Reg Calvert and the School of Rock - Update

 Reg Calvert and the School of Rock - Update.

by Pete Clemons.

Pete Clemons has written a number of articles on Reg Calvert and his musical enterprises in the Midlands and I've linked them here so you can catch up on the background if you missed them.

Reg Calvert was the manager of The Fortunes, Pinkerton's Assorted Colours, Screaming Lord Sutch, and other pop groups. In 1964, after hearing Radio Caroline, he decided to start his own pirate radio station, and made use of an old World War II fort in the Thames Estuary. Originally, the station was called Radio Sutch, and it started broadcasting on 27 May 1964, on 1542kHz.

Links to Pete Clemons articles on Reg Calvert on this blog - 

Reg Calvert - A Rock n Roll Rollercoaster

Clifton Hall – The School of Rock

Danny Storm, Buddy Britten, Robby Hood

Reg Calvert and Johnny Washington

Nuneaton's Co-op Hall Venue

The Fortunes - Fifty Year Milestone

Pinkerton's Assorted Colours

Below is a new family update on Reg Calvert by Pete Clemons

Calvert 'family' update

 A recent article about Danny Storm, Buddy Britten and others prompted Susan (Calvert) Moore to get in touch. She wanted to update me with news she had recently received regarding some of the musicians mentioned within the article. It's mostly sad I'm afraid.

DANNY STORM (David Hurran) passed away 7th/8th May 2022. He had been unwell for some time with dementia.

Danny led an extraordinary life, first as a 'rock' star, discovered by my father, Reg Calvert, in 1960. Danny moved with the 'Calvert' family to Clifton Hall in 1961. He was teamed up with a backing band, The Strollers – Roger James and Tony Clarke (who later produced for The Moody Blues). And from there headlined many a dance.

Danny retired 'young' from show business and became a semi-professional footballer, then had his own successful business as a coffee importer.

ROGER JAMES (Scarrott) passed away Sunday 15th May 2022.

He had cancer. I know he had been unwell all of this year, but he did not say how he was suffering.

His partner contacted Susan Calvert to say they were going to have to 'let him go'. Roger was quite a 'character', and an exceptional musician and performer.

PETE MIST passed away last year, 2021, in Spain. He was in the Strollers, backing Danny Storm, and then became part of the Regents, backing Buddy Britten. Pete moved to Spain where he married a Spanish girl.

BUDDY BRITTEN (Geoffrey Glover-Wright) Sadly Geoff died on Wednesday October 11th 2017 in the care of Jersey Hospice.

Geoffrey became passionate about the guitar as rock & roll swept the U.K. This passion solidified after seeing Buddy Holly in 1958. For a while he was guitarist for Billy Fury. Then he joined Vince Taylor and the Playboys. He was approached by Reg Calvert. Reg encouraged him to sign a management deal and gave him the new stage name of Buddy Britten. Britten's backing band were The Regents - bassist Pete Mist and drummer Barney Peacock. Buddy and the Regents became a top billing band. Later in life Glover-Wright became a successful businessman and author.


SUSAN CONTINUED: 'On a personal note, I am feeling very sad, losing the Clifton Hall 'brothers' I grew up with. We were quite an unusual 'family'.

Although it took more than five years, I am pleased I managed to record so many 'memories' of those times and weave them into the books. A history of the music, musicians, and crazy days, are now recorded for posterity. Behind all of this, is the love story of my parents, and their determination.

During lock-down year I completely rewrote and enlarged Book One: 'Popcorn to Rock 'n' Roll'.

It begins as a romance, described as being like a Catherine Cookson, before it gets into the early days of 'rock 'n' roll' and the zany characters.

Book Two: Clifton Hall - School of Rock is still available as a Kindle E-Book and as hardback 'Life and Death of a Pirate'.

http://www.susan-moore.co.uk/books-by-s-k-moore.php

Alan Poole Interview

 Alan Poole Interview

by Pete Clemons

Alan Poole was, for many years, a distinguished journalist at the Coventry Evening Telegraph - Alan interviews our Pete Clemons aka Fred Bison.

