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'?

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