Memories
BACK TO THE BAND INDEX
Ray Borkowski " The Memories played a lot on Monday nights at the Smithfield Arms, Hales Street, Coventry. I would sometimes get up on stage and play bass along with John Hughes - Vocals, Paul Ashfield (lead guitar) and Tom Ryan on drums, Mick Cashin - bass (Later, in the 80's with Firefly) .Eventually the Memories had 2 drummers on stage, the extra one being Tom. It was only a small room and 2 drummers pounding away made a really big sound. The Smithfield Hotel no longer exists along with many pubs and clubs I played in. Is that sad, or is it progress? Memories - first left Paul Ashfield - lead guitar,
second left Tom Ryan drummer
third back row Peter Hewins [ passed away peacefully at Derriford Hospital on August 19th 2010, aged 56 years. fourth back row Ray Borkowski bass [Ray Barry]
front row Peter Hughes vocals .
From Paul Kennelly - Peppermint Kreem That is so cool Ray , that you played with Tom Ryan... another link between Peppermint Kreem and Journey of a Lifetime.
Ray Borkowski
I played with the Memories on a freelance basis during much of 1975. I never attended a single practice session, I'm not even sure the band ever practiced! I remember John the vocalist, I can't think of his sir name. Paul Ashfield played lead guitar he also had his own band called Riff Raff.
I enjoyed my freelance status for a couple of years being available to help bands out at a moments notice."
Trev Teasdel
"Autumn 1974 I was running the Hobo Workshop gigs on Monday nights at the Holyhead Youth Centre in Coventry. Along with youth worker Bob Rhodes we scheduled Coventry Precinct concert one Saturday morning to publicise the work of the Hobo Workshop. One of the bands we booked was Memories. Another was Phoenix (Dave Pepper's first band).
As it happened Memories were the only band to play that day. Their mix of pop songs went down well with the crowd and through the 50 watt PA helped to relocate a child separated from its parents. All was going well and people were enjoying when the police closed it down. Bob Rhodes had secured all the permissions necessary but the police alleged that there had been complaints and that the sound (through 50 watt amps!) could be heard as far away as Little Park Police Station!
We had no option but to wrap it up but in terms of publicity for the Hobo Workshop, we got more attention than could otherwise have been hoped for! The Coventry Evening Telegraph reported the shut down concert on the front page of their paper, hitting the stands by lunch time. We were still packing away when somebody turned up with a newspaper.
We rallied the troops and got every one to write into to the paper to complain about the shut down and explain the good work we were trying to do for the youth and musicians of the city. We kept the publicity going for the next seven days!
Saturday we were on the front page
Monday Bob Rhodes was interviewed about it
Tuesday - there was a letter about it in the paper
Wednesday the editor dedicated the editorial to us given the volume of responses he received.
Thurdays - Trev Teasdel was interviewed for the Coventry Journal
Friday Coventry Evening Telegraph printed an abridged letter from myself - Trev Teasdel.
Memories were an unlikely band to be featured in such a protest being a pop band. Some of the other bands might have been more anarchistic but they were the right band to open the show, engage with a wide ranging audience and held the crowd.
Here are the cuttings -
From Saturday 14th September 1974 Front Page Coventry Evening Telegraph
Monday 16th September 1974- Bob Rhode's article in Coventry Evening Telegraph
Tuesday 17th September 1974 Liz Scott's letter to Coventry Evening Telegraph.
Wednesday September 18th 1974 - Editorial in Coventry Evening Telegraph
Thursday September 19th 1974 - Article in Coventry Journal based at the time across the road from the Coventry Evening Telegraph. Trev Teasdel and Bob Rhodes were interviewed for this. Memories are mentioned in this article!
Friday 20th September 1974 - Trev Teasdel (Coordinator of the Hobo Workshop) had an abridged letter in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. The letter was very long - in fact there was more than one - so the editor wrote to me and asked permission to abridge to a length he could print and promised to maintain the gist of what I was trying to say.
second left Tom Ryan drummer
third back row Peter Hewins [ passed away peacefully at Derriford Hospital on August 19th 2010, aged 56 years. fourth back row Ray Borkowski bass [Ray Barry]
front row Peter Hughes vocals .
From Paul Kennelly - Peppermint Kreem That is so cool Ray , that you played with Tom Ryan... another link between Peppermint Kreem and Journey of a Lifetime.
Ray Borkowski
I played with the Memories on a freelance basis during much of 1975. I never attended a single practice session, I'm not even sure the band ever practiced! I remember John the vocalist, I can't think of his sir name. Paul Ashfield played lead guitar he also had his own band called Riff Raff.
I enjoyed my freelance status for a couple of years being available to help bands out at a moments notice."
Trev Teasdel
"Autumn 1974 I was running the Hobo Workshop gigs on Monday nights at the Holyhead Youth Centre in Coventry. Along with youth worker Bob Rhodes we scheduled Coventry Precinct concert one Saturday morning to publicise the work of the Hobo Workshop. One of the bands we booked was Memories. Another was Phoenix (Dave Pepper's first band).
As it happened Memories were the only band to play that day. Their mix of pop songs went down well with the crowd and through the 50 watt PA helped to relocate a child separated from its parents. All was going well and people were enjoying when the police closed it down. Bob Rhodes had secured all the permissions necessary but the police alleged that there had been complaints and that the sound (through 50 watt amps!) could be heard as far away as Little Park Police Station!
We had no option but to wrap it up but in terms of publicity for the Hobo Workshop, we got more attention than could otherwise have been hoped for! The Coventry Evening Telegraph reported the shut down concert on the front page of their paper, hitting the stands by lunch time. We were still packing away when somebody turned up with a newspaper.
We rallied the troops and got every one to write into to the paper to complain about the shut down and explain the good work we were trying to do for the youth and musicians of the city. We kept the publicity going for the next seven days!
Saturday we were on the front page
Monday Bob Rhodes was interviewed about it
Tuesday - there was a letter about it in the paper
Wednesday the editor dedicated the editorial to us given the volume of responses he received.
Thurdays - Trev Teasdel was interviewed for the Coventry Journal
Friday Coventry Evening Telegraph printed an abridged letter from myself - Trev Teasdel.
Memories were an unlikely band to be featured in such a protest being a pop band. Some of the other bands might have been more anarchistic but they were the right band to open the show, engage with a wide ranging audience and held the crowd.
Here are the cuttings -
From Saturday 14th September 1974 Front Page Coventry Evening Telegraph
Monday 16th September 1974- Bob Rhode's article in Coventry Evening Telegraph
Tuesday 17th September 1974 Liz Scott's letter to Coventry Evening Telegraph.
Wednesday September 18th 1974 - Editorial in Coventry Evening Telegraph
Friday 20th September 1974 - Trev Teasdel (Coordinator of the Hobo Workshop) had an abridged letter in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. The letter was very long - in fact there was more than one - so the editor wrote to me and asked permission to abridge to a length he could print and promised to maintain the gist of what I was trying to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment