Rock'n'Roll
Mart
Rock'n'Roll
Mart
2009 - Martian Signals
Lars Weigle - bass, Andreas Paul - keyboards, Me - vocals,
Stefan Meinhardt - drums, Markus Clermont - guitar
This is my first band after moving to Germany in 1997. I kept my hand in by making a few guest appearances in Germany and Holland with the Dutch 60's band ZUV-X-8 but this is is the real thing again. I can't believe I waited so long but now I'm enjoying every minute of playing with my new german "boys". For more info about the band and videos take a look at our Blog at:
Live at our 2011 gig in Halle-Hörste
also here you can find my 2011 performance with the Dutch band ZUV-X-8
1990 - OK Muskey
"Hillbilly" Mick Deiton, "Rowdy" Jack Yates, Marty Smith, Bole, "Sizzlin" Pete Haddock
Yet another change of direction, my one and only country band (contemporary, if you please!). It was 1990 and time to put a new band together, myself, Steve Andrews, Mick Deiton, and Neal Arowsmith got together one evening at Beck's Studios in Wellingborough essentially to put together a "dirty" Rock and Roll band. During the rehearsals we started to jam and someone started a "stupid" country lick up and everyone joined in (yeeha). Much to our amazement it sounded really authentic (to our ears anyway) and the seed of an idea was born. By the next week we had found a pedal steel player (we didn't hang around) and Pete Haddock's amazing sound just blew us away (you're in mate!) and OK Muskey was born. We didn't know much country material but we soon researched a load of songs and Pete guided us in the right direction and we got working on a contemporary country sound. Steve Andrews left for America around this time and Mick also moved away, they were quickly replaced by "Bole" (name please) a regular country guitarist and who else my old mate Kevin on bass. We made a lot of recordings and gigged pretty regularly, a lot of our performances at country gigs were met with raised eyebrows as we still had our Rock and Roll attitude on stage and still played hard (but in a country style) LOL. Bole left and was replaced by Tim Richards a really great country guitarist from Corby and with this line up we recorded a complete live gig at Mr. Bip's in Corby .......and so we come to the end of my musical life in England, the very last gig that I played on the week that I moved to Germany was with the Muskey's at the embankment club in Wellingborough at a benefit concert for poor old Wilf Woods (who had been sadly hospitalized (long term) after a vicious late night attack in Rushden). OK Muskey was a band that demanded new singing disciplines, not easy for Rock and Roll shouter like me but while we were together we had a really great time on and off stage, super memories. Pete if you read this please get in touch!
1986 - Lost Weekend
Eugene "Sonnie" Torlot - sax, Kevin Asbrey - bass, Steve Short - drums,
Barri Jones - guitar / vocals, me - keyboards / vocals
This was where I sold my soul to the devil and joined an existing band to earn some money! Lost Weekend was a very sucessful club band that gigged up to three times every week and although our repertoire was enormous I can't remember us ever rehearsing! We were a band that played "requests" however obscure or crap just to keep the punters happy, this was mainly thanks to Barri who was a human jukebox. The first line-up that I joined had the legendary Stuart Loakes on drums, he was Animal in person and would come around from behind his kit while Barri played the drums and sing "Why must I be a teenager in love" while slowly let his trousers fall to his ankles...hilarious! Also in the band at this time was Sonnie Torlot on sax formerly with Coast to Coast who had a number 3 hit with "Do the Hucklebuck" and John Godfrey, formerly the bass player with Mungo Jerry who had a worldwide hit with "In the summertime" and toured all over the world. He was an amazing bass player but lived a Rock'n'Roll lifestyle that forced him to eventually leave the band. I managed to talk my old friend Kevin Asbrey to replace him and around the same time Steve Short joined on drums, this is the lineup on the picture above. We played loads of gigs and even went out to Switzerland for a week and played every night at different venues at a ski resort. On the second or third day Sonny broke his arm in a Skiing acident but still managed to carry on playing the sax. It was a great week, partying until the early hours every night. The band sounded really good when we were rocking and we had some great nights but eventually after a couple of years playing the clubs and the Birdie Song I could stand it no more and left the band.
1984 - Avant Gardeners
Bob Parker, Me, Kevin Asbrey, ?, Phil Dann in the garden of The Racehorse, Northampton
All of the bands have special memories for me for different reasons, the Avant Gardeners were without doubt the most creative band of all of them, two terrific song writers in Kevin Asbrey and Phil Dann (Fifi and the Firbirds) accompanied by a philosophy of "anything goes". We spent many hours recording ideas and songs in Phil's garden shed, which was extremely small, possibly room for three people standing up and used an early 4 track cassette recorder. Phil was a master track bouncer and so we were able to do some pretty amazing recordings. I suppose that the music style was indie(ish) but very hard to define. I'm know that the guys brought the best out of me and it was always really challenging to come up with lyrics for their great tunes. Every time that we met there was something new happening. We didn't just record though, for gigs we prepared upstairs at The Oakley Arms in Rushden and were joined my Bob on drums also various keyboard players, Heather from PLI, ? (pictured above) and also ? a brilliant keyboardist from Northampton. I remember us playing in Buckingham and at The Racehorse in Northampton. The recordings that you can hear on the jukebox hopefully show just how talented this band was.