Alan Poole (pictured) was, for many years, a distinguished journalist at the Coventry Evening

Telegraph. Along with others he was axed when the paper became a more on line based outlet. He had a passion for both sport and popular music and was had vast knowledge in both. Some years ago he spoke to me at length about a project I had indulged myself in. I don't think the interview was ever published. Although I closed down the database I was working at the end of 2020 I am still adding various dates to this very day..............

'FOR more years than I choose to acknowledge, I’ve been boring people rigid with stories of the night I saw David Bowie support the Rolling Stones in Coventry.

Even now, four decades later, I can still summon up vivid mental snapshots of a magical evening – Mick Jagger whipping off his leather belt to slap out the pulse of Midnight Rambler, a bubble-haired, buckskin-clad Bowie perched on a stool as he strummed an acoustic version of Space Oddity.

To paraphrase Ray Davies, it was one of those nights I’ll remember all my life. Only problem is, that’s not the way it happened – those memories, it transpires, stem from two separate concerts, both at The Coventry Theatre but 17 months apart.

When I saw Bowie on October 8, 1969, he was, in fact, opening for Humble Pie, the short-lived supergroup fronted by Stevie Marriott and Peter Frampton; the Stones hit town on March 6, 1971 when The Groundhogs supplied the support for the two back-to-back performances that were the norm in those days.

Those intertwined recollections have finally been unravelled courtesy of Pete Clemons, a self-confessed rock fanatic who is compiling a comprehensive database of half a century of gigs in his home city. It’s a massively ambitious project and he admits that he’ll never know when it’s complete – but the hobby that has transformed itself into an obsession began when he, too, was trying to pin down the details of a single show.

“My brother Nigel used to collect the tickets from concerts he’d been to,” explained Pete. “One of them was for the Moody Blues at Chesford Grange but he couldn’t remember exactly when it was.

“I looked at their website and there was no mention of it and when I wrote to them they said they had no record of it. So I went to the library and trawled through some old papers and eventually found it.

“That got me interested in the 60s and I realised what an amazing time it was in Coventry – there would be concerts seven nights a week and on a Saturday you could have half-a-dozen bands playing somewhere in the city.

“A couple of years ago I started compiling a list of bands who played the Coventry Theatre but it’s expanded way beyond those original plans and now it covers all kinds of venues, from Taylor John’s and The Craftsman pub to the Ricoh Arena.

“I must have about 20,000 dates by now but there’s still a long way to go. I’ve finished the 60s, the 90s and the last 10 years as best as I can; I’ve gone through the 80s but I know there’s a lot missing, and now I need to work my way through the 70s.”

A telecommunications engineer by trade and still, at the age of 51, an enthusiastic footballer when he can wangle a game, Pete’s love affair with rock began in his early teens when his big brother took him along to concerts by the likes of Procol Harum and Barclay James Harvest. And his determination to complete the project gathered pace when Nigel died suddenly in 2008.

“He was a huge influence on me,” said Pete. “He went to all those legendary festivals like Bath and the Isle Of Wight and he had boxfuls of LPs with fantastic sleeves like King Crimson. But he never took to punk. I discovered that all by myself ... those amazing gigs at The Locano.”

Courageously for a Cov kid, he admits that he wasn’t too fussed about 2-Tone, although when pressed to name his favourite among the countless concerts he’s attended he plumps for last year’s Specials reunion at The Ricoh: “Some friends bought the tickets as a 50th birthday present and it was a fantastic night – the atmosphere was absolutely awesome.”

Pete’s admirably catholic taste incorporates superstars (Pink Floyd taking pride of place), cult favourites (Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief) and local heroes (Indian Summer, Cliff Hands). And since he began compiling his list he has reinvented himself into a rock detective, eagerly following up rumours of legendary, possibly mythic, concerts.

