This is a story that I wrote last year and is being published in a book tomorrow. The book “BETWEEN THE WHITE LINES” by Chris Scott Wilson contains similar stories from those involved in making music during the period 60’s 70’s.
Please enjoy as I’m not writing anything at the moment but hope to in a few weeks.
The Audition
I’d been playing keyboards in bands for a few years and never had any need to go for an audition with anybody as I was well known in the music business. Now this wasn’t me being big headed, (I hasten to add) as in those days, not many bands had keyboards or even piano players. These keyboards were expensive to buy and pretty cumbersome to cart around from gig to gig. Now I may not have been very good but I did have a keyboard.!
I’d started playing keyboards whilst at secondary school, graduating firstly from a piano, then an accordion, then a Hohner German air blown reed organ, rather like an electric accordion but it looked like a small piano with a microphone strapped to the outlet speaker. As my career progressed and I could afford it as money from the gigs started coming in, I bought a Farfisa Compact Electronic Keyboard as used by “Them” on their record “Here comes the night.”
In the early days of my musical career, whilst only aged 14 I joined a band called the Mexicans with a schoolmate, Frank, who’s dad used to play piano part time in local dance bands. Frank’s dad had a piano in their front living room of their house in Normanby. Now Frank was very talented and could play a variety of instruments. He introduced me to the Normanby Methodist Youth Club where we could practice music with other aspiring musicians. The only criteria was, to join the youth club we had to attend the Sunday evening service at Normanby Methodist Church to qualify. The Mexicans, I cringe even now when I hear that. It was a stupid name for a band picked by our lead guitarists mother, and what was even more stupid was that someone’s mother came back with sombreros for us to wear. How embarrassing was that I ask you ? I’d come up with the name “Delicious Hint” which might seem a bit gay these days but it was a slogan on a chocolate bar wrapper I think !
The Normanby church was very friendly and of course being Methodists, the congregation engaged in a lot of hearty singing and I enjoyed it. The organist was a young guy in his early twenties and sometimes gave a bit more flair to a tune than the basic stodgy original music score. Whilst at church one Sunday Frank whispered to me, “The organist is called Ken and he plays the organ for a big local group called THE CRAWDADDIES.” Now I had heard of the CRAWDADDIES fronted by John McCoy and Ken certainly then went up in my estimation.
Over the ensuing weeks I gradually spoke to Ken and told him of my aspirations to play keyboards in a band. “Is it difficult to play with other people at the same time?” I hesitatingly asked. Turning to face me, he grinned and said, “ The others take their timing from me, not the drummer and a lot of songs we play are 12 bar blues.” Now I didn’t know what 12 bar blues were, so he showed me the easy version in the key of C. I practised on my small organ, (sorry keyboard just so that there’s no misunderstanding!) at home and also at Normanby Youth Club. A few of us had now joined that band and we were still looking for a drummer. I was using a huge reel to reel tape recorder as an external amplifier at the time and one of the lads took my tape recorder box lid and bought some drum sticks to rap out a beat to our music on the lid. Very basic stuff but we were happy.
Keith, our lead singer grew tired of this amateurish effort using the table recorder lid and decided he would ask his Dad to buy him a drum kit. Keith would then play drums and also sing just like Dave Clark did (as per the Dave Clark Five). Now we felt that we were going somewhere and I upgraded my organ to the Farfisa Compact.
When the church youth club held dances, we were invited to play the music, although our repertoire of songs had to be repeated about three times or even four to fill the time slot required. Ken came to see us and gave some encouragement and this was the start of my fledgling musical career.
Over the subsequent years I joined various bands including the King Bees and was approached by the well known Satellites from Stockton who had initially started out covering Hollies singles and then switched to American Blues and Motown music. Billy the singer wasn’t impressed by my organ! (Sorry keyboard ! ) So I went to Hamilton’s music store and purchased a Red and Black with Chrome legs Vox Continental with a black keyboard. This was the same type used by most professional bands including “THE ANIMALS” and the “DAVE CLARK FIVE.” I also splashed out on a Vox AC30 TWIN TOP BOOST AMPLIFIER so I was well sorted.
During the mid to late sixties me and the Satellites played at most of the top venues in the North East and one of my favourite venues was the KIRKLEVINGTON COUNTRY CLUB commonly known as the “KIRK.” One Saturday night we were the supporting band to the “CRAWDADDIES” fronted by John McCoy who owned the “KIRK” and of course my friend Ken on the keyboards. I spoke to Ken as we were packing our gear away for the night and he said, “Eugene McCoy, John’s brother is going to sing for a new group called “THE ELASTIC BAND” and they are looking for a keyboard player to audition.” Now I didn’t particularly want to leave the Satellites, but I had heard rumours that our lead singer Billy had aspirations to go solo and branch out on a professional career.I nodded and replied “where and when?” Ken replied, “Mr McCoys Monday night 8 o clock, upstairs top floor, it’s used as a storeroom.” I groaned, top floor humping all my gear up on my own. I needed help to cart up those stairs. I thanked Ken and walked over to my mate Ronnie who was our drummer and a big strong lad. Now I was pleased the audition was to be on a Monday because it was usually a quiet night for us in the band. All the working men’s clubs on a Monday, were normally just the drinking men’s nights with no bingo for the ladies and we had the night off from playing between the bingo sessions which were the main part of the night!
