The summer of '63 was a happy go lucky time for the four peroxide blonde Brummie teenagers calling themselves Denny Laine and the Diplomats.

As well as that nerve-racking ordeal of opening for The Beatles at the Old Hill Plaza we also appeared on regional TV - Midlands Today and Up And Doing For Teenagers (catchy title, eh?)

Other highlights of that sunny summer included a day return coach trip for our fans to see us play in Aberystwyth (an all-inclusive ticket was a whopping 25 shillings, or £1.25 in today's language).

Then there was an All Nite Twistacular at Birmingham Town Hall, which began at 11pm and finished at 7am. As well as ourselves, the bill included Johnny Neal and the Starliners, Gerry Levene and the Avengers, the Modernaires and Group 5.

The ticket price for this was just 10 shillings and sixpence (52p).

I am still staggered that in that near puritanical age, parents would allow their darling young daughters out all night. If only they had known what was going on in the top balcony during the early hours!

Due to public demand, my diary notes this week are a continuation of last week's - my first experiences of being on the road with Black Sabbath exactly 25 years ago.

Monday August 22nd 1983

Main topic of conversation was, of course, Geezer's arrest in the early hours. He duly arrived on the bus with an expression of mischievous innocence. It was good to leave Finland and fly to Denmark.

Met by coach at the airport and driven to the Scandinavia hotel in downtown Copenhagen. Night off so we went to the Montmarne jazz club, then on to another club called Daddys.

All-girl band Toto Coelo were playing there (they had a big hit in '82 with I Eat Cannibals). We shared a few drinks with them afterwards, the Champagne flowing again! Back to the hotel very late.

Read on for more misadventures!

The most memorable day in the short but eventful life of Denny Laine and the Diplomats was that of July 5th, 1963, when we were chosen to open the show for The Beatles at the Old Hill Plaza on the Halesowen Road, in the heart of the Black Country.

The Old Hill Plaza was one of four venues run by the legendary Irish husband and wife team Mr and Mrs Regan.

Former schoolteacher Mary Regan and husband Joe's original ballroom venue was the Gary Owen Club in Small Heath, not far from Birmingham City's football ground, St Andrews. Then came a converted snooker hall in York Road , Kings Heath which they re-named the Ritz Ballroom. Next came the Plaza in Handsworth, and finally the Plaza in Old Hill.

'Ma' Regan took care of the business side of things, leaving Joe to run the venues and act as compere, usually dressed in evening suit and black dickie bow. He would confidently announce the various bands, groups and singers in his lilting Irish brogue.

The Handsworth Plaza was the biggest of the four and regularly had half a dozen or more groups performing on the same night.

Old Joe was not much of a book-keeper, and a few times, on a night off, we would roll up at the Plaza", convince him that he most definitely had booked us for the night, slot in with all the other groups there and play a 30-minute set.

Then we would pick up our £12 fee and drive to Alex's pie stand in Birmingham to celebrate our little con trick.

This week I've turned the pages of my diary back 25 years - to my very first tour with Black Sabbath.

The line-up at that time was Tony Iommi (guitar), Geezer Butler (bass), Ian Gillan (vocals), Geoff Nicholls (keyboards) and Bev Bevan (drums).

Sunday August 14th

Last day of rehearsals at the NEC. Amazing how much we have achieved in just one week. Home in time for a proper home-cooked Sunday roast beef dinner.

Monday August 15th

Hot and sunny. Day off at home. Dinner round at the Carrotts' house.

Tuesday August 16th

Tony picked me up in his Range Rover and we went into Birmingham shopping for clothes at Nicholls, Oasis, Leather and Lace, Seftons and Barries. Looked in at Reddingtons Rare Records, too. Drove home through heavy rain - first we have had in weeks.

Wednesday August 17th

Picked up from home in white stretch limo Mercedes. On to pick up Geezer, then to Birmingham airport for the short flight to Heathrow and connecting flight to Oslo. Passengers were the band plus our management, Don and David Arden. Met in Norway by promoter Erik 'ET' Thompson and coach ride into the city. Dinner together at the hotel, then checked out the basement nightclub, but that was naff. Found a good jazz club nearby and had a few beers there and strolled back to our hotel around 3am.

Thursday August 18th

Slept OK. Phoned home. Press conference at the hotel then in the coach to drive to the venue. Lengthy sound check. First-ever Sabbath show for me and Ian, so we felt nervous.

