No Justice (1994-1999)

The duo was a good move. Although it seemed a bit strange, I've always been used to having drums behind me, but the sound was so clear and good. Hence the duo 'NO JUSTICE' (Sean my son, thought of the name) was conceived with the intention of running along side NETWORK. I had to admit that the sound we were getting as a duo was far more controlled and we were able to present a wider range of music.

Eastcliffe Pavilion, Folkestone. 1994

Johnny our new assistant with the band would come along and change the floppy discs for us. (We couldn't afford to pay him, He did it for glory? !) It was a bit hit and miss at first, the midi 'code' to change the instrument sounds wasn't always read by the floppy disk player. Eventually we found the player too unreliable on stage, because it used to play the wrong instruments sometimes and sounded really weird. We recorded all our backings onto new technology at the time called 'mini disc', this meant that the recorded sound would always be the same and it was quicker on stage between songs.

Lee, Winters and Gold (1994-97)

At this time NETWORK were still playing Saturday club dates. By mid 1994 John Regan our Drummer decided that he wanted to leave, he was tired of traveling. So we decided to play as a three-piece band, using 'midi' drum backings the same a Bob and I were using in NO JUSTICE. A change of name was decided for this new venture and chose to call ourselves by our three stage names. LEE, WINTERS AND GOLD.

Lee, Winters and Gold. Merrow WMC, Surrey. 1995..'Radio Ga Ga..'

John Regan our drummer played his last gig with us at 'The Binfield Club' in Surrey. We used large backline monitors to play our backing through, as we needed to simulate the sound of a real drummer behind us, this was something that I stressed as very important. On our first gig without John,, we were very apprehensive as we set up and prepared to do a sound check. It went well and at the end of the gig our friends who had come to see us said it was as good . Some other club members said that they had not really noticed that we didn't have a drummer! So thats how we were from then on, a three piece doing the clubs weekend with Pat on lights and back of hall mix, assisted by Johnny changing mini discs and vocal effects. Meanwhile, NO JUSTICE did smaller venues like pubs.

The set up worked well and we continued on like this through 1994 and into 1995. My studio had by now become quite established and I was starting to create and record backings for other duo's and solo artists. This gave me a little more income along with the odd small electrical jobs. Johnny stopped after a while with NO JUSTICE and Bob handled the disc changes and I did the vocal effects by foot switch. The duo had a regular summer appearance outside a cafe' in Folkestone and the bookings were coming in. NO JUSTICE also seemed a bit easier than the trio.

By 1996 I was working the studio regularly, programming for other artists as well as the band. Lee, Winters and Gold were still giging all over the place. A lot of clubs still billed us as Network and a lot miss-spelt our name on a regular basis! 'LEE WINTER GOLD'- 'LEE AND GOLD' it seemed like they could never come to grips with our new name! At The Belvedier Club in South London the entertainment’s man used to call me Lee! The name change had perhaps not been such a good idea after all! We had quite a few laughs at the time. Pat and Johnny also got on and worked together well as a team. The Duo was getting more and more work, Bob was always moaning about how long it took to get away and home with the trio, we were playing West Farnborough, Merrow and the like. It was inevitable that soon Bob and I would break away and do just duo work as No Justice.

December 1996 saw the worst Lee, Winters and Gold Christmas eve gig ever at a club near Guildford. For a start I broke down in my car (we had rid ourselves of a van when John our drummer left) I did manage to get to the venue but I had to get the AA to bring me home .A new guy had taken over as entertainment’s secretary. This guy who shall remain nameless. A complete idiot..... became drunk and moaned we didn't play enough rock n' roll... and also insisted that we had gone on stage two minutes late and he wasn't going to pay us!. Regardless of the fact that we played over time and went down really well, he became very stroppy. The others seemed to be winding him up, it took all my years of diplomacy to talk him round. After he eventually saw reason and calmed down, he paid us. The breakdown man was waiting to tow me back home and it was a very stressful night...I vowed it was the last gig I would play there, the man was a complete muppet, a waste of space. I was becoming more and more disillusioned with the way things were going.

