Des OReilly.com (A Musical Life)

Make new Friends But Keep The Old :One Is Like Silver The Other Like Gold

Chapter Four : 'What a Blast'

  

 We were all aware of Joe Meeks status in the business so we thought we were very fortunate indeed to be in his stable. In some of our early recording sessions with Joe we put down such tracks as Roll Over Beethoven, Money, Zip a Dee Do Dah, Little Bitty Pretty One, the sort of numbers that the ‘Beatles’ and other top groups up North were playing. I remember the expression on Joe’s face as he smiled at us and said “It won’t sell!”

 

Six months later, after the Beatles broke, just about everybody was doing those sorts of numbers!! Our first release was ‘Everybody’s Talking’, and, at the same session we recorded what we thought would be our second single, ‘Poison Ivy’, a Leiber and Stoller number. When Joe sent the Masters off to Pye Records, somehow there was a mix up and the physical records arrived with ‘Everybody’s Talking’ on the ‘A’ side and ‘Poison Ivy’ on the ‘B’ side.

 

 

 


    We debuted on ' Thank Your Lucky Stars’, a British TV show, and, in fact,

on that particular show the American star was Del Shannon      singing  ‘Runaway’,  The Karl Denver Trio were there too, with their big hit, ‘Wimoweh’. and  a few of us were making our first or second appearance on T.V.  Cilla Black with ‘Love of The Loved'

 

    Dave Clark Five and  Brian Poole and The Tremeloes singing their version's of ‘Do You Love Me’.  We had an excellent day! At the end of that show we all wished each other well, and as I recall, we were the only act that didn’t have a hit with the number we did on the show!! (Boo!! Hoo!!)

 

Joe Meek as our Manager, placed us with The George Cooper Organisation in London, just about the largest agency looking after most of the Pop and Rock Acts in the country. With the exception of Cliff Richard, whom I’ve never met, the Agency looked after people like Joe Brown, Cuddly Duddly, Dickie Pride, Vince Eager, Billy Fury, Lance Fortune, Marty Wilde, Danny Rivers, Jess Conrad, Michael Cox, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, and lots and lots of others.

 

We became one of the ‘house’ bands, we would do concerts where we would open the ‘bill’ ourselves, do two or three numbers then stay on stage and back one, two or even three solo singers. We would then open the second half, once again staying on stage at the end of our spot to back another couple of solos, then usually the top of the bill was self sufficient.

 

 

 


It was a fabulous experience backing and being on stage with so many different artists. During our time with the George Cooper Organisation we backed American stars, Little Miss Dynamite,

Brenda  Lee         Ronnie Nedra and Estelle The Fabulous Ronettes   

                                                                     

                                                Big Dee Irwin    and   Dee Dee Sharp ( The lady who did ‘Mashed Potatoe” ) I remember Dee Dee’s mum said to me once ‘You play the drums with real Soul brother!’ You know that comment meant so much to me at the time.

 

We did lots of shows, about 180/200  with   Gene Vincent, (the ‘Be Bop A Lula’ man), It was just a few short years earlier when I had listened avidly to ‘Be Bop A Lula’ at Ian Thompson’s house with the gang I used to knock around with, little realising that I would actually take to the stage with this great Rock’n’Roller  as his drummer and back up vocalist!!!

 

I don’t know just how many UK artists we backed during our time, but it was considerable. Let me see …

    Marty Wilde           Vince Eager            Michael Cox  

 

Jess Conrad     Julie Rogers   Craig Douglas

 

Bert Weedon     Duffy Power      Daryl Quist 

 

Plus I don't have pics of Danny Rivers,Wes Sands or Fran and Alan, and I'm sure there are many I haven't mentioned.

 

 We also did lengthy and happy stints with both   Crispian St. Peters and    Billy Fury, a friend and a fabulous artist. We had the good fortune to work on the same shows as a lot of the top acts of the day…The Walker Brothers, Del Shannon, Gene Pitney, PJ Proby, Swingin Blue Jeans, Manfred Mann, Tom Jones, Moody Blues, Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks,Spencer Davies Group, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes, Dave Clark Five, Cilla Black, Julie Rogers, Frank Ifield, Roy Orbison, Lulu, The Applejacks, The Honeycombes, Millie, The Seekers, and lots and lots of others.

