The Dodgers formed during 1976 and were made up of Bob Jackson: Keyboard, guitar and vocals,
John Wilson: Guitar and vocals, Tom Evans: Bass and vocals and Dave Powell: Drums.
After a couple of singles for Island Records Dave Powell left to be replaced by Bob's friend from Coventry Paul Hooper.
1977 saw The Dodgers then leave Island Records and sign up to Polygram Records. Tom Evans was also replaced by Roger Lomas.
It was 1978 and the UK was still in the grip of the punk rock and new wave movement. The Dodgers then recorded and released their only album titled 'Love on the Rebound' which was released on the Polydor label. And this was how it was received:
Stunning and shocking is how the record company describes this album, which is in fact about as stunning as a day at Bognor and equally shocking.
From there name, one might assume The Dodgers to be the latest power pop outfit, but they're actually very middle of the road, practically radio 2 standard.
Although 'Love On The Rebound', a crass title for a start, is well produced the material is completely limp, with excess vocal harmonies and dreadful lyrics. 'Doesn't matter if the sun don't shine, you know I'll see you through. Doesn't matter if it's rain or fine, loving's all I want to do' – yeuch !!!.
Thirteen songs with more than a hint of commercialism appear and also a 'thrilling' instrumental at the end of the album. Inevitably titled 'Das Ende'. All so unoriginal, so uninspiring – In a word, boring.
The review summed up how things were back then, more of a personnel opinion. But Roger Lomas remembers the album very differently to that reviewer. 'It was packed with some really strong songs' he says. 'I personally felt though that producer Pat Moran, at Rockfield Studios, took the passion out of the album. Every mistake he kept stopping the tape and getting us to redo that part again. It got to the point where your concentration was more on your playing than adding feeling into it the music'.
Roger had not long began recording artists for himself and, as much as he admired Pat, felt that Pat handled things completely differently to the way he would have done. Roger is keen on hearing the bass and drums but Pat, particularly with the drums, tried to dampen them down too much.
Amongst their many live dates 1978 also saw The Dodgers tour as guests to Renaissance, in the process, playing some decent sized theatres. The same year also saw them perform as special guests of The Kinks at London's Hammersmith Odeon.
For The Dodgers it was possibly a case was right band wrong time. Some might be familiar with John Wilson's sister, Mari Wilson, who had chart success herself with 'Just What I Always Wanted' and recorded a stunning version of 'Cry Me a River'. Mari was particularly eyecatching as she sported, and revived, the beehive hair style.
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Additional material from the A to Z of Coventry bands.
First line upJohn Wilson - guitar, bass, vocal Dave Powell drums / PCS Bob Jackson Vocals, keyboards, guitar Tom Evans Vocals / bass Dave Powell left after the second single - replaced by Terry Williams and then Paul Hooper (Ex Indian Summer) on drums. Tom Evans ( Ex Badfinger) was replaced by Roger Lomas (Ex Sorrows / The Eggy - later Two Tone Producer) Final Line Up John Wilson - guitar, bass, vocals Bob Jackson, vocal, keyboards Roger Lomas, bass, guitars, vocals Paul Hooper, drums, percussion.
Singles Don't Let me Be Wrong (by John Wilson) b/w Get to You (Bob Jackson / Tom Evans) Island. 1976
Just want to Love You (John Wilson) b/w Don't know what you're doing (Bob Jackson) Island
Down (John Wilson) b/w Don't know what you're doing (Bob Jackson) Island
Love on the Rebound (John Wilson) b/w Come out Fighting (Bob Jackson / Paul Hooper) Polydor 1978
Anytime Bob Jackson / John Wilson) b/w Little Darlin' (Roger Lomas) Polydor 1978
Love on the Rebound
Don't let me be wrong
Just want to love you.
