Active about 1983 and described by Dominic Hazell as “Coventry’s answer to Duran Duran meets Haircut 100“.
Members included Dominic Hazell (Acoustic guitar) / Ray Jenkins (in white) / Ted Kay (Ex Dando Shaft) on bongos / and (I think but not sure) Shaun Dunk on keyboards.
Two of the venues they played were the Freemason’s Arms and The General Wolf.
Photos from Dominic Hazell‘s facebook
Vin Lloyd and his Mounties were Coventry’s first big pop group, according to Pete Chambers.
Vin Lloyd and his Mounties
The first real pop band in the area didn’t play ska, nor did they play beat music, in fact they didn’t even play rock n roll.
No, Coventry’s first real pop band played skiffle music, A mixture of bluegrass, blues, folk and country music that would inspire so many would-be musicians, including The Beatles.
Nowadays Skiffle might be looked on as the slightly unkempt poor relation to rock n roll, but then it was something of a musical revolution.
Giving the youth of the day access to a new music form, with its roots in American traditions, transformed for the UK market, as British as fish and chips.
It was the punk of its day, it made people pick up an instrument (often crude and homemade), it mattered not if you couldn’t really play, it was exciting and powerful, and they all believed they were on ‘The Rock Island Line’, when the tea chest bass kicked in.
Indeed, at the beginning of 1958 skiffle artists were panicking as Coventry (and Nuneaton) were experiencing a shortage of guitars.
Such was the demand to be in a skiffle band, that music shops were selling the instruments at a dozen a day.
Britain had little foothold in the manufacturing of guitars in the late 50s, so instruments were being imported from Germany, France and The Netherlands.
Prices ranged from £5 to £15 for a basic entry level guitar, going up to £30 for a higher build model.
Vin Lloyd and his Mounties were a nine-piece band and they have the distinction of being the very first pop band to come out of Coventry.
The line up was Vincent Lloyd, Lorraine Sawbridge, Gordon Cattell, Peter Tanner, Ron Turner, Janet Sawbridge, Derek Swoffield, George Newton and Bob Garrood.
They were auditioned on ITA for The Carroll Levis Show and even supported The Kirchins on a tour in Scotland. When they played Nottingham they took three coach loads over from Coventry.
I had the honour of catching up with the band’s vocalist Peter Tanner recently, and asked him about those exciting days.
“We all met at The Mount Pleasant Pub on the Hinckley Road in Coventry, our manager was a chap called George Dunn,” recalls Peter.
“He went out and got the gigs and we went and played them. A lot of them were in Coventry, we also played Leicester and Birmingham too.”
“They were great times, we played all the big skiffle hits of the 50s. Numbers like ‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘The Rock Island Line’ made famous by skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan, of course.”
I asked Peter how he felt when skiffle turned into rock n roll?
I was surprised when he replied: “I wasn’t very keen, to be honest, rock just wasn’t for me. I didn’t mind though, my career only lasted 18 months, but, saying that, it was an amazing 18 months.”
I loved the idea of skiffle, it was so beautifully obvious where mid 50s’ garage music was all heading.
Those young adults that brought guitars, would soon to be playing rock n roll music.
Home-produced skiffle instruments like the tea chest basses and washboards were confined back to the garden shed as the youth began rockin’ along with Elvis and Little Richard.
Article from Pete Chambers Backbeat column https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/backbeat-coventrys-first-pop-band-11616357
VIETNAMESE BABIES (The V Babies)
From Alternative Sounds 1979
Formed late 1978
Psychedelic R & B
Donna Blitzen featured on Sent From Coventry album 1979
Judd Woodcock – Guitar
Colin Wardle – Bass
Paul James – Drums
Keith Bailey – Vocals
“John Kitchener and I Started a group in 1957/58 The Versatile Five based in The Gigi Coffee Bar and our bass player backed Eddie Cochran, and we were all on stage with Eddie and Gene Vincent.”
Rock n Roll Roy Christon
“The Beaker cafe was a great venue for live bands, I used to sing in a group called The Versatile Five and we played there about 1960. We had a drummer who guested once called Red Nichols. Our guitarist played back up to Eddie Cochran/Gene Vincent at the Gaumont and we were allowed on stage as they rehearsed. We were based at the Gigi cafe across the road. Don from Dons Motors round the corner in Gosford Street and supplied all the equipment. Anybody got any more memories of this?” Roy (in The Historic Coventry site )
The Versatiles
Late 70’s with Mark Rider of Skawaddy, Steve Martin organ. The Versatiles were managed by a Irish chap called Noel, I think he became a councilor or Mayor later. Played The Smithfield Arms, Coventry.
From Pete Chambers book “Godiva Rocked to a Backbeat”
“After a year of playing together in The Ramblers, Roy and Graham Harrity formed the duo The Vendour Twins in 1962. They chose the name ‘Vendour’ as they were known for playing the song The Peanut Vendour).
Roy Harrity recalls being at the Bamber club on Foleshill Rd. Bert Weedon was there setting up and heard the Vendour Twins warming up. he liked what he heard and asked the to back him. He lived in Coventry at the time, Allesley, so it was easy to get to gigs all around the country.
WITCHWOOD
Info from Rupert Lloydell of Stride Publications –
Wiser Now c 1972 – Club band – Lead guitar / Vocals – Johnny Adams (later of Fission and Squad and many more bands and the 90’s duo Baton Rouge). Johnny gave me some of his old band cards back in 1973 and this is one of them.
Joe Reynolds started off as road with The Chris Jones Aggression as roadie and also played harmonica with them on occasions. Joe was also a poet, played flute and sax and later, in 1979, played sax on The Selecter tracks recorded at Coventry’s Horizon studio – at least on Three Minute Hero. Joe also worked with A Band Called George in 1974. Later in Vehicle a Leamington band.