Made a few mistakes, but so did everyone else! Good reaction from the 4,000 strong crowd. Great to get the first show under my belt. Everyone well complimentary and it's a lovely atmosphere within the band. Back to the hotel in the coach and a couple of brandy nightcaps in the rather grim basement nightclub.

Friday August 19th

Early call. Coach to Oslo airport for the flight to Stockholm. Checked into nice Sheraton hotel. Another press conference. No chance of a sound check today, so straight to the Ice Stadium for the gig.

Wild crowd of around 8,000. Terrific show, played well and really enjoyed it.

Ian's birthday today and as a present we arranged for a buxom, pretty blonde stripper to come on stage during the encore, and she wrapped herself around Ian, much to everyone's amusement.

Celebrated a great night by going to the Atlantic club and got the Phonogram record company guy to pay the £900 bar bill we ran up drinking endless bottles of Dom Perignon. Finally got to bed around 5am.

Saturday August 20th

Felt remarkably well considering all the champagne and little sleep. Ran the gauntlet of fans and autograph collectors to get on the coach for the airport and flew to Helsinki.

Checked into a soulless , downtown hotel and we had a walk around the city centre, Not impressed. The locals looked SO miserable.

The Finnish Phonogram record representative took us out for dinner to a superb Russian restaurant (the Russian border not far away, of course . Back to the hotel bar for a couple of nightcaps and an early night after a long day.

Sunday August 21st

Good long sleep. After light breakfast, Tony, Geoff and I had a work out in the hotel gym and a swim in the very cold pool. Midday press conference at the hotel. Sound check at the Ice Hockey Stadium.

On the evening a good, lively 3,000 crowd. Back to the hotel after the show. Bar closed so an earlyish night.

Geezer bored enough to lob a couple of bottles from his ninth floor hotel room window on to the car park below, and promptly arrested by the local constabulary. Tour manager Paul bailed him out in the early hours.

Looks as though this could be a lively little tour ...

Bonfire night, November 5, 1962 , found us at the Plaza Ballroom, Old Hill (billed as DANNY Lane and the Diplomats).

Our "manager " at the time was a guy named Dave, who, to celebrate Guy Fawkes night, had purchased a jumbo box of fireworks. After the show we celebrated on the roof of the ballroom by setting them off.

By now it was close to midnight and the rockets and bangers naturally disturbed folks in the nearby houses, and several complaints were made.

Eventually the manager, accompanied by the local beat bobby policeman, stormed onto the roof demanding: "What the hell do you think you're doing making this infernal racket this time of night? Where's you manager?"

Denny, Phil, Steve and I pointed to Dave, standing there with a sheepish grin, a lit Roman candle clutched in each hand.

JULY 2008

Well, it's summer (apparently), so there's not much going on workwise with my band, but we have had a couple of cracking gigs lately - one down in the South and one up in the North.

We are The Move - featuring Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan.

Trevor and myself are original members from when The Move formed back in 1966.

The present day line-up is Trevor on guitar and vocals, me on drums and "chat", Mancunian Gordon Healer on guitar and vocals, Welshman Neil Lockwood on keyboards and vocals (a former lead singer with the Alan Parsons Project ) and my old Brummie mate Phil Tree on bass and vocals.

Phil for many years played bass in Roy Wood's band and was also in the Move line-up that appeared on the Richard and Judy show on September 25, 1992 along with me, Roy and Rick Price.

Both Denny Laine and I were determined to make rock'n'roll music our careers. We were also confident in our abilities that we could one day make it big.

Denny persuaded Steve to give up his hairdressing job and I managed to persuade Phil to give up his steady job at the bank. By the winter of 1962 Denny Laine and the Diplomats had turned pro.

Denny said goodbye to Rackhams, and I said a not too fond farewell to The Beehive. My mate Jasper Carrott remained there for over a year before getting a job as a travelling salesman for Colgate and Palmolive!

None of us had any savings and our impressive array of musical instruments were all on the HP (as hire purchase was known). The priority every week was to make enough money to visit the various music shops in Birmingham to make our weekly payments.

Following the disasters of our previous group vans, we got Steve's dad to act as guarantor and invested in a fab, brand new, dark blue Commer minibus from Bristol Street Motors - again, of course, on the HP.

The band got better and better and, as we began to develop a good following in the Midlands, our datesheet began to fill up.

Read on for our shocking blonde moment!

My diary extract this week comes from exactly 29 years ago, the first week of August 1979.