Rex Brough explains - "This band were a post Badfinger venture for Tom Evans. Roger Lomas had played in the
Eggy and the Zips, and Bob Jackson and Paul Hooper, formerly with Indian Summer. who recorded albums and singles between 1977-79. Lomas went on to be a full-time record producer, initially working at Horizon Studios, Coventry run by Barry Thomas (which was demolished). Coventry bands that came under his spell include the Specials, the Selecter and the Reluctant Stereotypes, some members of whom became 80's bouffant hit-band, King."
After Indian Summer split up in 1971, after the release of their RCA Neon album named after the group, Coventry keyboard player and vocalist Bob Jackson (Wikipedia) went on to play with John Entwhistles band Ro Ro and then join Alan Ross in the band Ross - recording on the RSO label and then played in Pete Brown's Piblokto. By 1974 Bob had replaced Peter Ham in Badfinger (and was retained after Peter Ham withdrew his resignation). Badfinger disbanded following Ham's suicide in 1975. Jackson remained in contact with Badfinger's bassist Tom Evans, and the two joined "The Dodgers" in 1976. The Dodgers released a handful of singles and one album by 1977, the year Jackson was released by the band due to management disagreements.
It started as a demo session for John Wilson and Dave Powell but then Tom Evans and Bob Jackson harmonized very good with the other two musicians, so that they decided to form a band together. Dave Powell made the proposal to call the band the DODGERS. They selected two songs out of their sessions for the first single, which was released in March 1976. Another two songs were released in June as the second single of the DODGERS. Shortly after the release of the second single Dave Powell left the group.
Bob Jackson called his old friend Paul Hooper to join the DODGERS but as he was not immediately available, Terry Williams joined the group for some commitments in July. Now it was almost completely a Coventry band with the exception of John Wilson.
After a wrangle with the management over their behaviour - Bob Jackson was also fired and then Joined the Searchers as a guest musician - recording and touring with them. Currently Bob is with the reformed Fortunes.
There was a radio interview on line by Steve Jones recorded in 1976 but the link doesn't work any more - It may turn up elsewhere if you want to search for it.
One of the things I admire the most about football is that, regardless of who scored that all important winning goal in a cup final, the whole team tends to be recognised for their achievements and immortalised for evermore.
And sadly that's where, on occasion, music lets you down. As the focus is set to certain individuals and not the band. But what is patently unique to 2-Tone, particularly the music, and unlike other music genres. The songs were derived from multiple sources. Some more obvious than others.
A new exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and titled 2-Tone lives and Legacies is, in the main, about one life and that persons legacy. And even that was selective. Yes, team photographs adorn the wall along with display items and the odd quote from some of the other players. But you do have to go searching for detail of the greater musical picture.
That said it was a good exhibition and well worth a visit. There are some fascinating items and photographs on display, such as the bowling shirt where Walt Jabsco, the Peter Tosh caricature, was named after. There was also a great bit of footage that showed the Binley Road / Walsgrave Road junction pre Sky Blue Way. And the items were all exceptionally well presented.
The tour of the exhibition got off to a good start. You were greeted with an excellent film loop of priceless photographs of bands such as Urge and Gods Toys from venues that long hit the dust. Also in the first area there was also a display of Alternative Sounds magazines.
But from then on it all got a bit detached with more attention gravitating to just one individual. And you came away having to remind yourself that it was in fact a band effort. Well, many bands actually. A good overview but far from the complete story. Overall an opportunity missed.
2-Tone, although its roots can be traced back to the early 1970s, and still influences many today, was a musical movement that was at its height between 1979 and 1981. That means that for 40 years Coventry has benefited from its legacy.
Before the inevitable end of season back slaps and awards are distributed for their no doubt successful campaign I think Coventry should maybe acknowledge, in some way, the greater picture of 2-Tone. And particularly all the musicians, record producers and photographers who were all there at the start and who sacrificed so much in order to make it all happen.
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Below is Pete Chambers review for the Coventry observer.
When Jigsaw came together the band members had already had already gained experience from groups the likes of The Mighty Avengers, Pinkerton's Colours and The Fortunes amongst others. By mid 1969 Jigsaw had released several singles and were in the studio, recording a fresh one, where they were interviewed.
