August 2008 Archives

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.

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!