“Ronnie can I have a word mate? Look in confidence I’ve got an audition on Monday night and wondered if you could give me a lift in your van with my gear?” Ronnie looked shocked as I’d never once mentioned or given any thought of leaving the band, but pulled himself together and said, “ Yes of course mate.”
The next night was Sunday and we were playing at the SWAN HOTEL in Redcar and as I lived in Ormesby, Jimmy our manager picked me up in the groups big J4 Austin van on the way to the gig. We were good that night and it seemed everyone tried their best to play on top form. During the interval I noticed Ronnie in a huddle with the others and he pointed over to me. Bloody hell I thought, I hope he’s not telling them I’ve an audition on Monday night! Everything seemed to be calm and we finished the night to several encores and smiles all round. Ronnie came over to me and said, I’ll pick you up at half-five alright?” “ But the audition isn’t until half-seven” I said wondering why he wanted to get there so early. “I thought we could have a chat and a beer before you go in” he grinned. I grinned back, I liked talking to Ronnie. I also liked drinking with him as well.
Monday night came, Ronnie collected me and my gear and we drove off to. MIddlesbrough. He parked his small van just down from Mr McCoys and said “let’s go have that pint.” I readily agreed as I wasn’t particularly looking forward to this audition at all. So we went into a Pub at the end of the road. Now after all these years I still can’t remember the name of it, but it’s not Important. I think it’s one of those designer pubs at present, all wine and craft beers. You know what I mean? Ronnie went to the Bar and got two pints of beer and two whiskey chasers, “ Cheers.” he soid and over the next hour or so I lost count of what I had drank but I do know I became very drunk. I looked at my watch and saw we were already 10 minutes late for the meeting.
“Bloody hell” I said “we”ll have to run to the audition.”
I hurried with Ronnie to the Van, we collected my gear and puffing and panting climbed three huge flights of stairs to the very top of McCoys building.
Upon entering the room we were greeted by four grim faced people who had been waiting for me. “ Shorry!” I slurred, “We had a puncshure!” I set my gear up and waited for them to start playing so I could get the feel of their music and join in. The first song was an easy 12 bar blues and I kept it simple. From then it rapidly went downhill. “Are you,playing in a different key to us?” one guy asked me after a while and I just grinned at him with a sickly smile.
I suppose I must have been like the late, great, comedian, Eric Morecambe, I was playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right places!
Ronnie was watching my performance with a huge grin on his face and helped me to pack up my stuff. “I don’t think that went very well” I said. Ronnie just nodded and replied “it’ll be fine just wait and see.
The thought of carrying the bloody equipment down those stairs annoyed me after having such a lousy audition so I decided to sit on the large flat case of the keyboard and ride it like a large toboggan to the bottom. I got on very unsteadily ( remember I’d had a lot to drink) and started my descent. I went faster and faster only bumping across the flat landings before going down another flight and whooshed through the double doors at the entrance and out onto the pavement. Ronnie came running down the stairs after me “ are,you alright, are you hurt?” I shook my head and just gave him a sickly grin and threw up into the gutter!
So that was that my failed audition.
Mind you I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get a successful audition as the Elastic band had turned down another singer called David Coverdale. I wonder what happened to him? Well in case you’re interested, he became lead singer with Deep Purple and then Whitesnake. He lives in the United States and his current net worth is 18 million dollars ,! Where did I go wrong ???
Eugene McCoy who actually became the lead singer of THE ELASTIC BAND is now a well known chef and owns the Crathorne Arms pub renowned for its food.
Postscript
My mate Ronnie admitted to me later that he’d deliberately got me drunk as he wanted me to stay with him in the Satellites and I agreed it was for the best !
Billy our lead singer did actually leave the band later and ended up on the TV talent finding show ‘New Faces’ and had a successful career singing on Cruise Ships.
Talking to a friend about this story he told me that Keith (his brother) the drummer from the Mexicans told him that after Frank had left we had a serious applicant to fill the role as lead singer but he turned him down without consulting the other,members,of the band.
Was it a familiar name ??
Yes…. it was Chris Rea !
I could have been famous !
OFB
Another Audition
The lads were working hard at learning new songs for the band. I used to sit up late on a Saturday night listening to Radio Luxemburg on my Phillips pocket transistor radio. Although it was called a pocket radio,
I thought it must have been designed for people with huge pockets, but I loved it and carried it everywhere. The major event for me every week was waiting by the radio for Jack Jackson with his banner jingle to announce
“Yes it’s Saturday. Oh yes it’s Saturday.”
