A legend in his own lunchtime

[essexbasscat]

We all do gigs that after a while just blend one into the other, but last night was an evening I'll never forget.

 

The band has set up and were relaxing in a side room when the drummer looked through the window and shot out of his chair like a rocket.  We all followed him to the front door and met Clem Cattini and his wife, Clem was the drummer of the Tornados, the group that recorded Telestar, one of the sound tracks of my childhood

 

Clem was the complete gentleman, he signed the drummer's Ludwig drum and talked with us for ages. Clem recorded Shaking All Over, No milk today (Hermans Hermits), early Kinks tracks and dozens of other famous songs in the 60's. He introduced John Lennon to BIlly Fury when the Beatles were the Silver Beatles, the list goes on and on. 

 

It was his birthday the day before, so we sang happy birthday for him, he looked genuinely pleased. At the end of the night Clem thanked us for playing and said how much he enjoyed the band, I'll never forget how friendly he is how he just talked with us all as if he was one of the gang. He's written a book about his career which I've ordered this morning

 

God bless you Clem, thank you for a memorable evening which I'll never forget  

[essexbasscat]

Just checked his discography, he recorded 43 No 1 singles, what a career

[KevL]

It seems as if he made everyone's night, he sounds a real gent.

 

I'll admit that I had never heard of him until reading your post but there are so many of these talented old musicians around with quite prolific careers and yet they are happy to remain low-profile and not shout about what they have done, which is a good way to live.

 

Did your drummer know that Clem was going to be there or did he just recognise him as he passed?

[lowdown]

"Can I have the strings a bit earlier in my headphones....". I think that was a Clem retort to an engineer back in the day.

 

A session legend. A two part interview below...

 

 

 

 

Edited August 22, 2021 by lowdown

[Nail Soup]

2 hours ago, essexbasscat said:

Just checked his discography, he recorded 43 No 1 singles, what a career

That’s an impressive achievement.

Although Carol Kaye will probably claim some of those were her😃

Edited August 22, 2021 by Nail Soup

[bassace]

We played support to the Tornadoes back in the day. Like you say, Clem was a perfect gent, lovely guy, even when he was young and could be forgiven for being a bit full of himself. A gig not to be forgotten.

[dudewheresmybass]

Wasn’t he played by James c***en in the joe meek film?

[Storky]

11 hours ago, dudewheresmybass said:

Wasn’t he played by James c***en in the joe meek film?

Yes, I’m sure he was; I was thinking the same thing