Rangers
c early 1960s - Line up: Jonny Maxwell - guitar, Vic (Rusty) Unit - guitar, Roger Laws - Guitar, Eddie ? - Drums. From Barford Nr Warwick. Played locally. 'Shakin' All Over' was one of their best numbers. Source Broadgate GnomeSunday, May 23, 2021
The Rainbows
The Rainbows
Circa 1969 - 1970 - Psychedelic Pop - Source Broadgate Gnome.
They also made a drastic image change, wearing make-up and sporting Vidal Sassoon hair styles and long flowing robes in rainbow colours.
Signing with manager Ashley Kovacs and moving to London they signed with CBS and released 2 singles.
'New Day Dawning' had previously been recorded during the later days of The Peeps in March 1968.
When they split Albrighton formed the German based Nektar.
Singles:
A: Rainbows/ B: Nobody But You (CBS 3995 1969)
A:New Day Dawning/B: Days And Nights (CBS 4568 1969)
Tracks found on Compilation CDs
Rainbows - on "Circus Days Vol 4/5
From Pete Chambers - Godiva Rocked to a Backbeat
"The Peeps reinvented themselves as a progressive band in the mould of Traffic called Rainbows with sculptured hair, bizarre eye make up, multicoloured flowing robes and moved their base to London. They just about scraped into the 70's before becoming Still Life. They released a lot of stuff on CBS and spent a lot of time in Germany at the Star Club in Hamburg. Ozzy Osbourne (Pre-Sabbath) joined them on stage for a finale."
Roy Albrighton Site
https://coventrygigs.blogspot.com/2013/06/nektar-roye-albrighton.html Pete Clemons on Roy Albrighton.
Saturday, May 22, 2021
Railroad
Railroad
Feb /March 1971 - a short term band that never got off the ground.
BACK TO THE BAND INDEX"The band was created by Tony Mojo Morgan after the Mick Green Blues had split up. I
 |
| Mojo (Tony Morgan) |
think they were trying to forge a new identity / direction. I arranged for them to practice in the little theatre at the back of the Umbrella club around Feb / March 1971. The nucleus consisted of Mick Green (Lead / rhythm guitar) Mojo (Tony) Morgan bass and Steve Harrison drums Jim Allen on sax. Jim was later in Tony's Ska band EMF, in 1981 they made a record for RCA but it wasn't a hit but they did win the battle of the bands and the single was also on the Battle of the Bands album 1981. I remember Mojo introducing me to Jim in Coventry city center and he turned up to a session at the Umbrella.
I think they were trying to expand the line up a bit with (if my memory serves well!). I can't be certain of the line up now, I don't think Tony remembers it at all but it was recorded in my diary at the time.
Steve Harrison asked me (Trev Teasdel) if I would try vocals for the band and write some
lyrics - I hadn't done vocals before but I did write lyrics and had given some to the Mick green Blues Band via Steve Harrison and Tony had set one to music at least.
Steve Harrison asked me (Trev Teasdel) if I would try vocals for the band and write some
 |
| Steve Harrison left |
lyrics - I hadn't done vocals before but I did write lyrics and had given some to the Mick green Blues Band via Steve Harrison and Tony had set one to music at least.
Trev's Diary entries February / March 1971
March 1st Mon 1971 - Railroad booked in at the Umbrella club but the band split up.
These are the lyrics I wrote with Railroad in mind -
I was influenced by the poetic style in terms of lyrics, by Pete Sinfield of King Crimson at
this stage. Glaik is a Scottish word meaning fool but the inference I took from my original source was one who lived under illusions.
 |
| Trev Teasdel |
this stage. Glaik is a Scottish word meaning fool but the inference I took from my original source was one who lived under illusions.
Beneath the Phaeic Sky (Trev Teasdel 1971
The Black Knight's spectre
Prowls the battlement.
Beneath the phaeic sky
Sounds his sad lament.
The phantom pillion rider groans
as he leaps a lazing stile.
The faceless henchman totes his gun
and points it with beguile.
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can't see.
The moon has closed her eyes
to the surreptitious hand of fate
The passageway becomes alive
as armoury vibrates.
The trees they are approaching now
Like Birnam Wood on old Macbeth
The assassin's blade drips with blood
There's a stench of cobwebbed death.
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can't see.
Beelzebub whets his fangs
and summons the evil firedrake
As a prudent Aquila swoops in
along the monster's wake.
The unsuspecting demon squirms
with the stab of a venom tongue
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can't see.
GLAIK (The Illusion of the Lake) by Trev Teasdel 1971
I tried to catch the sun
but it was only a reflection in the water.
