September 2011 Archives

sMost Tuesday evenings throughout June, July and August I could be found at The Mailbox in Birmingham, broadcasting live on air, the Bev Bevan and Jimmy Franks show on BBC WM 95.6fm, 10pm 'til midnight. The programme is also repeated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on bbc I player, available on your computer by clicking on BBC WM and going to "Programmes".

Wednesday June 15th
I played in a "Celebrity Tour" charity golf day at one of my favourite golf courses, The Forest of Arden.

Friday June 17th
Went to see Peter Kay at the LG Arena in Birmingham. He was very, very funny when he, eventually, got on stage around 8.15, following the expected 7.30 pm. There was a long interval too, during which we had to endure some dreadful, overloud disco style music, The evening not helped either by me being sat behind a guy the size of an American basketball player who never sat still. Took an eternity to get out of the car park too. Enough hassle in fact to put me off going to any more Arena style concerts.

Saturday July 2nd
Gig for "The Move, featuring Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton" at Kings Heath Cricket Club. Two 45 minute sets to an enthusiastic crowd.

Thursday July 7th
My annual charity golf day at Aston Wood Golf Club in Sutton Coldfield and a lovely, sunny day for the 24 teams of four who had paid to play. My team consisted of my oldest pal Jasper Carrott, Rocking Berrie's Geoff Turton and Tony "Show me the way to Amarillo" Christie. Great guys to play with, but we did not score well. My group, The Bev Bevan Band played on the evening, following the fund raising dinner, and joined on stage by my good friends Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Danny King.

Sunday July 17th
Went to the Botanical Gardens in Edgbaston, Birmingham for a celebratory dinner to mark the 70th birthday of my BBC WM colleague, the legendary Ed Doolan. From September onwards Ed's show moves to Sunday mornings, 9am to midday on BBC WM 95.6fm.

Sunday July 24th
Gig at Wakes Festival in Burntwood, Staffordshire for The Bev Bevan Band. An all day event bathed in glorious sunshine, The New Amen Corner and Dave Berry on before we took to the stage around 8pm, and , as with my golf day, joined by Trevor Burton, Geoff Turton and Danny King.

Thursday August 4th
Went to see "We will rock you", the Queen / Ben Elton musical at the Birmingham Hippodrome. The third time I have seen the show and still really enjoy it - great songs , fine singing and acting, and the hidden, live band just excellent.

August 8th/9th/10th
"The Move featuring Bev Bevan and Trevor Burton" played Ypres Festival in Belgium. We flew from Liverpool's John Lennon airport, which must be the friendliest airport in Britain. Flew to Brussels and met by minibus for the two hour drive to Ypres. Following day got the opportunity to visit the museum and the cemeteries in the area, where thousands upon thousands of young soldiers are buried, all victims of the dreadful and ultimately pointless 1914 to 1918 First World War .

A very moving experience.
The concert on the evening went splendidly, playing outside to a huge crowd, in the beautiful town square, Ypres ( Ieper ), a serene and peaceful place, with not a single piece of litter to be seen anywhere. Meanwhile, in my hometown of Birmingham, the riots raged, As a foreigner abroad it was not a time to feel proud of being British.

Friday August 26th
I went to Birmingham Children's Hospital to be given a conducted tour and handed over the £16,200 cheque, the money raised from my "Bev Bevan charity golf day" at Aston Wood Golf Club on June 15th. The money we all raised that day and evening is going to a most worthwhile cause,

That's all folks!

Please do tune into my radio show and read my columns in the "Sunday Mercury every week. Here's a list of upcoming gigs for the "It's Only Rock'nRoll" tour dates, plus a few for the Bev Bevan Band..

September

15th The Place, Oakengates
16th Tivoli Theatre, Wimbourne
17th Henley in Arden Tennis Club
23rd Spa Centre, Leamington Spa
24th Babbacombe Theatre, Torquay
28th Arts Centre, Solihull
29th Arts Centre, Solihull.
October
9th Ashcroft Theatre, Croydon.
28th Aston Wood Golf Club, Sutton Coldfield
29th Ivy Leaf, Sheldon, Birmingham.
November
10th Robin 2, Bilston
12th Artrix, Bromsgrove
16th Garrick Theatre, , Lichfield
18th Assembly Rooms, Ludlow.
19th The Barn, Aston, Birmingham

24th Macmillan Gala Ball, Birmingham Hotel.
27th Memorial Theatre, Frome.

December
17th Rover Club, Sheldon, Birmingham.

Cheers!
Bev.

AFTER our run-in with Harold Wilson in 1967, Flowers In The Rain had reached No 2 in the charts and we'd got a new deal with Regal Zonophone, a label that used to be exclusively for the Salvation Army!

The Daily Mail reported that I was proud of my red waistcoat edged with bobbles. Mind you, I was only 22 at the time. It was serious business, I tell you!

Ace Kefford told the world that he was ready to vote for a new Prime Minister - as long as it was Jimi Hendrix. He wanted Jimi to stand with a view to replacing Wilson.

Our brush with authority was seen to have given us credibility and maybe we should, at that stage, have lived up to it.

But if anything we were more a pop band. We went out of our way afterwards to play the Wilson thing down, to say that no, we were really nice guys despite all the publicity.

When the next record, Fire Brigade, was released in 1968, it was definitely more poppy. It was as if to say, well it's only pop music after all.

Christian

Cliff Richard wasn't sticking to his guns either. He'd announced that he was ready to quit to be a full-time Christian. In the end he decided to carry on regardless.

Tom Jones was about to become a millionaire thanks to a 13-week booking in Las Vegas. What were we doing wrong? We still had whip-rounds before buying a round at the local pub.

There was a new Sunbeam Rapier out that did a ton, and we wanted one. Badly.

There was something else we wanted badly, to be able to tell the truth. After the Wilson controversy we'd drifted apart from our manager Tony Secunda, who was responsible for all the hype.

Trevor told the press that he didn't think girls had much sense of humour (he was probably stoned at the time) and that resulted in a flood of angry letters from female fans.

In fact, we all had girlfriends but we weren't allowed to admit it. The image of the pop star was far too important to let your personal life intrude on it. We had to keep it secret.

Buses permitting, I was going out with Val, and Ace had been living with a girl for years but it all had to be kept 'hush hush.'