CHAPTER 14
THE BROTHERS GRIMM
June 1969 to October 1969
and
JIM WEST AND THE TEXANS
June 1970 to February 1972
The breaking up of the “Forbidden Fruit” had a profound effect on me that has lasted to this very day. It felt like I had been robbed of my one and only chance of making it big in the music industry. During those amazing 18 months it was as if I had tunnel vision and that nothing else around me seemed to matter and consequently my decisions were clouded. The “Forbidden Fruit” just took over my every day thinking and controlled the way in which I lived. However looking back and with the wonderful benefit of hindsight, I now realise that it was just a phase that I had to go through. An insight into what the world had in store for me during the next stage in my life.
The break up with the band had also seen the break up of my marriage. I guess at times I must have looked a sorry site as I slouched around full of self-pity and wondering what to do next. Another reason for my gloom was that at work most people had stopped talking to me. I knew that most of them were running me down behind my back, while not one of them had the guts to repeat it to my face. I put this down to the old argument of the locals not accepting me and that I had deserted one of their local girls. Styx Scarlett told me that he had gone through the very same process when he broke up with his wife. During these times I do not know what I would have, done if it had not been for Ben. He was one of the few true friends who treated me like a human being. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I could count on three fingers the friends who stayed true to me
To say that you would do things different if given the chance is to admit that you got it all wrong in the first place. However not many people are going to admit that and I am no exception, what I will say is that it is a time when you certainly find out who your friends are. It is a time when most people take sides, all claiming that they know why, this or that has taken place. Once again, hindsight is a wonderful tool that many people miss use. They claim that they had predicted the out come of different situations in other people’s lives. They condemned people for the deeds they do, when in actual fact these very same mistakes have been made by their own families at different times. In my case, I believe that I got married to quick. We should have spent more time courting each other. In that way, we would have been able to uncover our likes and dislikes and to whether we were compatible, so we could have enjoyed each other’s company, instead of arguing about every single subject that came up. It would have saved a lot of hurt and heart break later to both sides of the family. If my memory serves me correct, I think I only saw Margaret six times while on weekend leave from the Marines, before we were married. However, I also know of people who were childhood sweethearts and courted each other for several years and they still ended up being divorced.
My father paid me a visit to see if he could help me sort out my family troubles. Dad was really trying to help and to talk me into staying with Margaret. After all, it is the duty of all parents to try to help their children, whenever help is needed. I listened to everything that Dad had to say, as a son should to his father’s advice. Unfortunately, I had to explain to him that it was a decision that I and I alone would have to make. I then apologised to Dad for any embarrassments that I had caused the family. Later my mother wrote a letter to me, as she tried her hardest to make me reconsider my decision.
In those days, divorce was always the very last resort, which was only undertaken by very few people. It was the old style way of life when you stayed together whatever the problems. It did not seem to matter how bad the marriage had become, how bad the arguments and fights were, all taking place in front of their children. I guess I was one of the fore runners of the so called new age style of living, after all it was a time known as the so-called swinging sixties. I was not going to spend fifty years of misery living with a person that I could not get on with. As far as I was concerned, I would have to start all over again. However, I was adamant that I was not going to make the same mistake a second time.
One of the reasons that helped me make up my mind came about after talking to one of the workers at Richard Garrett’s. He told me that he had stayed with his wife for the children’s sake. He had thought that if he left home all three of them would end up as juvenile delinquents and into every bit of trouble that came their way. The end result was that all three of them did in fact end up in trouble and eventually two of them even went to prison. He was very resentful of the fact that he had spent twenty-five years in a relationship that he hated every minute of, for nothing.
Because of the isolation that I had to suffer wherever I went, my relationship with Emily just grew and grew, it actually brought us closer together. After all, Emily was experiencing the very same sort of problems but on a lesser scale. Her father had also had words with her condemning the relationship because I was a married man. Because of this pressure on her I started seeing her on a more regular basis. She worked at the Aldeburgh hospital as a trainee chief, so some nights I would go to the hospital and have tea with her before we went out. In this way, I felt we were falling in love slowly and really getting to know each other.
Other nights we would go for a beer at the Cross Keys or the Albert Hotel. For a meal, we would buy fish and chips and then go to our favourite courting spot on the beach, between Thorpeness and Aldeburgh. One particular night we had intended to have a swim in the sea. It would have been around 10pm at night and dark. We left our clothes in the van and headed for the inviting sea. Suddenly we saw this bright light in the sky and it appeared to be heading our way along the beach. However, it seemed a little strange, because we could hear no noise. Emily and I looked at each other convinced that we were witnessing a UFO. We could not take our eyes off the light, as we were completely mesmerised by its eeriness. Now I have always had an open mind on this subject and suddenly here I was being confronted by something that I could not explain. Was I actually witnessing an Unidentified Flying Object. The nearer the light came towards us the brighter it became. Suddenly it shone right onto us, standing there on the beach with only a smile on our faces, for the entire world to see. Then the noise, one minute there was no noise and then there was this loud engine thumping away. Sad to say there was no UFO that day, it was just a helicopter from the local Air Sea Rescue unit, looking for a little old lady missing from an old folk’s home in Aldeburgh. It was flying along the foreshore with a searchlight shining along the water line looking for her body, instead it picked up our lily-white bodies huddled together.
Emily and I took a couple of trips to London and each visit brings back some lovely and unforgettable memories of the occasions. The first time I was photographing Emily in Trafalgar Square amongst the pigeons. Not knowing the out come, we bought some bird seed for her to hold. Within seconds she was completely covered in pigeons, they were all over her. One even scratched her face with its wing and luckily for me I managed to capture it on a photo. Poor old Emily she was covered in bird droppings and her hair was all over the place. Another time her jeans became dirty and she wanted to buy some new ones. Now I know that every clothing shop sells jeans, but whenever you want something, you can never find any that you like or what will fit, oh well I guess that is life.
On another occasion, I took her to see the Royal Tournament military show at Earls Court, to show her what I had been a part of a few years earlier, while I was serving in the Royal Marines. The main attraction at the event was the Royal Naval Field Gun races. These races were between three crews, Plymouth, Portsmouth and the Fleet Air Arm. Each night two of these teams would race each other over an array of obstacles, while dragging a very large field gun behind them. It was an amazing spectacle, as the guns had to be dismantled at each obstacle and once successfully navigated they had to be rebuild. Every Naval establishment around the world had an interest in the event and every sailor would eagerly await the results as they were radioed around the world within seconds of each race.
