{"id":174,"date":"2020-06-25T22:35:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T21:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2020\/06\/25\/memories-of-david-owen-and-the-music-scene-coventry-in-the-early-sixties\/"},"modified":"2020-06-25T22:35:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T21:35:00","slug":"memories-of-david-owen-and-the-music-scene-coventry-in-the-early-sixties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsrainbow.com\/coventrygigs\/2020\/06\/25\/memories-of-david-owen-and-the-music-scene-coventry-in-the-early-sixties\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of David Owen and the music scene Coventry in the early sixties"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nMemories of David Owen and the Music Scene Coventry in the Early Sixties.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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\nIn the words of <\/b><\/span>Rob Peake<\/span><\/b> .<\/span><\/div>\n
\nSupplied by Pete Clemons.<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
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\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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David Owen was well known and well liked as one of the top agents in Coventry. He also owned the \u2018Lunchbox\u2019 a local restaurant and nightspot, above the shops near the Forum on the Walsgrave Road. Whenever I saw him he was always friendly but very much the businessman. He always seemed to be on the phone, talking about groups, bookings and music generally. <\/p>\n

David was always very encouraging to the groups that he managed. He would never fail to mention the \u2018Sorrows\u2019 and the \u2018Matadors\u2019 at every opportunity. As a drummer I was always in awe of Harry Heppenstall the drummer with the Matadors, whenever I watched them. <\/p>\n

The Sorrows big hit \u2018Take A Heart\u2019 was also a great inspiration to all of us. Tony Fennell\u2019s haunting \u2018paradiddle\u2019 makes it an unforgettable song. He was actually a session drummer by then, having started the \u2018Mustangs\u2019 a few years before. They backed Coventry singer \u2018Lynne Curtis\u2019. Don Fardon ex singer with the Sorrows also sat in on a gig with us once at Broad Street Old Boys Rugby Club. That was a great night. He was an imposing presence and a great singer. He really got the crowd going, a later had a hit with his song \u2018Indian Reservation\u2019. <\/p>\n

One particular meeting with David did stick in my mind though. <\/p>\n

We were called to his office one afternoon, which was above a newsagent\u2019s shop, opposite the GEC works in the Stoke area of Coventry. He was considering us for some work in Germany as a backing group for another of his acts. This was a great opportunity so we were all very excited. I was just seventeen at the time and still at school. I did have some worries about getting a work permit for Germany, as the minimum age at the time was 18 years. The last thing I wanted was to stop the group from taking, what could have been our first big break. Unfortunately we didn\u2019t get the job in the end, as the booking fell through. This was an early disappointment, which we found difficult to deal with at the time. <\/p>\n

David had a lot of connections in the music business especially around Coventry and Birmingham. We travelled all over the City and to gigs further afield. The \u2018Co-op Ballroom\u2019 in Nuneaton and \u2018The George\u2019 in Hinckley, \u2018The Cedar Room\u2019, \u2018 The Elbow Room\u2019 and the Mackadown in Birmingham were all on the circuit for Coventry based groups. The \u2018Carlton Ballroom\u2019 in Erdington, which later became \u2018Mothers\u2019 was another great place to play. <\/p>\n

All-nighters began taking off in the Midlands, at venues where promoters were able to obtain a licence. I remember we played the \u2018Chateau Impney\u2019 just outside Droitwich for one of their Friday all-nighters, with Birmingham reggae group \u2018Locomotive\u2019, who later had a hit with \u2018Rudi\u2019s In Love\u2019. I still remember playing drums behind our group, while the crowd were dancing. As dawn started to break I saw the sunlight just starting to come up over the stage and I thought ‘I\u2019m so lucky to be here and to be able to do this’. <\/p>\n

Roger Williamson, who would later form Eastlight, was the bass player when I joined the \u2018Nite Train\u2019 in 1964. We were actually a three piece, with Terry on Lead Guitar and Vocals, Roger on Bass and me on Drums, Jim Lang had already left to join one of the Irish show bands by then. Show Bands were becoming popular in Coventry at that time. This was before his days as tenor sax player with the great \u2018Ray King Soul Band\u2019. <\/p>\n

