Fanatics
John Morley - Manager
Memories from Bob Tibbitts (From Rex Brough site)
" I have always been full of music since my piano lessons, I played a trumpet and an E-flat bass in the school brass band (led by Mr Pepper, non-the-less). Well . . . to the point. I started a band at around the '64-'65 period called The Fanatics. We played a lot in the north side of Coventry and into Bedworth and Nuneaton. Pubs and social clubs. Mainly covers of Kinks, Yardbirds, Animals and Beatles but some of my own numbers which usually involved a type of feedback freakout. (It was the beginnings of psych then, mod music slowly morphing into psych). I remember contemporaries of ours were The Flamingos and Susy's Boyfriends. Our manager, John Morley, I believe has since passed on. When I left the band (trouble with losing my voice, we advertised for a lead singer then and we got a chap who I forget his name) the others went on to become Purple Haze with the new lead singer and then later The Drops Of Brandy, I believe they played around Brum for a while. The only recording was at the Grapes Pub on the Radford Road and this has been lost. I really enjoyed those days. Never to be replaced."
Bob Tibbitts and Iain McDonald have recently added some comments.. he explores the development of this group through several follow on groups.
Iain McDonald’s memories from the early period of his musical career.... “After you (Bob Tibbitts) left, Dek (as we called him) found John Duggan for lead guitar and I think Jeff stayed on for a short time and John Morley continued to be the manager. But at one point we got in trouble with the law, we played at the Cross Keys in Bedworth and there was another band that rehearsed there regularly and used to leave their gear there. I didn’t know anything about it until we were on our way home but John Duggan and Dek took a guitar and an amp from there. John gave me the horse brasses from the guitar strap so I got done for receiving stolen goods, we all ended up in court even John Morley. Dek found out the police had been to his house so he took the stolen amp over to Radford Common and smashed it up. Can’t remember all the individual sentencing but I got 2 years probation. John Morley was disgusted about the whole affair and he gave up managing us after that. John Duggan could already drive by then and bought a Commer van and Dek started getting all the bookings. We ended up playing all over the country because wherever we went we would stop at a phone box and Dek would rip out the “entertainment agencies” page from the yellow pages, the further we travelled the more agencies he got in touch with and got bookings…… we even played way down in Devon and Cornwall, out in Suffolk and way up north as well. I think at first we were called the New Fanatics, then Acorn, then Purple Haze and Optical Illusion, etc etc, so many names. I can’t remember how it ended but I think I was the first to leave as I had done quite a few times before because the gigs had turned into outings with all the girlfriends in tow and I didn’t care much for that at the time. I got married to my first wife and then I met up with Ray Harte who I had known since we were about 10 years old, he was a great guitarist by the time he was 14 or so but he got his girlfriend pregnant and got married at 16, so he had been out of the scene for many years by then. He wanted to get back into it and he had met up with Neil Richardson cos he worked with his sister. Neil was jamming around with Loz Netto so he came along as well, so then we needed a drummer. I got Ted Duggan to come along and John Duggan came along to the rehearsal as well. During the rehearsal John, Ted and done a couple of things we used to do with Acorn and Ray was blown away with Johns playing so shortly after we parted company with Loz Netto and that band became Drops of Brandy.”
Trev Teasdel adds
" Rogation Sunday rings a bell - I was putting on the bands at the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club in Queen Victoria Road back end of 1970 and in 1971. Derek McConkey sent us a letter asking for a gig for Rogation Sunday (complete with 6 Go Go dancers!) I booked them - the letter is below.
Also the mention of Neil Richardson and Loz Netto rings a bell. I'd written some lyrics for the Mick Green Blues band - with Tony Morgan on bass and Steve Harrison on drums. The band split up but by May Steve Harrison was in a new band called Nack-ed-en and Steve invited me down to the Queens pub in Hillfields, to their rehearsals one Sunday and asked me to bring my lyrics. I did so but Steve was no longer the drummer by then, replaced by John Bradbury - some 10 years before he joined the Specials. The band was a 3 piece with Loz Netto (later of Sniff n the Tears,) on lead guitar and Neil Richardson (later of Drops of Brandy) on bass. they were a tight rock blues band. After they finished we went to the Dive bar and met up with blues guitarist Chris Jones. John Bradbury had a look through my lyrics and Loz expressed interest in putting some music to some and so did Chris Jones. Nothing came of it though but I became friends with Loz Netto for a while before he left Coventry to join Moon. He was studying drama at Brooklands Annex.
