Des Down Under 8
A
Musical Life
Des Down Under Chapter
Eight
Back home to Preston for Xmas and then in January 1966 we were
introduced to Crispian St. Peters. We were advised by the George Cooper
Organisation that Crispian had entered the New Musical Express national charts
at No. 21 and that ‘he was starting to work next weekend’, (22nd.
Jan.), and it had been arranged for us to become his backing group and we were
to rehearse with him on the 20th and 21st.
Wow!! Two day’s for rehearsals… TWO
DAYS!!!! By the time we did the
first gig with him on Jan 22nd he
was already TOP TEN!! Then, only 11 days after meeting Crispian we found
ourselves playing with him LIVE on the BBC’s ‘Saturday Club’ with Brian
Matthew, on January 31st. His
first hit was ‘You Were On My Mind’ which got to No. 2, and he followed that
up with ‘Pied Piper’ which went to No. 1!!!
Wow!! There we were, backing someone who
had TWO TOP FIVE HITS!!! What followed during the next six month was a roller
coaster ride of live concerts, radio appearances,
constant touring… and of course, fans everywhere!!! We worked all over the
country on some fabulous shows during our time with Crispian, with people like
The Small Faces, Lou Christie, The Walker Brothers, The Australian Seekers, and
The Spencer Davies Group. Great memories and great fun!
Crispian was a really good songwriter, and had some great
songs on his album ‘Follow me’. He was also the only artist whom we had
backed regularly who had two top five records charting while we were on tour!!!
Not one, but two hits… and we were part of all that folks. It was magical! I last spoke to Crispian in 2002, and it was great to catch up with him,
but sadly he’s had a couple of strokes and is not too well at all these days.
But in the ‘60’s… Top Of The Pops?? I would say so!!! The world was his
for a while!!
Moving on to Great Yarmouth
towards the end of May, I’m celebrating my 22nd birthday, AND in rehearsals for
‘The Big Star Show of 1966’ which was to run for the summer season in this
fabulous town. The bill was Gerry & the Pacemakers, The Karl Denver Trio,
The Sylkie, The Marionettes, Mack & Kirk, Mike Burton, The Puppets, and, of
course, The 8 Starlets!
There
were ‘showbusiness’ people everywhere in Great Yarmouth that year, a
happening town indeed! Besides Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Karl Denver Trio,
The Puppets et al, at The Royal Aquarium Theatre, there was Terry Scott &
Hugh Lloyd, Donald Peers,
and The Dallas Boys at The Wellington Pier, Dickie Henderson, Hope & Keen,
and Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson at The Brittania Theatre, and Frank Ifield,
Ted Rogers and The Baron Knights at the ABC. A few ‘biggies’ there for the
time! It was also the year that England won the Soccer World Cup.
We found a fabulous place to stay for the
season in Bradwell Village, called St. Nicholas House, a large Manor House with
a lounge/ bar on the ground floor and the rest of the building converted into
holiday flats. The house itself was set at the back of a large field and was
surrounded by self contained,
detached brick holiday accommodation built that year. So there we all were, the
first ‘residents’, and being so we were bestowed the honour of ‘naming
rights’. The Puppets rented two of these buildings, but I can only remember
the one I was in. We called that one ‘Puppet Place’. I can also remember
Mike Burton had one, and so did Karl Denver and Les Chadwick, the bass player
from ‘The Pacemakers’. The Sylkie, and some of the dancers had one as well.
It was just
fabulous! In the bar there was one of those wrist football machines, you know,
the ones where you grab the handles on the outside and turn them to make the
footballers move. Well in no time at all we had set up League Tables, Cup
Matches, Teams… Remember it’s
1966 and Soccer was big news. It was also a great novelty for us to be mixing
with the holidaymakers at ‘St. Nick’s’ as we all affectionately called it.
I can also recall a ‘Come and meet the Stars’ day to raise
funds for Charity, which was held at the ‘Pleasure Beach’. Most of the stars
from all the shows turned up and what a fantastic day it was, ‘meeting and
greeting’ the holiday folk and taking rides with them. It was definitely time
to let our hair down, and we did!!!
But Great Yarmouth wasn’t All fun
and games… We had to work really hard as well. Besides doing two shows a night
from Mondays to Saturdays, in ‘The Big Star Show of 1966’, being the ‘house band’, having our
own spot on stage, and backing or augmenting The Marionettes, Gerry and the
Pacemakers, Mack & Kirk and, of course, The 8 Starlets, (that’s a lot of
music to learn and play), we also did the ‘Sunday Concert Specials’ , again
twice a night as ‘houseband’, having our own spot on stage, and for these
shows, backing Crispian St. Peters, (even more music to remember and play). At
least the Sunday gigs were in the same venue so we didn’t have to move the
gear!!
Headlining the Sunday shows was Billy
Fury. We had met Billy a few times before, appearing on various shows around the
country with him, but had never backed him, or gotten to know him well. However,
the Summer Season at Great Yarmouth ran for many weeks and over that time we got
to know him a lot better. It wasn’t too long before Billy came out to ‘St.
Nick’s’, which you can imagine caused a bit of a stir with the resident
holiday makers who were used to us lot by this time. Billy was a ‘Star’ at
the football game too!!! We had also met and got on well with Larry Parnes, a
man who had a big influence on Billy’s career and was also one of the major
backers of the show.
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At the end of the season Larry and Billy
approached us and invited us to become Billy’s backing band, (Be Billy’s
Band!!! YES PLEASE!!!), and that was great because throughout the season they
had seen us playing many many times, so to be asked was a tremendous compliment.
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To Be Continued….......................
