Railroad | Coventry Bands 1960’s to Now

Railroad

Feb /March 1971 – a short term band that never got off the ground.

“The band was created by Tony Mojo Morgan after the Mick Green Blues had split up. I

Mojo (Tony Morgan)

think they were trying to forge a new identity / direction. I arranged for them to practice in the little theatre at the back of the Umbrella club around Feb / March 1971. The nucleus consisted of Mick Green (Lead / rhythm guitar) Mojo (Tony) Morgan bass and Steve Harrison drums Jim Allen on sax. Jim was later in Tony’s Ska band EMF, in 1981 they made a record for RCA but it wasn’t a hit but they did win the battle of the bands and the single was also on the Battle of the Bands album 1981. I remember Mojo introducing me to Jim in Coventry city center and he turned up to a session at the Umbrella.

I think they were trying to expand the line up a bit with (if my memory serves well!). I can’t be certain of the line up now, I don’t think Tony remembers it at all but it was recorded in my diary at the time.

Steve Harrison asked me (Trev Teasdel) if I would try vocals for the band and write some

Steve Harrison left

lyrics – I hadn’t done vocals before but I did write lyrics and had given some to the Mick green Blues Band via Steve Harrison and Tony had set one to music at least.

Steve Harrison asked if i could borrow a PA to try out vocals. I rang Pete Waterman whom I’d worked with at the GEC and his venue at the Walsgrave – Pete suggested Billy Campbell of Coconut Mat might help. Billy agreed but I think a gig came up on the actual night so I was PA less.

Trev’s Diary entries February / March 1971

Feb 13th Sat 1971 – “Steve Harrison asked me to borrow a PA and try vocals and some of my lyrics out with his new band Railroad (with Mick Green and Tony (Mojo) Morgan). They were a new arrangement of The Mick Green Blues Band without Johnny Adams.”

Feb 17th Weds 1971 – Went to town with Steve Harrison of Railroad and then to the Umbrella where I’d arranged for them to practice.

Feb 18th Thurs 1971 – In the day went with Steve Harrison to Tony (Mojo) Morgan’s house for Railroad practice. Phoned Pete Waterman to see if he knew where we could borrow a PA.

Feb 20th Sat 1971 – Went to Bill Campbell’s to borrow PA for Railroad practice in day time.

Feb 22nd Mon 1971 – Railroad practice at Umbrella – to pick up PA from Bill Campbell but PA being used that evening.

Feb 27th Sat 1971 – Railroad Practice earlier at the Umbrella.

Feb 28th Sun 1971 – Railroad practice at Umbrella. Went to Plough afterwards.

March 1st Mon 1971 – Railroad booked in at the Umbrella club but the band split up.

These are the lyrics I wrote with Railroad in mind –

I was influenced by the poetic style in terms of lyrics, by Pete Sinfield of King Crimson at

Trev Teasdel

this stage. Glaik is a Scottish word meaning fool but the inference I took from my original source was one who lived under illusions.

The story of the monkey who seeing the sun in the lake dived in to catch it but discovered it was only a reflection was the starting point for the lyric.

Beneath the Phaeic Sky (Trev Teasdel 1971

The Black Knight’s spectre
Prowls the battlement.
Beneath the phaeic sky
Sounds his sad lament.
The phantom pillion rider groans
as he leaps a lazing stile.
The faceless henchman totes his gun
and points it with beguile.
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can’t see.

The moon has closed her eyes
to the surreptitious hand of fate
The passageway becomes alive
as armoury vibrates.
The trees they are approaching now
Like Birnam Wood on old Macbeth
The assassin’s blade drips with blood
There’s a stench of cobwebbed death.
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can’t see.

Beelzebub whets his fangs
and summons the evil firedrake
As a prudent Aquila swoops in
along the monster’s wake.
The unsuspecting demon squirms
with the stab of a venom tongue
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can’t see.

GLAIK (The Illusion of the Lake) by Trev Teasdel 1971

I tried to catch the sun

but it was only a reflection in the water.

I was only seeking treasure

But I ended up ‘kissing the gunner’s daughter’

The velvet coated bard I followed

was just a caird* who was in a play.

I looked up to the sky to see

they had blackened the ‘eye of the day’

chorus

Glaik, Gaik, Glaik (elongate the word musically)

The Illusion of the lake.

I went to see the archimage

but he turned out to be just a javel.

I pulled the bedclothes back

to see a snake unravel.

I almost made the rainbow’s end

when it suddenly turned wan

I gledged upon a peacock

who suddenly lost his fan.

………………………………..

Vocabulary

*Caird (plural cairds) (Britain, dialect) A travelling tinker; a tramp, or sturdy beggar.

Glaik is an archaic Scottish word with various definitions – eg foolish, giddy but in the dictionary I used when I wrote it in the 70’s the meaning given as an ‘illusion’ and that’s the sense in which I used it. The nearest I can find on line is ‘to delude’ but like many obscure words there is much debate around its earliest meaning.

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