July 2008 Archives

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!

I told you last week that I really wasn't cut out to work in a shop - but my time at the Beehive department store, in Albert Street, Birmingham city centre, did have its lighter moments, too.

It was September 1961 when Jasper Carrott and I began working there.

It was a very hard winter that year with lots of heavy snow. Thick fog was a regular problem, too, making it impossible for the buses to run and many a time Jasp and I would grope our way home to our houses in Sparkhill and Acocks Green.

Both of us were hopeless timekeepers and we soon devised a scheme that whichever one of us arrived at work first in the morning would clock in the other.

The summer outing to the Cotswolds on an ancient charabanc, snogging with some of the salesgirls was a highlight of my time there, but best of all was when Jasper and I were put in charge of the Christmas grotto.

Throughout December (Christmas used to start then - back in the 1960s), a Santa Claus was hired to give out presents at half a crown a time to the darling little kiddies.

They would sit on his lap (that was allowed back then, too!)

He kept a bottle of whiskey concealed under his red robe, from which he would take a swig between children visiting his "magic grotto". Then he'd breathe whiskey fumes over them whilst inquiring: "And whaat would you like fur chrishmuss, my deah?"

Jasper and I devised a crafty con whilst on Xmas grotto duty.

One of us would take the half crown at the entrance, give the customer a ticket, and he or she would then hand in that ticket at the other end of the grotto in order to get the lucky dip prize.

But during the lunch hour, when the manager was out, we would tell the parents bringing their children straight to see Father Christmas.

"Oh dear, we seem to have run out of tickets," we'd say. "Just give your half crown to the lad at the end there, and he'll give you the present.

After his lunch hour the gaffer would return and ask: "Good business whilst I've been out, was it?"

"No," we'd reply. "Dreadful - hardly been anyone in at all!"

Without a check on ticket sales it was impossible to tell how many customers we'd had - and Santa was too sozzled to know or care.

On good days we would be getting 15 shillings each!

It was whilst at the Beehive that I got my first professional break as a musician. It came via a confident young guy named Brian Hines, who played in a group called Johnny and the Dominators.

We met at night school. He was a Trainee Buyer, too, but at the much posher Rackhams store in Birmingham. Both of our employers had insisted we take our NRDC exams (National Retail Distribution Certificates).

He had seen me play with the Senators and liked my drumming style. He was the most self-assured and ambitious person I had ever met and sure that he was destined for stardom.

He wasn't wrong.

We formed a new band together and called it the Diplomats. He changed his name to Denny Laine and three years later he would be top of the UK charts as lead singer on the Moody Blues brilliant Go Now, then go on to join Paul McCartney's Wings.

But before that there were two fascinating years of ups and downs with Denny Laine and the Diplomats!

I'll reveal all here next week.

My diary notes this week date back exactly 21 years ago to the 3rd week of July 1987, when I found myself, for the second time, occupying the drum-stool for Black Sabbath.

Tuesday July 14th
Rehearsals at "Tasco Sound Stage" in London. Staying at the Post House hotel in Hampstead. Slept in late. Drove the lads in my Range Rover to rehearsals and started about 5pm.Went OK. No chance for dinner, so when I got back to the hotel , around midnight, had room service chicken sandwich and ransacked the mini-bar.

Wednesday July 15th
Back to the rehearsal studios in Woolwich and ran through the whole set. Fish and chips from the local chippie. Chatted with Joe Brown, also rehearsing there, in the recreation room. I drove Geezer (Butler) and I back to the Midlands and home about 2am.

Thursday July 16th
Day off at home. News of late gig coming in for Saturday at Plymouth festival to help boost the very poor ticket sales there.

Friday July 17th
News from the Sabs management office that Geezer now not doing the upcoming gigs and the tour manager is arranging to fly in ex-Sabbath bass player Dave Spitz from New York.