I was only seeking treasure
But I ended up 'kissing the gunner's daughter'
The velvet coated bard I followed
was just a caird* who was in a play.
I looked up to the sky to see
they had blackened the 'eye of the day'
chorus
Glaik, Gaik, Glaik (elongate the word musically)
The Illusion of the lake.
I went to see the archimage
but he turned out to be just a javel.
I pulled the bedclothes back
to see a snake unravel.
I almost made the rainbow's end
when it suddenly turned wan
I gledged upon a peacock
who suddenly lost his fan.
The Illusion of the lake.
I went to see the archimage
but he turned out to be just a javel.
I pulled the bedclothes back
to see a snake unravel.
I almost made the rainbow's end
when it suddenly turned wan
I gledged upon a peacock
who suddenly lost his fan.
......................................
Vocabulary
*Caird (plural cairds) (Britain, dialect) A travelling tinker; a tramp, or sturdy beggar.Glaik is an archaic Scottish word with various definitions - eg foolish, giddy but in the dictionary I used when I wrote it in the 70's the meaning given as an 'illusion' and that's the sense in which I used it. The nearest I can find on line is 'to delude' but like many obscure words there is much debate around its earliest meaning.
The Radicals
The Radicals
Circa 1965 Source Broadgate Gnome. R&B / Beat group.
Line up: Miles Courtier (guitar), Howard Coffel (guitar), Steve Sommerville (keyboards), Neil Owen (bass), Ron Rai (drums).
From Wyken area, played 'Spirituals and Blues' at Wyken Congregational Church in June 1965.
Ra Ho Tep
Ra Ho Tep
RA-HO-TEP
circa 1969 - 71
Tim James - alto-sax, tenor-sax, clarinet, electric-piano, harp and vocals (Tim played with Acme Electric Patent Band / Soul Sect / Bo Weevils / Monster Magnet / Last Fair Deal and others
Joe Craner - drums, trumpet and vibes
Phil Porter - bass-guitar, string-bass and acoustic-guitar
" Ra Ho Tep [1969-1977 ish]
Ra Ho Tep was the name of an Egyptian sun god and an appropriate name for a band in the 60s/70s. Featured myself on alto-sax, tenor-sax, clarinet, electric-piano, harp and vocals, Phil Porter on bass-guitar, string-bass and acoustic-guitar and Joe Craner on drums, trumpet and vibes. We very often played one piece of totally improvised music per set, although the pieces developed strong formats as we played them, due to our almost telepathic understanding of each other. People would ask us how long it took to put these complicated arrangements together. I didn't have the heart to tell them that we "made it up as we went along". We also played "covers" by as diverse a collection as Marvin Gaye, Laura Nyro, James Taylor, and many more who would never have recognised their songs after we'd finished with them. Our finale was nearly always Concierto de Aranjuez, a moody piece by Spanish classical composer Joquin Rodriguez. We played all over the country ... people tended to love us or hate us, the latter if we were mistakenly booked to play college discos - where our style of music didn't fit in with "Brown Sugar" and the like.
I think we peaked in 1973 with the Polyglot Dance Group. when we teamed up with some student dancers from a college in Surrey and incorporated modern dance into the improvisational routine. After a few years Joe got other commitments and we did recruit temporary drummers. The band eventually folded due to our own other commitments and geographical difficulties "
Ra Ho Tep was not your average band even in the early 70's when bands embraced the avant garde but they were very much in evidence in 1970 - 71 at Coventry venues - the Umbrella Club, The Lanch Poly, Warwick University arts festival and the Diggers fest, the Village, The Plough Club and many more of the venues at that time. Tim James was a Coventry music legend.
Comment by The Broadgate Gnome from the original Vox Hobo site c 2008
Joe Craner , Percussion and Phil Porter, guitar.
Old mates from the Marquee days in the sixties ( Boll Weevils) and mad enough to agree to Sphincta handling them.
It was their desire to play in the ruins that started that all off.
I think their Arjens bag is in the gnome archive on here
P
Posted by: Broadgate Gnome | 03/26/2008 at 07:55 PM
Below - Ra Ho Tep at the Lanch Poly Coventry 1971 with Fresh Maggots and Al Docker's band Tsar.
Below - Ra Ho Tep at the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club - put on by Trev Teasdel 1971 but it was not the first time they played there. Advert from the Coventry Evening Telegraph.
Above from the Umbrella News sheet.
Tim James was also involved with teaching the blues in Coventry schools with John Alderson of Last Fair Deal, Wandering John and the Travelling Riverside Blues Band.
Here is an article on by Pete Chambers in the Backbeat column for the Coventry Telegraph 2007.
