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So now we were auditioning for a new girl vocalist. An advert was placed in various local papers. I'll always remember the evening we found our new singer. It was a dull rainy summers evening in a back rehearsal room at 'The Dukes Head’, (the pub in Wincheap, Canterbury where 'The Satans always used to practice). A guitarist friend of ours, a guy named Geoff Ball (who would be joining the band in later years) turned up with this very young inexperienced girl who's name was Angela Allen.

Angie came from Ashford and was only fifteen years old . The song I'll always remember was 'Will you still love me tomorrow' .. Angie’s parents agreed that they, or a close friend would bring her to the gigs. So.. In June 1968 Angie became our singer in The Variations..

1968. The Furley hall, Ashford.

(John's using a 'salmon pink' 1963 Strat,

.....worth a fortune today!!

He sold it for £80 in the late 70's!!)..sik!

..Wish I still had that '64 Strat!

As 'The Variations' started to become established, a guy Jim knew called Reg Lawrence started to drive us around. He had a Ford Thames van and soon became our regular 'roadie'. Reg was very reliable and became part of the band for many years. Not only did he do all the driving he also helped with the equipment and sometimes even carried us indoors at the end of the evening if we were too drunk!. He was very good to us and very helpful. I have fond memories of the Thames van, eating fish and chips or Chinese take aways on the way home. We had so many laughs and good times. When Reg finally scrapped the van I took the front badge off as a souvenir and still have it to this day!! We had some really memorable bookings with the band. One such occasion was in October 1968 when we came second in a charity competition at Ashford. I think we actually drew for first and the decision was made by the judges to draw from a hat or something like that and we were unlucky. The Furley hall in Ashford is where we played many functions at that time.

I became ill after Christmas 1968 and spent a little time in hospital. This meant a short pause for the band. I was only out of it for a couple of weeks and back on the road in February 1969. We returned to a series of gigs at 'The Bowlers Arms' in Cliftonville Margate. The good news at that time was that I was going to become a father and the baby would be due in August.

In March 1969 the band started a long-term residency at 'The Queens Hotel', a large pub in Cliftonville, Margate. There were three bars, we played in the main ground floor bar. The hotel featured a dolphinarium and in the basement a nightclub. The place is no longer there, it was demolished as part of a housing development a few years ago. We were to have so many good times there in the late 60's and early 70's.

"'The Queens' started out as a summer residency that just carried on through the winter and on into 1970. In the first 9 months, we worked with a compare M.C. He was a very funny and talented man whom I must mention, his name was Alfie. A nice guy and very good at his job. He looked a lot like a well known TV game show presenter at the time called Norman Vaughn. Alfie had a great voice and sang with the band occasionally. . August 27th, 1969 my son Sean was born. I had to rush from seeing him at the hospital to the gig at The Queens and I felt very proud when Alfie gave out to the audience that night that I had become a dad. The summer soon passed but we continued on at The Queens into the winter. Alfie did a great stand up comedy spot during the evenings and we had a full house most weeks.

It was about Christmas 1969 that Angie decided to leave the band with a view of pursuing a solo career. We decided not to replace her at least for the time being and carried on into 1970 as a four piece to see how it went.. Buster and I would sing lead vocals and John would sing harmonies . Jim as always was on bass. He was the calm one, a steady influence in the band- the sane one!. The Queens was still going strong and as we entered the summer of 1970, a guy called Mel Lacey who originally came from Birmingham sang with us for a little while during the evening. He did an Elvis Presley spot, very good, I'll always remember me practicing with him on the seafront outside in the evening sun, just before we were due on stage. Whenever I hear Elvis sing 'In the Ghetto' it reminds me of that time! Mel worked with us for a few months at The Queens during that hot summer in 1970...

We were of course still playing venues at other places on Saturdays, in fact the diary was always full.. Alfie eventually left during that autumn and we pressed on playing without a cabaret spot. It was a great time for me and we all had some good moments. Eventually though even the good things become routine, we decided that twice a week at the same venue was getting tedious. There were rumours that the place was closing, the dolphinarium had already gone and the crowds were dwindling, we had gone as far as we could so as the weather became colder and darker, we decided to call it a day at The Queens Hotel in November 1970.

Throughout the end of the year and Christmas we played mainly private functions and Masons dances. It wasn't until late 1971 that we felt an addition to the band would freshen us up and give us more scope for the functions music.. It was then that Barry Morgan a friend we had known for years who had played in a band called 'The Versatones', joined us on keyboards. This broadened our music and improved our sound, the diary was still full.

I recall on one occasion, we had these really smart dark suits and bow ties. We were appearing at this posh Hotel in London and the reception clerk (jobsworth) looked us up as we walked in the front entrance wearing old jeans and tee shirts. He sneered at us.. "Yeah, whatd'ya want?". We explained that we were the band playing at the function that evening and he casually pointed up a flight of stairs.

"Dressing room's up there... The functions through that way.." he gestured out along a passage to the rear of the hotel.

