Vets from the 60's Shine On!

[Born 2B Mild]

I grew up in the 60's, bopping at family parties to the Dave Clark Five, The Beatles and The Hollies etc., but I am aware that there are a few Basschatter's who were actually [i]there[/i], who eventually wore out their welcome with a random precision, doing the back beat with WEM amps and flat wounds, or who miraculously morphed in to the 70's and onwards.

Reveal your proud selves and share with us your wondrous stories.

...So come on you targets for faraway laughter, come on you strangers, you legends, you martyrs, and shine!

[OldGit]

Ha ha
Yeah I was there. Strapped on my Jap Crap not-quite-a-Precision copy for my first gig in 1969. 40 years of gigging, non-stop more or less ....
Pre-loved Baker 30 head and a 15 inch speaker in a cabinet filled with the itchiest fibreglass roof insulation you can imagine.

Getting to gigs in the guitarist's dad's Bedford Dormable, with him driving, with no floor, no heater and sometimes no lights.
Trundling around sat on the gear in the back 'cos there weren't enough seats.

Working Men's Clubs ..... hummm

[bassace]

Fess up time! I was mainly playing double bass in those days, used to travel around in my first car, a Standard 10 with the bass on the roof. No amp then. Then in about 62 I played Blond Fender Jazz, worth a fortune today, with the Ramrods in Cheltenham for a while, through a Vox AC somethingorother. I remember that the PA came out of the rhythm guitarist's Vox. In 64 I came back to Reading and played double bass and bass guitar with all sorts of rock and jazz outfits. I made my own cabinets and finished up with an 18" Goodmans speaker in a large cab powered by a 50watt Leak HiFi amp and a custom preamp that my bro made for me.

I dimly remember supporting John Barry Seven, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, Tornadoes, Barron Knights, Elkie Brooks, Chris Barber, Humph, Acker, Tubby Hayes, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee. I played with Bobby Wellins, Cathy Stobart, Jimmy Skidmore, Arthur Brown (CrazyWorldOf) and others. You may recognise some of those names.

End of the sixties brought marriage and the responsibilities that go with it so I 'rested' for 15 years until I picked up again.

They were happy days.

[bumnote]

Strapped on my hofner president later a fender jaguar in 1963 later progressing to an epihone rivioli, then an EBO before aquiring the 64 precision i still have.

We have forgetten the linear concord valve amp, 15 watt IIRC powering a 15 or 18 inch speaker in a home made box the size of a wardrobe with a breeze block in the bottom to weigh it down, The hammond organ up 4 flights of stairs.

The dormobile and thames van with the air operated windscreen wipers which slowed up the faster you went.

Wow and then the transit, if you had the 6 wheeler you were certainly something.

The sight of the early Marshalls behind The Oo, Yardbirds et al

Moonie at the top of the stairs at kimballs ballroom trying to score er aspirin or similar.

top bands playing to only a few hundred people for not much money. Argent and Thin lizzie used to do the tricorn in portsmouth for about a tenner.

People look back on the 60s, and Pop/Rock/ really took off in that decade, not least as communication improved. Imagine a time where there was little radio or television exposure untill the pirates and then radio 1.

At the end of it, whatever decade you start growing up in is going to be pretty special.

[lowdown]

Just made the end of it - 1969..
I was fourteen and playing in a Irish country and western band...
£4.00 a gig...
I had a Selmar amp and cab.
And a copy Gibson EBO or 3..
Then my dad went on tour to the States..
And he lent me one of his Jazz basses.




I never gave it back.....
Because Disco had arrived..wey hey!

And by the way - in those days nobody needed a strap on...!!
Garry

Edited April 2, 2009 by lowdown

[obbm]

Me too. Got bitten by the bug in the late 50's when a guy in our form used to bring in Del Shannon, Johnnie and the Hurricanes and Duane Eddy records and play them during lunch time. He has a lot to answer for. Then I saw various tours at Slough. I shall never forget seeing Little Richard rocking it up on the piano and then coming down and jiving with the audience. He was backed by the superb Sounds Incorporated who were truly inspirational. Another inspiration was the picture on the cover of the Shadows first album with a Fender Precision leaning up against a chair.

After a couple of attempts at home-made basses, which were very good to learn the rudiments on, I bought a short scale Framus Star Bass. My first amp was the home radiogram with a Philips tape recorder as a preamp. (EQ?, tonecontrols?, what are they?). Eventually I bought one of the ubiquitous Linear Conchorde 30-watt valve amps and built a 4x12 cab to Marshall dimensions which was fitted with 4 Bakers Group 30 speakers.