Why the blues is all about good news
The subject today is the blues, and the inspiring news that it is now being taught in Coventry schools.
The blues may be considered somewhat archaic these days, but it does form the basis of most popular musical forms that have developed over the past 90 years.
Tim James and John Alderson are blues musicians turned teachers; they go back a long way. John played in Wandering John, Snake, and the Travelling Riverside Blues Band and with Tim in The Last Fair Deal.
So I asked Tim how it came about.
"I was asked by teacher Steve Thomas, who was in the Travelling Riverside Blues Band if I would do some blues tracks for A-Level students.
"The kids loved the tracks and all got great grades.
"Then he asked if I would fancy teaching the blues to Coventry school kids and I said yes.
"When we started I didn't think it would be primary kids.
"It began in September, and we do four 45-minute sessions a day, two schools in the morning and two in the afternoon."
The 45-minute Story of the Blues sessions trace the blues back to its origins in the slave trade, when chained workers would sing crude 'field hollows' backed with stomp and claps or more often by the fall of a hammer or axe.
Through music, slide shows and plenty of interesting narrative, the children are taken on a musical journey punctuated with just the right amount of information on each time-line in the birth of this most real of all musical forms.
They are encouraged to join in, and by all accounts are willing to take part.
They get to hear about bottleneck guitars, Resonators (as played by John Alderson), harmonica or blues harps (as played by Tim James), mojos, delta, 12-bar blues and the effect this musical form has had on other music that would follow it.
As a blues fan it was a delight to hear versions of On the Road again, Cross Roads and Mustang Sally.
I asked those involved, Tim and John, Darren Sheldon and head of service Owen Dutton what surprised them the most about this course: "What surprised me," said John, "Is what genuine interest we get from these young people. They love it; I was amazed at just what response and questions we get from them.
"I was telling them about the 'bottle' I used to play the guitar; I mentioned that nowadays they tend to use a metal slide. It was wonderful to hear a child ask if he could hear the guitar being played with a metal one to hear the difference.
"We talk about guitars being made from wood," reveals Darren, "Then up pops John with a metal guitar, and straightaway, they are asking what a metal guitar would sound like as most of them have never seen one before."
"We are also involved in the history of rock, and rock school," said Owen. "Most of the children have heard of Elvis and The Beatles, and it's tremendously encouraging to think we are planting the seed for the enjoyment of music. I just wish we had this when I was at school."
You know what Owen, so do I!
I think most of us were subjected to classical music at school, I know I was.
I have since learned to love classical music, but in my own way, I got to see the fun side of it. Teaching music like this is all about fun. Okay, so some blues purists may say: "How can you teach the history of the blues in just 45 minutes?"
I know the blues, and I can assure you that what we heard was all the basics a young child needs to know. It's wildly interactive, educational, musical, historic and fun. Every school in the city should be involved in this, many already are.
Also encouraging is the news that 2-Tone is being taught in some schools, and my 2-Tone trail book is being used in the lesson.
https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle/nostalgia/blues-good-news-3104884
Monday, December 16, 2019
Coventry Bands Introduction
Click here for the
Introduction Note - THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS.
This is a new location for the Hobo A to Z of Coventry Bands Site, as Google are closing their classic sites where it is hosted, in September 2021.It will take a while to reupload and arrange all the material from the former site, so please be patient. The old site is still up Here https://sites.google.com/site/bandsfromcoventry/ until September. The A to Z index is in the links above and I'm slowly loading all the posts.
Trev Teasdel
This is a new location for the Hobo A to Z of Coventry Bands Site, as Google are closing their classic sites where it is hosted, in September 2021.It will take a while to reupload and arrange all the material from the former site, so please be patient. The old site is still up Here https://sites.google.com/site/bandsfromcoventry/ until September. The A to Z index is in the links above and I'm slowly loading all the posts.
Trev Teasdel
To find any Coventry band click the A to Z Index above or here https://coventrybands.blogspot.com/p/coventry-bands-index.html
The Swinging Cats
The Swinging Cats
Toby Lyons aka Toni El Dorko- Keyboards
John Shipley aka 'Wayne Riff'- Guitar
Steve Vaughan 'Vaughan Truevoice'- bass
Jane Bayley - 1st Vocalist - (any more info on Jane welcome) Bim-Bane.
Valerie Webb (now Haudiquet) (Pussy Purrfect) - Vocals on these videos and on tour - see note below)
Paul Heskett - Sax
Billy Gough aka Troy Corner- Drums
Chris Long - Percussion??
(the stage names are still being verified!)