 

I remember terrific touring times in the ‘60s – You would jump onto a 52 seater coach and travel the length and breadth of the country doing shows, this was pre-motorway, pre-freeway, so the travelling was hard. The impromptu concerts that used to take place on the coaches were excellent!!    Lulu, uparticularly, absolutely ‘starred’ at this. She was just the best!! It was like she knew every song going… Amazing!!!

 

When we did the Blackpool summer season at  The Rainbow Theatre South Pier in 1965, we came off stage one time and Lulu was waiting for us in our dressing room!! She had been working in Manchester and she came all the way over to Blackpool just to see us!!

 

During our time with Joe we were featured in a Top Rank ‘Look At Life’ documentary, which was filming the making of a record at Joe’s studio, RGM Sound. We also did a  ‘Beatlesque’  TV commercial, backing Duffy Power, for ‘Bandit’ chocolate biscuits. Go with a bandit, yeah yeah!!

 

And we were lucky enough to do a couple of tours abroad. One in Cyprus, North Africa and Malta and another in Aden and Bahrain and the Persian Gulf… and ALL in 1965.

 

 


A significant year was 1965 as we also took on a new member,  Don Parfitt. We had played at a pub, I think it was called The Ilkley Moor pub, yes that’s right the famous one from ‘On Ilkley Moor Bar Tat!!’ (No I’ve never known what it means either!) Don was playing the organ in the support band, ‘The Keys’, and he was excellent… just what we wanted, so we offered him a job with the Puppets.

 

A few days later we were in our ‘office’ in the Deepdale Hotel, in our home town, Preston, (which incidentally was owned and run by a couple called Cath and Tommy Jackman. Now these were special people and we’ll get to them in a minute…), when Don came into the pub and said in his thick Lancashire/Yorkshire accent, (He came from Todmorden!!!), “See-thee, I’ve thowt ‘baht wot you said and yers, I want in’t Puppets…”, or something like that. He might have just said “Yes, I’m in, thank you!”

Don has a wonderful sense of humour.

 

I always felt that Don gave us another dimension, he could sing as well as play but it must be said that his organ was incredibly heavy!!! I’ve just remembered something, I was carrying the big Leslie organ speaker with Don on the South Pier at Blackpool when all of a sudden he lost his footing and the speaker caught him on the side of his head and knocked him clean out!! At that time of course the old band in a box hadn’t been invented yet, and walking on piers is always fraught with danger.

 

A couple of words about,Cath and Tommy Jackman  Landlord and Landlady extra-ordinaire! Not only did they look after us an absolute treat, and even loaned us money for petrol when we were too broke to get to the gigs, but quite unbelievably, Jean Shenton,  Ray’s wife,is not only the Jackman’s neice, but was actually working in the pub when all this was happening and can remember us all very well!!

 

 

 

                                            

 

.............................................................       To Be Continued

Chapter Five : Gigs and Gigs and Gigs

A few of the old ‘Concert’ programmes have survived. I have one of them, from ‘The Big Beat Scene’ tour of 1964, a nation wide ‘jaunt’ of the U.K.

On that particular trip, with our band, The Puppets, were The Shouts, The Beat Merchants, Daryl Quist, Gene Vincent, The Applejacks, Lulu and the Luvvers, Millie, and The Honeycombs.

 The tour was six weeks long with two shows per night. The Puppets backed   Daryl Quist and, then, augmented with a couple of trumpets, we backed the delightful ‘Millie’ of ‘My BoyLollypop’ fame. It was an excellent show, with many impromptu concerts on the coach, with Lulu usually starring!!! We became good friends with

The Applejacks and used to stay at the home of the parents of their Bass player, Megan Davies, whenever we were around the Midlands, for ages after that!! I’m very happy to tell you that Megan read these pages and got in touch, and it was lovely to catch up with her. Good people.!!

The Shouts backed Gene Vincent on this occasion, and I’m pretty sure that this would have been the first time that Gene had seen us. I know that he contacted the Agency personally, and asked for us to back him on an upcoming tour! Now this was the guy who sang ‘Be Bop A Lula’ you know… asking for us!! It don’t ‘alf make you feel good!!!

I haven’t mentioned The Honeycombs yet, who were also from Joe Meek’s stable. They had a fabulous hit record with ‘Have I The Right’, and their drummer, Honey Lantree, was great! (Me being a drummer I tended to check out the other drummers on the tour!!!) Honey is the current President of the ‘Joe Meek Appreciation Society’, and is helping to keep Joe’s name alive .