Lucky for us we had bought our tickets when we first arrived in London. Because later during the day, I was conned in to a game of “Find the lady”. “Find the lady” is a card gambling game and it was taking place on a street corner next to Earls Court underground station. I was conned by a gang of about a dozen guys, who had set up the sting. It consists of a dealer placing three cards face down on a small card table, only one of them being a queen. You then bet any amount of money that you can guess as to where you think the queen is, if you are right, they pay you the same amount of money that you gambled. If you are wrong well you loose your money. Unfortunately for me, I did not know how the swindle worked. It being that you can never win, because the way the dealer lays the cards out is exactly like a magician would. Secondly, and just to make sure, the minute your money is on the table, somebody shouts police. With that everybody scatters, but not before somebody has grabbed up the table, plus the cards and of course your money. The end result is that you are the only person left standing in that particular area of pavement scratching your head in bewilderment. While wondering what the hell just happened to you and where has all your money gone. It was all my own fault and so for the rest of the day we had no money left for food and drinks. We spent the entire day living off one packet of polo mints that Emily had in her handbag. That day I learnt a valuable lesson, in future keep my money in my pocket. However, we both enjoyed the military show very much. When ever “Find the lady” comes up in a conversation or is mentioned on a TV program, it always gives us a laugh, because I have been there and done that and learnt my lesson. As a foot note I later learnt the magician’s way of playing the game, although I have never taken any money from my demonstrations of the trick.
On a brighter note, one Saturday evening we were parked at our usual spot on Thorpeness beach eating fish and chips. I got out of the vehicle to throw the old newspapers into a rubbish bin and in doing so, somehow an envelope with Emily's wages and holiday money fell out onto the grass, with out me seeing what had happened, as it was dark. Next day she was treating me to a day out in Ipswich visiting the cinema. When she went to pay for the tickets she suddenly missed the envelope. After a frantic few minutes trying to find it, we gave up and headed home all the time trying to think what she could have done with it. We both came to the same conclusion that it could be in the rubbish bin on Thorpeness Beach. Therefore, that is where we drove and parked by the side of the road. I then walked to where I knew we had parked the night before. It would have been about 5pm and being a hot day the beach had hundreds of people still milling around the area. I walked towards the rubbish bin, I could sense hundreds of eyes on me wondering what I was about to do. About ten feet away from the bin, I spied the envelope, I just walked over and picked it up, turned and walked away. I often wonder what those people thought I had picked up, all the money was still inside. Amazingly, it had lain there all day in front of all those people and nobody had touched it, maybe lady luck was smiling on us after all.
An unusual out come of the “Forbidden Fruit” break up a couple of months earlier, was that Ben and Ray became very good friends with each other. This is strange because if you remember it was because of the friction between these two, which had lead to the break up. In a way, I felt hurt, if only they could have got over their differences earlier. Then just maybe the band may have been able to weather the problems we were having and we would have still been playing. Unfortunately, once again I say that with that wonderful tool known as hindsight.
Then quite unexpectedly Styx Scarlett approached me and asked if I was interested in joining a band, he was trying to put together. He had talked the lead guitarist and singer from the “Trodden Earth” into getting together to try to get onto the road. We had a practice at his house that was on top of the Sizewell cliffs, being isolated it did not matter about the noise. Things progressed very quickly and after only a couple of weeks we had half a show put together, although I must admit that most of the songs were from the old “Trodden Earth” repertoire. Styx came up with the name of the “Brothers Grimm” and started chasing up some work. Unfortunately that was harder than he had expected and for a time he was not successful. Emily became quite good friends with Styx’s and his second wife and at weekends, we would baby-sit for them. Occasionally staying the night and once we even slept in their attic. Both were sympathetic with us, having travelled down the same road of marriage break up that we were experiencing. Unfortunately, the band work did not materialise and flow in as freely as we had all hoped and at times it became very disheartening for us all.
One weekend I handed in my notice at Richard Garret’s engineering works and left. It has always amazed me that during the years that I worked at that factory at least once a week, somebody would be collecting money for somebody, who was either sick, getting married or had died. Now I knew none of these people but I always gave money freely just like all of the other building gang members. However, when I left not one single person even said good-bye to me. To this day, I still say that incident made me as hard as what I am today. I do not have any feeling for the average guy on the street anymore. If and when they have problems they have to dig them selves out of whatever hole their buried in, just like I had to and I’m proud of what I achieved on my own.
Emily and I went to Southampton in an effort to move away from Leiston and all its wagging tongues. Unfortunately, after only a couple of days it became evident that we were not going to find any work or cheap accommodation as we had planned. Disappointed we decided to return home, stopping off to see Emily’s brother who lived at Liphook. We spent a day with them, just talking about what we could do and where we might go. The following morning we left for home even more confused than when we first arrived.
Unfortunately, we needed money to survive, so I had to go with cap in hand and ask for my old job back at Richard Garrett’s and was pleasantly surprised when I was given a second chance. However there were a couple of people in the work shop who did not like my return and I owe my good luck to the chief engineer who was running the workshop at that time.
An uncomfortable incident that did happen to us was while we were visiting Felixstowe, having booked a caravan for a couple of day’s holiday. We thought it was great to be together and to be away from the wagging tongues of Leiston. However, on a walk through the main shopping area of the town, we stopped to watch the first landing on the moon through an Electrical shop window. This was all very exciting as we watched Neil Armstrong step off the Luna module ladder onto the surface. Sadly for us, we could not hear a commentary through the shop window, so we knew nothing of his one small step for man speech.
Instead we took one small step into the café next door and walked on to two of Margaret’s cousins who lived at Kirton near Felixstowe. Boy, you could have cut the air with a knife. I do not believe that her cousins at that time knew there were problems with the marriage. However, I bet it did not take many minutes for it to be flashed around their side of the family. Emily and I decided to sit it out, but I must confess to feeling very uncomfortable and wished that I could have buried my head in the sand.
I have always believed that it was because of this incident that Margaret made an effort to try to confront Emily and me about the problem. Early one evening Emily and I were sitting in the Fruit Mobile on the grass between Thorpeness and Aldeburgh. We were just talking when suddenly Margaret turned up and started shouting abuse at us. Apparently, she had also been around Emily's house to see her father. Somebody must have told her where we were, what could we do, we just took it, not answering her, because that would have made it even worse. All the abuse was about what I had done, there was nothing about what Margaret had done. Anyway, eventually she just ran out of steam and we drove off.
Another reason why I was so poor must be attributed to the fact that I had purchased a car from Pat Keeble motors in Theberton. Mainly because the “Fruit” had sold the van and that we needed some sort of transport. With my share of the money from the van sale, I bought a grey Vauxhall Cresta for £35. It had a column gear change with a tooth missing in the first gear, so there were only two gears that I could use. What I did like about that old car was the very large front bench seat.
Eventually Styx managed to get a gig for the “Brothers Grimm” at one of the Clacton holiday camps. I have always believed that it was the same camp that was used during the filming of the popular TV hit series “Hi-Dee-Hi”. I was talked into using my big Vauxhall car and so all of the gear was loaded in and on to the car, plus the band members. To this day, I do not know how we managed to fit every thing into the car. The booking was good and I enjoyed the moment, it being a couple of months since I last played to a live audience. However, it was all short lived, as it was the one and only booking that the band played. There was no fan fare with the bands demise, it just faded away in to oblivion and I never saw the lead guitarist and the singer again.
