HOBO - Coventry Music and Arts Magazine at 50.
Pete Clemons Interviews Trev Teasdel - Co founder and editor of Hobo.
50 years ago (June 1973) Trevor Teasdel and John Bargent (Bo) launched a Coventry Music and Arts magazine and music workshop called Hobo (John's name for the magazine).
Hub for the Hobo Coventry Music Archive Sites - bands, discos, folk, Umbrella arts club etc.
The magazine was run on a shoestring budget - no funding, and had intended to be a voice for, and build on, the then floundering Coventry Music scene. But Hobo was much more than that and covered a wider range of issues.
The magazine's launch was on 30th of June 1973 with an article in the Coventry Telegraph 'On the Scene' supplement.
I asked Trev what inspired him to undertake such a venture and how it all get off the ground. Trev certainly didn't hold back. I found this a very interesting response:.........
Some got involved with the Coventry music scene because they were musicians. I started writing lyrics at school and wanted to find bands that might use them.
APPLE CORPS
In 1969, when I was 18, I was inspired by the Beatles Apple Corps project. I liked that they were setting up all kinds of creative projects, boutiques, films, publishing and the Apple recording studio and that people could potentially get involved. It was very exciting. I was an apprentice electrician at DF Gibbs next to the General Wolfe on the Foleshill Road but wanting to do something more artistic. My friend Keith Murphy and I went camping in Southend for a summer holiday and we spent a day in London, and I took a folder with my lyrics with the idea of calling in at Apple Studios. As we walked down Saville Row Paul McCartney ran towards us looking just as he did on the Get back film with that black beard – he wasn’t going to stop! In the end we couldn’t easily get past the groupies on the steps and so never went in. Who knows what might have happened had we got in – everything or nothing lol! Anyway, Apple sowed the seeds (or pips) of building an infrastructure around your base activity and that has been my practice since with so many projects.
COVENTRY ARTS UMBRELLA CLUB
Shortly after, while doing day release at Coventry Technical College, I saw an advert on the
noticeboard for The Transcendental Cauldron, a weekend festival of Underground Arts at the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club in Queen Victoria Road. The Umbrella was inspired by events at Drury Lane Arts Lab – which is where David Bowie started off at. I had to go – it seemed to me to be the Coventry equivalent of the Apple Corps, but without the Beatles – although Neol Davies, later of Selecter was involved and later John Bradbury.
I went with Al Docker, a songwriter and drummer who worked at DF Gibbs. Al knew a lot of musicians on the Cov Scene and the Umbrella asked him if he’d put on the Friday night bands at the Umbrella and Al asked me to help him and I later took over completely when Al formed the band Tsar. So almost from the start I had a role on the Coventry Music scene and also helped Pete Waterman (whom I worked with at GEC) by doing the door at his Progressive Music venue at the Walsgrave in 1970. I wrote a song with Pete and wrote for several bands who later spilt up – it was hard for bands as they just did the usual Coventry venues – breaking out of Coventry was so difficult and many of them split up in frustration.
The first form of a magazine came in setting up a notice board at the Umbrella – people were always asking me questions like “Do you know any bass players or a man with a van” etc. I got them to post on the noticeboard. Al Docker and I used to network by doing a 'crawl' of the music or student pubs like the Golden Cross, The Dive Bar etc. Not to get drunk but to make contacts, gather news on what was happening. - there was no social media then.