Interestingly the single failed to materialise, possibly because things were a bit fluid and the band were in between labels. Also the interview was conducted prior to the release of Jigsaw's debut album Leatherslade Farm released on the Phillips label.
Jigsaw had just come from the studio where they had been putting the finishing touches to their new single 'Standing On My Head' written by organist Clive Scott. They all felt that the song was really strong and felt that, after two years together, the recording scene was just starting for them.
Clive commented: 'We feel much happier now that we've got Chas Peate and Alan Keene Music looking after the recording side and the new songs are working out nicely. Mind you, our first single 'One Way Street', did quite well, and got a lot of plays in the discotheques, especially in the Midlands'.
As Jigsaw's act was largely visual, wasn't there a problem trying to select the right kind of material to project the group's image?. 'It is a problem' sad Clive 'but we try not to categorise ourselves musically anyway. We just do what we feel is right for us and hope for the best!'.
The group seems pop orientated, but there is no question of 'selling out', because primarily, they play the way they want to play. Said Tony Britnell: 'We play the kind of numbers we like, but present them in a way that appeals to the audience. So we might do Brian Auger's 'Black Cat' perfectly straight, except that there'd be a tap dance on dustbin lids in the middle of it!'
All the members of Jigsaw have wide musical tastes, ranging from The Nice and the Mothers to Spooky Tooth and Jon Hiseman's Colosseum, and this shows in the variety of material that they play. Clive Scott explained 'Having two saxophones in the group gives us tremendous scope, especially as Tony doubles on harmonica. So we might do a soul number first, then a blues with Tony on harmonica while Kevin Mahon, the other horn man, nips off to change for a comedy piece'.
Comedy and presentation are the group's strong points. Their act had to be seen to be believed, always relying on the unexpected. Fire eating, flame throwing, smoke bombs, interspersed with genuinely funny and skillful comic songs and characterisations. Fred Crun, the folk singer who wrote all of Bob Dylan's songs, and that well known cleric, the Rev. Ian Parsley, were each liable to put in an appearance, and it's not unusual for the audience to witness a concert performance consisting of lead guitar, bass and rhythm balloons. Des Dyer said that all the comedy routines and effects go down a storm, especially with the university and cabaret audiences, but added that they have to be careful when they're throwing flames around.
Jigsaw were an incredibly hard working band who were eventually rewarded for their efforts with the world wide, timeless classic, Sky High.
Additional material from the Hobo Coventry A to Z of bands.
Circa 1966 - 1978 - Freakbeat / Pop source including the press cuttings via the Broadgate Gnome
Clive Scott (organ, vocal), Kevin Mahon (tenor), Tony Britnel (tenor, vocal), Tony Campbell (guitar), Barry Bernard (bass), Des Dyer (drums).
Formed in April 1966 by ex members of The Mighty Avengers (Campbell / Mahon), Pinkertons Assorted Colours (Bernard), The Fortunes (Britnel) and The Transatlantics (Scott).
Main strengths were Scott/Dyer's songwriting talents (they'd previously placed songs with Engelbert Humperdink, as well as The Mighty Avengers).
Although formed in 1966, their debut disc wasn't until 1968.Their second single release was written by Alan Bown, who's own band Alan Bown Set, were label mates on MGM's Music Factory subsidiary. They recorded a number of good Pop/Psych/Progressive singles and albums before a 1975 UK Top Ten, with the unashamedly pop 'Sky High'
See below for more from Des Dyer.
Singles:
A:One Way Street/ B:Then I Found You (MGM 1410 1968)
A:Mr. Job/ B:Great Idea (Music Factory CUB4 1968)
A:Let Me Go Home/ B:Tumblin' (Music Factory CUB6 1968)
A:One Way Street/ B:Coffucious Confusion (Philips 6006112 1970)
A:Keeping My Head Above Water/ B:? (Philips 600 6131 1971)
A:Jesu Joy Of Man's Desiring/ B:? (Philips 600 6182 1971)
Albums:
Leatherslade Farm (Philips 630 9033 1970)
Aurora Borealis (Philips 630 8072 1971)
Broken Hearted (BASF BAG22291075 1973)
I've Seen The Film (BASF BAP5051 1974)
Des Dyer.