In October 1969, I officially moved out of Seaward Ave with only a few personal belongings. I rented the Black and White Bungalow at Aldringham, it being a filthy condemned cottage, but at least it was somewhere to stay. It was a decision I had made to stop the children seeing the hostility between Margaret and myself. Emily moved in with me a couple of weeks later to the disapproval of her father.
We did have some good laughs as we had to make our own fun, but with no money. I was bringing home from Richard Garrett’s £12 a week. £5 went to Margaret as maintenance, £5 was for my rent, which only left us with £2 to live on, but somehow we always seemed to manage. Lucky for us we had a good stock of clothes and with no band we stayed in at nights or went for long walks. It was a very different way of life from the razzle-dazzle life of being in a band. Even my music gear was up for sale in the local newspaper shop in Leiston.
During the winter of 1969/70, we had a lot of snow and everywhere was frozen up. Emily, who by now was expecting a child and becoming very large, was finding it hard to get about. Our car was also playing up owing to the cold and as we could not afford to buy a battery, it was always hard to start. On one occasion Emily was pushing me outside the old Bungalow, when she fell over into the slushy snow, we always laugh about it now but I was worried at the time. Then another time she fell over while we were going to her aunt Betty’s who lived down the road. They were good times, which we will always remember. They were times when we had nobody to help us or to talk to. This all played a big part into our relationship that bonded us together. After what we went through nobody can say that we did not know each other when we finally got married. I had always vowed that I would never get married a second time, but women can always twist us around their fingers can’t they. I had to promise Emily that upon being divorced I would marry her other wise I’m sure she would have moved out.
By this time, we were receiving no help from anybody, we even bought a book from a Leiston chemist shop on child birth and used to read it together each night. We only had each other and I must say it was the best times we ever spent together. If I could have some of my time back again, I would always pick this nine months period. It was marvellous it brought out the best in the both of us and includes many fond memories. Only one of Emily's family stayed friendly with us, it being her Auntie Betty and I will never forget what she did to help us. Sometimes she would invite us up for a meal, as she also lived in Aldringham. During this period I loved Emily dearly as I still do to this day, After all these years nothing has changed.
Some nights we would go for a walk around the area of our little bungalow, exploring the many public footpaths. On one occasion we ended up somewhere between the bungalow and the coast. The snow had only just started to melt so as you can imagine, there was a lot of water around. As we were walking through the grass, we could feel it all moving beneath our feet. It was as though we were stepping from one large tufted floating grass to another. It was almost as if the grass was moving like an iceberg. Several times, we wondered if we should turn back, but we kept going forward, even though at times we almost stumbled into the cracks. Thinking about it now, we should have turned back. Emily was very large at the time, as she was carrying our first child. It was plain foolish of us to keep going, but we did and lucky for us we survived the dangers of that walk. It usually gives us a laugh when one of us brings the incident up.
Ray Callahan got in touch, informing me that a band on the nearby American Air force base of RAF Bentwaters, was looking for musicians to fill a couple of positions. One Saturday morning he picked me up along with all my musical gear and together we both set off for the base. We were greeted by a group of servicemen who were all very friendly and inquisitive as to are ability to perform. Some of them had seen us months earlier when the “Forbidden Fruit” had play in their servicemen’s club.
The line up that we were confronted with was awesome and very intimidating. The band consisted of a lead singer and three back up coloured harmony singers. I was immediately excited with the prospect of backing them. As far as I was concerned there was no such thing as a bad coloured singer, to me they were all good. Most of them seemed to have rhythm built into their bodies at birth. The Drummer had been a member of the highly successful “Young Rascals” American pop group, before joining up in the Air force. The “Young Rascals” had been and still were, a top band in England and the USA, having scored many hits on both sides of the Atlantic. Included in the band line up was a keyboard and Saxophone player. Unfortunately, I cannot remember who they were. However, at the time they were introduced I do know that they had a fine pedigree in the American music industry. Ray was invited to sit in as the Lead Guitarist, while I took over the vacant position of Bass Guitarist.
I could not believe the sound that the band dished out that day and by the look on Ray’s face, I could see that he was also enjoying the jam. For over an hour we ran through a succession of songs that they had been practicing. Both Ray and I found it relatively easy, as the numbers were almost the same Soul numbers that the “Forbidden Fruit” had also played. They were the hit tunes of that time, by Otis Reading, Sam and Dave, Wilson Picket, Booker T and the MG’s etc. To me the singers were so good that they did not really need a band to back them. However, who was I to but in and anyway I was quite happy to go along with them and to lap up some of their success.
However, after an hour a problem developed between the Lead singer and his harmony backers. Instead of sorting it out in a friendly sort of way, it developed into a full-scale argument between them. While all this was going on Ray and I stood back, not wanting to get involved. We then felt very disappointed when the lead singer upped and walked out, telling everybody present that as far as he was concerned we were all on our own. To me he had been the best singer that I had ever backed and now one hour later, here I was having joined a band with no lead singer. Both Ray and I felt very disappointed that success was going to be snatched away from us even before we got on the road.
The other members of the group told us not to worry, as they would sort it all out. Two of the harmony singers then went for a walk around the accommodation blocks and having walked into the first building, they suddenly reappeared with another coloured guy. After a short introduction, the band launched themselves into some of the numbers we had run through earlier. To our surprise, this singer turned out to be better than the one who had just walked out on us. It just goes to prove what I said earlier that they are all good singers and great people to work with. The rest of the session was great and I would not have missed it for the world, but it was not long before other problems developed. At the end of the day, both Ray and I left the practice session not really knowing what was going to happen. Although we both felt that it would be the last we would hear from them and we were right. However, we had a great time that day and it was an experience that I would never forget.
One night Emily’s cousin came round to inform us of a dog that was for sale near Woodbridge. We had always wanted a small dog, but up until now, we had not done anything about it. Anyway, we all set off to go and have a look at it. It only took us a couple of minutes to realise that the puppy fitted our bill. With out hesitation we bought our selves a very small tan coloured Chihuahua and named her Buster after the name of the small child star in an Aussie film “The Shiralee”, a film we both liked very much which stared Peter Finch.
Emily had come from a broken home. While living in Scotland her Father Fredrick and her mother Christina had parted when she was only two and half years old. Fredrick took her and three of her brothers to live in Aldeburgh with him and his mother. He was a Long Shore Fisherman and fished from the Aldeburgh beach. He found it hard bringing up four children on his own. However, his mother Hettie and his sisters Nora and Margaret all helped best they could. Emily had three brothers, Fred the oldest, then Jack, then came Emily and the youngest was Tommy. Her Grandmother died just before Sharon was born, (being in her nineties). Emily never did enjoy her upbringing, she felt she was only there to clean up the house, while everybody else just sat around. Because of this, she did not experience too much love from her Father.