Saturday July 18th
What a fiasco! Packed some stage clothes. Taxi to Birmingham airport and met up with the rest of the band. Smooth one hour flight on nice little 8 seater private plane to Plymouth. On arrival told by promoter there were "Not many in" at the football ground venue.
Got there about 7pm as Captain Sensible was finishing his set. Only a few hundred people in the crowd and management made the decision we should not go on. So it was back to the airport to get our plane back to Birmingham and I was home watching the British Golf Open highlights on TV by 11pm !

Sunday July 19th
Packed my bag for the gig in Athens tomorrow. Watched the end of the golf on TV - Nick Faldo winning.

Monday July 20th
Drove to Heathrow for our flight to Greece. Arrived in Athens and met by hordes of photographers, press, etc. Very, very hot. VIP treatment and whisked through passports and immigration. Taxis to the Inter Continental hotel and late supper of kebabs and a few local beers.

Tuesday July 21st
Sunbathing and swim at the hotel then some sightseeing, including the impressive Acropolis. Got to the football stadium gig about 6pm. Bit of a rehearsal in the dressing room with bass player Dave. Singer Tony Martin's debut show and he was understandably nervous.
Big, enthusiastic crowd. Good show but got crazy at the end when about 100 of the audience began climbing on the stage. We deffed the encore and legged it back to the dressing rooms! The crew did well to save all our equipment from getting wrecked.
Had late supper at a nearby open air nightclub. Still oppressively hot.
Back to the hotel bar then, until the early hours.

Back on Saturday with more of my early rock and roll memories

During my fifth and final year at Moseley Grammar School I was consumed with rock'n'roll music.

Instead of studying for my upcoming GCE exams, most of my time was spent compiling endless setlists for the group's next show, thinking of which cool new records to buy that we could copy and perform on stage and practise signing my autograph over and over again.

For when I became a pop star, of course!

I would take photos of Rick Nelson to my barber in Sparkhill and say: "I want my hair just like that." Our local Italian hairdresser, brought up on a lifetime's diet of short back and sides, never did capture that look.

A big influence were the TV shows Six Five Special and Oh Boy, plus Cliff Richard and the Shadows' TV series - Cliff with his pink jacket and black shirt with the collar tuned up and the Shads, with their neat dance steps and super cool attitude.

British radio was rubbish, except for the occasional decent track on Two Way Family Favourites. Best was Radio Luxembourg, but the reception was so poor you did well to listen through a whole record.

Our lead singer Ronnie Smith was always coming up with new names for our little beat combo.

From Rocking Ronnie and the Renegades we became, for just one gig, Troy Satan and the Hellcats and eventually ended up as The Senators.

Not that we really knew what senators were, but they were American, so they just HAD to be cool.

OK, I'm looking back in my diaries this week to exactly 30 years ago - the second week of July 1978, which finds me in the middle of an American tour with ELO.

July 8th

Atlanta , Georgia. Got up early and got in 2 hours of tennis before returning to the Hyatt hotel in time for our 2 hour drive to Birmingham, Alabama in the fleet of limos. Good show and crowd. No "Spaceship" tonight.

July 9th

Long flight to Lexington, stopping twice on the way. Played cards most of the time. Checked into another Hyatt. Good show, inside the spaceship. Sold out crowd of 11,000.

July 10th

Day off. Flew to Roanoke, then another flight to Greensborough on two "Piedmont" flights, including one through a violent thunderstorm.

July 11th

Strange little hotel this - we seem to be the only people staying here. Went to the gig early to check over my kit and change some heads and had a game of football with the crew. Another good show, to 9,000 people.

July 12th

After another huge American breakfast (why do they give you so much food?, sat out by the pool, reading. Limos for the hundred mile drive to Roanoke. Another good show, without the spaceship and similar crowd to last night, around 9,000.

July 13th

Slept in late. Day off. Evening flight to Cleveland, Ohio.

July 14th

Radio station interview at "WMMS". Day off again, but went to the football stadium where we are playing tomorrow. Massive place and they are expecting over 50,000 people to turn up tomorrow.