The Mild aka Electric Circus / Pagan Sabbat

 The Mild - aka - Electric Circus / Pagan Sabbat.

circa 1967 'fantastic new group' - ad in CET 1967 Source Broadgate Gnome

BACK TO THE BAND INDEX Jim Pryal - Drums / Steve Lougheed on guitar / then John Jones on guitar and then Eddie White - Guitar / Dave Holt on bass (later played with Bob Brolly's Cavalry/ Phil Street on vocals (later with Monster Magnet) /Manager Bill Luckman. Rejected by EMI Known later as The Electric Circus and then Pagan Sabbat. From Jim Pryal " I did my first gig at The Coachmakers WMC, Coventry in about 1964 with a school mate, Steve Lougheed on guitar and me on drums ( an orange sparkle Gigster snare and a suitcase for a bass drum with the name 'The Electrons' painted on the front). We played Shadows tunes quite badly. The drum would be worth a bit now. (Same make and colour as Mick Fleetwood started on I found out later from a tv programme but he had a whole kit!).We then expanded the band and had John Jones on guitar, Dave Holt on bass, who later played with Bob Brolly's Cavalry and Phil Street on vocals. We had a manager then, Bill Luckman. Bill ran a driving school in Earsdon and tried to get us signed to EMI. We used to rehearse in St Johns church, Spon End. Bill came to see us one day with a 'no thanks' letter from EMI. I remember the EMI letterhead being brown. It still felt great just to get rejected by EMI. Phil went on later to be road manager for Smackee and now lives in Perth with his family. More on Phil later. We used to play over at The Fox Inn at Lutterworth and round and about wherever we could get gigs. I had upgraded to a Premier Oyster shell finish at that time. This band had several names, The Mild, The Electric Circus and my favourite 'Pagan Sabbat'. We did not know that Black Sabbath had started up in Birmingham. I bought an old Suttons bakery diesel bread van and we painted it black with the name on the side. We changed guitarists and got Eddie White who lived in Widdrington Road to take over. Like me, Eddie had quite a stammer when he was young so it was hilarious listening to the conversations. We were probably not very good but we did a fair few gigs and enjoyed the crack of mates in a band. We would sometimes get a gig over Birmingham way and would stop off at 'Alex's' Pie stand' in Brum that was a well known meeting place for bands late at night.The Move were there one night." " At the time the hippy movement started mid to late 60s, we had another manager, Dennis Williams, who bought us some smart kaftans (from a shop that was right opposite the Colin Campbell pub on the corner?) It was about the time of 'All you need is love'. He used to drive us round for a while in a smart black Humber Super Snipe. (till it caught fire!) We thought we were the dogs b******s!! We supported Jigsaw one night at the Courtaulds club in Lockhurst Lane. I'd finally got a brand new kit by then. It was a Premier red sparkle with a chrome 2000 snare (for the anoraks). I got it on HP from Crane's music shop in Gosford Street along with a Shure Unidyne mic and boom stand. There was nothing like a good old Hire purchase agreement."