Sharon was born on 12th April 1970 at Halesworth Hospital. In the middle of the night I had to drive at break neck speed in very foggy frosty conditions to the Hospital. I was immediately turned away, breaking Emily's heart. She was going to have Sharon on her own. I guess in those days they still frowned on unmarried mothers. I drove to Halesworth and back with no problem, but would you believe I hit the gate post pulling into the drive of our bungalow. The next day being a Sunday I went back to the hospital, knowing that the visiting hours were from 2pm. Sharon was born at precisely 2 pm, stopping all the other people from visiting their relations. Therefore, we got our own back on the Hospital for turning me away the night before. I always remember walking away from Emily that night as she was in tears.
Sharon Jane Aspinall was a beautiful baby. I do not believe in long drawn out names, I say keep it plain and simple. I liked the name Sharon and wanted it on its own, while Emily preferred Jane, so we both had a hand in her name. One of the main reasons I preferred a short name, was because of all the forms that we are expected to fill in as you go through life. I always felt sorry for the young child that had been named after the Liverpool football team, great for the drunken father in the pub with his mates, but a headache for the child filling in official forms.
I still had not seen my parents since my split with Margaret and they did not know that Emily was pregnant. We decided to go over to Stowmarket so they could at least see their new grandchild. I can remember parking outside their house and saying to Emily, if there is a hint of trouble or any ill feeling we will leave. However, my parents were very good, they accepted Emily right from the start and have always treated her as a daughter and of course, they just loved Sharon. It must have been hard for them being torn between two families and I think over the years they have coped very well with the problem. Every time we visited them, Dad would always give Emily small presents, chocolates, tights etc.
Emily's father had also come around to accepting things as they were, saying it’s your own life and you know what you’re doing, however I don’t think he ever accepted me mainly because I was a married man. He came to the bungalow one day and gave Emily a beautiful pram for Sharon, which was very welcome because of our financial situation. I learnt later that he had also tried to talk her in to leaving me and to going home with him. I have always believed that his only reasoning was that he was missing a very good housekeeper.
In June 1970, Ray Callahan came to the bungalow one night to ask if I wanted a Bass player’s job with a local band. It seemed like music to my ears as we were in desperate need of some extra cash. Ray had tried out with the band as a bass player, but had decided to join another band The “Cedar County Boys” from Ipswich as a lead guitarist. I grabbed at the chance with out a second thought. Ray then undertook the necessary phone calls to arrange for me to meet up with the band.
The next Saturday night I went to Camp Sea Ashe Village Hall on my own to meet and play with “Jim West and the Texans”. Once I had introduced my self to Jim the singer, he introduced me to Franz the lead guitarist and Phil the drummer. Jim spent some time explaining what was expected of me for the night. I was very nervous but I must admit that I had a great time that night. I enjoyed the evening very much, even though it was Country Music and I had never played it before. Jim was also pleased with the way the night went and gave me £4 for the night’s work. I could not believe it, in the “Forbidden Fruit” I only earned about £3 a night. Jim then asked me if I would like to play the next night it being a Sunday. I could not believe it, playing on a Sunday, which was unheard of in those days, of course I grabbed at the opportunity. Well I could certainly use the money even though it was only £2. On the Sunday night I once again met the band and we played at the Pettistree Three Tunns public house on the Ipswich to Saxmundham main road.
Big Jim West came from Southwold and was the singer, he ran the band by himself, having started out as a solo singer a couple of years earlier. Franz, who was a lead guitarist, joined Jim after meeting him while he was playing in a pub at Beccles. Phil the drummer had been a friend of Franz and so after a little lobbying by Franz he was asked to join the band. Until I joined the band, they had never had a bass player, other than Ray’s little audition with them. Even though the music was not what I had been used to, I enjoyed playing with the band. We played on a more regular basis than the “Fruit” and I earned a lot more money. This was very welcome for Emily, Sharon and I. As well as playing on Saturday nights around the local village halls, we also played Pettistree Three Tunns every Sunday. Emily would bring Sharon along in her carry cot. We would park the Vauxhall, by the pub window. I would then pass an electrical lead through the window and run a little fan heater in the car to keep her warm. She was also spoilt by many of Jim's fans, Sue Glandfield especially, Sue at one time was the manager of the band and later became Sharon's godparent at her Christening.
One booking I do remember was at a Clacton Country and Western venue, for promoter Jack Warner, who was also our manager for a time. We were to support an act called “Chris Penny and the Billykins”. Through the crowd of people that were packed into the venue, I could here this guy with an American accent talking above everybody. I guessed that he would have to be the big attraction for the night’s entertainment. As we approached each other, I thought he looked familiar. Jack Warner then introduced him to me, I suddenly realised it was Chris Pennington from my Stowmarket Secondary Modern School days. He was one year older than I and so had been in the next form up. Upon seeing me and realising who I was, Chris had suddenly stopped using the American accent, I think I ruined his act that night. Poor old Chris, I bet he had wished I would have stayed at home so he could weaved his Americanised spell on the crowd. However, that is what entertainment is all about. Chris was quite good, but unfortunately his band the “Billykins” left a lot to be desired.
A few months later Jack Warner arranged for a big country music festival, to be held at one of the big theatres in Clacton. Jack used the usual con trick with the groups, that he was well known for. He would talk them into doing the booking for nothing, on the pretence that it was good publicity for them. That they would be rewarded with plenty of booking, once the agents who he promised would be at the gig had seen them. Jim West did not get one single booking from this show. However, we all enjoyed playing there, it being on a very large stage. It was also one of the only times that the bands could get to meet each other. Usually we are all playing on a Saturday night so we do not get a chance to watch each other’s show. On this particular occasion, I met up with Ray Callahan who was there with his new band “The Cedar County Boys”. This would have been the first and last time that I saw Ray play with that band. Another band I met up with and became very friendly with the drummer was, “The Country Teardrops”. At that time they were the top country band in the East Anglia area, I believe they came from Essex.
“The Texans” became very popular and managed to get some work on a regular basis usually Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Very different from when I played in the “Forbidden Fruit”. The money I was earning turned out to be very useful, helping to top up my Richard Garrett’s wage that I was struggling on. However, as I might have mentioned before it was not long before The Department of Social Security delivered their six monthly blow to me. By requesting a full statement of my earning, so my maintenance could be adjusted accordingly. A foot note to this, something I only learnt about many years later. It turned out that even though they increased my payments to their office, at no time did Margaret’s payments increase. Funny how that works isn’t it, always one for us and two for them. Some times it hardly seems worth the effort, working that little bit extra, to earn that little bit extra, only to have to give that little bit extra away, for a government to squander.
Sharon was christened on the 6th August 1970 at the Aldringham church. There were just a few close family members attending that also included Sue Glandfield, who was to become one of her godparents. We then held a party in the old Bungalow where Emily and I cracked open the very last bottle of bubbly, that we had sneaked out of Lord and Lady Batho’s party a year earlier. To crack the cork we went and stood outside of the bungalow on the front lawn and pointed the bottle over the road. As Emily released the pressure, the cork shot over the road just missing a guy on a motor cycle and landed on the grass on the other side of the road. We both laughed wondering what would have happened if we had hit him. Neither of us liked the taste of champagne, to us it was starting to go off, but then we are not champagne drinking experts anyway. To this day we still have the cork and slotted in its top is a small silver coin that somebody gave Sharon on the day of the christening.