I can thoroughly recommend Mo Foster's book "Seventeen Watts". It a great account of the early days of rock music and most of the things that happened to him as he was getting into music also seem to have happened to me.

First paid gig was New Years Eve 1962. Once I'd passed my driving test I used to cart my gear around in the family Austin A55 Cambridge but my mother got a bit fed up with that and got me an A35 van which used to ferry the drummer and myself around. I recently had a letter from said drummer enclosing a press cutting about a gig the band did. He and the lead guitarist are shown in the photo along with their kit. The strange thing is I have no recollection of ever doing that gig, but it was the 60s.

We used to get some of the great bands around this area. The Stones used to play the infamous Wooden Bridge Hotel in Guildford regularly but I never got to see them there. Farnborough Tech College always had great dances and I remember seeing the Yardbirds there. It was shortly after Clapton had left and Jeff Beck joined. Guilford Tech was another great venue and I remember seeing John Mayall Bluesbreakers with John McVie, Aynslie Dunbar and Peter Green (before acid).

[pete.young]

Respect.

[YouMa]

Wish i had been there boys,i am in spirit.

[leschirons]

First gig 1968 but on drums (sorry) Had a John Grey kit. Brother (guitarist had a Gibson Melodymaker and our bassplayer had a sunburst Fender jazz (bought new from Freedmans in Leytonstone High road) He later bought the first ever 200 watt Marshall bass stack I'd ever seen with 2 4x12s. I heard Ginger Baker for the first time and bought a secondhand, second bass drum. Moved on to Premier drums and ended up in the 70's supporting East of Eden, Mighty Baby, Genesis and other proggy rockers. Saw the light 20 years ago and took up bass. Had a Ford Thames van and being the youngest, had to sit on the engine cover in the middle and get my arse burnt after 5 minutes of driving. Good times. We all thought we were going to be Gods.

[Telebass]

I was just a couple of years too late to be part of this, although, gear-wise, not much changed!

[spinynorman]

By 1969 I was 17 and still trying to play Bob Dylan covers on an acoustic guitar. Took me another 30 years to discover I could play bass. I do wonder if I could have learned back then, without computers and the Internet. I don't think I'd have had the patience for learning off records.

An older lad a few doors down in our street was in a band called Kaleidoscope (not the US one). They got signed to Vertigo and were supposed to be the next big thing, but it never happened. They opened the Hendrix Isle of Wight, but got their set cut to 20mins. Just got shafted right, left and centre. Seems like it was more fun if you didn't almost make it.

[The Bass Doc]

First gig 1964 - highlights - supported The Tremoloes, the Move & Peter Greens Fleetwood Mac in 1968-1969. First bass - Burns Nu-Sonic, then Gibson EB3 then Fenders - hated the fact that they were so common - then realised why.

Didn't do drugs - grateful now after seeing Peter Green in Splinter.

[ianwild16]

hey guys...loved the stories......any old photo's you could scan in as well?

[obbm]

Here's my contribution. This has been up before and is the only picture of The Elite Clique.



It was taken about August 1964 on top of Farnham Castle by one Graham Berry who became a TV cameraman and achieved fame by chasing round after Anneke Rice on C4's Treasure Hunt.

[YouMa]

Awesome more please lads,anyone support barrett era floyd,or anything like that. Peter greens something to be very proud of though,better than clapton in my opinion.

[hatori]

Sixty nine saw me with all my stuff in the back of my mates ford anglia van do a runner to Plymouth. Hair down to my arse, Jack Bruce my hero. First ever paid job was at The Pussycat club Union street. 9pm-3am seven days a week playing pop and backing cabaret singers and strippers for the princely sum of 27 pounds . If I remember it was a Rossetti Lucky seven bass and my dads Selmer 15 watt combo. Yes...The Pussycat Club...blood on every step, and on Saturday nights at kicking out time The Royal Marines and the Navy beating the crap out of each other.Aye them were t days.

Edited April 2, 2009 by hatori

[Mr Fudge]

I can smell a "viagra" window popping up on this thread if you excuse the pun.

Fair play and more pics please !!!

[chris_b]

I grew up in West London so I got to see most bands. John Mayall, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Retaliation, Rod Stewart with Jeff Beck, and before that with Steam Packet and Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, Jimi Hendrix, Yardbirds, Phillip Chen with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Geno, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, the list is much longer!
I sneaked off to the Technicolor Dream at Ally Pally in 67 and got grounded for a month by my Dad!!
My first gig was in 1966 and I turned pro for the first time in 69. That lasted for 6 years. I played with Jess and James in Europe, Python Lee Jackson, (no I'm not on the record!), Herbie Goins, Storyteller and Andy Bown amongst others.
I only got about 5 mins of my 15. I'm still looking for the rest!

