Nottingham Bands in the 60s


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Sons of Adam in about 1965 at Rainbow Rooms. The occasion was the lead singer's (Troy) birthday and that girl baked him a cake! Members of the group were from the left .... Harry Barnes, Roger Ly

Yes there was most definitely Robert Hirst.  He called himself Spence at that time because he loved The Spencer Davis Group. And he adored Sam and Dave. He wasn't in the best of health Davi'sW in 2013

thing was thinking back we weren't so much hippies as lazy idiots, we thought we were clever, gods gift, we weren't. for 6 months i moved around with them, sleeping 10 to a room, with only 3 of us do

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Yes there was most definitely Robert Hirst.  He called himself Spence at that time because he loved The Spencer Davis Group. And he adored Sam and Dave. He wasn't in the best of health Davi'sW in 2013.  He had Parkinson's Disease.  He fought hard and ended up in a care home in Scalford near Melton Mowbray.  He sang some Elvis to the residents and danced a bit of rock and roll with the staff too.  He made them all very happy and himself too after he had battled with depression and anxiety on top of the stages of Parkinson's for the last 20 years.  He very sadly passed away on January 30th 2021.  He was only 74.  He was my dad.  And boy, what a voice!  Rock on Dad! Love you xxxx

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Sorry to hear about Robert . A great singer and brings back memories of The Beachcomber Club where they played regularly .

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Very sad to hear. A great and memorable voice.

Robert Hirst and the Big Taste!!!

I really rated them and would always go to the Beachcomber when they played there.

I do recall some excellent all nighters when they did several sets.

 

I preferred RH+BT to The Family from Leicester ..........used to go and see them too.

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On 7/13/2013 at 10:03 PM, hippo girl said:

Did Steve Saxon play with the carpetbaggers ?

 

On 10/24/2013 at 9:04 AM, mudgie49 said:

Do you remember Steve Saxon Chrissie?He was an old school mate at Beeston Fields, lived in the Rylands.

I bumped into him at the Ladbrooke grove festival when I lived in London around 77/78. He looked rough and told me he was going through a bad patch.

Took him home, he stayed a week and left, never heard from him again.Then his name came up on the thread.Funny old life innit.

Was it the same Steve who fronted Cisco who used to play at The Imperial on Sunday evenings? We used to chug a heap of beer, watch Cisco (Steve and his Cocker moves) and then off to Maid Marion Way for a Chicken Vindaloo. Next morning we could crap through the eye of a needle and it stung like crazy. Didn't stop us fronting up for it all the following week.

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Anyone remember Norman "Spider" Sullivan from Calverton. Played gigs most nights with his missus up front. He played drums. I worked with him for four years at British Fermentation (a yeast and bakery ingredients firm). He drove the HGV. We all used to go out boozing Monday evenings, I'm talking 1976/1977 mostly, and then go for a stupidly hot curry. Tuesday mornings Spider would say we were shitting through the eye of a needle and told us, when we farted, to "Wipe your arse and call that one a shit". I believe he drummed for Paper Lace, but wasn't taken with them to their one-hit wonder: Billy don't be a hero." Lovely guy. Last caught up with him in about 1991 - had a few pints around Arnold and Calverton. After BFP, he went down the pit.

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Just read that Wiki page.

 

For info on two of the musicians mentioned.  Mick Vaughan was a somewhat 'precocious' guitarist with Clive Carrington's band 'Lambs of the World', before joining Paper Lace. Clive was known as 'Nottingham's Lord Sutch' back then. We frequently books 'Lambs' into the 360.

 

Graham Wyville is an old school friend. I was at High Pavement with him and his older brother Bob, who is no longer with us. Graham started out with his brother in The Hound Dogs..also featuring Richard 'Rik' Kenton who went on to play briefly with Roxy Music.

Graham was also a member of 'Highly Likely'...the band put together by the BBC to promote the hit theme tune from 'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads'.

Graham went on to a stint with Paper Lace and last I knew was playing bass in the Billy Fury Story tribute band.  We are still in touch.  Lizzie also knows Graham.

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Anyone remember Ivan Jay And The J-Men, they were quite popular playing around Nottingham for many years in the 60s,they later went on to be called 10 Years After.

The name Clive rings a bell, a friendly tall blond lad he used to sing around the traps with a few bands.

At the Sheds Beeston he used to put on a long black wig and do a terrible copy of a  Screaming Lord Sutch song.

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On 5/10/2021 at 5:09 PM, Dick said:

Anyone remember Ivan Jay And The J-Men, they were quite popular playing around Nottingham for many years in the 60s,they later went on to be called 10 Years After.

The name Clive rings a bell, a friendly tall blond lad he used to sing around the traps with a few bands.

At the Sheds Beeston he used to put on a long black wig and do a terrible copy of a  Screaming Lord Sutch song.

Hi Dick, the playedinaband site has some excellent information.

Regards,Will2017

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One very popular solo entertainer around in the 70's--80's was Jimmy Willan, I always looked forward to seeing him on my many trips back to Nottm.

