Chris Smith - The Sorrows

 Chris Smith - The Sorrows

by Pete Clemons

Coventry band The Sorrows have had a long and interesting history. This story covers the1968 era of the band when they were Italy based.

Late 1967,the trio of Wez Price, Bruce Finley and Chuck Fryers, returned to Coventry once more. Geoff Prior, who had only been with The Sorrows briefly, had decided to leave. And it was at this point that keyboard player and vocalist Chris Smith was brought on board. Chris was from Coventry and his previous band had been called East Side Protection.

With Wez Price now back on bass guitar this latest quartet went into Pye Studios and recorded four Chuck Fryer songs under the stewardship of producer John Schroeder.

Chris Smith recently sent me a potted history of his musical journey from Coventry via Italy and back to Coventry, and finally, settling in London.

"The first group I was in was called 'The Rippers' and I was the vocalist. We were connected with the Cathedral Youth Club and actually played in the New Cathedral as a way of bringing beat music to church goers! I then met up with Ron Lawrence and Monday's Children was formed with me playing keyboards and lead vocals. The Broughton's used to come and watch us at 'The Racing Horse' pub in Warwick.

Monday's Children then became 'East Side Protection' with the addition of Roy Butterfield on guitar.

East Side Protection below

After gigging locally a Manager appeared and he got us some better gigs out of town. He seemed impressed with my singing and playing and introduced me to Wez Price from 'The Sorrows' after he came to one of our gigs..They were back in Coventry after playing and living in Italy. Wez asked me to join the band with a view to trying to make a go of it in the UK. We did a demo with Pye Records as they still had an option to carry on with the band. They didn't take up the option and we eventually decided to go back to Italy in August 1968.

I was 20 years old and for me it felt like a big adventure and an intense period of growing up very quickly, out in the big wide world. Pip from the original 'Sorrows' came out with us (as he was already well known) and we recorded a song in Italian called Per Una Donna Non on Miura Records. As he couldn't settle and missed his family Pip went back to Coventry. Leaving me to mime to his singing in Italian on The Pippo Baudo show on Rai Television as a solo artist without the band!

So we were involved in a Milli Vanilli type of scenario, but nobody ever picked up on it, even though my voice was very different from Pip's.

'The Sorrows' stayed in Italy gigging all over the country being ripped off by corrupt Managers and Agents and me being recognised and mobbed by fans after the TV appearances! I finally decided to come back to Coventry at the beginning of 1970 and that version of the band split up with Chuck Fryers staying in Italy to this day!

I moved back in with my parents and started to reconnect with a new set of musicians on the scene at the time. I decided to be a Bass Guitarist as my Hammond Organ was sold in Italy to cover some debts belonging to the band. I was introduced to Neol Davies and got involved with Mead as a Bass Player and played some local gigs including the Lanchester. Michael Smitham was somebody else that I was jamming with at the time. I can't remember if he was in Mead as well (a senior moment maybe)?

After one year back in Coventry I moved down to London and joined a band called Phoenix on Bass after several auditions. One of which was Supertramp and I was in the last three called back to be seen again. I didn't tell them I could sing and play the keyboards too, but the original Bassist came back into the band anyway.

I started to write songs soon after arriving in London using guitar and keyboards and still stand in with bass when asked.

I have the stage name of Chrislin and am starting to play a few low key gigs using my own material. There is a YouTube of the Chrislin Singers with 'A Song to be Sung' which was recorded at the South Bank in London before Lockdown!

I will be recording more of my songs as soon as possible and may get together with Roger Lomas in his studio in Coventry. The City of Culture has reignited my connection to Coventry again.

I could have written so many more incidents but this gives you a flavour of the time. Needless to say, miming to another's voice and being noted for that didn't help my self esteem. At least the Italians found me 'Molto Simpatico' as my personality shone through."


Of my potted history - 'You can use what you feel is appropriate!' said Chris. Well thanks Chris I used it all.

