The Satans (1965) cont ......
It was all happening at that time, Ray was a guest on a T.V. panel quiz of the time called 'Pop The Question'. We continued to appear with big 'name' groups and our diary was busy.
One incident that I will always remember, was when we were playing at a dance in Littlebourne village hall, in the break we went to a committee back room that had been allocated as our dressing room for the evening. After we'd eaten some sandwiches and it was time to go back for the second set, we were unable to get out because the door handle lock was faulty and had seized up. The handle just wouldn't turn.. We were laughing and joking at the time and didn't think anything of the incident. Eventually we opened a window, climbed out and walked around the back and into the dance hall. However, a rather flamboyant guy was managing us at the time, Mike Rawlings, a bit of a 'yuppie' is the best way to describe him nowadays. He drove fast sports cars at a neck breaking speed, he talked very 'up market' and seemed to have a lot of contacts in London. At the time we didn't take him very seriously, he was just this posh talking guy who would turn up out of the blue, take an interest in us, talk about the band and sometimes offer to buy us something to eat after a gig. His favourite expression was as he rubbed his hands, smiling and saying "Anyone hungry?" We all took advantage of his generous nature. Not realising it then, he was probably looking at us as an investment. We couldn't see what he wanted from us, looking back we were foolish, he was a 'Brian Epstein' type and who knows what he could have done for us.
The night at Littlebourne that we were 'Locked
in'.....
Meanwhile, regarding this locked dressing room, hardly an incident you would think? Mike denied having anything to do with the fact that the national newspapers got hold of the story - fame at last! The Sun. The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror all had a fictional story reading: SATANS locked in their dressing room by a fed up villager, who couldn't stand the noise any longer! Apparently the sound of 'bongo drums enraged local villagers'...!!I suppose it was publicity, but what a load of rubbish! It just goes to show what a load of garbage the papers print and why I no longer read any of them! Other fictional accounts of what we were reputed to have been said were: 'Wendy, the groups fan club secretary says:"I think they were jolly rotten.." She found it quite upsetting to read all this fiction...but the band all thought it amusing and good to see our name in the national papers. I turned up to work that morning before I knew to be greeted with ' You're famous!' by all the guys. I was amazed when they showed me the newspapers.
..Littlebourne village hall youth dance 1965 :
Are you there? Do you recognise anyone? If so email me: brucewinters@talktalk.net
After the 'lock in' incident, I realised that you should never believe all that you read in the papers. To this day I still think maybe Mike Rawlings was behind it, trying to give us some sort of publicity, he was definitely looking at making something of us..
One day he turned up at a practice session and brought with him a demo tape of a song he had picked up in London from a song writing friend of his.
. "It's going to be a number one!" he beamed, as he played us the demo. "I think this is the song for you, I have twisted someone’s arm to get this, I'd like you to record it, I can arrange this for you if you like.." None of us were that keen on the song, and our attitude was very negative towards it. We were into rock n' roll and this just seemed so different. What fools we were. Mike was quiet when he left us that night and we never saw him again. The title of the demo he brought over? Concrete and Clay!. Three months later it become a number one hit for UNIT 4 PLUS TWO. We were sick. Such is life, I guess now looking back that was our big chance. If we ever would have made it I think that was the moment, but like young arrogant people sometimes do, we blew it!
We did however go over to a recording studio near Ashford and recorded two songs written by Ray: 'Mendelson move on' and 'Baby come here'. We didn't like the way they came out, the sound in the studio was not very good, not a patch on the one at Regent Sound in Denmark Street where we had recorded a few years earlier. How we wished we had taken Mikes opportunity. Also, Ray’s songs worked well at a live gig, but not in the studio for some reason. I remember Les turning up at practice on many occasions with new Beatles songs that he'd learned. They were mainly album tracks, he'd mostly worked out the chords and harmonies and it was great how he always came up with something new.
. In 1966 Les was offered an opportunity to turn professional and tour West Germany in a local band ' The Countdowns'. Their rhythm guitarist Gary Cooper couldn't go with them, due to his work and so we swapped guitarists..- Gary joined us and Les went abroad with 'The Countdowns'.