"I was in one band previous to Jigsaw with two names. In 1962/3 I started a band with my cousin Dave Hagan, we are the same age and we grew up living next door to each other. We always sang together, and would raid my older brother's record collection to listen to and learn new stuff . We could naturally harmonise together without even thinking about it.
Dave played the euphonium at school and we would go out at Christmas time carol singing, me singing and Dave playing his euphonium. It was a nice sound but we never made a fortune! My brother bought loads of American records and we learned songs by the Platters, the Diamonds, mostly vocal harmony groups, but there was a favourite of ours entitled "Black Leather Trosers and Motorcycle Boots" by a band called "The Cheers", we loved it! We particularly liked the Everley Brothers, Jan & Dean, and the Beach Boys so we thought we'd think of a name relating to the surfing scene, so we called ourselves the "Surf Cyders", pretty ironic as we were slap bang in the middle of the UK about as far from the sea as you can get! We decided to misspell the "Siders" part of the name as "Cyders" because at the time we were getting the taste for cyder by telling the landlord at the off licence part of the local pub we were buying it for our parents. We were of course under age at the time. We thought spelling cyder this way was a really cheeky idea, as there was a reference to alcohol in the band's name, and nobody twigged it!
The third member of the band was a guitarist called Paul Gunton who Dave knew from his school. He was a year older than us and more streetwise than we were, plus he had tattoos up and down his arms. He liked to play folk music, but we soon persuaded him otherwise and we were soon all singing to his guitar playing. At this stage we hadn't really worked out who was going to play what in the band, but we were so into music we knew we were going to do something. My brother owned an acoustic guitar which he'd tried unsuccessfully to play, so I did a deal with him and swapped my transistor radio for his guitar. I was soon strumming away as I practised incessantly, driving my parents potty. Dave also started to learn guitar so that meant we had three guitarists in the band. This was not very practical so we made a decision that Dave should play bass, Paul would play guitar, as he was the best guitar player, and I would play drums. My dad had played drums in the local skiffle band at the Long Lawford legion and I think it was in my genes because I picked it up quite quickly. I had to save money from my paper round to buy some drums.
The trouble was I had to buy them piece by piece as I couldn't afford a whole kit. Another friend of Dave's called Russel became our "manager" and he entered us in the "Beat Contest" at the Granada cinema in Rugby. We were horrified as we had only been playing together a few weeks and had only done one gig at the local legion club, and another at the bus man's club at Coventry, plus I'd only managed to buy half a drum kit, so I hadn't even got a bass drum. But Russel was adamant that we should enter, so we did. We decided to play "Walking the Dog" and as a gimmick Paul managed to pursuade his girlfriend to walk across the stage wearing a flimsy top and a short skirt, walking her pet Alsatian dog. On the night I was very nervous, as we were competing with the local established bands that were a lot older than us, and as a result one of my sticks flew out of my sweaty palms straight up into the air, and as luck would have it , it came straight back down again and I caught it. Everybody must have thought that this was all part of the act, as the place went ballistic.
The judges on the night included members of "The Mighty Avengers", this was later to prove very significant in my future career, "The Mighty Avengers" were Rugby's top group who had released singles, some written by the Rolling Stones Jagger and Richards, and were considered to be gods. Well would you believe it ? WE WON. From that moment everything changed. We were suddenly local celebrities. I remember getting off the bus near my school on the Monday morning after the contest on the Sunday, and walking past the girl's school, I was on my own 'cos I was late for school again, and I heard these girls screaming. I looked across and saw all these girls hanging out of the windows and shouting and screaming at me. Then a whole line of them burst out of a door and ran towards me. I panicked and ran like hell to the safety of the boy's school. I sat down, out of breathe and thought how fantastic this was, I had gone from a kid who nobody noticed to an icon that girls were screaming at. From then on I was definitely hooked on the music business! I received a message, well it was more of a summons really, that Adrienne Cox, known as Ada, from the girl's school next door wanted to see me. She was the most beautiful girl at the school and we started going out together, this was just getting better and better. Russel was really working overtime now, and he manged to get us a regular gig at the Maple Ballroom in Northampton, where we were the support act to some of the top line groups of the time. We played with the Hollies, the Searchers, the Kinks, and Freddy and the Dreamers.