I finally received my divorce from Margaret, unfortunately, it cost me a lot of money and on top of that, I still had to keep paying five pounds a week maintenance her. What hurt us even more was when the court decided on how much maintenance money was to be paid. They based my payments any money that was coming in to the house and this would included any money that Emily was receiving. Therefore, in a way she had to contribute in the keeping of Margaret. Now I have stated earlier that my marriage was over well before I started to go out with Emily. So why was she discriminated against and tarred with the same brush as me. She was being punished for something she had not done, which I think was all very wrong. It did cause arguments and problems at times, but we stuck it out and paid every single penny I owed until Sue the youngest child had left school. I was quite proud of the fact that we owed nobody a single penny.
As a foot note Emily was not receiving any money at the time, having been turned down by the department because she was living with me and I was bringing in a wage. On the forms she had to fill in it stated that all money coming into the house in which she lived, had to be taken in account. Lucky for me I kept a full record of my payments, which was just as well. The day I believed I was making my very last payment to the department, they informed me that I still owed them another £96. After many letters and several weeks later, the department finally agreed that they had made a mistake. I strongly believed that it was just a ploy to try and screw a few more pounds from me. Something else I must mention. Was when it came to getting legal help to assist in the divorce procedure. I was told to get a solicitor from out of town, because they all know each other and usually do a deal between each other while on the golf course. Therefore I went to Southwold to hire my solicitor, which was a bit of a journey for me. Years later I was to learn that both Margaret’s Solicitor and mine played golf together once a week, we can never win can we.
With the divorce also came a court order concerning my access to the children. Unfortunately, I was only allowed to see them for two hours a month. At first, I used to go to the house to visit them on a Sunday afternoon. However, I found it hard to sit and talk to them in front of Margaret and her family who were there most of the time. Later Margaret allowed me to take them out on my own. It was always hard to leave them and to know that it would be another month before I would see them once again, on some occasions it left a bit of a tear in my eyes. Several months later Margaret allowed me to take them out while Emily was with me, which I thanked her for. Although she is not a related to them, Emily has always treated them like family and for this I thank her very much. I can remember times when we had no money for our own food, but she still managed to buy them a small bag of sweets, so that I could give them something when we parted. Some of those visits were very tearful affairs that hurt deep down inside. I guess I will never be able to repay Julie and Sue for the hurt they must feel over my walking out on them.
Four weeks later on the 10th October 1970 Emily and I were married at the Aldringham Church. It was followed by a small reception at the Vicarage Hall. Emily, Sue Glandfield and her friend Bobby did everything, it was a good day and great night. I did not invite any of my family to the event, because I did not want to offend them. After all, they had all given wedding presents to Margaret and me when we were married. I was also aware that not many of them had agreed with the way Margaret and I had parted. Up and till that time I think I must have been the very first one in the family to have gone through a divorce, but I was certainly not to be the last. However, I did invite Mum and Dad, after all, they are my parents and I am their only child. It was a pleasant surprise for me when they both turned up, even though they did not know any of the finer details about the break up with Margaret, or of the relationship between Emily and me. It was for the same reason that Emily invited her father, even though we both knew that he did not agree with her going with me. Therefore, I assumed that he did not want the marriage to take place, but he did give her away at the church which pleased Emily very much. It was a good day and I thanked Sue and Bobby very much for all their help. They’d spent hour’s sweating in an effort to get it all set up right and then rushing up to the church without going home to change. It would have been a struggle without them, Ben and Pat who were by now married also came as my one and only friend.
It was around this time that I finally made the effort and gave up smoking. Up until now, I had usually rolled my own cigarettes and at times, I had been smoking around sixty a day. My favourite tobacco at that time was Golden Virginia and Old Holborn. However, I never did take my first smoke of the day until I had arrived at work. I also found that during a bout of flu, I did not feel like one for at least three days. Therefore at a time when I had a very severe dose of the flu, I made the decision to pack it up. I left my tobacco tin on the mantle piece over the fire place and never touched it. I had this idea that if you could get your hands on a fag then it was easy to give it up. I had heard stories of people craving for one, mainly because they could not lay their hands on one. For me it all worked, although I must add that I usually missed a smoke after the evening meal. It was also very hard if you went to a pub, I guess because you could smell other people who were smoking. When you played darts, it was hard to find something for your right hand to do, especially after constantly raising it to your lips for more than fifteen years. Several times during the next thirty years, I felt like starting once again, but I managed to talk myself out of it. I also loved the smell of pipe tobacco, as I still do to this day.
It was while I was off work with the flu bug, that I had a very bad experience over my wages. Because I had been off work for three days, when I eventually went back to work I was only paid for two days of work. However, with a rent of £5 and a further £5 towards my maintenance payments, there was not enough to go round. In order that I did not fall foul of the dreaded Department of Social Security, I decided to pay them first. Unfortunately, after that, I was left with nothing to buy Sharon her Oster milk that Emily had been ordered to purchase by the district nurse. Therefore, with this worry I decided to take Emily and Sharon and visit the dreaded Department in Ipswich. Once there I told them what had happened and that I was so short of money that I needed something to feed Sharon. They were all very unsympathetic with my predicament, but told me that I should have fed Sharon first and then paid off the other debts later. I informed them, that knowing them like I did, I would bet that upon my none payment to them, they would have been hammering on my door before the day was out. They utterly refused to give me any money to buy food for Sharon, not to mention Emily and myself.
Impulsively, I laid Sharon on the counter, told them to feed her and turned to walk away. With in second’s officials seemed to appear from every where to confronted me, all informing me that I would be charged with abandoning a child. The result was that we did receive some money to purchase food for Sharon. It has always bugged me that I would not have been given any money if I were not entitled to it. On that line of thinking it is easy to work out that I was fully entitled to it, so why did I have to threaten to abandon a child in order to get something that I was entitled to in the first place.
Because of this incident, I wrote to the Minister for Social Security, but as usual, the reply he sent me did nothing to explain the situation to me in layman’s terms. The whole exercise had been a total waste of time and paper. As was other letters I later wrote to different government departments, explaining how we were struggling with the way, they assessed the maintenance increases every six months. That department does not seem to worry about the guys who are involved in marriage break ups. There is no incentive for the guys to undertake extra work in order that they might dig themselves out of the financial problems they find them selves in. I would hate to be a member of their families, I will bet they have no heart or feeling for anybody including their own families.