That's when, along with my wife Val, I flew to the USA to do some promotional press and radio interviews.

Wednesday August 1st

Flight from Birmingham to London Heathrow, then for the first time ever, flew to New York on Concorde. Incredible design and speed. Just three hours to Kennedy airport!

Met by PR girl Melissa and driven in stretch limo to the Waldorf Astoria hotel. Hot and muggy in New York City. Straight into several interviews, including one with legendary NY disc jockey Alison 'The Nightbird' Steele.

On the evening went to see one of my country music heroes, Waylon Jennings, in concert at the St James Theatre.

Denny Laine and the Diplomats formed in 1962. I left The Senators, taking with me my great friend Phil Ackrill to be rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist (not to mention his enthusiastic lead vocal on 24 Hours From Tulsa!)

Denny left Johnny and the Dominators and brought in bass player Steve Horton. We rehearsed at a scout hut opposite Sparkhill swimming baths. I'd "learned" how to swim there many years earlier when a couple of bigger bully boys had thrown me into the deep end.

After kicking and spluttering to the side unaided, I realised I could swim! (No lifeguards or health and safety regulations back then!)

We also rehearsed in my Mum's shop, which sold toys, books, sweets, cigarettes, stationery and all manner of stuff. The shop also boasted a mobile library and doll's hospital.

I also had an alsatian-cross dog named Remus (named after the Roman generals Romulus and Remus), who would "sing along" to our music.

My diary extract this week is taken from exactly 15 years ago, the last week of July 1993, when I was on a tour of the USA with ELO Part 2.

Sat July 24th

Another long drive on our tour bus, to Merrillville, Indiana. Checked into the Radisson Star hotel. Theatre right next door very nice.

Opening act was Dr Hook featuring Ray Sawyer. After the show, boarded the bus around midnight and crawled into my coffin-like bunk, took a sleeper and soon in the land of nod.

Sun July 25th

Slept pretty well on the bus. Arrived around 8am and checked into the "Hampton Inn". Hamburger lunch at a clifftop restaurant with magnificent views over Pittsburg.

The gig on the evening very strange indeed with us playing on a floating raft whilst the audience sat and stood in an area on the harbourside.

Joke of a venue really, the sound awful and some of the crowd more interested in the bar than the music. Boarded the bus for a second successive night and soon asleep in that wretched bunk.

Mon July 26th

Woke as we arrived at our hotel in Chicago around 7am. Nice suite at the "Lennox" and went back to sleep for a while - travelling overnight on a bus has like a jet-lag effect on me.

Day off and did some shopping in mighty Chicago. On the evening went to the cinema to see "Jurassic Park".

Walking back to the hotel maybe not the brightest thing to do as earlier today one of our roadcrew was mugged in broad daylight.

Tue July 27th

Another day off. Hot and humid.. More shopping in downtown Chicago. Caught another movie - "In the line of fire" after nice dinner at the "Peapod" Chinese restaurant.

Wed July 28th

Tour really beginning to drag. Gig on the evening at the grotty "Oak theatre". Dressing rooms so bad we changed on the bus.

Good sound on stage and a receptive crowd.

After the show Mik (Kaminski) managed to drop his brand new blue electric violin onto a concrete floor, smashing into several pieces, much to the hilarity of the rest of the band.

Thu July 29th

Set out around 11.30 in our tourbus to head to the flooded Mid-West for tomorrow's gig in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Sure enough, we got close only to find all the roads closed and no bridges open across the swollen rivers. Some disastrous scenes to behold with only the rooftops of some houses visible above the floodwaters in the worst hit areas.

Had to turn back towards St Louis, and after nearly ten hours on the bus checked into a little motel in the middle of nowhere.

Fri July 30th

After grim breakfast at the dingy motel, boarded the bus for the 3 hour drive to Osake Beach , a very nice resort area I never even knew existed.

Jefferson City headline news on TV and the the national newspapers as having the worst flood problems in the whole of the USA - and where are we? - Jefferson City!

Gig on the evening at the Jefferson county fair not well attended, but understandable under the circumstances.

Sat July 30th

Day off at the Holiday Inn at Osaka Beach. Lazed around in the sunshine.Excellent prime rib dinner at "Bentley's" restaurant.

Back then to the hotel bar. A large cognac on top of all the beers and wine had me talking in a language only understandable to fellow inebriates and aliens.

Back on Saturday with more on my life in rock and roll!