The band gradually went off the surfing sound and played more R&B stuff, and as mine and Dave's tastes changed towards that direction, Paul decided that he wanted to get back to playing folk music, so he split from the band. As luck would have it Adrienne's cousin, Phil Clough was a guitarist, and we asked him to join us. We were getting quite a good reputation and were starting doing more prestigious gigs.
In 1966 the singer from the Mighty Avengers decided to pack it all in and the remaining members of the band carried on under the name "Jigsaw" and conscripted various musicians from other bands in the area to complete the line up. Tony Campbell, who was basically the leader of the band, asked Clive Scott, of "Scott and the Antarctics" (What a name!), to join, and then he persuaded Tony Britnel, ex "Fortunes" sax player to join. They soon gained a terrific reputation and were regarded as the best band in the area. I saw them and thought they were fantastic. Then one night Tony Campbell knocked at my door, and said that Biffo Beach, the drummer was leaving and would I like to join. Well I was flabbergasted, the best band in the area was asking me to join? It was a difficult decision to make, but after many heart searching walks on my own and soul searching conversations with Adrienne I decided to leave my own band and join "Jigsaw." That was my pre - Jigsaw story.
Liquid light shows are a form of light art
that surfaced in the mid 1960s as an accompaniment to electronic music and
avant-garde theatre performances. They were later adapted and evolved which
added to, and became a staple for, the performances of the massive rock tours
of the 1970s and 1980s. In fact, for many bands, a show that includes graphics
and visuals still exist today.
This meeting of ideas, brought by the light
artists and musicians, seemed to do no harm at all in terms of creativity. The
music, the lighting and the ambiance appeared to compliment each other as the
ideas bounced around off one another. And the added media publicity, it
brought, seemed to further highlight the scene.
A Melody Maker gig review from early 1967,
of groups who later became household names, described the ambiance as 'some
very groovy picture slides which attract far more attention than the groups
themselves, as they merge, blossom, burst, grow, divide and die'. All of a
sudden it was no longer relevant that a group could play Wilson Pickett or
James Brown songs.
During late 1966 and early 1967 the public
was beginning to get worried about all this psychedelia stuff. The News of the
World newspaper, that had had a hand in a Rolling Stones drug bust, had now set
its sights on these 'freak outs', 'happenings' and 'raves'.
The fumiest part of that infamous article though was where it mentioned that
the headline band had, on one of its gig adverts, described themselves as
social deviants. It turned out that 'The Social Deviants' was actually the name
of the support band.
Earliest forms of these light shows were
essentially home made contraptions. Medical slides paired together. Various
colourful liquids were forced between them which were then viewed through a
projector supported on a wooden frame.
One of the earliest of these lighting shows
was 'The Fantasia Light Circus' who worked with bands such as Pink Floyd,
Fleetwood Mac and the Pretty Things at venues like the Middle Earth in London.
And one of the creators of the light circus was Mick Brockett who arrived in
Germany during 1969 after touring the show around Europe as an independent
light show.
During the summer of 1969, Mick teamed up
with a band called Prophecy (Nektar without Roye Albrighton) at a week long gig
at the Camera Club, in Furth. Prophecy bass player, Derek 'Mo' Moore, attended
Mick's show at "Beat Club" in Langelsheim.
Soon after Prophecy became Nektar during
November 1969. At the same time, Mo was looking to enhance the Nektar presence
on stage. Nektar was definitely looking for something unique to complete the
bands psychedelic image so Mick, an admirer of Nektar's sound, joined the group
as "light–musician" on January 10th, 1970 in Hamburg.