Later, when we'd finished setting up the equipment, we went to our dressing room and put on the smart new stage clothes and then wandered back down the stairs to get a drink. On our way down we passed the Jobsworth. His attitude towards us had changed to one of condescending politeness that was really amazing! I don't think he recognised us as he bowed and smiled,

"Good evening sirs, er, through that way if you please.." he gestured, lowering his posture..almost bowing! (Maybe John Cleese got his idea for the character Basil Fawlty from him) he pointed towards the function room and smiled... We could not believe how anyone could change towards someone -because of their suits!. We had learned a fact of life here. That it just goes to show, it’s not what you are, but what you appear to be... We laughed many times looking back on that incident! Unfortunately, being in the Rock n' Roll business in the years that have passed since, I have, and still do, come across this attitude from many people. I find all this judging people by their appearance utter bull-but it is true. Most jobsworths and people who look you up and down are sad people. Jesus had long hair and wore casual clothes and sandals. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler, Al Capone and the Kray twins had short well-groomed hair and wore smart suits.... So there you have it, look smart and get treated with respect.

Its 1972 and we were playing some really big venues in our area, The Kings Hall in Herne Bay and the Town Hall in Sittingbourne. All very impressive, we were very wild in those days, and with Barry's influence it became even wilder. The things we did for a laugh would make your hair curl! As this biography is meant to be a brief account, I won't go into too much detail. . Great times. The line up stayed as it was until we all finally decided that we had 'played it all' we had different projects we wanted to do, so we called it a day.

As we went our separate ways, I had no intention of playing in a band again. I certainly didn't realise then that it was by no means the end of THE VARIATIONS, but just the end of a chapter in the bands life and a brief interval for me. For a few months I did nothing musically, I put the Strat in its case and I felt that I had come to the end of the road as far as being in a band was concerned. I took a job that involved shift work, so playing regularly would have been out of the question .I was happy at first, it was quite a novelty going to work at night and then coming home early in the morning to bed. I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later I would start to miss going out on stage and playing.

I began to get restless and had the idea that maybe I could do something now and again when the shift came round every three weeks to when I had Saturday evenings off. I didn't want anything too serious, so forming another band didn't really cross my mind. A neighbour of mine Dave Jeffreys, had a daughter called Louise, she was about the same age as my son Sean, then about 5 years old and they used to play together and through this I got to know Dave quite well. I discovered he was a guitarist and eventually he used to come round to my house and we'd jam together.

Dave is a good guitarist who had played in various rock bands, but had broken up over the years. The idea struck us to go out as a duo. He could sing well and we rehearsed some songs with the view to doing a thirty-minute cabaret spot. The type of material we were learning was different from anything I had ever played before, some CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH, SIMON AND GARFUNKLE and JAMES TAYLOR songs that could be performed with just two acoustic guitars.

.... That now brings me to a sore point and something I regret even now. I thought a twelve-string guitar would be more suited to the type of music we were going to perform, so I made the mistake of selling my Fender Strat! They were out of vogue at the time and a friend of Dave’s knew a student at the University who was interested in it and he paid £90!! It seemed a fair price - I thought I had a good deal, being at the time that Strats were out of fashion. Looking back now I realise that if I had kept it, the second hand value for a '64 Strat would be somewhere in the region of £4,000!

I bought a good twelve string guitar and after many rehearsals in my living room, it all started to come together.. The Peter Johnson agency put us on their books and soon 'BECKET' were on the road. It was about April 1973. The name Becket was Dave’s idea and it seemed to suit our style and from the place we came from, Canterbury..

We played a competition held by 'The Jean Charles Agency' down at Dover and we came first place. The prize was some bookings!. It was no more than an advertising showcase for other agents really, but it helped us to become better known. Becket played various cabaret venues in the South for a few months, fitting these in whenever I wasn't working a weekend shift. We used to carry our equipment around in our cars, Dave and I both had minis which was O.K. because we only had a minimal amount of gear, one Fender amp as a P.A. and another for both our guitars, I don't know how me managed- but we did!

It was late summer 1973 when I quit my shiftwork job and decided to become self employed. I did some fruit farming work for a while, whilst studying and qualifying as an electrician. This gave me my weekends back and so BECKET played more frequently.

It was about this time that I met Gary Cooper again from THE SATANS days. He was now working in a band called APLEY RISE and their guitarist was thinking of leaving. Gary asked me if I was interested. By this time BECKET had seemed to run its course, Dave was thinking of moving back over to Maidstone and so it would have been awkward to carry on as we were. Time had passed and I felt that joining a band was something I'd like to do again. Gary came over to my place one weekend, he grabbed my 12-string acoustic and started playing some of the songs they did. His enthusiasm was contagious, it looked like fun, how could I say no?

Dave was O.K. when I told him that I wanted to get back into a band, he said that he would be moving soon to Aylesford anyway so we parted the best of friends. I will always look back at BECKET with fondest memories, of a time when I did something musically different. Dave was a good mate and a nice guy. We met again about 5 years ago to our mutual surprise at a 'Hank Marvin' convention in Whitstable.We've kept in touch ever since. Recently he has moved abroad and he's now living and playing bars and hotels in Tenerife, but we still keep in touch by email. He goes out by the name of Dave Bliss.