Promo pics;
Buster...........................................Gary with The Satans..1966..
We had some good gigs at this time, we invested in some new PA gear and found ourselves supporting name bands at 'The Starlite Ballroom', Herne Bay. Bands such as; THE MINDBENDERS, DAVE DEE and THE ALAN BOWN SET.
THE MINDBENDERS lead guitarist Eric, sang 'A Groovy Kinda Love' it had just reached number one in the charts, he asked me if he could borrow a plectrum! Could you imagine that now? Unbelievable but true. Eric had taken over lead vocals from Wayne Fontana who had left the band for a solo career and 'Groovy' was their first hit without him. Later on in the 70's Eric was to become famous once again with 10cc.
Another memorable occasion was when we worked with DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK AND TITCH, were having just reached their first number one the week we supported them. There was only one dressing room at The Starlight Ballroom and so we shared. At the end of the dance we joked and chatted with them, we sat around eating sausage rolls, they seemed so friendly and 'normal' no different to us really, meeting these well-known guys was a good experience and lots of fun.
We also did an interview for a local pirate radio station called 'Radio City' This was in one of the old 'fortress' towers a few miles off the coast of Whitstable, it was financed at the time by 'SCREAMING LORD SUTCH'. (The late David Sutch of the 'Monster Raving Loony Party') a really nice guy, whom I met once when we played at The Marlowe Theatre, in Canterbury for a charity night a few years ago. Back then in 1966 the D.J. who interviewed us for Radio City was Bob Leroy, who is now working as a presenter for local radio, he's still a good mate of mine and lives in Whitstable. We never went over to the radio station, Bob interviewed us during a practice night at 'The Dukes Head' in Wincheap, Canterbury.. I feel sorry for Bob now, when I play the old cassette of that interview, we were crazy and never took anything seriously....we did mess about a lot in those days, its a wonder we ever got anything done. I have fond memories of that period when Gary was with the band.
Eventually Gary decided to leave us because he was planning to get married and felt that he wanted to give up playing altogether. . The problem we had upon Gary’s departure was that our play set consisted of quite a lot of harmony and 'Hollies' songs, Gary has a good voice and so we had featured strong harmony vocals which we would miss..So it threw us a bit when he went and we had to re-think our play set..
Just 3 / Just FOUR (1966)
Bekesbourne Village Hall. 1966.
Now there was just three of us. Should we carry on as The Satans? or was it time for a change... We had decided not to look for a new member, maybe it would work with just the three of us, after all THE PIRATES, THE BIG THREE and many groups of that era only had a three piece line-up. Yes, we decided to become a three man unit and look for a new name.. As we were now just three, what a great name! JUST 3 was born early summer 1966. It gave me more scope to improvise on guitar and kept Ray busy on bass, filling in the music. We all sang and so we had a full sound, our music became heavier, funkier and more rhythm and bluesy. We played the City youth dances and many clubs, one that I recall well was The Beehive Club in Canterbury, where we used to play on a Friday night for the grand total of one pound! That was between us! It was a small club, more like a front room really, but we had some good times. THE WILD FLOWERS also played there and then later went on to find fame as CARAVAN.
Les Stankovitch returned from abroad and had left The Countdowns so he rejoined us for a while. He had improved as a guitarist and shared lead guitar with me. We quickly changed our name yet again- logically to JUST FOUR! But only for a matter of weeks!. Les was offered the chance to join 'The Ways and Means' when their guitarist Bruce Simms decided to leave. The band had just obtained a recording contract with PYE records and looked to be heading for the big time which would mean touring all over the country. Bruce, the bands excellent guitarist didn't want to tour and wanted to remain 'semi pro' in a local band, so we swapped personnel..
Bruce Simms. Lead guitarist with
the final 'JUST FOUR' 1966.
Bruce was into rock and so as he played lead guitar most of the time, our playlist included cover versions of YARDBIRDS and CREAM numbers. . JUST FOUR with 'two Bruces' lasted for just six months, by which time Bruce had become engaged and wanted to marry and move away. This time we all finally decided that we had gone as far as we could together as a local band and we broke up at the end of 1966.......... We went our separate ways. ..The following year 1967, I took my first aeroplane flight on holiday to Jersey for a week.