 

Planet Ice – Skydome Complex

 Planet Ice – Skydome Complex

by Pete Clemons

Girls Aloud

Electronic, drum and bass duo Chase and Status will be appearing at Planet Ice in Coventry on November 26th 2021. Not that I know the first thing about Chase and Status, or drum and bass for that matter, but seeing the advert for them sent my mind wandering. And it went back to a time when my own children were growing up and going for their own nights out to see bands at Planet Ice situated within the Skydome Complex.

The 3000 seater capacity Ice Skating arena building opened during 1999. A little time after the rest of the Skydome complex if I remember correctly. It was all built on the site of the old GEC Spon Street factory which was where I began my own working life.

By 2001 and the Planet Ice venue saw the launch of a large music event hosted by local radio station Mercia Sound/FM to celebrate the station's 21st birthday. The concert also doubled up as a major charity event where it was decided that proceeds raised would go to Snowball a trust set up for sick and disabled children in Coventry and Warwickshire.

As I remember it was the then Mercia FM morning crew of Shep and Ru, who woke up Coventry and Warwickshire every weekday from 6am, who were compère's for the evening. It was their job to introduce the pop stars of the day. And for that inaugural event those included Blue, Hear'Say, Honeyz and Phats and Small appeared at the event which by now was known as The Thunderball concert. And the sell-out event raised £20,000.

Following on from its success a similar event was staged in 2002. And again thousands packed the arena where chart toppers Atomic Kitten, the trio of Liz McClarnon, Natasha Hamilton and Jenny Frost, took to the stage along with H and Claire from Steps, Blazin Squad, Sarah Whatmore and many others.

2003 and a third event was held. This time it attracted the likes of Gareth Gates, Amy Studt, Kym Marsh, Lemar and Take That's Mark Owen.

And in 2004 a fourth and final Thunderball concert took place. This time it headlined Girls Aloud. A group that was put together by a panel of judges that included Pete Waterman. Cheryl Tweedy, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding (who I was saddened to hear had passed away recently), Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh made up the group that scored a huge number of hits. Further pop acts of the day including boy band Phixx, R&B artist Jay Sean, The 411 and the Intenso Project featuring Lisa Scott Lee joined the headliners.

Over the course of the four years, that the Mercia FM's Thunderball event was held, it was estimated that it had raised £80,000 for charity's working with sick and disabled children. Additionally the Thunderball event left a lot of precious memories for many from the Coventry area.

Many of the above artists mentioned above have proved to be multi talented. Some have now reached the stage of life where the pop world is way behind them and they now do TV work. I even noticed that there was a special episode of the Pointless quiz show recently which was dedicated to artists from that era.

Good luck to Chase and Status when you appear at the Skydome Complex. Hope you enjoy your time in Coventry as many others did.

Lee Perry

 Lee Perry

by Pete Clemons

Lee Perry was many things apparently. He was described as genius and an eccentric. But he was also a visionary. Long before he built his home studio, before he began producing for 1970s reggae artists Lee Perry was predicting that Ska, a guitar expression apparently, was going to be the biggest thing in popular music. Whether it happened in quite the way he expected or envisaged is another thing.

And Lee was proved to be right. Toward the end of 1969 there were no fewer than five Ska records in the charts. Record companies and dealers were caught completely on the hop. But any ballroom disc jockey could have predicted the trend months earlier. So too could Lee Perry. 'But the music had to grow up' said Dave Hadfield of Maximum Sound Studios. 'Before the chart explosion too many of the lyrics were seen as 'banal rubbish'. It was also mentioned that too many of the Ska productions were back street jobs.

The records which were making the charts in 1969 were by artists such as The Pioneers, Harry J and the All Stars, Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker and Lee's own band The Upsetters. After years of using cheap studios and the minimum of musicians, Ska was becoming sophisticated and polished.

