And now, someone I've known all his life, my little brother (who, incidentally, could pick me up and fold me into a matchbox), Andy!
First ever gift record:
The Best of T Rex (Flyback)
First single with your own money:
Venus - Shocking Blue (probably because of the lady singer)
First LP with your own money:
Rockin' at the Roundhouse - Bert Weedon or The Everlasting Love Affair - The Love Affair
Favourite top three singles ever:
Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
Jeepster - T. Rex
Double Barrel - Dave & Ansell Collins
Favourite top three LPs ever:
Feel - Glenn Hughes
Songs in the Key of Life - Stevie Wonder
any Incognito
Three LPs that you own that you think nobody else will have ever heard:
Play Me Out - Glenn Hughes (apart from The Cozooks)
Favourite top three artists from 'The World of' series:
Billy Cotton
The Marmalade
The World of Soul Power
(any, just for the covers. Oh, and er, the music)
Favourite top three LP covers:
Putting it Straight - Pat Travers
Electric Warrior - T. Rex
You are the Music... We're Just the Band
Favourite record label:
T. Rex (the red and blue one) or the green Columbia
First gig:
Jack the Lad - Amersham College
Most recent gig:
Glenn Hughes - London Astoria 2
Favourite gig:
Stevie Wonder - Hotter than July - Wembley Arena - Marvin Gaye/Diana Ross turned up Other gigs that you attended that you consider notable:
Stevie Wonder - Hotter than July - Wembley Arena
Level 42 - Wembley Arena
Thin Lizzy - Hemel Hempstead Pavilion
Robin Trower - Wembley Arena
Black Sabbath - Kilburn (an early gig)
Favourite book (fiction);
Beano Annual
Favourite book (non-fiction):
Autobiographies/biographies especially Ozzy Osbourne
Favourite comic when you were a kid:
Beano
Shoot! (not really a comic, though)
Favourite top three films ever:
Legend (the Krays played by Tom Hardy)
Airplane (it WAS funny at the time)
Cast Away (Tom Hanks)
Favourite painter:
The Cozooks
Favourite painting:
Wave - The Cozooks
Favourite Hi-Fi
My current music blaster - Denon Mini/Mission speakers
Favourite guitar
Gibson Firebird (just wish I could play one properly)
The Chat
Time for a chat with me bruv.
So bro, I didn’t realise that Venus was your very first purchase. Would that have been around the time of its release (1969) or some time later?
Well, if it wasn’t, I can’t recall what else it could have been. It would have been when it was released……………………now I’m wondering if it could have been a birthday present…….
Nice pink label …
Yeah, Penny Farthing as I recall, with a tri-thingy centre.
Rockin’ at the Roundhouse – now this one was bought from the village newsagent wasn’t it?
It was, wish I could remember how much it cost, bet it was no more than £2.
Hmmm. Well, I remember picking up a Rock ‘n’ Roll Greats LP and a couple of classicals; Peer Gynt for one, all on the greyed out Fontana label … buuuut, do I also remember a white Contour label?
Seems like a lot of Hot Hits type titles were on the white Contour label, I've been trying to remember which ones I might of had...I'm sure I had at least one , but can't recall................
Anyway, using The World of Mantovani as a guide to budget LP prices in 1968, I reckon that might have been the price of our 1970 Bert. That is, 19/11 – now, I reckon that we were getting half-a-crown pocket money on a Friday night and I don’t know about you young’un but I would have been supplementing my pay with a paper round in them days so I would have been a rich man with £1/2/6 to rip. I probably picked up a pack of Batman trading cards with my change.
I too had a paper round, as you well know, and it certainly helped with starting our vinyl collection. There was something very grown up about looking through the revolving rack in the newsagents and choosing what we thought was "hip stuff". Are you sure Batman cards were around the same era? Mmmm..............................it was the back bit of the shop as I recall.......where it was very tempting to nick something, as no-one could see you. Never did of course.
Yes, you are right. the Batman cards I was collecting were a 1966 edition - Black Jacks and Anglo bubble gum? .… and just for the sake of nostalgia … from my own personal collection …
When I hear Frankenstein I always think of little Rick Derringer bobbing up and down on the OGWT with his eyes constantly on King Edgar like a puppy eager to please …
Yeah, like a schoolboy sucking up to the head, trying to impress. Did you know that the sound engineer at The Whistle Test actually threw up because Edger’s bass tones were so low, that it messed with his head!!
Er , well, no I didn't. Thank you for that info. Now then, you’re often a bit derogatory about Glenn Hughes so I was mildly surprised to see his album as your fave …
Well, yes, he is a bit of a prat sometimes, but this album is a bit of a funk-rock vibe (man), not always so keen on his heavy stuff.
