A Pop Career

Personal History: 1949-

CONTENTS:

A Pop Career?

I suppose the seminal reason why I wanted to play music was when the Beatles started releasing records and I became a huge fan. The Film "Hard Day's Night" completed the circle and I just had to be in a pop group. My best friend at school was Paul Aldred who lived round the corner from me in Warneford Road. Paul and my brother Frank also hankered to be in the pop business and after much hard work we managed to get some instruments together. Paul got a Framus bass guitar like Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones and had a 18" speaker in a home made cabinet which was powered by a 30 watt "Linear" wire-caged amp. I had an old acoustic 6 string which I'd bought for £5 but was useless for electrifying and Paul's mum kindly bought a second hand Hofner electric guitar for me to use. Frank bought a kit of Premier drums and we cleaned up and painted a large outbuilding at the rear of Paul's house (which we named "The Place") so we could rehearse whenever we wanted.

Not long after we got a lead guitarist, Paul Bristow, to join us. Paul had a Fender Strat 'look-a-like' and a Watkins Dominator amp with and angled front. I bought a Vox AC 15 watt valve amp with 2 x 12" speakers on board. We played at a party in Suggitt's Lane Cleethorpes and all I can remember is discovering that you can't drink vodka like pop because it make you go unconscious! Soon after we did our first real booking (no-one used the word 'gig' then!) at All Saints Church Hall in Heneage Road, Grimsby (demolished in the late 1990's) under the sexy name of "The Midbeats Sound". I imagine it was pretty dire but the kids there seemed to love it! From such humble beginnings we moved into the working men's club scene and started getting regular work through a local agent, Don Carroll of Healing.

Frank Davidson, Paul Bristow, Steve Davidson and Paul Aldred
The Midbeats at All Saints Church Hall, Grimsby

By this time I was in my final year at school and really had to try and find a career. I'd thought about marine engineering and really liked the idea of being a shipwright. However, I ended up enrolling at the Grimsby College of Further Education at Nun's Corner on a Pre-Apprentice Engineering Course. Looking back, the only bits of the course I can remember enjoying were the half-day sessions we spent doing practical metalwork, jewellery and wood carving. Trampolining was fun in the sports hall but I'd never liked football or cricket so didn't bother with them. During this time the group began to get more bookings and eventually we got a manager, Dennis Stokes who took us under his wing. We got another lead guitarist, Tim Harvey, who stayed for a while though he had a hard time with his girlfriend who I don't think wanted him to be in a group. More later.....

The Beat'n'Blues

Back - Steve and Frank Davidson, Ron Cowling, Sitting, Keith Arnold, Dave Crowder

The Beat'n'Blues was a successful semi-pro group which comprised my brother Frank, Dave Crowder on Bass, Ron Cowling on lead/rhythm guitar, Keith 'Arnie' Arnold on vocals and me on guitar. We used Frank's Bedford 15 cwt van for 'bookings and worked all over Lincolnshire and adjoining counties. Arnie was from Norfolk and was a complete extrovert and developed a drag routine which he introduced into the second set of our act. he'd come on dressed as an Arab sheik in a white sheet with sunglasses to us playing "Oil' or Nothing" - a derivation of the Small Faces hit "All or Nothing" following which he did a spectacular strip to reveal himself dressed as a girl in stockings and suspenders. He also wandered out into the audience and sat on blokes knees singing to them - I really don't know how he had the bottle but bottle he had and the act certainly went down well. He was a labourer in the building industry and once had worked on a large motorway contract where he was involved in blowing out tree stumps with explosives - was this why he sometimes went down a bomb?

Arnie lived with his girlfriend Sue and her family in Lord Street, Grimsby, and one evening we called round at the house to collect him for a booking. On knocking at the door Sue's Mum came out and said Arnie and Sue had moved to Norfolk! Well, that knocked us for six and we had to hastily re-arrange our act and I ended up taking over the vocals on that evening. I found it hard singing and playing so persuaded the rest of the lads to advertise fro a replacement vocalist. I didn't see Arnie again for years but bumped into him in Barton-on Humber in the late 70's where he and Sue had settled.

We eventually got a lad from Horncastle Steve Irons to take up the job and set to rehearsing with him for a few weeks. During this time we went to Hull to record a record of some songs we'd written and Steve came along and did the vocals. However when we were ready to go on the road with Steve his bottle left him and he said he couldn't actually face performing in front of a live audience which was nice!

What could we do? We didn't fancy advertising again and going through the trauma of auditioning so I agreed to take up vocals and settled down to singing and playing rhythm guitar.

Dave Crowder, Tony Forth, Frank and Steve Davidson at Binbrook in the Lincolnshire Wolds

We changed the name of the band to the Grimsby Nite Life and got a new lead guitarist, Tony Forth and a new Commer van and continued to work the club scene in the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire area. Tony left the band after some time and we found an exceptional lead guitarist, Pete Fisk, who'd just moved up to Lincolnshire from London. Again, we continued gigging the Clubs and enjoying ourselves enormously.

Pete eventually move on to pastures new (he now plays regularly in the Lincolnshire area as part of a very successful duo called "Gypsy") and Frank, Dave and I continued as a 3 piece for quite a while, getting lots of work.