1982 - Precious Little Idols
Steve Voss - guitar, Bob Parker - drums, Me - vocals / sax / keyboards,
Mick Deiton - bass, Steve Andrews - guitar
You can download songs from Precious Little Idols here:
One of the most satisfy bands that I've had the pleasure of being in. Everyone except Mick could sing and me, Steve and Steve were all writing original material in a vein that had one foot in the pop world and the other in "arty" experimentation....cool! There were so many songs coming from Steve and Steve that it didn't take long to be gigging with all original material (another first). Live, we were learning how to put on a tremendous live show, crazy clothes, lights anything was possible at this time and we felt sure that a recording contract was bound to come our way with the strength of our material. We came to the notice of the newly born Radio Northampton and were invited to write the theme music and jingles for Howard Stableford's Saturday Express Show we also recorded some live sessions that were later aired on Howard's show. To be cont'd.
1981 - The Fabulons
Me - vocals, Steve Andrews - guitar, Mick Deiton- bass, Bob Parker -drums, Steve Voss - guitar
The Fabulons was a short lived affair. This was the band that we were planning prior to the end of the Retreads as a platform for the original songs that we were writing that we knew could never become Retreads material. The lineup would be all Retreads except for Wilby and Terry (who had already left The Retreads to be replaced by guess who... Mick Deiton on bass) plus Steve Voss on guitar. Steve was fresh in from New Zealand where he had spent most of his life (although he was actually english). Steve was also a strong song writer and between us we soon had a gigable set of original material and started to build a big local following. It wasn't so long after our first recording sessions at Beck's (?) that we changed the name to Precious Little Idols (why?) (see above).
1980 - The Retreads
Terry Woods- bass, Me- vocals / guitar, Wilby Meadows - keyboards / guitar,
Bob Parker - drums, Steve Andrews - guitar
You can download songs from The Retreads here:
The Retreads website at Detour Records:
Until January 2010 The Retreads were "history" (the early Retreads story you can see in detail at the Detour Records link above) but then I received a call from Dizzy holmes of Detour Records in London to tell me that a contact of his named Nobu from 1977 Records in Japan wanted to re-release The Retreads single. After picking myself up off the floor I started to try and track down all the guys. Terry and Bob still lived in Rushden, Wilby was also not far away in Northampton, Steve and myself were farther afield in Arizona and Germany. The news was greeted with more than some surprise but also an element of validation of the quality of the record and of who cares if it's 30 years at last someone has discovered us! The wheels were soon set in motion to get master tapes over to Japan, fortunately I still had the tapes and these I had digitized and mailed over. Nobu already had a copy of the original single to reproduce the cover from. The single was reproduced in "spanking" red vinyl to match the cover and released in August. Soon there were many different companies throughout the world offering copies for sale and with this renewed interest we planned a Retreads reunion for the next time I was in England, For the rest of the story jump here:
Below is a movie of a very early Retreads rehearsal only a few weeks into the formation of the band with our original drummer Kevin Jacobs (thanks to Janet Davies for providing the movie).
1980 - KSN
Me prior to the fishpond escapade (I'm sure the beer had nothing to do with it!)
I joined KSN by answering an advert (I think). They were based in Luton and played a sort of neo-progressive rock. They were all old public school friends and I don't think I fitted in too well. Anyway we rehearsed at a great studio called Quest in Luton and shared a room with Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span) and...roll of drums, Kajagoogoo (a bunch of rich kids with no talent) and we all know what happened to them (I was really happy when they had their chart success, they thoroughly deserved it). I lasted as long as the first gig which was outside in a big garden at a big house, jumping into the fish pond at the end of the set didn't go down to well with my slightly reserved and pretentious musical colleagues and that was the end of KSN for me.
Facts: I have no idea of the names of the other guys or what KSN stood for!
1978 - Cougar Groove
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| Steve Andrews - guitar, Me - vocals, Bob Bucky - keyboards, John Redpath - drums Wilf Woods - guitar, Terry? - bass |
Many cassettes of the single were sent out and one day upon returning home I was greeted with the mind blowing news that I had been sent a telegram (remember those?) from no other than WEA records (who we didn't send a cassette to by the way). They'd heard the song and wanted to meet with us asap....aaaaarggghhh! at last! We soon met with Mike Heap an A&R guy who'd heard Centre Pages and agreed to make a few changes to the song as the lyrics were somewhat risque (for those days) but for all intensive purposes it looked like a deal was in the offing and we would be signed by WEA shortly after the Pretenders...to be contd...