Nice LP covers – Electric Warrior has always been a fave – Pat Travers ‘sticking it to the man’ – I suppose every kid has dreamed of doing a Steve Vai like in his The Audience is Listening …
Electric Warrior is iconic I suppose, not seen anything like it since and you have the t- shirt!
Ha! Yes I do!
The Pat Travers and Trapeze covers are similar in respect of the fact that there are amps and guitars on view………same as Bolan I suppose.
You stipulate the red and blue T. Rex label as your fave label – how many different coloured ones were there?
Well, apart from the red and white Children of The Revolution, none as I recall, I was just reminding bloggers, that Bolan had his own label.
Regarding concerts, I snuck a few photos and videos of the later ones – wouldn’t it be groovy to have pics from those early gigs? I can remember so little of the Jack the Lad at Amersham (I assume that we both went to the same one) – in fact, all I can recall is someone shouting out ‘Get on with it!’ during a lengthy introduction by Rod Clements and he replying, in a fine Geordie accent, that he WAS getting on with it!
I can see myself standing there, the stage seemed low and was quite crowded in the hall. I too remember Clements babbling on a bit….can’t remember much else, but we must have gone in your Hillman Imp…..Rock n’ Roll !
The Imp of Rock! Incidentally, the support was The Global Trucking Company – got their record!
So just how recent was that Glenn Hughes concert?
Not sure, thought you may have gone?? It would have been around the time of “Feel” or “The Way It Is…………….so 10 or so years ago at least.
Well, I do remember going to Astoria 2 to see him, actually but that was more like 20 years ago. I’ve been with La (daughter) since then – 10 or so years ago – to see Angels and Airwaves!
Time travels fast, could it really have been 20yrs ago? La took you to see WHO? Angels and Airwaves?? Memorable I'm sure.
Well, I DO remember it. What can you remember about the Sabbath gig?
Not sure how I got there, think I must have gone with school mates. I was very loud and high up at the back of the Gaumont. Ozzy was wearing the white tassels on his arms………..It was all War Pigs and Paranoid.
Seems like we all like a biog – how would you recommend the Ozzy one to us?
Some autobiographies tend to get bogged down with dates and uninteresting facts, Ozzy’s book made me laugh out loud on many occasions, I was reading it with a Brummie accent without realising it, which made it more amusing I reckon.
Airplane WAS funny wasn’t it? But, Castaway? I set out watching this one with La and I couldn’t stand it. Left her to it in the end. I am interested to know what you saw in it.
Well, Cast Away wouldn’t have been my choice either, I just think the acting was pretty good, as it was only Hanks for most of it. As you know, I’m not a big film person, I tend to get figgity after 20 mins unless I get hooked.
As for your painter chappy, I have no argument!
We are waiting for another piece from Cozooks, I understand there is a waiting list.
The artist must wait for inspiration.
Now, in response to the 'Happy August' email, here is Andy's contribution to the 'Have you ever met a musician?' query.
Many years ago, it was rumoured that there was a 'rock' wedding at the church in Chalfont St Giles village, (the place of my birth and where I spent many a day as a youngster). It would have been around 1976/77, I do remember a biggish wedding taking place, but there was often expensive looking weddings in the village, so it was not unusual to hear the bells a-ringing with lots of suited and booted Gentlemen and well-heeled Ladies hanging around.
So, imagine my disappointment when it was (again) rumoured that David Coverdale and some members of Deep Purple had been seen at the church a few weeks previous and I had missed the whole thing! Could it have been the great man himself?? It was quite well known that he did indeed live in Little Chalfont at the time, and to add to this story, a friend of a friend knew a painter and decorator who had done some work in his house and reported that one bedroom was full of racks of Levi's and white t-shirts..............
Anyway, as it happens, it wasn't the Snakecharmer himself, but Nick 'Tinker' Bell, Purple’s road manager around the time of 'Come Taste the Band' the album that had alongside pics of the Purple people, one of Tinker Bell on the inner sleeve!
To cut this long story shorter, Nick Bell was living in Jordans, near Chalfont, with his Page 3 wife Anneka and had been seen in the village shopping on a few occasions. Surely, if me and some mates hung around, Nick and Wife would turn up one day.
Well, he did.......should we annoy him and strike up a conversation? Of course we should, and did! We asked him if we saw him again and we happened to have a copy of Come Taste the Band under our arm, would he sign it for us?
He laughed and said, " I'm only the f****** road manager!" (in a nice way, that is) and said he would.
We never saw him again or his tasty Mrs.
Not a musician............but he knew a few!