-emerge a few years
later as a radio presenter, to front the late-lamented 'Mary Costello Show' on GLR Radio,
giving her an opportunity to demonstrate that her taste and musical knowledge were well up
with those of her ex-'old man''s.
Success with Flip City on the 'Pub
Rock' circuit was seeming very elusive to Declan, and he decided to quit in late '75,
making an announcement to the rest of the boys at their house in East Molesey, which, due
to the general mood among them, was met with somewhat less than the cries of anguish that
he was evidently expecting. After playing out the remaining gigs, he concentrated on doing
some solo gigs as D.P.Costello (the name Costello coming from somewhere in his family
background) until his big break came with the offer of recording with the newly-formed
Stiff Records, at the height of the 'New Wave' explosion. Having been persuaded by Jake
Riviera and Dave Robinson of Stiff to re-name himself Elvis Costello, he was happy to go
along with the tide (as 'the balladeer of the new wave', in one journalist's write-up ),
and soak up the admiration of most of the music press. The gimmicks having worked a treat,
he was then able, because of the true quality of his work, to go on to become one of the
important figures of popular music (it says 'ere). Famously rocked the world of
Broadcasting to its very foundations one night by appearing on a late-night BBC2 arts
programme and daring to use a naughty F-word when talking about Margaret Thatcher.
Now
well established as major Rock Star, able to spend lots of time with his former heroes.
Ian Powling
Successor to Malcolm when the
latter decided to leave the band. Answered an advert in 'Melody Maker' and turned up with
a few other hopefuls at the first audition, held at 'Sound Management' in the King's Road.
He was the last of the day, and by far the best, launching into the first number 'Pontiac
Blues' with a dynamism that delighted the other band members (and sent Declan tumbling to
the floor in a paroxysm of laughter).
Ian was immediately placed top of the list; but the
second audition produced one Mike Gaffey, who was equally good, if in different ways, and
a decision had to be made between the two. After a second run for each of them, the
decision fell on Ian, who became the new drummer in the band.
Living somewhere in
South-East London, and having previously played with 'The Fabulous Poodles', one of the
sillier bands around at the time, his musical tastes were perhaps not completely aligned
with the rest of Flip City, but he was keen to fit in and liked the sound of what they
were about, even if his very dry sense of humour made it seem sometimes as if he was a
touch bemused by the whole thing. Technically OK as a drummer, his strength was the
dynamic approach, along with an ability to perceive the total sound of the band, helped by
the fact that he was also an excellent guitarist, probably better than either Declan or
Steve in fact, and later on took the opportunity to do a number or two on stage, with
Steve covering on drums.
After the band's split, he retreated to the shadows of the S.E.
suburbs, keeping in touch for a little time, but eventually losing contact.
Kenneth M. Smith
Born in April, '51, and raised in Surbiton, Ken got into music at an early
age, and spent his youth watching as many bands as he could at venues all
over South-West London. Met Mich, Malcolm and Declan at Brinsley Schwarz gigs,
and, having cemented the friendship with them as often as possible at the
Royal Charter, a pub in Kingston known by everyone as 'The Fishes', he became
involved in the inception of Flip City, becoming the man responsible for getting
the gigs, which he did to good effect, starting with a few local colleges,
and, over the next year or two, at most of the well-known venues on the 'Pub-Rock'
circuit in London. Amiable and knowledgeable, but perhaps not hard enough
for a band manager, Ken followed the band's progress keenly, and was disappointed
when it all came to an end. Later became involved in various musical projects,
but was usually let down by those he worked with.
Latest project is record label 'El
Substa', whose first release is the first CD from 'The Tooting Frooties',
led by old mate Noel Brown. Releases from Brave Combo and Chandler Travis
are to follow. Ken has a huge record collection and is a fount of knowledge
on real R'n'B, Jazz, Country etc., and could probably tell you what Sun Ra
had for breakfast the day before recording his thirteenth album.
Married Mary Eleftheriou with whom he had a daughter, Loulla Mae, who began
her studies at York University in 2005, making an immediate impact through
her regular appearances on one of the music shows broadcast by the university's
(very professional) in-house
Radio Service, and she has since become music editor of the university's
student magazine Vision.
Later divorced, Ken now lives with second wife Jo Hudek and her daughter Jenny
in Streatham, South London.
Michael J. Whelan
An old schoolmate of Mich Kent, with
whom he spent many youthful hours going to see their musical heroes whenever they were in
town, Mike became involved with the Flip City adventure as 'non-playing' member of the
band. Totally in tune with the idea of the band, he moved onto the house in Roehampton and
became part of the set-up, and was called upon to serve as sound-mixer of the modest P.A.
system that the band used on gigs.
A thoughtful and knowledgeable young man (who, a few
years later took part in the radio quiz 'Brain of Britain'), Mike was wherever Flip City
was, and was just as disappointed as the rest when it all came to an end. Having left
school without qualifications, he had a dead-end job in the classified ads. dept of 'The
Sporting Life', but afterwards went on to gain enough 'A' levels to gain entry to North
London Polytechnic as mature student, and graduated with a B.A. in European Studies,
enabling him to get more fitting employment in Local Authorities, later moving into the area of health and eventually to his current senior position at the Royal College of General Practioners.
Mike's girlfriend in the Flip City days, (and later), was Laura Marcus, who was responsible for providing some of the detail of those days for an early biography of Elvis Costello by Mick St. Michael, (although the crediting of 'Gone Dead Train' to The Grateful Dead was a minor error -- must have been a mis-print!). They split up a few years later, and Mike married his present wife, writer Bridget Whelan, with whom he now lives in Portslade, Sussex, along with sons Ben and Joe.