Steve Wynne original guitarist.
The single version of Away with Jane Bayley below
Steve Wynne and Jane Bom-Bane
NEW ARTICLE FROM THE ALBERT HALL TO THE SNOOKER HALL!!' on John Shipley and the Swinging cats by Pete Clemons and Milan Stojsavljevic.
Never on a Sunday - Swinging Cats
Below is very rare footage of the Swinging Cats performing live at the Pebble Mill BBC Studios in Birmingham performing 'Away' and a cover of 'Never On Sunday' by Connie Francis.
The single version of Away with Jane Bayley below
ABOVE - Never on a Sunday - Steve Wynne and Jane Bom-Bane 1990's version of Never on a Sunday on Bandcamp. Jane was the original singer with the Swinging Cats and while the featured singer on the singles never recorded her version of this.
Steve Wynne and Jane Bom-Bane
New - Message from Valerie Haudiquet (formerly Valerie Webb in the Swinging Cats days) -
"I looked up Swinging cats. There is a common misconception that the girl in the photos, and on the youtube clips from Pebble Mill are of Jane. They are in fact of me. I was also the one with the band when we won the Lanch Battle of the bands competition. Jane left before the last heat of the competition, and I stepped in for them. I also stayed with them for the tour of Britain and Ireland supporting Selecter, because Holly and the Italians dropped out at the last minute. I had less than a week to learn the songs and rehearse ready for that final heat! Jane did rejoin them again at a later date...but the person in the glittery blue dress, and the pink crocheted coat is most definitely me! We all had absurd stage names...mine was Pussy Purrfect. John Shipley was Wayne Truevoice if I remember right.
My name then was Val Webb. I was engaged to Jerry Dammers, and was with him from 1973 to 1980. So I was lucky enough to be there at the very birth of Two Tone. I too left Coventry in the late 80's. I still regret leaving. Lived at Albany Road during it's hectic heyday! Any how...any more info required, do get back to me. I have a lot of memories of the Two Tone era that I can share if you are interested. Val."
From The Rex Brough site
Years before Mike Flowers and the "loungecore" movement, this was a sort of "easy listening" ska band that recorded for two-tone. I remember them winning a competition at the Lanch, and being so much better than anyone else. John Shipley joined the Specials aka, Toby Lyons joined Colourfield, and Jane Bayley became Jane Bom-Bane, ”Queen of the Funky Harmonium” performing at the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.
The line-up seemed to change every week, so the above is a list of some of those who were at one time in the band, there was also Val Webb, a singer who was going out with Jerry Dammers at one point.
The Swinging Cats were another Coventry outfit, formed at the end of 1979 and after they replaced Holly & The Italians on The Selecter's March 1980 tour, 2 Tone offered them a single. The release 'Mantovani / Away' CHS TT14, sank without trace despite the first 20,000 copies being sold at the giveaway price of 50p.
Paul Heskett later toured with The Specials and played Sax on 'Sock It To 'Em J.B' & 'Braggin' And Tryin' Not To Lie' on the More Specials album and Flute on Ghost Town / Why? / Friday Night, Saturday Morning' EP
" The Swinging Cats were formed by John Shipley, who along with Toby Lyons recruited like-minded individuals, and so created one of 2-Tone’s most flamboyant acts, even topping Madness and Bad Manners for on-stage quirkiness. The band won a Battle of the Band's contest in Coventry that gave them two days at Leamington’s Woodbine Studios and a spot on TV show Look Hear. They signed to 2 Tone records and released the irresistibly catchy Mantovani, with Away as its flipside.
According to an interview John Shipley did, “I already knew Jerry Dammers”, “He really liked us, and he offered us a two single deal, sadly the second release Greek Tragedy, never saw the light of day. We practiced in our drummer Billy Gough’s garage, full of canoes and mooses’ heads; there wasn’t enough room to swing a cat, and a name was born. We did have a terrific time touring with bands like Bad Manners and The Selecter. ...On July 21, 1980, The Selecter announced they were leaving 2-Tone to sign directly with Chrysalis Records. In a statement they released explaining the move they said, "Every 2-Tone single has reached the charts. This is a situation which The Selecter feels is ultimately stifling new talent, leading bands to feel that they need to stereotype themselves into what they believe to be the 2-Tone sound..." In turn 2-Tone Records released a statement saying that the label would continue "with the main objective of helping new bands". And true to their word a week after The Selecter left, the label signed The Swinging Cats, who ironically would pick up a few support slots with the post-2 Tone Selecter on their 1980 tour (replacing Holly & The Italians).”
The final tour was with The Specials - Christopher Long says this...