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| The Transcendental Cauldron Arts Festival at The Coventry Arts Umbrella Club |
THE BROADGATE GNOME
The first big influence of creating Hobo Magazine came in 1970 when a group of Coventry
hippies / anarchists produced the magazine The Broadgate Gnome. Suddenly the Coventry music and arts underground scene had a voice! It’s hard to convey how exciting this was at the time- to see people and places you knew in print. Production wise it was no great shakes – produced on a duplicator at Gnome House on Humber Road, but the monthly magazine embraced both counter culture and local politics and local ceramic artist, Labour Councillor, and curator of Coventry Toy Museum - Ron Morgan was a regular contributor, but the Broadgate Gnome also covered the music scene – many of the ‘Gnomes’ (editors and contributors were more than evident at local gigs and were also huge fans of Wandering John. They got the title from the Gnomes on Broadgate island and the ‘Gnomes’ were largely influenced by the San Francisco Diggers who in turn were influenced by 17thC Gerard Winstanley and the Diggers who “tried (by "levelling" land) to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small, egalitarian rural communities.” There were a network of them around the UK. I don’t know how many copies they printed but unlike mainstream magazines and newspapers, they operated on a shoestring budget and reached a select audience – i.e. young people interested in alternative politics and the local music and arts scene. As such they encouraged readers to pass on / share Broadgate Gnome with others and certainly at the Umbrella whoever had a copy would share it with whoever was there at the time.
I was impressed that suddenly there were people we knew in the magazine, and it connected us to other things that were going on – remember there was no internet back them – information travelled by word of mouth. I was also impressed with their ideas for projects – many of which never got off the ground before the Broadgate Gnome team fled to Brighton after a clash with the powers that be in 1971. However, the ideas they generated resonated with me and Hobo - in part, was an attempt to keeps something of that spirit going in Coventry in the early to mid 70's. They don't get a lot of praise but I have to say 'hat's off to the Gnomes'!
THE DIGGERS HOLE
Broadgate Gnome got use of the bomb hole (now built on) outside the Golden Cross for an outdoor Arts Collective whereby local artists could meet and sell / exchange ceramics and paintings. I remember this being very popular although only available when the weather was fine! If my memory serves me well Arol was instrumental in this and probably Councillor Ron Morgan. It was a far cry from the pristine walls of the Herbert Art Gallery and run by the artists themselves. In the first issue of Hobo we ran an article on the Minster Gallery at Spon End that was I think an off shoot of this idea.
THE TRIBAL ROCK COOPERATIVE
This pre-dated by 15 years all the Music Collectives that sprang up in the early1980’s. Neol Davies, John Bradbury, Tim James (of Ra Ho Tep) and Roy Butterfield were among musicians who played at gigs for this. The main reason local bands split up so frequently was that they got board playing to the same local gig network in the Coventry area. The Diggers had a national network and set out to arrange gig swaps with the diggers in different towns, enabling bands to play further afield, share resources and find places for the musicians to stay – usually at someone’s house. To this end they organised gigs at Police Ball room and Warwick University. The gigs were sometimes chaotic, improvised but it was a brilliant idea, if short lived idea.
THE PIG MOTHER LABEL
The Broadgate Gnome even created their own Record label and Wandering John were ear marked to be the first signing using a reel to reel tape recorded at what turned out to be the bands last gig (until the reunion gig in 2010) at the Lanch Polytech. Sadly the recording was flawed, the bass amp blew and the sound was unbalanced and the band split up anyway! Ade Taylor, the bassist still has the tape I believe. After Wandering John split up, the Broadgate Gnome ran an article with Neol Davies and John Gravenor talking about forming a new band called Thundering Pig. This new band might have been the first Pig Mother signing had not John Gravenor the Gnomes fled to Brighton!
The idea was shelved until Hobo created the archive website on Vox blogs in 2007 and the Gnomes recreated the label digitally and this time round called it The Gnome Label. The first signing was me, myself, to my amazement ie Trev Teasdel with a 17 track CD of cassette or porta studio demos of my original songs. The album was called ‘Songs from the Coventry Underground’ and had a bootleg feel in keeping with those early times in the 70's. The album appeared on iTunes Europe and Amazon USA as downloads. The Gnome label published work by Coventry bands and singer songwriters on their Reverbnation site – including work by Roger Williamson who had worked with Dando Shaft at one stage, Dave Pepper, former leader of Coventry punk band The Xcerts and who had his first gig as a 16 at the Hobo Workshop in 1974, Kristy Gallacher - a Coventry singer songwriter starting out around 2007, Dennis Burns (of the 70's band Flood) and others.