The Ska scene, up until that time, had been dominated by small, independent record companies and a bewildering number of labels with such names as Upsetter, Coxon Crab, Songbird, Harry J, Pama, Revolution, Unity, Trojan, Gas and Pyramid, most of them run by by West Indians who knew the music inside out.

Every time a major company had tried to break into the scene its fingers had got burned. EMI tried it with a special Columbia Blue Beat series run by Ziggy Jackson, a man with vast experience in the field, but failed miserably, other companies have had sporadic bursts of Ska releases but mostly without success.

'You cant cater for a specialist music unless everyone in the organisation is geared up to the product' says Harry Palmer who within a 12 period built up Pama Records from a struggling little company into one of the more bigger and well known Ska labels.

Harry also had the advantage of owning his own retail shops enabling him to gauge public reaction. 'I thought of Ska as puerile, boring music but now it has taken on a whole new direction. There are some very exciting records being turned out. Take the Upsetters and Return of Django for instance, that has got sax work to match the old rock magic for its guts and excitement'.

Graeme Goodall, a man who has worked and struggled for years to get Ska off the ground over here was at last seeing success. His Pyramid label could now claim a long string of hits thanks mainly to the remarkable Desmond Dekker who has scored no fewer than 40 number 1's in his native Jamaica.

Britain's pop scene was already being conquered and it is no longer just the settled West Indians who were buying the records. Ska was also breaking big in America too, thanks to the pioneering work of Johnny Nash and the success of Dekker's single 'Israelites'.

'There is something unique about West Indian music' said Nash, a man who had already made a big impact on soul music. 'I commute between New York and Jamaica where I do most of my recording'. Johnny provided a link in Ska coming to maturity. As a young man he was greatly influenced by the late Sam Cooke. 'The Ska of the past may have had room for improvement but now the music is ready to be taken seriously' said Johnny.

Barnabus - album launch gig October 2021

 Barnabus - album launch Gig October 2021

by Pete Clemons

The early 1970s brought music that was exciting, adventurous, heady and inspiring. For those playing it, it was days full of risk and vigorously alive. And Barnabus were another of those hard working bands from that time.

November 1971 saw them enter a studio and record an album that, sadly, never saw day of light for almost 50 years. But now, all has been corrected and, here we are in October 2021 for, at long last, the launch gig of that album.

The band have also threatened that this will be there last ever gig. Maybe it will be but as they were playing, it was easy to see that Barnabus were clearly enjoying it, and I couldn't help but think that there was more life left to be had in their songs.

Before the gig guitarist John Storer lamented that 'It had been a wonderful journey supporting bands such as Van der Graff Generator, Man, Trapeze, Hawkwind' and 'local band, The Edgar Broughton Blues Band as they were known back in the early 70s. As well as Barnabus playing gigs such as the Swan in Yardley, The Crown in Birmingham, off Navigation Street and Chetwyn's also Navigation Street. Also we cannot forget of course the Walsgrave Pub in Coventry and the Sportsman's Arms'

The first set that Barnabus played kicked off with a really excellent version of 'Morning Dew' a tune covered by the likes of The Grateful Dead. And the theme of the first part of the gig, if indeed there was one, was to concentrate on the more softer songs such as 'Beginning to Unwind' and 'Gas Rise'.

The second set was altogether different as Barnabus went for the more heavier songs such as 'America', their take on the Leonard Bernstein’s classic, 'The War Drags On', 'Mortal Flight', 'Winter Lady' a song that once had Ozzy Osbourne leaping out of his chair, and 'Apocalypse'. The band finished with the Cream number 'Crossroads'.

It really had been a special evening. Even today these songs sound different and assured. Any thoughts of failure, at the time of the recording, must have been outweighed by the feelings of knowing that you really were in a great band and had some really good music to offer.

Post gig and there was absolutely no doubt that all three members of the band had realised that they had put in a decent shift.