As Mick learned the music he was more able
to choreograph the lights as opposed to just randomly flashing them. As such,
Nektar's original light show evolved from the Fantasia Light Circus and
featuring Mick Brockett providing the rhythmic liquid, slide light shows, on
one large white screen.
Today, Mick Brockett thinks the light shows
were prematurely abandoned by the rock world. That said though, many bands have
moved on to lasers that skim over the audience.
At times the light show became the center of
much attention. With a band like Nektar the lights somehow managed to steal the
show from the band. Quite often, they were the most talked about part of a gig.
But not to the detriment of the music.
Todays light shows and visuals are far more
elaborate and sophisticated than those early happenings. But there is little
doubt though that many of those pioneer light shows influenced the way future
music tours were developed through the years by other bands.
Birmingham Band Tea and Symphony were another bands with a fantastic light show to match their psychedlia. They played the Coventry Arts Umbrella club in August 1970 and many other venues.
There has always been a question mark as to whether or not Syd Barrett actually appeared on stage during The Pink Floyd's performance at the Coventry Theatre during 1967 on the Jimi Hendrix tour.
But where, locally, The Pink Floyd did perform with Syd Barrett at the helm was at the Locarno during May 1967 and the Benn Hall Rugby during April of the same year. These gigs were either side of one of the earliest significant events The Pink Floyd played at. And that was the 14 Hour Technicolour Dream event at the Alexandra Palace on April 29th. Apparently the Floyd made it to the stage at around 5am, having driven back from an earlier gig in Holland. The event itself was an all night ritual where the Queen and Prime Minister had been offered free tickets. Every one else being charged a pound note.
It is almost impossible to know the actual set lists played at both the Locarno and the Benn Hall but The Pink Floyd would more than likely have included tunes such as Pow R. Toc H., Astronomy Domine, Scream Thy Last Scream, Interstellar Overdrive, Candy and a Currant Bun (AKA Let's Roll Another One) and Arnold Layne which had not long been released as the bands first single. And, only based on reading different books, the gigs may possibly have begun with Reaction in G but I am far from certain about that.
Hard to imagine now but when bands like The Pink Floyd and Soft Machine began to take off, the fans of that kind of music were, initially, given a hard time. Both bands attracted the more 'way out' youth. The 14 hour event was described by organisers as 'a calculated attempt to try to avoid the kind of discipline and squareness that their parents own lives represented'.
Others, who turned up for the event, saw it differently. Some attendees described the more 'turned on' as 'bloody mad, chucking flowers about, what's that all about? They are all mad. We turned up to enjoy ourselves and have laugh and a drink. A lot in there need a bloody good bath'. And there was an element of truth in that. A lot of youngsters, at that time, did grow their hair long and had little to no interest in fashion.
A few days after the Coventry gig The Pink Floyd performed their first conceptional concert, named 'Games For May - Space Age Relaxation For The Climax Of Spring' at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 12th May 1967.
During July 1967 when the Pink Floyd's debut album, 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn' was being released to the music press, the band were accused of being dishonest.
The following question arose: Are The Pink Floyd being quite honest when they make coy and attractive records like 'See Emily Play' then proceed to make the night hideous with a thunderous, incomprehensible, screaming sonic torture?
The bands response was: The Floyd do not wish to appear dishonest, but they are worried. They appreciate the contrast between their records and their live performances and agree the latter might not be all that they should be, and are taking steps to rectify the situation.
This is the point, says Roger Waters, 'we don't think so'. 'We still do Arnold Layne and struggle through Emily occasionally. We don't think its dishonest because we cant play live what we play on record. Can you imagine somebody trying to play 'A Day in the Life'?. Yet that's one of the greatest tracks ever made. A lot of stuff on our LP is completely impossible to do live'.
The early Pink Floyd were not for everybody but there is no doubting that their unique approach to music and live performance certainly had a lasting effect on shaping popular music to come.