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I played the cornet in a brass band for a couple of years in the early 60's, The Bestwood Colliery Black Diamonds. We played at  most of the bandstands around Nottm ,The Moorgreen Show, Skegness and many other place around England, including many brass band competitions. I loved it at the time, the movie Brassed Off was so typical.

Very sad to see most of the bands disappear.  The last I heard was the Black Diamonds had  re-formed  and are  still active.

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Had this site mentioned to me yesterday and was very interested to see 2 of the groups that I not only hang with but helped to form both being referred to together with a load of other bands and clubs that I had dealings with before moving away from the area for many years.

       Grew up in Hyson Green although got scholarship to Nottingham High before going on to Uni. When I began teaching at Claremont in 1958 had just started singing with a close harmony group called the Melodinos ,run by a guy from Eastwood called Malcolm Walters. However,a bunch of lads at the school started messing about with the idea of becoming a rock group and I encouraged them.Two of them (Mick Maltby-later known as Mick Franks- and Pete Radford I got to join the Melodinos and still have a photo of what was then 5 of us singing at the Grey Goose,one of the places we played regularly. However,we all decided that R'nR was more our scene ,and together with 2 others from the same class at Claremont, Peter Nix and Jeff Woolley formed a group which was initially called the Petebeats. However,after a few gigs we were picked up by a guy who heard us playing at a club in Carlton and he became Manager.

       Called us Wayne Knight and the Rocking Vulcans.However,after a while ,decided they wanted a younger, trendier looking singer and  replaced me with Troy Wayne. That was the beginning of Sons of Adam, later becoming Sons and Lovers.

         I'd moved to Ellis by then as Head of English and was teaching both Ian and Neil Rowe,2 brothers in different classes.They had started a group with 2 other lads from the school, Bob Oldknow and Gordon Beresford and the brothers' parents,who were letting  the lads rehearse in their cellar ,asked if I would be the singer and help organise them as they had no experience .That was the beginning of what we called the 'Musically Inclined 5' (hence MI5 !) 

       Again,after they had got themselves properly into the business ,and we were doing a whole load of gigs at quite a wide variety of places.they brought in a vocalist who was more their age.

     I spent the next few years doing a lot of compering work,both for some of the big acts which played at the Elizabethan Rooms (including the Beatles ) and then as resident compere, first at the Peacock Inn at Redmile and later at Cotgrave Miners' Welfare. Before taking the job at Cotgrave was asked to form a band by the Banner Entertainment Agency which was to act as a kind of publicity vehicle for the agency and was called the Banner Show Band. Oddly enough, saw Wishful Thinking  mentioned by one of your contributors, and we worked with them at a big gig for the Bishop of Southwell and I became very friendly with the group. Possibly the best of the bands nearly to hit the big time but never quite did so although in later years they had a huge hit in Germany with their 'Hiroshima' LP and their lead singer replaced Marty in the New Seekers and later married Eve Graham.

        I spent 2 years as compere at Cotgrave ,before taking a new job down in Oxfordshire.That meant severing my ties with the music scene in Nottingham ,although I started my own band down there and as the Keith Patrick Sound had 30 happy and successful years working in the Thames Valley and later as far afield as the South Coast,Wales etc. Oddly enough,was doing a gig at Guildford in the early 90's and was asked by a member of the audience if I remembered him as one of the Beatmen!

          After retiring moved back up to this area and have made contact with ,or been contacted by,one or two ex pupils and ex musicians including Mick from Sons and Lovers, Gordon and Neil from MI5 and Jon Jayes who played with a group called the Dolomites which he and some fellow pupils at Ellis started not too long after MI5 got going.

        I also noticed the Carpetbaggers mentioned-one of the bands I used to book for some of the dances I organised to raise money for school funds whilst I was at Ellis.I always loved their version of 'Walking the Dog' by Rufus Thomas.I also saw the Leen Valley Jazzmen mentioned and I'm pretty certain that Cliff Lee, who was already a teacher at Claremont when I began there played for them.I know he was still performing when I came back up here in the early 90's,whilst I was still running my band down in Oxford and commuting to work with them Another name that some may be familiar with-Alan Jones who played bass for Tom Jones and then for the Shadows for many years -was my bass player for the last seven or eight years up to the Millennium, as he had a bad smash en route to working on the Time musical in London and Hank wouldn't have him back after he recovered.Think he's now back home in the Rotherham area working with Mike Berry and the Outlaws.

          Hope a few of my ramblings might spark a few more reminiscences and memories from some of your contributors who look back on those days as fondly as I do-and might even recall 'Flash' Gordon from my days at Claremont,Ellis and finally Elliott Durham,where I was Head of English when it first opened in 1966 until my departure in 1970

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And by amazing coincidence, have you noticed the other new thread which was posted only a few hours after yours.

 

https://nottstalgia.com/forums/topic/21686-nottingham-group-our-young/?tab=comments#comment-681331

 

It contains a link to a website about Nottingham Groups in the 60s-70s.

 

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