THE MERSEY BEAT
Another influence on my thinking was reading about the role that the Mersey Beat newspaper played in the development of the Liverpool scene and the rise of the Beatles etc. There was no way the Broadgate Gnome of Hobo could match the resources of that newspaper, set up on a professional basis but it seemed to me that we needed something to promote and encourage bands and artists in Coventry. By 1973 when Hobo started, Bob Jackson (formerly of Indian Summer and Martin Jenkins formerly of Dando Shaft) seemed most likely to make it although they were no longer in Coventry based bands. However, unseen in the daylight, the forces that formed the later Two Tone movement, were gathering at that time. Neol Davies and John Bradbury had been on the scene and in bands since the late 60's and Horace Panter and Pauline Black and Jerry Dammers were studying at the Lanch Poly - Horace of course sent a couple of letters to Hobo. In 1974 when we started the Hobo Workshop at the Holyhead Youth Centre, in the basement Charley Anderson and Desmond Brown etc were rehearsing their early reggae and with Neol Davies who briefly joined the Hobo Workshop committee organised a jam session for us - were operating at that time. i remember being on the door at the Holyhead hearing this, then, new music coming up from the basement and wondering if this might be the new Coventry sound - 5 years later it was and magnificently so - wow. Coventry made it eventually!
UMBRELLA CLUB MUSIC MARATHON
Mid 1971, Lindy Watson (Brimstone) and I set about organising the second Umbrella club all
The three months in Birmingham provided time for reflection and exploration. Birmingham had so much going for it – The Cannon Hill Arts Centre, The Birmingham Arts Lab, Henry’s Blues House (where Black Sabbath and Indian Summer were discovered) but it was the magazines that impressed me.
THE BIRMINGHAM GRAPEVINE
The Birmingham Grapevine impressive me as a well produced Whatz On magazine with all kinds of features on the arts and available around Birmingham in Newsagents, arts centres and the Birmingham Peace Centre. This was certainly a big influence, although smaller scale, I felt Coventry could do with something like this and took note.
THE BIRMINGHAM STREETPRESS / STREETPOEMS
By autumn 1972 a new alternative magazine called the Birmingham Streetpress was being
produced. The editor in chief was John Keetley but they had a team of editors and graphic artists. It was similar in content to the Broadgate Gnome but amazingly well produced. Birmingham certainly had more resources from layout studios, graphic artists, and cartoonists, to offset-litho presses and distribution outlets. I went over to meet the guys who were based in Moseley. The guys took me to the Birmingham Arts lab where Streetpress produced their layouts. They typed them on the lab’s Electric Golf ball typewriter and did the layouts twice the size ie A3 and had an industrial camera to photographically reduce the size to A4, which gave a sense of more space in the layouts. Over there they had some top-class graphic artists and cartoonists some of whom went to work for mainstream publications - I remember that Steve Bell was around then and later produced cartoons for the Guardian. Streetpress then sent the final layouts to the legendary Moss Side printing press in Manchester, so the production was top class.
They also had a sister magazine The Birmingham Streetpoems – and one of the guys took me over to Bearwood on the back of a motorbike (I was terrified!) to meet the team who produced it. One of them put music to some of my lyrics. They also encouraged my writing sending my work to top alternative poets who ran magazines. I had started to run the Humpoesic Happenings at the Umbrella (poetry and folk were still allowed at the Umbrella, but not bands!). The Birmingham Streetpress and Streetpoems ran some similar gigs in Moseley with local poets and songwriters and big name bands like Graham Bond – I got to play at some of them, and they would send people over for the Umbrella Poetry and folk gigs in exchange.
Before Hobo started, I was selling Streetpress and Streetpoems around the Coventry pubs like the Golden Cross and the Dive bar and sending over information about the Coventry scene. However, there was so much coming out of Birmingham, that the Coventry information never got in, so the guys encouraged me to start up a Coventry magazine.