In December 1970, we managed to talk the local Council into giving us a new council house. The Black and White bungalow, where we were living consisted of just one room, with a very small kitchen at one end. We could not have a fire as the chimney was blocked and there were half-inch gaps around the windows and doors. One night just after midnight a speeding sports car roared passed the house, whether it was vibration, or the rush of wind I’m not sure, but the end window fell in on to our bed and awoke us with a scare. I had to go outside in my underwear and nail it back up. For a shower a small shallow porcelain sink was concreted into the kitchen floor, a rubber pipe was attached to the gas water heater over the main sink. It then went up to a watering can spray nozzle unit above the in ground sink. The toilet consisted of a bucket in a small shed outside. At one time, Emily had tried to clean the carpet and in doing so, she had rolled it up to be confronted with layers of cardboard boxes. All had been squashed out flat to act as some sort of underlay and everywhere amongst the cardboard were layers of dust and dirt. She gave up and rolled the carpet back in place. Because we could not use the fireplace, to keep us warm on the coldest nights. We placed a small slim oil filled radiator up along side of the bed. We would then place the blankets that would normally hang down the side of the bed over the radiator. We went to bed early and cuddle up to keep warm. We had no television all we had was a very small radio, however it kept us entertained and anyway we had each other for company.
We used cello tape to seal up all the cracks around the doors and windows. Unfortunately, we made the place very damp. We even had mould growing on the wallpaper, but it did work in our favour. It all looked very bad when the local councillors all came around to have a look at the conditions that we were living in. The day they all came around a piece of wall paper became unstuck and rolled down the wall right in front of them. The councillors took only a few moments to agree that it was not a fit place to bring up Sharon. With Councillor Mrs Cowley, (her husband the Rev Cowley had conducted our wedding ceremony), leading the way for us and our cause. She was the instigator in getting us a council house at 3 The Whinlands, Knodishall.
We did have a very small amount of cash put by, about twenty pounds. Being scared that we might be burgled, we had placed the money in an old jam jar and buried it in the garden. Therefore, before we moved out we had to dig it up. Unfortunately, when we went to retrieve the jar, we could not find it. After digging umpteen holes around the garden, I ended up just spearing the ground with a steel spike. Finally, upon hearing the glass break, we finally found our so called little £20 nest egg.
It did not take us long to settle into our new house and to enjoy its luxuries that we had not been used to in the bungalow. For a start, the house was a lot bigger and had a proper toilet and bath. The rent was also cheaper than what we were paying for the bungalow. Unfortunately, the Department of Social Security was not long in relieving us of the money we saved on the rent and added it to my maintenance payments, although it never filtered through to Margaret. However, the house was to be a very cold house and cost a fortune trying to warm it up during the winters. Anyway, we accepted all of that and got on with our lives. We had a lot of catching up to do and so for the moment we did not have to worry about being thrown out of the house. We felt like we had our foot on the bottom rung of the ladder. Now all we had to do was to some how work our way up to an acceptable level.
During all of this time I was still playing with Jim West, undertaking some very large gigs. One of them was on the Lowestoft Pier, where the whole show was recorded. I cannot remember who was doing the recording, or what it was for. However, a funny incident caused the audience to break out in fits of laughter. The band was all set up on stage and as the curtains were pulled back, Jim counted us all in. After only a couple of bars into the song all the instruments died. Unbeknown to us somebody back stage had tripped over the main cable supplying the band with power and in doing so he had accidentally pulled out the plug. For a few moments, there was a deadly hush as we all looked at each other wondering what to do next. Suddenly Big Jim walks to the front of the stage and asked if any one in the audience had a shilling for the meter. This remark brought the house down and in doing so took the pressure of the band. We had all been very nervous, because of the recording and also because as the curtains opened we had suddenly been confronted by an audience of over five thousand people. Up until that time it would have been the largest audience I had ever played in front of. Its funny but to this day I do not know who the recording belonged to and unfortunately, I never did hear how it came out.
I was also approached by Brian Kirk to help out at his club one night. He rang asking if I could play bass for the band “Montana Moon”, who was at his club minus the bass man. I shot over to his club and had a great nights playing with a very professional band. It is always good to play with other musicians, just to see how they make music together.
Jim West was also invited to record a few tracks for the popular Radio 2 country music program. We had to be at the studio early on a Monday morning. Although the night before we would be playing at the Pettistree Three Tunns public house. Upon completion of the gig and after allowing a few of our closes fans to stay, the owner Mrs Munford had closed the doors. We all retired to the public bar area where she had a surprise for us. She knew that we were going to travel all night to the studios after leaving her pub, so she had laid on a meal for us to get us through the night. That was some party that went on for a couple of hours. Finally, we managed to get away and start our long drive to London through the remainder of the night, but not before Mrs Munford had given us four large cardboard boxes full of sausage rolls for the trip.
Upon are arrival at the studios, which I believe was some where near the Edgeware Road and in the area of Maider Vale. It was still dark so we all slept in the van amongst the gear. Once it was daylight, we took a walk for a coffee, as it had been so uncomfortable in the van. We did not have to be in the studio until at least 10 am. Franz had been looking forward to the trip for other reasons. During the drive up, he had constantly been telling us of an article that he had read in the Daily Mirror newspaper. About Anne Summers who had just opened the very first sex shop in England and would you believe it, it was not far from the studios. Needless to say, he talked us all into taking a look. Can you imagine how some of us felt standing out side of a sex shop waiting for it to open. I mean surely we were not in that much of a hurry, what the passers by thought of us I dread to think.
Anyway, once it opened we all walked in to be confronted by at least six female shop assistants. Now that was a killer for a start, who the heck was going to ask a woman what each item was, let alone purchase it from them. I had forgotten about Franz, he was straight into it. Everything he picked up he was asking questions like they were going out of fashion. It did not seem to worry him, he was asking one of the women to give him demonstrations of how some of the mechanical items worked. In the mean time Jim got a taste for the items and joined in with Franz, leaving Phil and I cowering in the back round only glancing at the occasional magazine. Once the shop had been open for a few minutes, more people started arriving, although I did notice that they were all men and most of them were old and wearing old style raincoats. Phil and I left the shop and waited for Franz and Jim out side, unfortunately they were another 20 minutes.
In the studios the laughs continued as we walked through its corridors looking for the studio number we were to record in. As we progressed through the building, we were all carrying a cardboard box each, that Mrs Munford had given us. Now you know the mess that a sausage roll can make, unfortunately we left a trail right through the building. It soon tuned into a bun fight, with Franz and Phil throwing half eaten rolls at each other. Then they started chasing each other in order that they might score a direct hit. It soon tuned in to mayhem and they were all out of control. It amazed me that we were not challenged by anybody, as the building seemed almost deserted. Until that is, when Franz chased Phil in to a room closely followed by a sausage roll and on to Semprini who was practising the piano for his daily radio show. Come in boys he beckoned them, and saying that his fans are not usually in such a hurry to hear him. They made a hasty retreat and ended up going into another studio that turned out to be the one we were looking for.