He was my favourite host on the radio, although now they were starting to be called disc jockeys. I used to smile every time I heard that jingle late at night whilst I lay in bed. I would then turn over and switch on my tape recorder which was on the floor next to me and start taping the music. Jackson always had the latest songs and these were the ones we wanted to learn as a band. We used to do this by playing the tunes on the tape over and over. We kept stopping then starting the machine until we had perfected the notes and the sound on our own musical instruments. I also recorded the forces network on the BBC Sunday with Cliff Michelmore and then the top 20 hit records at teatime. This was before the days of Radio 1 or 2 or even pirate Radio Caroline. The other lads recorded the hits as well and we all talked over the phone during the next few days and decided which ones we would learn ready for our practise together at Shaws club on a Friday night.
We now felt so confident about playing a few gigs that we had small blue and white crinkle edged cards printed “Get ORGANised with the Mexicans Group.” The ORGAN being highlighted as not many bands possessed a keyboard player in their line up. Yes, Yes, Yes, or should I say Yea, Yea, Yea, I agree it was very naff and I cringe now when I see the one I’ve kept as a memento. The cards were complete with my phone number and we put them in various shop windows around the area and of course Hamilton’s music store. Came the fateful day we had a phone call and joy of joys, yes we had a gig !
So it was the day of our first gig at St Johns Parish Hall Middlesbrough. The date was Wednesday 4th November 1964 and we were booked to play from 8-10 p.m. We felt really important as banners had been made with our name painted on and hung outside over the main door advertising the dance. Smaller posters were dotted around the room on the walls and outside on the church notice board. We all quickly grabbed a poster each from the walls as a souvenir. To say we were nervous was really an understatement as we were literally shaking! (Or rocking and rolling should I say !)We set up our equipment and after a little bit of tuning up we started off. The first songs were from a few of our well rehearsed numbers learnt at the old Toc H hut at Ormesby. Barry took the lead with a few Shadows numbers, then I played a few instrumentals, Telstar by the Tornadoes and Wipeout by Surfaris an easy 12 bar blues number.
We were well received and the place seemed to be mainly packed with girls and very few lads. They were all dancing away and politely clapped after each tune. We had started to enjoy ourselves, but after our full Repertoire of 10 songs we had exhausted all our numbers. There was still two hours to go so what could we do now?
It was Des who came up with the idea.
“If we just play all of them again but do five minutes of purely instrumental in the middle it will make them all longer.”
So that’s what we did and after playing them all 4 times each the night was finished and it was a success!
We were all laughing and having a chat when we were packing our gear up until Des said
“there’s something missing in our music”
We all looked at him wondering what he meant.
“There’s no thumping bass line to keep the rhythm and add a deep richness to our music.”
Of course he was right and we agreed that we needed a bass guitarist and decided to put an advert on the notice board at Hamilton’s music shop with the telephone number for Des on the advert.
Des rang me a couple of days later to say I’ve got to tell you two things.
“Firstly my dad who as you
know is the fleet engineer for Tonibell ice cream vans has booked us for a paying gig on Saturday at the Fountain Pub upstairs.”
This made me very excited and I did a little dance whilst holding the phone and I must confess a war woop’
“What’s that noise”
He said
“Oh it’s just my gran shouting me
I lied, feeling very excited
He went on
“Secondly I think I’ve found a bass player and his names Peter.
“Great news what’s he like?”
“Well he works for a living as he’s left school but he’s about the same age as us. The best news is he has his own bass guitar and Amplifier. I’ve arranged for my dad to pick him up and take us to the gig next week for Tonibell at the Fountain Pub in Ormesby. It was strange how that Pub was playing such a big part in our early musical careers.
“Isn’t he going to practise with us first at Shaw’s Club”
I asked a bit puzzled, wondering why he wasn’t practising with us first before playing a gig but let the matter drop.
The night of the gig at the Fountain saw us arrive with our gear to see 20 Tonibell ice cream vans painted turquoise and white lined up in a row in the pub car park. We could hear the noise of the chatter of people from outside as we lugged our gear through the double doors and up the stairs to the concert room When we entered the room and saw all the people turn round and look at us we got stage fright. Then they all gave us a big cheer when they realised we were the band and it made us all feel better and like real pop stars.
After we had set up all our gear it was firstly the game or should I say games of obligatory bingo before it was our turn to entertain the audience. By this time our performance was going to be made easier as a large quantity of alcohol had been consumed by the audience whilst they had been playing bingo. This meant anything we played was going to sound good to them.
We played a few numbers and I could see Peter on the other side of the stage moving his fingers energetically on his bass guitar but I couldn’t hear a thing.
In-between numbers I waved to Des to come over to me at my keyboard.
“I can’t hear Peter, has he got his amplifier turned down!”
Des grinned and said “ He’s miming because he’s only just started playing the bass!”
I nearly had a fit
“you silly sod you’ve got a new guitarist for the band and he can’t play his guitar!”
“Look he shows promise, he’s learned music at school and I’m going to spend every night with him teaching him how to play the bass.”
This somewhat mollified me but I was still angry with Des.
When we’d finished playing for the night which had gone down great, with shouts of “encore” “more” and whistling we were happy.
Peter came up to me when I was packing away the keyboard into its case and he said “I’m not taking any money from the band until I can play properly”
So feeling a bit better about it I nodded.
“See you at practise on Friday at Shaw’s Club then.
And that is how Peter joined the band and proved to be a talented bass player.
OFB