The band complained about the high cost of hiring the Queens to rehearse so i suggested they join the Umbrella Club. For a one off subscription they could practice there free and they did. I used to watch them, Brad used to take the songs apart and work on the changes between verse chorus and bridge and he was a tight drummer, skilful no long boring drum solos. In August 1970 Neol Davies organised an all night Blues rock jam session at the Umbrella and as they were practicing at the Umbrella John Bradbury and Loz Netto were invited to join in. This was the first time that Neol Davies and John Bradbury played together, some 7 years before the two produced The Selecter track that eventually became the B side of Gangsters. Loz joined drummer Al Docker's new band Tsar, Neil Richardson joined Drops of Brandy - a covers band - and John Bradbury was in several bands there after and by 1978 was in Transposed Men with Neol Davies and Kevin Harrison before joining The Specials in 1979.
Bob Tibbetts also writes poems and lyrics and has sent a few for this page.
HARVEST OF THE SHEETS
Oh! flaming red
You have gone
Not from my heart
But from my bed
This crop of senses
Harvested apart
No longer ours
But theirs's instead
The awkward miller
Who grinds the flour
He laughs at us
And bakes the bread
The lack of you
This lonely hour
I curse the fields we grew
And mouths we fed
What of this mildewed plan
Sewn in sheets on my divan
With love that lives
And hope that's dead
Your fields lay burning
Screaming red
It's harvest time
And love lies dead
Bob Tibbitts '04
A CHAIR FOR JESUS
I put out a chair
For Jesus to sit in
I watched and waited
And wanted to greet Him
I'd been as patient as could be
But the seat is still empty
I looked to the night sky
And soaked in the bright sky
Looked for strangers
That might swoop down
And stop by
I've gazed into bottles
Into glasses of wine
Breathed in the Holy Smoke
And struggled with Time
Read mysteries and theories
And between the lines in the books
Set a place at my table
With every breath that I took
Been searching in vain
For water in rain
And woods for the trees
To switch comfort and pain
I guess I'll write a letter to heaven
But won't sign it
Again
RWT 2004
Curiously ripe on a planet of mistakes
She touched her belly, smiled
Then pointed to the crazy sky
She gave birth to a blue-skinned child
A web-footed baby that nobody wanted to buy
Her little pet dog was found later
Something had taken its eyes
And the sheep up there had little holes
Drilled into their heads
No-one knew why
It was '67—
In a distant world that NASA proudly owned
Where lost children were already growing old,
This was nowhere close to heaven . . .
Trying to capture what had been
And what was to be
Those haunting words from yesterday’s dreams
Like a manitou growing . . .
Stretching for the light from that distant star
She gazed down at her newly-born
And sang a mournful lullaby
Of a fresh and safe life
On a bright blue world — La La La . . .
RWT 2004
LAND OF NOD
Would we sleep
The velvet, dream-filled sea;
Get lured far out of depth
To worlds that may not be?
This lifeless fleet
Of empty vessels with hands complete
They form the waiting cast
A faceless gang procession
And voyage that may not last.
Crimson sails unfurl
Each restless sleeping hour
With silver surge of moon
And stories told anew
The ghostly faces drawn
To join the eager crew.
A stormy rain, ever-changing stream
Busy with dread and alien cunning
Performing stealth on ancient screens
They crowd this tidal void
Anticipating their awful climax . . .
The ending of the dream?
Bob Tibbitts 15-3-10
A CLOCK IS A TIME MACHINE
Today becomes yesterday
As tomorrow becomes today
Time arrives as a flow
And is gone before you know
Don’t ask me how
There is no such time
As now
So we walk that narrow line
Between yesterday and tomorrow
A master known as time
Our lives will always borrow
Tic Toc Time travels backwards
While anticipation lives
We sense and always follow
The hands of the clock
Wear our lives away
And in an instant moves on
To yesterday
Bob Tibbitts 2004
