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New Stuff Snatchin’ it back clips New Gags
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The Bands. Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune to work with some great people, and some fine musicians. I thank them, one and all. THE ESTRELLAS [see pics] First band. Early to mid sixties. Alan, Chris and Pete. Like thousands of other kids, we bought cheap guitars and started listening to Chuck Berry records. Eventually we got better guitars and started doing gigs. The drummers dad had a shop with a cellar where we used to rehearse, until the drummers mum caught us down there with several young ladies. Naughty! The band broke up when we were offered work abroad and some of the guys didn’t want to go. THE HURT Mid sixties. Personnel varied but amongst them were; Terry, Ted, Keith, John and Ray. More of an interest in soul music now, and some of the psychedelic stuff coming out of the states. [No, they weren’t mutually exclusive!] On the road, sleeping in the van, chasing ladies. First gigs abroad. Can’t remember how we broke up, but when we did, I met an accoustic player named Nick, and we bummed around the country for a while doing folk clubs and such. Warm Dust. Late sixties, early seventies. Dave Pepper, Tex Comer, Paul Carrack, Alan Solomon, John Surguy. Also John Bedson, Keith Bailey, Steve Witherington.[We had four drummers over the years]. Crazy times. Rehearsing in an all but derelict farmhouse. Listening to loads of different music. Jazz, Classical, Rock, Blues, Ska, Contemporary stuff, and drawing influences from it all. All of us living together when we weren’t on the road, and travelling together when we were. Writing songs, making albums, and gigs, gigs, gigs. Big gigs, little gigs, major festivals. Gigs in the U. K. Gigs in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway. Radio gigs, T.V. gigs. One crazy gig at the Lyceum London, with the Salvation Army Choir on backing vocals and Keith Moon, drunk as a skunk, jamming on congas. Appearing with some great people. Joe Cocker, Rory Gallagher, Elton John, Nazareth, Fleetwood Mac. The management / record company finally pulled the plug around 1973, leaving us with no money, no equipment, and nowhere to live. We scurried around for a while, trying to get a new deal, but no joy. The Michigan Flyers. Mid seventies. Dave West, Derek Savage, Laurie, Rocky, Ian. Joined an existing London pub band. Hard driving R ‘n’ B. Good fun. Wasn’t with them long ‘cause I got the call to join ---------------------------- Tiger. Mid seventies. Big Jim Sullivan, Nicky Moore and, at various times and on different albums, Ray Flacke, Phil Curtis, Billy Rankin, Dave McCrae, Ian Wallace, Bill McGillivray, Alan Park, Andy Brown, Percy Jones, Simon Phillips, Mo Foster, Maurice Pert. A studio band really, although we did do one tour with Hawkwind, and one appearance at Reading Festival. Derek Lawrence, who had produced the last Warm Dust album, asked me if I would like to record a solo album, using some tracks he had already recorded, with the addition of some other songs he had in mind. During the vocal sessions I got the flu, and the sessions couldn’t be postponed, so some of the vocal tracks on the resulting album sounded a bit odd, to say the least. However, I did get to meet and work with some great people, such as Jim Sullivan, Albert Lee, Steve Simpson, Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock. [Chas ’n’ Dave]. As a result of this meeting, Jim called me when he was putting Tiger together. Nicky Moore, Jim and myself wrote all of the songs on the first and third albums, with contributions from Bill McGillivray and Andy Brown on the second. Jim did most of the arranging. We recorded three albums in total and we were reasonably pleased with all of them. In my opinion the last album was the best, although E.M.I. didn’t agree and declined to release it. John Glover, who managed Tiger, released the album on his own label six years later. THE SOUTHSIDE DYNAMOS, HEART AND SOUL, COOKING TONITE. Early to mid eighties. Pete Farrugia, Tony Tuohy, B. W. (Adrian Wallis), Andy Kelly, Tony Skinner, Andy Drudy Jeannette ?, Brett Harris, Butch, Bernadette de Cent, Cathy Brown and Anita Carmichael. .
A loose collection of musicians, most of them ten to fifteen years younger than I was. We played soul, blues, rock ‘n’ roll and some originals. Started off a bit raw, but ended up a tight little band.
BACK TO BACK. Mid eighties. Ed dean, Andy Winfield, Tex Comer, Alan Bam King, Fran Byrne. Great band. Soul, Blues, R’n’R. Did some great gigs. Played regularly at the Red Lion, Brentford. Half of us ended up in --------------------------- JUICE ON THE LOOSE Mid to late eighties. Various incarnations but when I joined the line up was; Andy Winfield, Bam King, Charlie Hart, Frank Mead, Fran Byrne. Fran left after a while and was replaced by Paul Atkinson. Another great band. Loads of musical styles. Original songs from Charlie, Andy and me. Knockout vocals from Andy and Bam. Charlie switching from bass to accordion. Steaming sax solos from Frank. Good stuff! The Walker family left London in 1989 and moved back up north. Apart from a brief spell with Pushin’ It, the Mike King band, and a stint with Michael Daly in Jailbreak, a country duo, I worked solo for the next few years, until a chance meeting with drummer Steve Mount, led to the formation of ------------------------------- SNATCHIN’ IT BACK Steve Mount, Rob Livesey, Trevor Noon, Adrian Clark, and new boy Scott Whitley, who replaced Lindsay Davies on bass. What can I say. Tasty band, playing tasty stuff. We did try a horn section for a while, but rehearsals were too much like hard work. Liam Dawson played tenor sax, and Maria Horne trombone. We’ve only done a few gigs so far and no recording to speak of, but watch this space! Check out the link for more details.
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