I remember our repertoire was mainly R & B numbers, including \u2018Walking the Dog\u2019, \u2018Jump back, \u2018Gloria\u2019, \u2018Kansas City\u2019 and Mose Allison\u2019s \u2018 Parchman Farm\u2019 etc. We did get some good gigs though back in the day. The Chesford Grange near Leamington had two stages down in the basement, with a ballroom for dancing upstairs. On Saturday nights they had a full band in the ballroom and usually two groups on in the cellar downstairs. By ten o\u2019clock the place was usually heaving. We also had a residency at the Avonside Country Club, just down the road, for a while as well. <\/p>\n

In the week we used to run our own nights at the \u2018Red House\u2019 in Stoney Stanton Road\u2019 and the \u2018New Inn\u2019 in Longford, charging about 2 shillings (10p) on the door. I remember also playing the Cedars in Coundon, where they used to pass a collection plate round to everyone in the pub to pay the group, happy days! <\/p>\n

As well as David Owen we used to work for another agency, Friars Promotions in Albany Road, Earlsdon. Jack Hardy, who ran the business, had an answering machine in the office, which was always on. If it was a group on the phone asking for money he would let the answering machine handle the call, but if it was a pub or club with work to offer, he would rush to the phone, cut in and take the call. We did eventually get paid, but as we were only getting about \u00a320 a gig, we weren\u2019t doing it for the money. The Musicians Union rate at that time was only about one Guinea an hour. <\/p>\n

We used to practice two nights a week at the \u2018Holyhead Road Youth Club\u2019 near Coventry town centre. The club had two stages, one in the basement and another in the main concert room. Any youngsters visiting the club in the evening would have the choice of two free shows, as there were usually two groups rehearsing in each space. I often used to see my cousin Dave Cooper rehearsing with his progressive folk group \u2018Dando Shaft\u2019. Dave and I had grown up together and we would often sing together and play guitar, in his bedroom at Auntie Nell\u2019s house in Tallants Road, Bell Green. <\/p>\n

Roger Williamson eventually left the \u2018Nite Train\u2019 to join the Darkness and then set up Folk duo \u2018Eastlight\u2019. Folk music was very popular in the sixties at that time, with lots of good venues in the City. He was a big loss to us as he was a good bass player, as well as an extremely good guitarist. Welshman Bryn Evans, who took over, also played a mean bass guitar. <\/p>\n

We became a \u2018Soul Band\u2019 around that time as well. The line-up was eventually extended to nine, with two new sax players, Al and Trevor, and a new trumpet player Stan, who all had day jobs working for Rolls Royce at Ansty. Our Female Singer \u2018Hyacinth\u2019 also brought in two girl backing singers. Our repertoire became more James Brown and Otis Reading, with popular numbers like \u2018Shake\u2019, \u2018I Feel Good\u2019, Wilson Pickett\u2019s \u2018Midnight Hour\u2019, Eddie Floyd\u2019s \u2018Knock on Wood\u2019 and Gino Washington\u2019s \u201cHi, hi hi, Hazel\u2019 now on the setlist. When Terry, our lead guitarist, got hold of one of the new \u201cFuzz\u201d boxes, we were able to cover some of the new Spencer Davis hits like, \u2018Keep on Running\u2019 and \u2018 Somebody Help Me\u2019, which always went down well at \u2018The Racehorse\u2019 in Warwick. <\/p>\n

Sunday nights in Coventry were mostly very quiet. The local pubs had to close at 10.30pm as licences were not usually issued to pubs for Sunday dancing. We\u2019d often go the Hotel Leofric Jazz club on a Sunday Night and watch the some big name bands on the small stage there in the concert room. It was mainly R and B bands in those days. I remember seeing Long John Baldry\u2019s \u2018Steam Packet\u2019, with The Brian Auger Trinity, Julie Driscoll and a very young Rod Stewart there a few times. John Mayall\u2019s Blues Breakers, with Mick Taylor on lead, and \u2018The Graham Bond Organisation\u2019 were some names I remember. <\/p>\n