(For the record, Les Stankovitch went on to record a single with'The Ways and Means' on PYE records called 'Sea of Faces'. Then came a change of line-up when Ray Fairbrass joined them on lead guitar and vocals, they recorded another single 'Breaking up a dream'. Both songs charted in the top 100 at the time.)
The Restaurant Trio...(1967).
Soon after my return from holiday in Jersey, I was approached to do a regular gig at weekends in a dance trio. It was a residency at a restaurant called 'The Lantern' out at Charing, a small village ten miles west of Canterbury.. Although it was not my scene, I felt I needed to play as I was well rested after the break from JUST FOUR and although, as I look back, I was bored out of my brain at the gig most of the time, I did learn aspects of other styles of music which I would find useful in later years. The trio consisted: Charlie on the piano (everything he played was in the key of G flat!) This nice old gentleman whose favourite tipple was a gin and tonic is no longer with us, but I'll never forget Charlie! Sid played.. the drums! A very amiable guy who as far as I know still lives in Ashford. There was no bass player and we all had to play very quietly because people were eating. I found it very boring most of the time. I made friends with some of the Spanish waiters who worked there, one whose name was Manuel! (This was before Fawlty Towers, although much larger in build, his manner was so similar to the character in the comedy series!) At the end of the evening I would join in with them as they danced and got drunk and we did some crazy Spanish dancing..Sid and Charlie just looked on....I don't recall much else of interest at this particular time, but we had some good moments and they were very nice guys. Sid and Charlie were from a different era to me and most of the time they were on a different wavelength too! They argued between themselves quite a bit and Charlie was always shouting at Sid to "Leave it" when we got to a part of a song and Sid would start singing.....Very amusing, I had to smile to myself.... We had very little in common musically. Charlie passed away some time ago .He was grumpy at times, but was a likable and lovely guy. The name we had as I recall was ' The Rhythmic Trio' .....(Cool or what!) Nevertheless it was a different sort of experience for me and no doubt made me a more versatile musician and much more open-minded. Even now when I smell steak cooking it takes me back to that time at 'The Lantern'.......
The Variations...(Mk.1....1968)
It was early in 1968 when two guys knocked at my front door one evening. Imagine my surprise to find John Copeland and Jim Brice standing there. They had met a young girl singer from the village of Chartham, her name was Anne Peat. They were raving about how good she sang. What they really wanted to know was would I be interested in joining up with them on lead guitar and vocals to form a new band to back Anne. I was interested, as I had been away from playing for a few months, I enquired as to whom they had in mind as a drummer, they smiled and said that Buster Osmond was interested. I liked the idea of the band and getting back together with my old friends. I agreed to a run through some songs with Anne who really was very good, she sounded very much like Sandy Shaw who was big at the time and when Anne sang 'Puppet on a string' it really could have been Sandy Shaw! Buster by now had agreed to join us and we had our first practice.. At rehearsals one night, we were thinking of a name for the new group. After much debating I said that we would be playing all sorts of music from rock n' roll to pop standards, strict tempo dance music (Rhythmic Trio influence) and some chart songs, so our music and repertoire would be varied....and vary from song to song......That’s it, of course- THE VARIATIONS!
It was in March 1968 that The Variations made their debut at a Chartham pub called 'The Cross Keys'. The landlord Roger let us play there, I think about every fortnight. It was the start of a long running, successful and memorable band that was to take many forms and changes throughout its life.
The first VARIATIONS 1968. Playing at 'The Cross Keys' in Chartham. Anne on vocals, me on lead and harmony vocals..
Although the band had much potential, Anne's time with The Variations was short lived. Not because of her ability as a singer, but due to boyfriend problems. He didn't like the fact she had to devote so much time to rehearsing and singing with the band and he became jealous. She was unhappy with the situation and finally decided to leave after six months. Anne had a lovely voice and I'm sure could have made it as a serious singer. She was young and had everything going for her, a great waste of talent........