ON THE SCENE – COVENTRY TELEGRAPH SUPPLEMENT
I so wanted to do a Coventry music magazine, but both my experience and resources were
limited. I could write and had contacts on the music and arts scene in Coventry and had noted how the Birmingham magazines worked, but I had no finance or experience in graphics and layout design. I had identified a duplicator we could use at the Hillfields Community Centre and an Offset Litho press at the Left Centre bookshop behind what became Ikea. That printing press was donated to the centre by author and historian EP Thompson who had written The Making of the English Working Class, and was, at the time, a senior lecturer at Warwick University.
Around April 1973, The Coventry Telegraph introduced new Saturday supplement called On the Scene with a colour cover. We all thought this would be about the Coventry Scene but it turned out to be more of a fashion zine. However it did cover some local music / arts related copy. The first of these was an article on the new RU18 Squad. In addition to the drug squad monitoring the pubs in the city centre there was now an underage drinking squad. True underage drinking was illegal and there were problems with drunken fights at places like The Market Tavern, but a lot of the underaged drinkers at gigs were a different kettle of fish. So many young people at that stage rejected the old youth centres and tended to come into the city centre at night or the weekend, to see bands and drink in the pubs where music fans went. Most of them were not in any way criminals in the usual sense but after being bust for underaged drinking, they then had problems with their families, and it also made finding a first job difficult. Most of us thought they should address the problem properly rather than bust them – eg set up alcohol free gigs in the city centre. The local anger came to a head when a 15-year-old girl was busted and she subsequently hung outside the Golden Cross where the drug pushers managed to get her hooked-on Cocaine. She quickly went down hill and it was at that point that I took the imitative and organised a petition to the Coventry Telegraph in response to their article, outlining all the issues around this and for the Coventry music and arts scene, suggesting the authorities do more for young people and the arts and music scene. I got 500 signatures from pubs like the Golden Cross and the Dive Bar etc and wrote a long letter to the editor highlighting the need for resources for young people and a different response to underage drinking. 500 might not seem many in comparison with online petitions but again there was no internet and anyway it got the editor’s attention, and he assigned a journalist to interview me.
MEANWHILE – HOBO!
While gathering signatures for the petition in the Dive bar, I came across John Bargent who signed it but said – “Why don’t you do your own magazine rather than expecting the establishment rag to represent young people’s cultural needs?” So, I told him the background as above and the reasons. John said he had some redundancy money so could finance a first issue and had worked with Release in London as an adviser, so had experience of the social issues involved and had some basic layout experience and he also ran Rougstar Promotions and Disco and what’s more, he lived nearby in Willenhall.
So, without much ado we met up and started planning the first issue and John also began promoting me as singer songwriter.
By this time, mid 1973 – there was a dip in the Coventry music scene. The Broadgate Gnome had come and gone, the Umbrella had been demolished and still had no base and anyway couldn’t now put bands on, and most of the top Coventry bands like Indian Summer, Asgard, Wandering John, April, had broken up and other venues had gone down (maybe Mouldy Old Dough and Chuck Berry's My Ding a Ling had got to No 1 in 1972, but the scene needed more venues and support. So there was a lot of ground work for Hobo and others to do.
Part 2 – A further set of questions that Trev kindly answered..........
What was the intention of the magazine?
- To be a monthly central point for the Coventry music and arts scene, with information, articles, interviews and a What's On column.
- To promote and encourage new bands and related music and arts activity.
- To comment on the scene and identify and reflect the needs of the music and arts community in the Coventry area.
- To provide a Central Spot (Bo’s project) for young people with a problem.
- To create an infrastructure around the magazine to promote bands, poets, and artists. The Hobo Workshop took on that role and the took over Bo’s Central Spot idea.
Was it financed. Did you raise any cash through advertising within it?
Initially, John Bargent financed it, and we were moving towards financing it by adverts. There were no known grants at that time. Finance was the biggest problem after Bo left.
And yes, Local bands, musicians, disco and venues and some related shops like Virgin
Records, Peter Waterman’s Soul Hole and the I Am boutique supported Hobo with adverts but with printing and paper costs rising at the time, we faced a losing battle. We had a certain amount of support in terms of the use of facilities from Craig Ward's The Sunshine Music Agency and Coventry Voluntary service Council, who also tried (and failed) to get us an Urban Aid grant.