The recording did not go to well and we all struggled with the set up in the room. Phil had been placed in a cubicle on his own, while Franz was stuck down the far end of the very long room. I was lucky and ended up beside of Jim, so at least I could hear what he was singing, unlike the other two. To give an idea of how laid back we were, Jim had no idea of what he was going to sing. Once the producer came over to Jim, between them they sorted out a few songs. Jim then had to shout to the other two guys the songs he would be singing. It was all very relaxed and laid back and the producer looked quite shocked. The recording did not turn out to be very good and as far as I know, they were never used on the show. However, I would never have known because I did not listen to the show very often, because I had still not come to terms with that style of music. I still loved the good old “Rock n Roll”. To me Jim West and the Texans was just a short stopping off stage in my musical career.
One night Big Jim brought us home to Knodishall because our car had been left at a garage to be repaired, only to find I had left the house keys in side of the car. We borrowed a neighbour’s ladder and somehow Big Jim managed to get through our upstairs toilet window, what a squeeze. I do not know how he managed to squeeze such a large body through such a small window, because he was not called Big Jim for nothing.
Another time I fell down the stairs in my hurry to get to a booking. My ankle started to swell up very quickly and the venue was an hours drive away, at the Lowestoft bus building works. Therefore, I panicked and drove to the booking at break neck speed before the swelling got too big. Once there I got Jim to find the works nurse and she looked at my ankle and bound it up for me. That night I played my bass guitar for the whole of the evening with my foot standing in a bowl of cold water, it must have looked funny to the audience.
At one stage “Jim West and the Texans” were booked to play the Hammersmith Tavern, I believe it was located right next to the start of the famous Hammersmith flyover. A large group of local supporters booked a coach and came up to support us. That was an amazing booking and I don’t think the local drinkers knew what hit them. However, there was no trouble as they all enjoyed the music we made that night. We all looked forward to returning later in the year, but unfortunately our booking schedule prevented that.
Suddenly I had visions of Australia, which was strange, after all it had been years, since I had last seen those pictures of Cairns in Queensland Australia with Clive Barnard. However, once again the idea that I would like to emigrate, resurfaced. Emily and I filled out all the necessary forms and went to London for a couple of interviews, but it was all to no avail, as we were turned down. Anyway, I decided to leave it for a couple of months and then I would try again.
Tony Palmer from the Scratby recording studios near Gt Yarmouth approached Jim. Apparently he had some songs that he had wrote and was interested to know if Jim would like to sing them, as he thought they were in his style. I now know that he was very short of money and that he believed Big Jim to be an easy touch, as he was. Anyway a hand shake deal was made for the band to record some of his songs that were to go on to an LP record, to make the number up Jim would be able to record a couple of what ever he wanted.
It was quite evident from the start that the whole project was on a very tight shoestring budget, as some of the songs were recorded in one take. We all knew that we had made big mistakes, but Jim was talked or should I say conned into leaving them in. The end result was an absolute disaster, leaving a lot to be desired. I have always thought that Tony was only doing this in order that he had some sort of demo of his own songs. Something he could peddle around the publishing houses in London. The recordings were sure as hell not good enough to be released on an album. Unfortunately they were and to this day I cringe whenever I hear them being played.
I had not spent too many hours in a recording studio, so everything was very new to me. I did not even know what was expected of me. An unusual thing that I do remember is the time when Jim was asked to go into a recording booth so that his voice could be added to a track we had recorded the day before. I have always said that Jim had a great voice and I could never fault any of his singing. On this particular day, there was only the two of us in the booth. However, only Jim was hearing the music through his headphones, I was only in there as moral support. So all I could hear was Jim’s voice, to me there was no music to be heard. What I shock I got, he sounded all over the place and at times I would have sworn that he was out of key. Upon the completion of the song and once the recording gear had all been switched off. I told Jim that I though he should have another go at the vocals. Before he could answer me Tony played the track back to us and I was amazed how good it sounded. Now his voice just blended in to what I thought was a perfect track. I have often wondered about that day and usually tell the story at parties.
When it came to designing an album cover, we all had different ideas on what we wanted on the front cover. However, it was left to Tony to come up with the idea. Unfortunately, he upset us all when he demanded that we have a naked woman included in the picture. He went on to tell us of a guy called Jimmy Smith who was one of the best keyboard musicians around at that time. He had released an album of himself playing the Hammond organ. The record hardly sold a single copy, but upon advice from his record company. They withdrew every remaining copy and changed the picture on the front cover. It was then reissued with the picture of a nude lady in a suggestive pose and low and behold, it sold one hundred thousand copies. This was what Tony was proposing that we place on our album cover. Now Jim was a stanch country music artist, to him the music meant everything. If it did not look or sound country, then Jim was not interested. Unfortunately, Tony won the day, but only on Jim’s insistence that we use tasteful poses of the girls and not the full frontal stuff like you see in the girly magazines.
A photo shoot was arranged at one of the local Gt Yarmouth holiday camps and Jim contacted an agency to hire two girls for the shoot, on the proviso that they had to take their cloths off. The particular camp was chosen because its interior had many exposed beams around the inside of its club, giving it a western look. On the big night, the band arrived early with all our wives, who had come along to ensure that there was no hanky panky. We set up our gear and awaited the girl’s arrival. When they finally turned up they had young male chaperon with them. Jim introduced him self to them and we all took up our positions for the photo shoot. Unfortunately, nobody had the courage to ask the girls to remove some of their clothing. Therefore, it all went ahead with the girls wearing as many cloths as the band. What upset the band further was the fact that we had to pay for their hire and nights work and we had paid extra in advance for them to pose nude. If you ever get a chance to see the front cover of the album, you will see what I mean.
While at the studio I met up with Allan Smeathers the singing postman, who had been discovered on the TV show “Opportunity Knocks”, hosted by Hughie Green. He had gone on to have some very big hit records, like “That’s only me” and “My little old miss from Diss”. While singing he would always wear, an official Post Office delivery mans uniform as he played an acoustic guitar. He even went to America and starred on the “ED Sullivan Show”. Unfortunately he was now at a low point in his career, having slumped in his popularity he had taken to the bottle. I might add that his manager was not helping in his career either. Anyway, I backed Allan on four numbers and became very friendly with him. Because of his drinking problem, he had to be watched at all times. One day at the studio, I was asked to take him back to his hotel. I got Allan into the car and I drove off heading for Gt Yarmouth, as I approached a set of traffic lights I had to stop. Just as a fire engine raced pass with its bells all clanging. I turned to Allan and asked him the way to the hotel and he said, “Just follow the fire engine I think I left the electric fire on”. That was Allan, he was a very funny person and unfortunately the public did not know that side of him. I always felt that he would have been a bigger hit if he had gone out as a comedian. The recordings I made with Allan have all been lost in time and I never did hear the finished versions.
Almost around the same time we experienced a few changes in the Texan’s line up, Franz left and we managed to pick up an American Serviceman who was stationed at the Bentwaters Airbase. Phil Joiner turned out to be one of the best country guitarists I ever played with. His guitar was an old 1959 white Gibson and he just made it talk.