Rod Stewart would come on halfway through the Steam Packet\u2019s set dressed with a look straight out of Carnaby Street. \u2018Rod the Mod\u2019 had an impressive voice, even in the early sixties. I remember him singing Marvin Gaye\u2019s \u2018 Ain\u2019t That Peculiar\u2019 standing right next to me at the edge of the stage. <\/p>\n

The \u2018mod\u2019 look for us, meant ditching our drainpipe jeans, winkle-picker shoes and tea-shirts for Cuban heels, Paisley Shirts and backcombed hair. <\/p>\n

There were so many venues in Coventry in the 1960\u2019s where you could see and hear all kinds of music; \u2018The Matrix Ballroom\u2019 on Fletchamstead Highway was a venue that attracted a lot of major names. Just about every UK Chart Topping Group played there in the early sixties, but it also attracted some of the big American Artists as well. One such artist on tour at that time was Jerry Lee Lewis. I remember we were the first group on early in the evening, so I couldn\u2019t use my own drum kit, something I wasn\u2019t too happy about at the time. We did our set and when we got back to the dressing rooms behind the stage, Jerry Lee Lewis\u2019s backing group had arrived, so we had a chance to chat with them about music. They were all pretty high, and I don\u2019t just mean from playing music. A stark reminder that hard drugs are never very far away in the music business. <\/p>\n

Coventry agents would work their groups quite hard in those days, and David Owen was no exception. We couldn\u2019t stay to watch Jerry Lee Lewis, as we were back in the van and heading downtown for another show. The Lanchester Polytechnic was a popular Coventry music venue, next to the new Coventry Cathedral. It had three stages one in the Refectory on the third floor and two stages opposite each other in the main ballroom. <\/p>\n

We were heading for the main ballroom this time, which meant we could use the big lift, next to the loading bay at the back of the college. A lift was paradise for anyone who had to carry heavy music gear up and down stairs. That night we had three heavy \u2018Vox Boxes\u2019 plus the P.A system to shift. <\/p>\n

As we got out of the lift we could hear the first band \u2018Unit 4 + 2\u2019 coming to the end of their set. Panic began to ensue, as we needed to get everything set up before they finished, so we could keep everyone dancing. As we got onto the opposite stage they announced that they would play two more numbers. I breathed a sigh of relief and started setting up my kit. <\/p>\n

I have great memories of the Lanchester, and have seen some great student events there. We would often go to see the energetic \u2018Ray King Soul Band\u2019 perform there. Ray was a great performer and really knew how to work a crowd. Jim Lang\u2019s tenor sax melodies complemented Ray\u2019s voice and we all knew they were destined for much bigger things. <\/p>\n

We also played some gigs at the \u2018Benn Memorial Hall\u2019 in Rugby. On one occasion we were supporting \u2018The Ivy League\u2019, who had changed their name to \u2018The Flower Pot Men\u2019 in line with the \u2018Flower Power\u2019 craze that was now sweeping the nation. It was an amazing experience to listen to them singing those three part harmonies on \u2018Let’s Go to San Francisco\u2019, from the wings as they performed their set. <\/p>\n

We went for a lot of auditions with various promoters and got some good gigs, but there were also many disappointments, along the way. We did however come second in a talent contest at the Coventry \u2018Locarno\u2019. Their revolving stage was a weird experience, as we had to start playing facing a brick wall. As we played the audience slowly came into view, by the time they could eventually see us we were halfway through our first number. <\/p>\n

Eventually I left the \u2018Nite Train\u2019 to join Dave Pennycook and Colin Elliot in \u2018Monday\u2019s Children\u2019, who were looking for a drummer. We went on to rock great places like \u2018Smorrell Lane Social Club\u2019 in Bedworth and the \u2018Lime Tree Social Club\u2019 in Tile Hill with \u2018Small Faces\u2019 covers. <\/p>\n

There was no \u2018Big Time\u2019 for me I\u2019m afraid, just a lot of very happy memories of being in a group in Coventry in the swinging sixties. <\/p>\n

Rob Peake – June 2020 <\/b><\/p>\n

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