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Simon Carver the dance record shop man
It was all go as you can see from the above photograph when I sat down to discuss Eighties record retailing in Sheffield and then so much more beyond that city and that era. Simon is now a man with large shop and distribution experience, and he had great tales of the heady days of…
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Gary Compton, a Kingston man in a Panama jug band
Gary had the harmonica bug and so was a regular watching the The Rolling Stones and the emerging Yardbirds as well as the American Blues legends such as Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter, Jimmy Reed all around the Kingston, Richmond, Twickenham area. Watching musicians at the Osterley Jazz & Folk Club eventually led to him…
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James Moyes knew Alexis, Davy and Cyril
A lovely evening was spent recently with James (and his daughter) with him recounting tales of Davy Graham for the ongoing film ‘The Man With The Guitar’ – hey can you believe we are nearly finished now? Well the director think we are and then another head pops up. James moved in that small circle…
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10 Tales about these Sex Pistols
10 Tales about the early period of the Sex Pistols to celebrate it being 40 years since the release of their first album ‘Never Mind The Bollucks’. We have 10 Tales for you from the musician Chris Spedding who was an early champion, album producer Chris Thomas plus various EMI Records staff who recall signing the…
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Julie, Kathy, Petula, Alma & More – Early Brit Girls Vol.4
Welcome to the fourth instalment of EARLY BRIT GIRLS, the series in which we explore the rise of UK girlies from the mid 50s to the newly emergent Brit Girl sound of the early 60s, at the dawn of the Beat era. Like its three predecessors, Bouffants, Beehives & Backcombing – Early Brit Girls Vol.1…
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Phantoms, Meteorites, Moonshots & Devil’s Herds – The UK Instro Scene Vol. 4
Long ago, before things started to get Twangy, Britain’s leading instrumentalists usually either honked, parped, or plinked. Dance bands filled the airwaves, and it was wall-to-wall waltzes and foxtrots. Turgidity ruled. The arrival of R’n’R and Skiffle livened things up, and so gradually and not to mention rather belatedly – Britain’s teenagers were dragged into…
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Top Topham was just 15 when he started in The Yardbirds
Yup their original lead guitarist was just fifteen and starting bands were not common place behaviour in those far off days he says, but of course the Skiffle Bug had hit him when he was twelve and his dad had kindly made him a tea-chest bass. Even taking him to the Ealing Club as a…
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10 Tales – Marc Bolan
This new mini E-Book featuring ten tales from people who worked behind the scenes with Marc Bolan is now available exclusively for your Kindle – just search their system for Mark Rye 10 Tales
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Tony Bell on bass guitar
Tony Bell recounted stories of the 2Is Coffee Bar where all the connections were made in the late Fifties with the likes of Screaming Lord Sutch, Tommy & Tony Hicks and Johnny Kidd – and while manager Tom Littlewood used to put people together into groups he was very ‘careful’ with the money and you…
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Ray Connolly was a Fleet Street youngster
Liverpool born Ray wrote about all the stars for the London Evening Standard as their young Fleet Street journalist, becoming very close to John, Paul & Ringo in the process – he still regrets not getting to know George more. He wrote the screenplay for the highly successful ‘That’ll Be The Day‘ which David Puttnam…