Then there was Gerry Thain who played a Peddle Steel guitar. Gerry had sat in with us on a couple of occasions at the Pettistree Three Tunns Pub and was very good. It did not take Big Jim long to ask him to join the band full time. Gerry had made his guitar and made a very good job of it as it looked like a professional bought one. In fact, I learnt later that one of his earlier creations had been sold to a top rock band at that time namely “The Family”.
One Sunday afternoon the band was playing at the Woodbridge Air base for the servicemen and there families, it being one of there national holiday days like 4th July. We were performing in front of a large marquee and in front of us was a wooden dance floor so that everybody could enjoy them selves. However, towards the end of the gig and owing to the amount of alcohol that had been consumed by some of the service guys. A fight broke out and a knife was drawn. This helped to end what had been a great afternoon’s fun, not only for the American families but also for the band.
That evening we were also playing at the Pettistree Three Tunns for Mrs Munford. During one of our breaks while I was at the bar buying Emily and I a drink. I found myself standing next to an American Serviceman and his wife, who I had seen during the afternoons show at Woodbridge. I struck up a conversation with them and discovered that they loved country music and had enjoyed our music during the afternoon. They had come along for a second helping. Carl and Marty became very good friends to us and we visited them at every opportunity as they lived close by the pub.
On one occasion as we left their house very late at night, we were confronted by about four inches of snow. Their farm house was up a very long twisting drive way that I had to manoeuvre very carefully. Unfortunately, about a mile further on, I failed to negotiate a bend and we slid into a ditch that was full of snow. For a moment, we panicked about what to do. There was just no way that we were going to get the car out of the ditch and because of the cold, we would not survive the night if we tried sleeping in the car. Therefore, I made a quick decision that we get back to Carl and Marty’s house as soon as possible. We both ran the whole way in the tracks the car had made in the snow, until the falling snow filled up the tracks. Lucky for us when we eventually arrived back at their house they were still up. Instead of staying the night with them, Carl bundled us all into his truck and we returned to our car. Where he successfully towed us out of the ditch, we then continued on our journey only this time I took my time and arrived home safely.
Jim was one of only a handful of artists around our area who were pursuing a career singing country music. Because we lived next to two American Air bases, we had a constant stream of Servicemen coming along to the Pettistree Three Tunns Sunday night gig to see us. On numerous occasions, we were invited back to their houses, so they could play us new country music material that was not yet available to us in England. I used to enjoy these visits, because like I’ve said I was not really a country music convert. Listening to some of these guys’ record collections, it gradually gave me a liking for it. I used to delight in trying to guess who the singers were, as I still do today. We also met up with an American country band made up of American servicemen, called “The Tune Twisters”. In fact, later they played for Mrs Munford at the Pettistree Three Tunns public house. I went along a couple of times and befriended the Bass Player Rick Welch and the singer Chuck.
The LP we recorded at the Scratby studios was never released on a national label. Therefore, it was left to us to sell copies of it at every venue that we performed at, in fact the sales surprised all of us. I think we purchased each copy for about £1-25 and resold them to the public for about £2-25. This meant that we were making £1 for every copy we sold. On a good night, we would sell at least 50 copies, giving us a clear profit of £50 per night. This was double the amount of money that we earn for playing at the gig. From a disaster in the studio it turned out to be a nice little earner for us.
With the record selling very nicely, I felt good, but unfortunately we did not seem to be getting any money from the deal, because Jim was holding onto it. One evening after we had finished performing at a gig in Felixstowe, near Manning’s amusement fair ground. I tackled Jim on the subject, but only after I knew the other members of the band were behind me. I approached Jim in the bar about a share out of the cash from the records. To be told that it was all his money and that he did not owe us anything. He went on to claim that the songs belonged to Tony and himself and so he did not have to give us a share of anything. I reminded him that we had all taken time off work to undertake the recording. In my case, I had even had to pick him and his gear up from his home each day, as his car was broken down at that time. He retaliated by telling me that he was the one who had signed the contract with Tony Palmer and that he could have used any musicians he liked. At one time, it almost came to blows, but most members held there cool and voted with their feet, by deciding to call it a day right there and then and so the band broke up on a very sour note.
It was February 1972, Jim did form another band but sadly, he died of a brain tumour just six months later. It was all very sad that not one of his new band members went to his funeral. While every one of the old band, even though we were all still owed money, forgot about things like that and attended the service. A couple of months later Emily and I went and saw his widow, out of respect of the friendship that we had enjoyed with Jim over the years. We had a nice time talking about the old times and laughing about the night he climbed into our toilet window for us. Poor old Jim we did have some good times and I hold no grudge against him, but its funny how money can some times come between friends.
I started practicing with Phil Joiner the American lead guitarist, who I had worked along side of while in the “Texans” band. Phil lived in the village of Debingham and was a regular face in the local pub. Therefore, it was easy for him to gain the use of the pub upstairs room as our practice room. Phil became the Singer cum lead guitarist, while I took over on the Bass guitar. Over the next, few weeks we had a succession of people sit in with us and steadily the band grew into a five-piece country music line up. Phil was an extraordinary guitarist and I loved his country style of picking, while his voice was very deep and reminiscent of the American top country singers of the day, like Eddie Arnold and Jim Reeves. At one time, we had a harmonica player sit in with us, who worked along side of Phil on the Bentwaters Airbase. He claimed that he had played along with “Buffalo Springfield”, one of the top bands in the USA at the time. While another time he claimed that he had also accompanied Paul Butterfield another top American act.
However, we did not seem to be getting anywhere and I was in a hurry to get back on the road once again. Reluctantly, I called it a day after just a few months and wished Phil all the best for the future as we parted on good terms. Sadly, I never saw Phil again after that parting.
Ray invited Ben and me to join him in the Aldringham Vicarage hall, where Emily and I had held our wedding reception, with the intentions of trying to once again, to form a new band. It being ironical, because these two had fallen out with each other and that fall out had been the reason for the break up of the “Forbidden Fruit”. Anyway it was good to be making music together again and it did not take us long to get back in to the groove. Ray tried his hand as the singer while I tried to accompany him. It was a struggle being a first for Ray, but it sounded like it had potential. I always remember one of the songs he chose, it being “Band Of Gold”. However, we did have problems mainly that while Ray was singing we lacked the guitar sound, as he could not play and sing to well at the same time. I knew that if we needed other musicians it was going to be almost impossible to find one in our area. To get anybody good we were going to have to recruit as far out as the Ipswich area and that could give us a travel problem. Anyway, I was not happy with the material that Ray wanted to perform. Deep inside I was still a rocker at heart and as far as I was concerned that was the way I wanted to go. Although I felt, I could accept playing country music as long as it had a good rocking beat to it. To me some of the early country music numbers rock along just like the rock and roll numbers of the late fifties. It is a music and sound that I loved to recreate every time I played. We never even got as far as choosing a name, before we once again called it a day and all went our own ways. However, this parting did not stop us seeing each other and keeping in contact as we still do to this day, even though it is only by E-mails.