Joe Reynolds was the first musician to advertise in Hobo Magazine, basic as the ad was, it started us off.
Listen to an interview with Joe Reynolds.
In the early eighties Joe played sax with a Nuneaton based band called Tasty alongside Steve Johnson and Nigel Fletcher who had both played with Lieutenant Pigeon in the seventies. They played mainly funk/soul covers and the only Coventry gig was at the City Centre Club. After his dep work with The Selecter, Joe played on records by the VIPs, a Warwick Uni band and Seagulls, a local pub/club band among others.
Later he joined a soul / reggae band called Stax and played a lot in Coventry at venues like the Hope and Anchor in Whitefriars Street and the Commonwealth Club near the railway bridge in Lockhurst Lane, Holbrook and a residency at the Jubilee Pub at the end of the Stoney Stanton Road.
They also played regularly at La Chaumiere in The Burges and the Dog and Trumpet in the city centre. Stax lasted about two years, Carol Lloyd, the singer, left and was replaced by Ray King and Desmond Brown from Selecter joined later. They split up at the end of 1982, and the last gig was a New Years Eve one.
Joe Reynolds guesting on The Selecter’s Three Minute Hero -on record and on Top of the Pops – see Video and photos below
FOR DAYLIGHT ONLY
Reflected spectrum on dew damp pane
Technicolour morning
Wisp away the sandman’s dust
Spraying wind to chill my face
Squealing seagulls whip the sky
Fingering foam claws the beach
Over the rock pool rapids.
Sandy lightening lizards
Moss covered rock wall walks
Spitting forks the bluebottle’s death
Sleepy venom adder
King of the anthill.
Red flamed circle kissed the crest
Rippling arrowheads across the waves
Captured second forgotten dusk
From the reaching cliffs echo
Cricket singing serenade the night
Tomorrow’s dawn will wake you.
TRUTH
Behind the spot light
that shows
what’s for us
I find after looking, my truths
folding themselves up.
To look small
and hiding behind each other
and towards the sides
of that light.
The countless confusions
struggling to find themselves
through the mist
that limps above them.
PROSTITUTE
Through the alleys,
Night lights
Strike the slabs
And pierce the road
She walks ever watchful,
Dreaming
Of her non existing love
As profit
Rings the strings of her heart
Guilt and pride
Beneath her powder
Asking for her wage
Her mind all ablaze with dreams
As home she takes him
Pretence of not caring
Parrot fashion so straight
And upstairs
Her room
Her cold room
Nakedness in routine
That he must not see
A powder tear
As all her dreams
Of silk and bells
And old friends drive her forward.
And he unsuspecting
He mustn’t’t know
As her cheeks tighten
As her fingers try to relax
In fear she holds her throat
With a rock
And smiles
As he dresses
His clumsy pants
She laughs so loud
He runs leaving his underwear
Behind
She picks it up
Still laughter.
A wardrobe full
Of past experience
And tears
If only one would stay
Could anyone ever come back
Or are they all married
Twisting
Her tears unfold
But listeners are as rare
As a unicorns horn
And who cares anyway
It’s her own stupid fault.
The pain of honesty is that you have to tell the truth!
https://alternativesounds.bandcamp.com/album/alternative-sounds-volume-2
Line up
Roddy Byres (Roddy Radiation) – Guitar / Vocals
Johnny Thompson (Replaced Roddy when he joined the Specials)
Mark Extra (Roddy’s brother) Guitar and vocals
Ron Lapworth – bass
Pete Davies – Drums (1st drummer I think c 1975)
Tony Lynch – Drums.
Marco on Bass says
Pete Chambers wrote in Godiva Rocks
“Johnny Thompson replaced Roddy when he left to join the Coventry Automatics (later the Specials). Roddy continued to write for the band after he left including We’re only Monsters and Lorraine – featured on the Sent From Coventry album 1979. They were always a great live band with great songs like Confusion / Personal Gift. Ron Lapworth left to become a photographer – he worked with Attrition and on the cover of Sent From Coventry. They provided two songs for Ron Hutchinson’s production of Risky City at the Belgrade Theatre – Risky City and Death of Eddy – released on cassette single only. When they split Extra and Lynch joined Roddy in the Tearjerkers.”
From Wiki”It was in The Wild Boys that Roddy started songwriting. His first was “1980’s Teddy Boy”, and later came “Concrete Jungle” which was recorded by The Specials for their debut album, Specials (1979). The Specials version of “Concrete Jungle” was eventually released as a single by Chrysalis Records.
Byers joined The Specials when the band was called The Coventry Automatics and wrote several songs for the band. The most successful was “Rat Race”, which peaked at number five in the UK Singles Chart in May 1980. Byers also wrote “Hey Little Rich Girl”, which appeared on The Specials second album, More Specials (1980). “Hey Little Rich Girl” was released as a single in Japan by Chrysalis in 1980. Byers sang the lead vocal on “Concrete Jungle” and the track “Bragging and Trying Not to Lie” which was released as a free single with initial copies of More Specials. “Bragging and Trying Not to Lie” was credited as Roddy Radiation & The Specials.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roddy_Radiation
Memories from Ron Lapworth
“I was in a band called the Wild Boys. The experience was incredible and the music scene brought us together with a common aim…I remember turning the radio on at home and we (The Wild Boys) were being played on Radio 1’s Emperor Rosco’s Round Table, it didn’t seem weird at the time…” http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2004/11/05/music_godiva_rocks_feature.shtml
The following Are From Alternative Sounds 1979-