[beerdragon]

I have some old photos somewhere. i'll try scan some if anyone's remotely interested. back then i have been on the sane bill as the original Drifters. Wayne Fontana and and the Mindbenders, Billy J kramer and the Dakotas. the Herd with Peter Frampton. Edwin Starr. you get the picture. Mind you. i was Sixteen. Not old enough to drink. but plenty of women and umm.. anyway. it was all transit vans, 100watt PA systems co-ordinated dressware.

[Born 2B Mild]

[quote name='beerdragon' post='452897' date='Apr 3 2009, 12:33 AM']I have some old photos somewhere. i'll try scan some if anyone's remotely interested.[/quote]
Scan away. These posts are facinating, inspiring and humbling.

[leschirons]

[quote name='YouMa' post='452851' date='Apr 2 2009, 11:29 PM']Awesome more please lads,anyone support barrett era floyd,or anything like that. Peter greens something to be very proud of though,better than clapton in my opinion.[/quote]

You'll be sorry you asked. Here's a few. Surrounded by Marshalls at a dingy club in Brighton. Seem to remember our PA was Fender. Bassisit then had really nice early Gibson (big Jack Bruce fan) Also, one of us three trying to look cool. Me on the left trying to look like Mitch Mitchell. Bro in the middle was a big Luther Grosvenor fan. (Spooky Tooth) One of me after buying the secondhand marching drum to add to the kit, and the invoice for my bro's first fuzz box. Club pic depicts us in full throw doing our version of Sky Pilot (Animals I think) in which we used to stick a chunk of Rhapsody in Blue in the middle. We thought we were going to change the world by inventing prog rock. Bro's guitar was a chopped Strat as he is lefthanded so the horns came off.

Edited April 3, 2009 by leschirons

[YouMa]

[quote name='leschirons' post='452957' date='Apr 3 2009, 07:51 AM']You'll be sorry you asked. Here's a few. Surrounded by Marshalls at a dingy club in Brighton. Seem to remember our PA was Fender. Bassisit then had really nice early Gibson (big Jack Bruce fan) Also, one of us three trying to look cool. Me on the left trying to look like Mitch Mitchell. Bro in the middle was a big Luther Grosvenor fan. (Spooky Tooth) One of me after buying the secondhand marching drum to add to the kit, and the invoice for my bro's first fuzz box. Club pic depicts us in full throw doing our version of Sky Pilot (Animals I think) in which we used to stick a chunk of Rhapsody in Blue in the middle. We thought we were going to change the world by inventing prog rock. Bro's guitar was a chopped Strat as he is lefthanded so the horns came off.[/quote]


You look a bit like the early pink fairies,cool photos.

[YouMa]

[quote name='chris_b' post='452880' date='Apr 3 2009, 12:10 AM']I grew up in West London so I got to see most bands. John Mayall, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Retaliation, Rod Stewart with Jeff Beck, and before that with Steam Packet and Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, Jimi Hendrix, Yardbirds, Phillip Chen with Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Geno, Bo Diddley, John Lee Hooker, the list is much longer!
I sneaked off to the Technicolor Dream at Ally Pally in 67 and got grounded for a month by my Dad!!
My first gig was in 1966 and I turned pro for the first time in 69. That lasted for 6 years. I played with Jess and James in Europe, Python Lee Jackson, (no I'm not on the record!), Herbie Goins, Storyteller and Andy Bown amongst others.
I only got about 5 mins of my 15. I'm still looking for the rest![/quote]

Wow! did you really go to the Technicolor Dream!.. if i had a time machine this would have been one event i would love to go to. Stories and photographs please. Did you see the floyd with barrett on early in the morning what was it like?

[alexclaber]

[quote name='chris_b' post='452880' date='Apr 3 2009, 12:10 AM']I played with Jess and James in Europe, Python Lee Jackson...[/quote]

Awesome. I was obsessed with "In A Broken Dream" as an eight year old school boy doing his damnedest to avoid the music of 1986!

Alex

[chris_b]

[quote name='YouMa' post='452968' date='Apr 3 2009, 09:04 AM']....Wow! did you really go to the Technicolor Dream!.. if i had a time machine this would have been one event i would love to go to. Stories and photographs please. Did you see the floyd with barrett on early in the morning what was it like?....[/quote]
I remember Scaffold, Family, Edgar Broughton and Arthur Brown but the rest is a blur and I slept through Pink Floyd!!! The sound system wasn't very good and a lot of it was quite boring. I went with our guitarist who was trying to get a band together with Felix Dennis, of IT fame, now millionaire, then not very good drummer. In the end I was surprised to see that it got so much coverage!