This blog is taken from my diary of 1983, exactly 25 years ago, when I was on tour in America with Black Sabbath.

The line-up of the Sabs at tht time was Tony Iommi on guitar, Geezer Butler on bass, Ian Gillan on vocals, Geoff Nicholls on keyboards and myself on drums.

Thursday November 10th.

Drove to Rochester airport and boarded the 16.40 flight to Detroit. Usual fleet of limos waiting there for us and soon checking into the excellent "Ponchotrain" Hotel. Had lovely dinner there of scallops and lamb chops.

Along with Tony and Geoff went to the Joe Louis Stadium to watch live screening of the Marvin Hagler v Roberto Duran World title fight (Hagler winning a unanimous points decision).

Friday November 11th

Slept in late and awoke to find a covering of snow. Soundcheck in the afternoon. This show has been sold out for a month and we had a wild and noisy crowd of 20,000. Opening act on virtually all of this tour is Quiet Riot.

OCTOBER 2008

Wednesday 1st

Along with Jasper Carrott (a best mate now for over 50 years!), drove to Patshull Park GC to play in John Richard's Charity Golf Tournament.

Our team of four was Jasper, me and ex-Wolves players Steve Daley and Kenny Hibbitt.

Steve was once the most expensive footballer in Britain when he was transferred from Wolves to Manchester City for £1.4 million. Kenny, a very keen golfer indeed, now plays off scratch.

We played well, but not well enough to win. Stayed for the dinner and lots of money raised for a local hospital.

Read on for more dates!

FOLLOWING my successful audition to become the new drummer for Carl Wayne and the Vikings, the next few days were hectic.

I handed in a week's notice at the store (which went down like a lead balloon) and needed to get myself a passport, which entailed taking a train to London and a taxi to the passport office.

Before I knew it, along with Carl Wayne, Ace Kefford, Johnny Mann and Terry Wallace - plus Carl's mate Allen Harris, acting as unpaid road manager - I was on my way to Germany.

We packed all our instruments, equipment, suitcases and ourselves into the band's Commer van, drove to the East coast and boarded a ferry.

I had never been outside of England or Wales before in my life, so I was naturally excited at the prospect of spending a month in a foreign country.

On rare occasions, for all of us, a day comes along that can change your life forever.

I believe that such a day happened to me in June 1965.

Following the demise of The Diplomats at the end of '64, I found myself, for the second time, with a "proper job", working at the classy and rather snooty Kean and Scotts in Birmingham city centre.

I was fast becoming a nine 'til five man. I'd managed to keep up my hire purchase payments on my Ludwig grey stripe drum kit and found the occasional semi-pro gig, including a stint with ex colleagues Nicky James and Phil Ackrill in Nicky James and the Wild Cherries.

(When I left that band my replacement was Led Zeppelin drummer to be, John Bonham!)

This band was never going to be more than a temporary gig though - more like a paid hobby than an actual career in the music business.

Meanwhile, much to my chagrin, fellow Birmingham beatsters were faring much, much better than me.

The Moody Blues had hit the top of the UK charts with Go Now (although the follow-up I Don't Want To Go On Without You only made No 33).

The Applejacks, meanwhile, had had three top 30 hits during 1964 - Tell Me When, Like Dreamers Do and Three Little Words.

Tuesday 2nd

Played in the Johnny Briggs Celeb / Am Golf Day at the Belfry, on the monster Brabazon course. All proceeds going to the Mcmillan Nurses appeal. Photo shoot first, along with Johnny Briggs ( Coronation Street's Mike Baldwin ), athlete Kris Akabussi, snooker legend Willie Thorne, 50's rocker Jess Conrad and former Wolves striker Don Goodman.

Too wet for buggies and took five and a half hours to play 18 holes !

Another charity golf day, this the "Sniffers" event at Stratford upon Avon golf club. Got rained on again. Rehearsal with my band ( The Move - featuring Trevor Burton and Bev Bevan ), at the "Madhouse" studios in Birmingham. Went well, and added to our repertoire, the Beatles "Got to get you into my life", the Everly Brother's "Price of love" and Free's "A little bit of love". All five band members together in our Mercedes mini-bus for the 250 mile drive to Anwick, a beautiful and ancient little town well north of Newcastle. Good show at the town's splendid theatre. Found a local pub right opposite our quaint little hotel, for a couple of after show nightcaps. Hit the road at 10am for the drive back to Birmingham. Heavy Friday traffic and took us 5 hours . Just made it in time for our 3pm band photo shoot at a studio in Digbeth. On then to Solihull Arts Complex for a quick sound check. Good show on the night and my old friend and former colleague in Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi , along with his lovely wife Maria, amongst the audience. Drove to the "Mailbox" in Birmingham to record a one hour show ( going out on Sunday October 9th at noon ), with my old friend Ed Doolan, at BBC Radio WM. Bumped into fellow presenters, and old buddies Les Ross and Jenny Wilkes as well. Got the 10.45 train from Warwick Parkway to London Mareylebone, writing up cd reviews and a blog for the Sunday Mercury along the way. Cab to Capital Radio in Leicester Square for 2 hour show with David "Kid" Jensen and then a one hour "Desert Island Discs" type show. On then to a studio across town to record an interview with "Emirate Airlines". Lots of plugs for the new Move 4 cd box set, which comes out at the end of October. Along with my good friend Don Givens ( manager of the Irish under 21 team ), went to Molineux to see Wolves beat Bristol City 2.0. Sat in the directors box and former Wolves owner Sir Jack Hayward in the row in front of me. Move gig at the splendid Garrick Theatre in Lichfield. Good show and the new songs went well, Another standing ovation at the end from the crowd. In the afternoon drove to the Lickey Hills to find the location for the latest short film to be directed by Martin Nigel Davey ( last year I was a featured extra in Norman Wisdom's last ever on screen performance ). This time I did the same kind of thing in a very funny sketch featuring Solihull comic Don McLean and actor Geoffrey Hughes ( "Onslow" in "Keeping up Appearances" ). Also met for the first time actor John Alderton, who was just as nice as I thought he would be. All profits from the cd sales of this movie going to the "McMillan Nurses" charity - which is where we came in !

