Tuxedo Junction

Tuxedo Junction

Tuxedo Junction c1967 - 71 (A Coventry band, also listed on Brum Beat - http://www.brumbeat.net/tuxedo.htm

Line UpAndy Daly guitars
Terry Hobson drums (left in 1968)
Keith Jaynes bass guitar
Brian Stone vocal, harmonica
Tom Lane drums (joined in 1968)

From Tom Lane 

" I, Tom Lane, was a drummer. I have played in many Coventry bands from the 60's onwards. Jason and the Canaenites etc."

From  Keith Jaynes - 

"I played bass for them for most of their 6 years of existence We were more accurately a Warwickshire / Coventry band but played over most of the country, and become one of the top blues bands on the circuit. The really crazy things is, ..... after 35 years we have reformed, it's a blast. I also had a stint with Peppermint Kreem, a band that was ahead of it's time and probably deserved to go further than we did."

Tuxedo Junction played locally in the Coventry and Birmingham area.

The spring of 1967 saw the coming together of Coventry’s prime blues unit, The Tuxedo Junction Blues Band. I recently got loaned a number of amazing posters for the museum off my friend Tony Beard.

One of the posters is for a gig at Rugby College of Engineering Technology at Ferndown Hostel.

The concert took place in 1968 and featured two local bands, Peppermint Circus and Tuxedo Junction for just five shillings. It’s a wonderfully rare find, as both bands had a strong pedigree, with Peppermint Circus being signed to A&M Records and Tuxedo Junction being as true blues as you could get in the area.

The spring of 1967 saw the coming together of Coventry’s prime blues unit, The Tuxedo Junction Blues Band.

Guitarist Andy Daly placed an advert in the Coventry Evening Telegraph for blues loving musicians looking to form a band. John Hammond fan Brian Stone was the first to answer and in doing so gave the band a vocalist and superb blues harp player. Come the summer the line-up was complete and looking something like this: Andy Daly, Brian Stone, Brian ‘Butch’ Butler, David Oughton, Tony Nelson and Roger Tonge. Like many Coventry and Warwickshire bands they used Friars Promotions as their promoters and soon secured a once a month residency at The Chesford Grange as well as gigs at the Walsgrave and Cheylesmore public houses in Coventry, The Pump Rooms in Leamington, Benn Hall in Rugby and noted Rugby blues house The Woolpack.

The Woolpack in Rugby had such a strong reputation in the blues world that New Orleans Blues king Jack Dupree played there on two occasions, while the Ben Hall has staged gigs for the likes of John Lee Hooker and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

The boys (with new members Keith Jaynes and Terry Hobson) were branching out now and playing the likes of London, including the famous Marquee, where the Five Live Yardbirds was recorded.

Meanwhile back home the band went into The Midland Sound Recorders studio in Balsall Common and recorded a Demo EP. Tracks included “Crossroads”, “Key To The Highway”, “Moving On”, “Evening” and an Andy Daly original “Take Time Out”.

It was never intended as a commercial product but it does act as a ‘moment in time’ for the band, much the same as the other demo they recorded a take on the Yardbirds fave “Mister You’re A Better Man Than I”.

This recording was sent to John Peel and they still have the hand written card that he sent with his reply, it reads: “I listened to them several times, the band is obviously good, the solo part in Better Man I really liked. Unfortunately there isn’t a great deal I can do now as I have got as many people as I can cope with. Tuxedo Junction are obviously better than many bands already recording so I shouldn’t despair, give them my love anyway. If they stay together they should make it. Love John Peel.”

Sadly the band didn't stay together, and the natural course of the band was run and they called it a day in 1971.
Pete Chambers - Coventry Telegraph 

Comment by Paul Kennelly 2014

"In 1972 , Keith Jaynes joined my band Peppermint Kreem and brought his special kind of bass playing to the sound. It was the second incarnation of Peppermint Kreem and by the end of 1973 it all faded away , the last Coventry gig being the concert in the War memorial Park that year." Paul.

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