Later in 1996 Bob and I decided to split from the trio. Bob's health was not too good, he was getting tired easily and couldn't put up with extra work involved with the trio such as large back-fill speakers extra equipment and getting home late. Mick planned to join up with our old keyboard player Alan (Now n' then) and form a duo called Spirit.

Lee, Winters. / No Justice....(1997)

Bob and myself decided to split the duo into two 'faces'. NO JUSTICE would be the name we use for pubs, a more casual gig with a harder edge to the music. The clubs would still include Pat and John, we would call ourselves LEE, WINTERS and present the same light show as we did with the trio. Our music for this would be more rounded and sixties orientated, more 'middle of the road'.

After a visit to the doctors and tests at the Hospital, Bob was found to have heart problems. A double by-pass op was favoured and he went on the waiting list. He was told it would be about a year. Bob had to take things easy and lifting a lot of gear was out of the question. We did lots of good gigs including a great new years eve in 1997 with my old mates from The Variations who had reformed as I mentioned earlier and were now called Tried and Tested. . It was all the old Variations plus a guy called Vic who played guitar a bit and who owned and drove the van for them. We shared the evening with them at The Colin Coudrey Suite, Canterbury cricket ground, it was one of the best new years gigs.

Sadness struck when Bobs mum passed away that year and this didn't help Bob's condition. Finally in June 1998 he underwent his by-pass op in St Thomas's hospital in London. During this time I carried on as a solo. Bob was out of it for about three months. About this time Tried and Tested were due to play a gig at our old 'Variations' roadie Reg Lawrence's birthday party and Vic would be on holiday. I was invited to join them on stage for the evening and along with John Copeland’s brother Doug- (You recall one of my first mates when I moved to Petham) we had a great evening. It was really a Variations reunion. The crowd loved the party and it brought back lots of old memories!

Upon Bobs return to the road things never seemed the same. We carried on through the year and he made a full recovery. He was not the same by any means and it was a very difficult time. After I was sure he had fully recovered I felt that I was now ready to do something that I would never have dared to do in years gone by. Bob and I were not getting along like we used to. He was no fun to be around and unfortunately it got to the stage where we were hardly talking much to each other at gigs. Our friends noticed this and I just couldn't put up with it anymore, I felt so sorry for the guy, but I felt I had to change things. In September 1998 I notified Bob that I intended to go out and perform as a solo artist. He had four months to sort out what he wanted to do, as I would make the last duo gig on the coming new years eve, where we were due to play once again with the band Tried and tested at the cricket ground. December 31st 1998 saw the last gig with Bob, we had a great evening and it seemed a good way to say farewell to our partnership. He has formed a new duo back again with Mick Gold and they are now going out as 'Top Gear'. I wish them all the very best...

Bruce Winters (1999----)

The bookings came in and I started my solo work a week into 1999.

1999.My first year solo.

I played pubs and clubs just as before and the work picked up really well. I could now afford to knock a few of the 'dodgy' pubs on the head and be a little more selective where I played.

In May that year I performed music in The Marlowe theatre bar for Dave Lee's Charity show and this led to more inquiries of work. One such event was the annual golf charity function in June at Broome Park Country Club, a large leisure estate near the village of Barham near Canterbury. I played pre-dinner music outside in the 'Italian gardens' to the guests as they arrived. . This was followed shortly afterwards with a phone call from the big man himself- Dave Lee, he was toying with the idea of running a 'City Youth Dance' in Canterbury. Just like we used to have in the 60's. He wanted to get together four local groups from that time. He had his own group in mind, THE WAYS AND MEANS.

Dave wanted THE SATANS, also THE COUNTDOWNS and THE ROCK A BEATS. It would be a charity event and all proceeds would go to his 'HAPPY HOLIDAYS' charity. I was thrilled with the idea! I rang John Copeland and Buster straight away, Buster knew about the idea because he is involved with Dave’s charity and was really tickled that we should do a one-off re-union. I traced Ray Fairbrass's number and our old singer Tommy Savage, they were also delighted at the thought of doing it again! Imagine, 35 years on, forming again to do a half-hour set! . Dave got the go-ahead from the other bands and each one set about rehearsing for the date which was fixed at Friday 26th November-1999, to be held at The Westgate hall, Canterbury.

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