The Puppets were doing a Sunday Concert on the 20th September 1964, at the Queens Theatre in Blackpool, along with Jerry Stevens, Tom Jones and The Playboys, The Paramounts and, topping the bill, The Swinging Blue Jeans. During the afternoon, whilst everyone was going through their stuff, an amazing noise suddenly erupted from the tannoy speakers in the dressing room. Nobody told us that Little Richard was on the bill!!! But no, it wasn’t Little Richard! That was the first time we had heard Tom Jones singing! Our first sight of Tom was amazing too. Here was a long, gangly guy, wearing blue jeans and an open necked shirt, sleeves half rolled up, and cuban heeled boots adding yet another couple of inches, singing Rock ’n Roll like you wouldn’t believe!!! As I recall it was a blistering version of ‘Long Tall Sally’. Doesn’t surprise me at all that Tom is still going. What we saw then was special.

 One of the songs we used to do in our stage act was ‘Poison Ivy’, (the song we thought was to be the ‘A’ side of our second single, but was mixed up and printed as the ‘B’ side of our first single, ‘Everybody’s Talking’), and when The Paramounts saw how well the song went down with the crowds, they recorded and released the number themselves, getting a top four chart hit!! Soon after they changed their name to

                                                                                                                    ‘ Procol Harem’, had a world wide hit with ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’, and the rest, as they say, is history! Good on ‘em!! They were a good group and it was a great song!! I would just like to add that we were fortunate here, because it was The Puppets version of ‘Poison Ivy’ that made it onto the ‘Songs of Leiber and Stoller’ album which was released in 1993!!

In 1965 we backed Gene Vincent on tours of Germany and Scotland. We also did a Combined Services Entertainment Tour of Cyprus, North Africa and Malta that year with Vince Eager, entertaining the British troops. And later still, that same year, we rejoined Gene Vincent to do the ‘Gerry and The Pacemakers Summer Season Show’ at the South Pier in Blackpool!

And after ALL that, we scored another CSE tour abroad, this time Aden, Bahrain and The Persian Gulf, with Mike Cox. A busy, busy year indeed, with a whirlwind of memories!

In Germany, with Gene Vincent, we were booked for the ‘Star Club’ circuit, which were all over the country, and we discovered just how big a star Gene was there!! He was HUGE!!! Gene attracting large crowds wherever we played.

Jim, our bass player, met his then wife to be, Karin in one of those crowds, when we played the Club for a week in the Port of Kiel. Jim and Karin married in the late 60’s and are still together today! They have two grown up children and continue to live near Preston, U.K. These days Jim is Semi-retired and loving it!!

Hamburg, in Germany, was an incredible place to be because at the time there was a curfew on for people under the age of 18 who, apparently, had to be indoors by 10pm. So we used to do two shows a night, one for the under 18’s and one for the ‘adults’. Gene, having been to Hamburg before, took us to a bar where, it turned out, all the ‘waitresses’ were actually blokes! When one of the band members tried to hit on one of these ‘waitresses’ Gene thought it was hilarious!!! He had that kind of humour you know!

Talking of humour, when we first arrived in Germany we met up with a guy called Ernie, a guitarist from Liverpool. He’d been playing the circuit for months and was happy to help us out with the local lingo. We were sitting in this café with Ernie one morning… well, early afternoon really, and wanted to order some breakfast. We asked Ernie what ‘eggs’ were in German. “Eyes”, {at least that’s what it sounded like}, he replied, “What’s fried eggs then?” “Spiegel eyes”, says Ernie. “What’s bacon??” Quick as a flash Ernie say’s “It’s the back off a pig”!!! Ernie still had his Liverpudlian humour and we loved him for it!!!

As we were leaving Germany, on our way to do the Scottish gigs, we had to wait for ages, on what turned out to be one of the coldest nights on record, on Hamburg Railway Station. I remember it well because, being a bit delicate like, I ended up catching a right good dose of Pneumonia!!!! We got to Scotland and I was put into hospital for a couple of days. The doctors warned me that I would have to give up smoking, which I tried to do, but straight after Scotland we were off on our trip Cyprus, North Africa and Malta, where cigarettes were around the equivalent of about 50 cents for a pack of 200!!! Not a good time for me to try and quit the dreaded weed! I found it impossible to follow the doctor’s advice at all, then. However, after quite a few ‘stops and starts’ so to speak, I got really good at stopping. I did finally manage to quit the nicotine stick a few years later… In 1996!!! Haven’t had one since then!!! But I digress, back to the memories…