Christopher Long
" I started of as go go dancer then added some bongo bashing & other percussion...I played on the single & live. Then we were offered to be the support band on the specials uk tour (which turned out to be their last) & there was a consensus in the band that we needed a different singer for that tour. like an idiot i volunteered as i knew all the songs. I say like an idiot only because it was quite a daunting task- playing to such huge & crazy audiences. the 1st date of the tour was at the corńish riviera (Newquay) to an audience of 5,000:-)
I think we did 36 gigs across the uk in 40 nights!"
Photo by Jill Furmanovsky
Singing Cats played on BBC by Pauline Black
"I looked up Swinging cats. There is a common misconception that the girl in the photos, and on the youtube clips from Pebble Mill are of Jane. They are in fact of me. I was also the one with the band when we won the Lanch Battle of the bands competition. Jane left before the last heat of the competition, and I stepped in for them. I also stayed with them for the tour of Britain and Ireland supporting Selecter, because Holly and the Italians dropped out at the last minute. I had less than a week to learn the songs and rehearse ready for that final heat! Jane did rejoin them again at a later date...but the person in the glittery blue dress, and the pink crocheted coat is most definitely me! We all had absurd stage names...mine was Pussy Purrfect. John Shipley was Wayne Truevoice if I remember right.
My name then was Val Webb. I was engaged to Jerry Dammers, and was with him from 1973 to 1980. So I was lucky enough to be there at the very birth of Two Tone. I too left Coventry in the late 80's. I still regret leaving. Lived at Albany Road during it's hectic heyday! Any how...any more info required, do get back to me. I have a lot of memories of the Two Tone era that I can share if you are interested. Val."
From The Rex Brough site
Years before Mike Flowers and the "loungecore" movement, this was a sort of "easy listening" ska band that recorded for two-tone. I remember them winning a competition at the Lanch, and being so much better than anyone else. John Shipley joined the Specials aka, Toby Lyons joined Colourfield, and Jane Bayley became Jane Bom-Bane, ”Queen of the Funky Harmonium” performing at the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringe festivals.
The line-up seemed to change every week, so the above is a list of some of those who were at one time in the band, there was also Val Webb, a singer who was going out with Jerry Dammers at one point.
The Swinging Cats were another Coventry outfit, formed at the end of 1979 and after they replaced Holly & The Italians on The Selecter's March 1980 tour, 2 Tone offered them a single. The release 'Mantovani / Away' CHS TT14, sank without trace despite the first 20,000 copies being sold at the giveaway price of 50p.
Paul Heskett later toured with The Specials and played Sax on 'Sock It To 'Em J.B' & 'Braggin' And Tryin' Not To Lie' on the More Specials album and Flute on Ghost Town / Why? / Friday Night, Saturday Morning' EP
Away / Mantovani - Two Tone 1981
Never on a Sunday -You Tube
The Swinging Cats with the original singer Jane Bayley from This then site.
According to an interview John Shipley did, “I already knew Jerry Dammers”, “He really liked us, and he offered us a two single deal, sadly the second release Greek Tragedy, never saw the light of day. We practiced in our drummer Billy Gough’s garage, full of canoes and mooses’ heads; there wasn’t enough room to swing a cat, and a name was born. We did have a terrific time touring with bands like Bad Manners and The Selecter. ...On July 21, 1980, The Selecter announced they were leaving 2-Tone to sign directly with Chrysalis Records. In a statement they released explaining the move they said, "Every 2-Tone single has reached the charts. This is a situation which The Selecter feels is ultimately stifling new talent, leading bands to feel that they need to stereotype themselves into what they believe to be the 2-Tone sound..." In turn 2-Tone Records released a statement saying that the label would continue "with the main objective of helping new bands". And true to their word a week after The Selecter left, the label signed The Swinging Cats, who ironically would pick up a few support slots with the post-2 Tone Selecter on their 1980 tour (replacing Holly & The Italians).”
The final tour was with The Specials - Christopher Long says this...
Christopher Long
" I started of as go go dancer then added some bongo bashing & other percussion...I played on the single & live. Then we were offered to be the support band on the specials uk tour (which turned out to be their last) & there was a consensus in the band that we needed a different singer for that tour. like an idiot i volunteered as i knew all the songs. I say like an idiot only because it was quite a daunting task- playing to such huge & crazy audiences. the 1st date of the tour was at the corńish riviera (Newquay) to an audience of 5,000:-)
I think we did 36 gigs across the uk in 40 nights!"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/f7d287bf-1420-4fe5-9e2d-5983f4c69896
Valery Webb (now Hardiquet) - 2nd Vocalist
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