John Storer mentioned that 'it really couldn't have gone any better, right down to the timing of both sets'. Drummer Tony Cox commented that 'it was the best we had ever played'. While bass player and vocalist, Keith Hancock said 'it was great to play the old songs just one more time. A bit dated now, but still hold their own relevancy to what's going on today. Very happy with the way the whole thing went'.


The band were also keen to thank Barnabus lyricist Les Bates and his family for attending. They had come all the way down from Scotland for the event.

During the gig many old memories were sparked. None more so than one about Carole Knee of Friars Promotions who put on many of Barnabus's gigs during the early 1970s. The band were originally known as 'Barnabus Legge' and it was Carole who advised them to cut off the 'Legge' part which they agreed to do. It was ironic that her name was 'Knee' and she wanted the 'Legge' cut off.

The album, titled 'Beginning to Unwind' has been released on Rise Above Relics which is a part of Lee Dorrian’s Rise Above Records. Rise Above is a label that is dedicated to releasing relatively obscure hard rock and folk music from the late 1960s through to the mid-70s. It has to be said that Lee has done an incredible job in turning those 50 year old tapes into the CD and LP packages that are now available. Glad to hear that the album has sold particularly well in places like America. 50 years on, and who would have thought.

Warwick University: The Final Fling, Coombe Abbey Country Park and Hotel

Warwick University: The Final Fling, Coombe Abbey Country Park and Hotel.

by Pete Clemons

Coombe Abbey country park and hotel, situated on the edge of Coventry, has had a tumultuous history since it was first built as a monastery during the 12th century. The building itself has ties to royalty and even the gunpowder plot. But since it opened up to the public, well over quarter century ago, it quickly built up a reputation for its party nights. Adding to the success of its long established medieval evenings.

And for a few years Coombe Abbey became the venue for final year university students, from both Warwick and Birmingham, and who were having a last bash before they set out on their chosen paths or careers.

The Final Fling was, as it sounds, a party to celebrate the end of several years of studies. It was organised by the Warwick University Students Union Entertainments Team. And was a majestic way of saying goodbye to their time in Coventry and Birmingham as well as giving them a night to remember.

Going back in time, it was not unusual for Coombe Abbey to have festivals. I seem to remember a weekend folk happening during the mid 1990s. Liberty X and Blazin Squad appeared there in the early 2000s. And more recently both The Libertines and Tom Grennan appeared there. But those were one off's occasions and not regular events.

The huge university event bash would normally involve a sit down meal for hundreds, maybe even thousands, of graduates followed by fairground and all manner of entertainment. In huge marquees a stellar line up wowed the leaving students as they said their farewells to a soundtrack of the sounds of the time. Clowns and jugglers, break dancers and stilt walkers along with a banquet, dozens of balloons completed the festive atmosphere.

Like all events of this nature, boundaries were pushed. And, as time went on, the event grew in size. Initially there was just the one stage but over time a second arena was added. There was even a casino with free chips on arrival and all the gaming tables you could possibly wish for including craps, roulette and blackjack, a spectacular fireworks display, outdoor entertainment and a fairground of wondrous beauty.

From Feeder and Idlewild to The Scissor Sisters appeared at these grand events. A then rising Amy Winehouse also made an exclusive appearance. Additionally, DJs from the student union's most popular nights also went along to the Coombe party. Apart from those DJ's I have tried to compile a list of the star attractions below:


2003 Supergrass

2004 Amy Winehouse, Scissor Sisters, Ash, Spooks

2005 The Zutons, GLC

2006 Idlewild, Sugababes, Nizlopi

2007 Hard Fi, The Automatic, Example, The Ripps

2008 Feeder, The Wombats

2009 Basement Jaxx / Pigeon Detectives

But then, disappointingly for the finalists, it was announced during 2010 that the traditional send-off would be replaced with ‘Six Days of Summer’ from the Thursday of week Nine until the Tuesday of week Ten in term three. That period would also incorporate The Graduation Ball and The Summer Party during one huge outdoor festival. Maybe things had just got too big and grand. Who knows.