When I was released from the hospital I went straight to the venue. I got to my gear and horror of horrors my drumsticks were not packed!!! AND IT WAS SUNDAY!!! (No seven-day shopping in those days!!!) Then I heard Brian Poole and the Tremeloes rehearsing and had an idea… When they had finished their number, I thought, I would ask their drummer Dave Munden, if I could borrow his sticks. Excellent! And when the band finished their number I started walking across the stage towards them. Just then Dave dropped a stick and, yes,

 you guessed it, I stood on it, and broke it clean in two. It turned out that he only had one and a half sticks anyway… Not anymore!!! We ended up sharing two ‘half’ drumsticks that night, and, what’s more, I don’t think anybody noticed!!!

--------------------------- To Be Continued…

Chapter Six : Cyprus,North Africa,Malta and Blackpool

 

The CSE tour of Cyprus, North Africa and Malta was just the best!! The show was called ‘No Strings’ and it featured a juggler by the name of Christine Martell. Now seriously folks, whenever I hear the strains of ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’, ever since that show, I fall about laughing!! You see, Christine used to like a couple of glasses before she went on, (not a good thing to do when you’re a juggler!! We were really thankful she wasn’t a knife throwing act!!!), and she used to well, ‘drop ‘em’, if you see what I mean, and we would start, and restart, ‘Teddy Bears Picnic’ literally dozens of times as poor Christine, in her thick Irish brogue, would chastise herself for dropping her props!! But I’ve got to tell you she was a good sort and we had a lot of fun.!!

 The Compere was Wyn Calvin, the Welsh Prince of Laughter, now MBE!!, he was also acting as a correspondent for the BBC and I can remember one day going out to help him. He got me to climb up, and sit in, a tree with him, while watching the ‘Eoka Day Parade’. Wyn was making a recording for the BBC and I had the microphone protruding out of the cuff of my shirt, with the wire going back down my arm, as I leaned against a branch with my hand positioned close to Wyn’s mouth, so as he could speak into it. This subterfuge was necessary, he said, because if we were caught we could get into a lot of trouble!!! Good bloke was Wyn!!

Another Act on the show was ‘Kim and Erik Prince’. Erik had major success later when he won many heats on ‘Opportunity Knocks’ as the one armed ‘Student Prince’ light opera singer. Again, good people and a lot of fun!!

Vince Eager was ‘top of the bill’ on this show. I first met Vince in around 1963, and he and I have remained friends ever since. Back to Cyprus… We stayed at a fabulous hotel the ‘King George Hotel’, right on the beach in Famagusta Bay, It was here we were first introduced to waterskiing. I found it to be extremely exhilarating! You put the skis on, then get pulled by a speedboat and you’re up!!! It felt FANTASTIC!!

Vince was watching us having a great time, and he decided to have a go himself. Now it must be said right here, that our Vince is a big lad… about 6’ 14” in the old money!! So there he was, skis on, and telling the boat operator he was ready. Then the boat took off, or rather tried to… Vince started to come up out of the water and as the little speedboat tried and tried {I think I can I know I can!!!} to lift him, it’s front (or bow) came right out of the water and Vince just slowly sunk!!! Quite a sight!!! A larger boat had to be brought out before Vince could enjoy water skiing... It was very funny at the time. It’s amazing to think that much later Vince did many years as a Cruise Director on boats!!! Vince is still performing, He played at the ‘Fury Fest ‘03’ with his band ,  Rokola. I urge you to catch this man, and his band, if you can. Top bloke and great performer, our Vince!! Glad to know him.

 We went across the top of North Africa, playing in Benghazi, Tripoli and a place called R.A.F. El Adem. We then went on to Malta, where it was very nice to catch up with my sister June and her husband Bob, who was stationed there. (Bob was a musician in the Royal Marine Band.) They had arranged a surprise 21st birthday party for me, which I certainly did not know about. I walked into this room and everybody shouted ‘Surprise’ and ‘Happy Birthday’, It was just great! I also remember having 6 shirts made in Malta. Somehow all six were made in 24 hours!!! Great shirts, lasted for ages. Incidentally, do you know how to make a Maltese cross? Stand on his foot!!!