You can download songs from Cougar Groove here:
1977 - The Zipppz
Me - vocals / guitar, Neil "Jack" Arrowsmith - drums, Wilf Woods - guitar / vocals, ? - bass
It was 1977 and the era of Punk and so a complete change of direction for me. Not wanting to miss the bus I joined up with Wilf, Jack and ? (all previously with local R&B band Wild Thing) and we formed a power pop / punk band playing all original material written by Wilf with both of us sharing lead vocals.This was our first big crack at fame and fortune and although we played some local gigs we had set our sites on being spotted in London. It wasn't long before we managed to get the chance to play at the infamous Roxy Club (birthplace of the Sex Pistols and The Damned etc.) the 101 Club (where we supported The UK Subs, to an audience of Skinheads) and The ? in Stoke Newington. These gigs were a real eye opener after playing sleepy Stanwick. The audiences were crazy and we would regularly come off stage covered in gob from the admiring punks (this was a sign of popularity....honest!) Once or twice every week we would get in our beaten up Trannie and head to London. One night The Damned came to watch us and borrowed our gear to do an impromptu set. We made some recordings at Beck Studios in Wellingborough and also at Cliff Richards studio in Regent Street. You can hear some of these songs (in poor quality) on the jukebox. Wilf was a great song writer and of all the people that I've met during my career he was the one who had the most "star" quality. Unfortunately we were never quite in the right place at the right time and it never happened for us but I'll never forget my days (nights) with the Zipppz. (Does anyone have any pictures?)
1976 - Moroccan Roll
Steve Andrews - guitar, Me - vocals, Bob Bucky - keyboards, "Snakey" Pete Leyton - drums, Chris Turney - guitar, Mick Deiton - bass
Me, Mick and Steve again but this time with three new guys, I'm not sure how we got to know Chris, Bob and Snakey (maybe someone can help me here) but anyway this was yet another cover band but the level of musicianship was going up all the time. We played the pop rock standards of the time, The Cars -Just what I needed, Toto - Hold the Line etc. and had a really good sound. Big gig was Stanwick Working Mens Club!
1975 - Steve Martyn's Equator
Mick Deiton - bass, Me - vocals, Paul Longland - keyboards,
Steve Andrews - guitar, Tony Hall - drums
There seems to be a bit of a theme going here, spot the same old faces? This is the Steve Martyn Band + new member Paul Longland on keyboards. The addition of keyboards allowed us to experiment with more progressive material, our big number being Lady Fantasy by Camel we also attempted a couple of huge standards in Stairway to Heaven and Freebird. Our big local gig was at The Bull in Irthlingborough this was where I really began to develop my role as frontman. I can remember standing on a bar stool at the end of the night and punching the air only to find out that I was directly under a big wooden light shade my hand went "inside" and got trapped (more shades of Spinal Tap) I'm sure that the audience was impressed lol.
1974 - The Steve Martyn Band
Me - vocals, Tony Hall - drums, Mike Deiton - Bass,
Steve "Faz" Farrar - guitar, Steve Andrews - guitar.
This was basically Super Suntan with yet another drummer (shades of Spinal Tap here). By now we had left school and myself, Steve and Faz were all working for Unilever and this picture was taken at Colworth House, Sports Club (on the Unilever site at Sharnbrook). Tony just happened to be the brother of another one of our work colleagues. As you can see from the picture at the ripe old age of 17 -18 we now had "management". This was in the form of Ray Gilbert (who owned a "boutique" in Wellingborough and his partner in crime John Thomas (no kidding this was his real name!). They managed to get us a residency at the Nine Arches Hotel in Thrapston and kitted us out in matching suits! This was our first real taste of regular gigging.
1973 - Super Suntan
Elliot Lee - drums, Steve Andrews - guitar, Steve "Faz" Farrar - guitar,
Mike Deiton - bass, Me - vocals
Mike Deiton - bass, Me - vocals
Super Suntan was formed out of Why Call It Anything, another schoolfriend "Faz" joined us on guitar and a new drummer Elliot was brought in.
1971 - Why Call It Anything
Nick Ogden - drums, Mick Deiton - bass, Steve Andrews - guitar, Me - vocals / ring modulator
Sadly there are no pictures of this my first band that I know of. Myself, Steve were best mates and we were together with Mick at Wellingborough Grammar School. We used to meet nearly every night at Mick's house because it was old and big and had a cellar which was our practice room. My first role (as a non-musician) was to play the drums, this was immediately a disaster and so the only other step for a non-musician was to sing and I've never looked back lol. We then persuaded Nick (who was the only guy we knew who had a drum kit!) to join. We played a mixture of covers and our own material, principally a long piece stolen from "Principle Edwards Magic Theatre" which we called "Why Call It Anything".
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