“I played a season with a team called Jah Baddies when I worked with their club secretary,” he recalled. “They had some cracking players and the social side was great. We twice went to see Bob Marley and The Wailers at Stafford Bingley Hall – and I recently discovered that Bob once played in the area before he became famous.

“I’ve also found an advert suggesting that David Bowie did a Coventry show when he was known as Davy Jones And The Lower Third and I’m looking for evidence that Nick Drake once played here, possibly as support to John Martyn. It’s easy enough to pin down names and dates at places like The Coventry Theatre, but it’s a lot harder when you’re dealing with pubs and small clubs.”

Pete admits that his family are mildly bemused by his obsession (although his then 23-year-old daughter did allow Dad to accompany her to a Stain’d concert at Birmingham Academy) and, having inherited Nigel’s records to supplement his own collection, he is now contemplating a purpose-built extension to his home to accommodate his hoard of souvenirs.

In time that might come to include his own publications. “I don’t really know what I’m going to do with my list when it’s as complete as I can make it, but I think that there might be scope for some books tracing each decade,” he says.

“I think there might also be a slot for it on the internet. What this has proved is that Coventry was, and in many ways still is, an amazingly vibrant place.

“It really annoys me when people say that there’s nothing to do here because if you go looking for it, it’s there. Wandering John are planning a reunion gig in April, 40 years after they split up, and I’m really looking forward to that!”

Wandering John, needless to say, already feature in Pete’s 50-year almanac alongside such luminaries as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, U2, Queen, The Eurythmics, Elton John, Deep Purple, Cliff Richard, The Osmonds, Oasis and his beloved Pink Floyd.

The Floyd, famously, played the Locarno on February 3, 1972 as the second half of an astonishing double-header that kicked off with Chuck Berry, who didn’t hang around too long but did find the time to record the innuendo-soaked version of My Ding-a-Ling that gave him a belated No.1 here and in the US.

If you listen carefully you’ll hear me and my wife-to-be chiming in on the boy-girl choruses, and trivia fans might like to know that also among the audience that night was Slade guitarist Dave Hill sporting a plaster cast on a broken leg. Or, come to think of it, was that Led Zep in ’71'?

......................................

Below Pete Clemons with Trev Teasdel waiting to be interviewed on BBC Radio Coventry 2015

Woody Allen and the Challengers

 

Woody Allen and the Challengers

by Pete Clemons

Much has been written in the past about the then unique dual guitar style of Woody Allen and the Challengers. But that style once won them the district finals of a national beat contest held at the Locarno Dance Hall.

Winning this contest meant that Woody and the boys went forward to the Midlands area heat held in Birmingham. The winners of that heat then went to the London finals where a £1000 prize and a recording test was on offer.

During their early years the Challengers bands line up had included: vocalist Woody Allen, Bob Saunders, John Zetterstrom, John McLinden, Neil Hawkins, Ted Bean and Barry Bernard. And the Challengers were the last of the four groups to appear. It was said that 'their original treatment of currently popular up tempo rockers brought considerable applause'.

Woody Allen and the Challengers it seems were very adept at performing the 'big record of the moment'. At one time that record was 'Twist and Shout' which was being requested everywhere, 'from Monday night record sessions at the Locarno to national radio's 'Housewives Choice' programme'.

'When one of Leamington spa's best known beat groups, Woody Allen and the Challengers, appeared at The Walsgrave Woody was apparently besieged with requests for 'Twist and Shout'. He kept everyone, except the rather startled barman, happy. With sweat pouring down his face he belted out the number several times. The Walsgrave was crowded with young people and off beat vehicles such as 1950s Cadillacs, modified three wheel Messerschmitts and a converted ambulance filled the car park'.