 While we were on this tour, the Combined Services Entertainment director, Major Derek Agguter, and his wife Kit, had a party for us all at their home. At some stage during the evening Derek took the floor and pointed to the top of the stairs, where his daughter stood. She was about 11 years old at the time. “Ladies and Gentlemen” he said “I would like to introduce to you all our daughter, she is going to be a film star!” We then said hello to his now very famous film star daughter,Jenny Agutter

 On to Blackpool to the South Pier for the Summer Season! Now for all the folks that don’t know, ‘Summer Season’ work in the UK was highly sought after in the ‘60s. If you could score a Summer Season then it was great because they usually ran two shows a night, 7 days a week, and because it was all at the same venue, there was no carrying or transporting of your gear. Summer Seasons usually ran for 16-20 weeks, so just for a while you can ‘park’ for a few months and not live out of a suitcase! Plus regular wages for what at the time seemed to be forever!!

                     

                                                     Dave        Don   ( Angie,Kirk's daughter)           Jim                   Des       1965

                                                                                 (from Mack and Kirk)

                                                                        

Gerry & The Pacemakers   Karl Denver Trio  

                                  Mack and Kirk      Gene Vincent   

                            and headlining on Sundays Manfred Mann  

Blackpool, the ’Las Vegas’ of the North of England! How’s this for holiday entertainment choices… (Remember, this was 1965!! ) At the world famous Blackpool Tower there was lots of entertainment, all the time . Reginald Dixon on the famous “Wurlitzer” organ ‘Oh I do like to be beside the seaside, Oh I do like to be beside the sea!!’ Hey chuck, you ‘aven’t lived until ya feel the vibe of the Wurlitzer as Reginald plays this tune that he is famous for!!

There was ‘The Tower Circus’ and ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’ Jimmy Clitheroe, Susan Maughan and Kenny Ball at ‘The Pavilion’ and Thora Herd and Freddie Frinton in ‘My Perfect Husband’ at ‘The Grand’. At the North Pier there was Tommy Trinder, Edmund Hockeridge, Billy J Kramer and Tony Holland, (he was that guy who used to flex his muscles in time with the music, he usually used a Cha Cha like “Wheels”, remember?) At the Central Pier were Bob Monkhouse and Mike Yarwood, while at the South Pier   ‘Rainbow Theatre’, was Gerry and the Pacemakers, Karl Denver, Gene Vincent and, of course, The Puppets. Blackpool was a buzz that year!!!

                     The Puppets on stage with Gene Vincent at The Rainbow Theatre South Pier Blackpool. Summer season 1965. Dave, Des, Gene and Don. Jim is out of shot. When we were with Gene Vincent in Germany he asked us if we would like to share a house together for the season when we got to Blackpool. He also said that he would pay the first ten pounds of the weekly rent, provided that he could have a room of his own!! Nice one Gene. We ended up getting a very swank, large multi bedroomed property, on the North Shore, and it cost only twelve pounds per week, all up!!

Blackpool was always busy in the summer and we used to take the tram which ran along right next to the sea from North Shore down to the South Pier, about four miles every day. (It was a lot easier than trying to drive through those holiday crowds!) Gene Vincent certainly got some strange looks as he travelled in his full leathers on the tram. Incidentally I still have a pair of Gene's genuine leather pants he gave  to me at the end of the Blackpool Season in 1965

Manfred Mann, who did the Sunday concerts at the Rainbow Theatre with us, used to travel from wherever they played on the Saturday evening, arriving at all sorts of hours, and slept in the attic. Yes, we had discovered even more bedrooms in this wonderful twelve pounds a week mansion!!!

A squiz at the program for the Sunday concerts and you’ll see the name ‘The Mark Leeman Five’ in the first half, I mention this because Mark was killed in a traffic accident on his way to Blackpool and he had only just done a couple of weeks of the season. He and his group were excellent. They did a top version of Nina Simone’s ‘Forbidden Fruit’ and I recall that their drummer was Brian ‘Blinky’ Davison who went on to play in ‘The Nice’

 Blackpool being quite close to Preston meant that my Mum could come to see the show. That was special because all those years ago we had gone together to the ‘Hippodrome Theatre’, in Preston, almost weekly, and now, here she was, coming to see me performing on one of those very theatre stages! A proud moment for me and I know it was for Mum because she told me so!!

Mum met Gerry, Karl and Gene, and was a happy lady that night, I always thank my Mum for those times at the Hippodrome!!!

--------------------------------- To Be Continued