The 3 piece Night Life at a miners welfare club in Skegness, Lincolnshire

The Fender Telecaster I was using at that time bought from Perrits music shop in Freema Street Grimsby) was quite unique with its sunburst finish and white purfling around the body. I had it re-wired so I could get a 'split' sound from the pick-ups. Around this time I also bought a bright red Marshall valve amp with a sloping front 4 x 12" cab also from Perrits. Although the amp and cab are long gone I still have the 4 12" speakers which I re-housed into stereo hi-fi speakers and are still in use at the North East Lincolnshire Target Club in Grimsby.

Frank, Dave and I continued for quite a while, actually until I married Marje in 1970. We hadn't been married long when Dave Crowder contacted me to ask if I could stand in for a member of a local band called Rowndabout. They had a gig at the Blacksmith's Arms at Rothwell and their vocalist and keyboard player, Julie Dalton, had left after some disagreement. The gig was that night so I asked Marje if she minded me standing in. She agreed and I went along to Rothwell. I blagged the evening and it went quite well. I'd got the bug again!

Rowndabout members were Viv Peterson (lead guitar), John Howden (drums), Dave Crowder (bass) and me. We got lots of work and were out nearly every Friday, Saturday and Sunday working mainly the club scene. Rowndabout got a 'residency' at the Cleethorpes Winter Gardens on Thursday evenings backing a local band, "The Rumble Band". John Howden left after a disagreement and we were lucky to get a new drummer, Mick Horsfall, who had been playing professionally and he was a good vocalist too. I think the line-up at that time was probably the best and we were working in the 70s when groups had loads of opportunity for gigs. Dave Crowder left and was replaced by Ron Rothwell on bass, yet another good vocalist and (as he recently contacted me to to remind me) a good bassist too.

A note about vocal equipment here - in those days few semi-pro bands had sound crews and mixing desks. We used two 4 x 12" Carlsboro PA cabs driven by a 100 watt (yes 100 watt!) HH solid state PA amp. For a while we used a Watkins Copycat echo unit which used continuous loop tape and multiple heads to produce a very agreeable echo/delay effect. I used to angle the PA cabs inwards to direct the vocals into the centre of the room. As a development of this system we obtained two 4 x 10" WEM PA cabs and a second 100 watt HH amp to drive them as monitors. This was a great improvement as it enabled us to really hear the vocals for the first time.

Around this time I sold my sunburst Telecaster and bought a Gibson Les Paul Custom deluxe in black with gold plated hardware from Ted Krunkhorn at the Grimsby Music Centre.. It was a superb guitar but desperately heavy compared with the Tele. The neck strap stud was at an angle and I found that the strap had a tendency to skip off the stud so I removed it and re-screwed it into the rear of the body which worked OK. I changed the Marshall amp head for a Vox 200 watt solid state head which was LOUD!. I added a second cabinet with 4 x 12" Vox speakers as a stack bottom with the sloping front Marshall cab on top.

Pete Fisk joined us playing keyboard rather than guitar and some time later and Viv left to work in the Colin Chamley Big Band as resident at the Cleethorpes Winter Gardens. Viv's job was filled by Vick Pascoe and eventually Mick Horsfall was replaced by Steve Hall, a good drummer and long time friend. Around this time we decided that the name Rowndabout had had its day so we renamed ourselves "Arrival" Ron Rothwell left and was replaced by Keith Barnes-Wallis. Keith was later replaced by Bob Woodhouse, another good bassist and vocalist. We carried on for a while as a 5 piece until Pete Fisk left for pastures new and we reverted back to a traditional 4 piece line-up. I bumped into Steve Everett and his partner Vicky in Tesco on 7th June 2008 and he reminded me that he'd been a lead guitarist with me for a couple of years. I'm not too sure of the chronology of things but he was in Rowndabout and I think actually replaced Viv Peterson and preceded Vic Pasoe. Steve was a good guitarist and I learnt a lot from him. Steve presently plays finger-style acoustic guitar for weddings, diners and corporate events. He also teaches most style of guitar.

We got a Friday night residency at the Sands Night Club in Cleethorpes. We didn't start to play until 11 p.m. and finished about 1.30 a.m. so it was quite a late night for us - good job we could have a lie in on Saturday mornings. The Club was owned and run by Tommy Lee and his wife and was remarkably trouble-free considering most punters came in after spending the early evening in the Cleethorpes pubs. I think a combination of good doormen and a regular clientele helped to keep the Sands a fight-free zone.

Time for another change of amp. Vic Pascoe had a nice Peavey head which he installed into a small cabinet with 2 x 12" speakers. This was eminently transportable and still loud enough. I kept that combo and the Les Paul until I retired from gigging.

Eventually, in the late 80s Vic left and Steve, Bob and I continued working as a 3 piece, still happily doing the clubs. Bob and I are still friends and see each other at the North East Lincolnshire Target Club. where he maintains our intruder alarm system. Vic married my step-sister Ann and they live in Cleethorpes with their son Joe. I think Steve Hall may still be drumming and Dave Crowder is in a band down south where he and his wife Marilyn moved. I did a 70's gig at Lindsey School with my son Richard on guitar, Alastair on keyboards, Toby on drums, Rupert from Louth on bass, Anton on lead vocals and 3 girl teachers on backing vocals, Wendy Pankhurst, Rebecca and another. It was great fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Since I retired from semi-pro playing I've acquired a US Fender HM Stratocaster, a Fender Squire Stratocaster, a Peavey Milestone bass, a KAY 6 string acoustic, a Laney Linebacker 30 watt amp and Fender 15G for playing with at home. I gather the HM Strat is quite rare and collectable!