For some weeks before Denny Laine and the Diplomats final appearance together, at Birmingham Town Hall, we had been rehearsing with our new line-up of the Diplomats.

Another respected Birmingham band to break up at the same time as us was Gerry Levene and the Avengers, pictured below. (They had a record released in 1963 on the Decca label, Dr Feelgood, but it failed to chart ).

Drummer Graeme Edge joined Denny in his new outfit, The Soul Preachers (who went on to become the M&B Five, then the Moody Blues Five and finally the Moody Blues ).

To replace Denny we also recruited from the Avengers lead guitarist Mick "Sprike" Hopkins and bass player / singer Jim Onslow.

On some numbers we actually utilised two bass guitars, which along with my sometime use of two bass drums, must have produced an amazingly bottom-heavy sound.

After my goodbye handshake with Denny after the Town Hall show (a moment captured on camera by Midland Beat), the new Diplomats wasted no time on getting back on the road.

It was the next night in fact, March 26th, at the Station Hotel in Selly Oak, Birmingham.

Following the disappointment of another recording deal coming to nothing, and in spite of lots more gigs coming in, the group morale within Denny Laine and the Diplomats towards the end of 1963 was beginning to wane and cracks were beginning to show.

Denny was the most ambitious member of the band, with me a close second. His desire to be the dominant one and to get noticed by a wider audience was getting stronger and stronger. He had bought himself a second hand Triumph Herald convertible from one of the many car dealers who frequented the "Moathouse" club, and started to drive to gigs on his own. Phil, Steve and I travelled to the shows as usual , in our lipstick adorned Commer minibus, bringing our equipment.

In the Spring of 1963, on a one-off trip towards the East coast of England we found ourselves doing a gig at Scunthorpe Baths.

Although Denny Laine and the Diplomats had begun to develop a healthy following in our native West Midlands, the good folk of Scunthorpe had clearly never heard of us, and the show was poorly attended.

Amongst the sparse crowd though was a lad from our neck of the woods - Tipton, in fact.

His name was Nicky James, a tall, skinny, good-looking guy with a mop of Brylcreemed black hair, swept back Teddy Boy style. He asked us if he could get up on stage and sing with the group.

Now this was something we never allowed to happen, but taking a look at Nicky's rough-looking mates and not fancying getting ourselves getting beaten up as we loaded the van, we agreed.

He asked us if we knew any Elvis Presley numbers, which we did, and he launched into One Night With You. He was sensational - the best Elvis soundalike I have ever heard to this day.

My diary this week goes back 13 years to the second week of September 1995, when I was on tour with ELO Part 2 in North and South America.

Thursday September 7th

Drove down to Gatwick in pouring rain. An hour in the Delta Airlines lounge before a business class flight to Atlanta. Couple of hours wait there before connecting flight to Kansas City (what a waste of your life it is sitting around in airports!) Checked into a Holiday Inn Express.

Friday September 8th

Day of extremely boring rehearsals.

Saturday September 9th

Awake too early with the usual jet-lag. Minibus to the venue - a lovely open air amphitheatre set in a huge park - and we ran through most of the show with the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Louis Clark conducting.

Nice gig catering of salmon, salad and rice. Good crowd of about 6,000 and went down very well.

I found it hard to relax though, having to really concentrate on keeping strict time to hold together band and orchestra, and having to play too quietly for my liking.

I'm one of the loudest drummers around - I want to play loud rock 'n' roll!

Denny Laine and the Diplomats built up a number of steady and regular venues to play at in 1963 and 1964. Amongst them was Birmingham's first bone-fide night club, The Moathouse in Moat Row, close to the Bull Ring.

It was owned by Rob Pryke, who had made his fortune in Brum's fruit and veg market and also had shares in a betting office.

The Moathouse soon became the "in" place to be seen, attracting local townies in their mohair suits, small-time gangsters, stars of Midlands TV, local sportsmen, high-class hookers, the first openly gay men to come out of the closet, and anyone with a few bob to spend, who fancied some legal after-hours drinking following a night out on the town.

One of the sportsmen to become an honorary member was heavyweight boxing champion Johnny Prescott. He was a generous young man, and we were one of his favourite groups.

We often closed our set with Barrett Strong's Money (That's What I Want ), a song recently made famous by The Beatles. As it turned out, it was an apt title.

Money was Johnny's favourite number and he would keep shoving fivers and tenners into Denny's top pocket on stage, just for us to play the song over and over again. Boring maybe, but we didn't mind - we trebled our fee some nights!

Johnny Prescott was also a very welcome visitor to Alex's Pie Stand, as he would often treat all the bands who happened to be there, to their meat pies, hot dogs and teas and coffees.