But back to the competition. The judges on the evening of the 1964 contest included Dennis Detheridge editor of Midland Beat magazine and Mr L. Reed manager of the Record Centre, Coventry who agreed that the Challengers created the most commercial sound of the evening.

The Challengers version of The Beatles LP track 'Roll Over Beethoven' was judged to be better put over than were Beatles numbers performed by the other groups. These bands being Peter Trent and the Travellers, The Chequers and the Phantom Four.

A media report mentioned that 'Peter Trent and the Travellers, from Stoke on Trent, were very popular with the Locarno's beat hungry twangers. Not content with clapping and cheering for the Challengers, the audience shrieked and screamed for Trent and his men – especially when Peter was almost dragged off stage by a female fan'.

A few minutes after their performance Locarno manager, Michael Lyons, had booked the Travellers for a return visit to the ballroom.

The report continued 'The other two groups put up a brave performance. The Phantom Four, a Coventry group, must be congratulated for writing their own variations to the tunes they played. The Chequers, from Tamworth, were full of vitality. The beat contest was organised by Walls Ice Cream manufacturer'.

Woody - whose real name was Allan Wood sadly passed away almost 10 years ago aged 67.

MORE ON WOODY ALLEN AND THE CHALLANGERS HERE ON 

COVENTRY BANDS 1960's TO NOW

Coventry's Own Dance – The Twang

 

Coventry's Own Dance – The Twang

by Pete Clemons

In 1962, Dione LaRue was signed to the Cameo/Parkway label. She was given the stage name of Dee Dee Sharp. Dee Dee then went on to release a string of successful singles including 'Slow Twistin' with Chubby Checker, 'Mashed Potato Time', 'Gravy (For My Mashed Potato)', 'Ride' and 'Do the Bird' which provided Dee Dee with her only entry in the UK singles chart which it entered during April 1963. It appears that the short lived Coventry dance, The Twang' was inspired during 1963 by 'Do the Bird'.

The song caught on at dance halls like The Locarno but the accompanying dance did not. Possibly it lacked something, and so it was forgotten. Until, that is, till later in 1963, when variations of the dance were devised. New steps were added that the 'hipsters' of the day found more interesting – interesting to perform, interesting to watch.

It appears that the dance spread too. Dancers all over Warwickshire, and further South were shaking their heads, swinging their hips and generally having a great time. The name of the dance was changed too. It was know as the Blues in Leamington and the Twang in Coventry and parts of London where it was still spreading.

This it seems was down to a Coventry PR company called Friars Promotions who specialised in putting rock 'n' roll / beat / pop acts on at local pubs and other venues and were run by local lads Mick Tiernan and Jack Hardy.

Friars operated from Whitefriars Street. For a short time the business became an incredible success as Friars set up dances at pubs not only in Coventry but also Birmingham and London. Even as far away as Wales and Scotland.

Mick Tiernan was, it seems, an incredibly forward thinking person and was always looking for ways and ideas to keep his dances fresh and to keep them in the public eye. And he appeared to push 'Do the Bird' even after it had dropped out of the chart.

What made The Twang unique and identifiable was that the dancers hands spent a considerable time behind their backs. Well, believe it or not, this posture was inspired by the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Twang even made the national press where it was described: 'The idea it seems is to look as sullen or fed up with life as possible while, at the same time, shaking your legs ferociously. Your hands stay in Philip fashion most of the time, though occasionally they wake up and perform like those of the lady who advertises Windowlene on the television'.

The article continued 'The 'experts', of course, have a traditional pattern to follow. After a period of leg shaking they clap hands loudly and jump around to face a different angle. Then, hands back behind back, legs still shaking and head forward almost touching their partners. Occasionally they hit one hand into the palm of the other and create a pecking noise'.

Dee Dee Sharp may not have had huge success here in the UK but her other hits were million sellers in the US and would subsequently feature in films such as 'Sister Act'. And due, in part, to the silver screen her hits are more recogniseable today than they ever were.