Pete Waterman was particular with a top 14 Soul Hole chart, paid for adverts and an soul article reviewing a London concert by the Three Degrees and interviewing them in their dressing room!
As a result, the magazine came out periodically when enough money was raised to publish it. Later co-editors like Babs Wainwright (who had typed for the Broadgate Gnome) helped by sometimes printing Hobo at their place of work on a duplicator. However, a good part of the work was physically networking and promoting the ideas on the Coventry music scene.
A spin off from the magazine were gigs. Whose idea was that and how did they go?
It wasn’t so much a spin off, but Live gigs were part of the aims of the magazine from the start. It came from both of us. I wanted to continue the work of the Umbrella club in promoting new and seasoned bands through live gigs. The Umbrella was no longer able to support that, especially as their premises had been demolished. Bo was a promoter and wanted places for his bands and artists to perform so we both had that as an aim.
Bo and I tried to get a hall where we could put on bands and artists and poets, but all our efforts failed. We had hoped to get the Church Hall at Cheylesmore but a lot of these places were opposed to having modern bands on and their largely hippy clientele!
A breakthrough came after Bo left to roadie in Europe with Chris Jones and the Coventry jazz / rock band Khayyam who had a residency at both The Earlsdon Cottage and Ronnie Scotts in London. By 1974 I was working with a detached youth worker from Coventry Voluntary Service Council, called Bob Rhodes, who got us use of the Holyhead Youth Centre in 1974 – for the Hobo Workshop.
As a result, the magazine came out periodically when enough money was raised to publish it. Later co-editors like Babs Wainwright (who had typed for the Broadgate Gnome) helped by sometimes printing Hobo at their place of work on a duplicator. However, a good part of the work was physically networking and promoting the ideas on the Coventry music scene.
A spin off from the magazine were gigs. Whose idea was that and how did they go?
It wasn’t so much a spin off, but Live gigs were part of the aims of the magazine from the start. It came from both of us. I wanted to continue the work of the Umbrella club in promoting new and seasoned bands through live gigs. The Umbrella was no longer able to support that, especially as their premises had been demolished. Bo was a promoter and wanted places for his bands and artists to perform so we both had that as an aim.
Bo and I tried to get a hall where we could put on bands and artists and poets, but all our efforts failed. We had hoped to get the Church Hall at Cheylesmore but a lot of these places were opposed to having modern bands on and their largely hippy clientele!
A breakthrough came after Bo left to roadie in Europe with Chris Jones and the Coventry jazz / rock band Khayyam who had a residency at both The Earlsdon Cottage and Ronnie Scotts in London. By 1974 I was working with a detached youth worker from Coventry Voluntary Service Council, called Bob Rhodes, who got us use of the Holyhead Youth Centre in 1974 – for the Hobo Workshop.
HOW DID THE HOBO WORKSHOP COME ABOUT?
Hobo had a social side that started with the concern about busting underage drinkers without
the authorities getting to grips with the modern needs of young people who didn't fit into the youth centre format. John Bargent had set up Central Spot as part of the first Hobo - to quote from the magazine "We are in the middle to help you with any problems you may have, with problems of homelessness, drugs, unmarried mothers, loneliness etc. Pop in for a chat".
the authorities getting to grips with the modern needs of young people who didn't fit into the youth centre format. John Bargent had set up Central Spot as part of the first Hobo - to quote from the magazine "We are in the middle to help you with any problems you may have, with problems of homelessness, drugs, unmarried mothers, loneliness etc. Pop in for a chat".
John had some experience as an adviser in London for Release and we tried to get use of the Cathedral's Bardsley House as a base both for Hobo and Central Spot, however they wouldn't let us use it and shortly afterwards John left Hobo - to return later on.
Meanwhile Henry West, who was on the executive of the Umbrella club and directory of Coventry Voluntary Service Council at Tudor House, had a chat with me, having read our articles in Hobo about the artistic and social needs of young people in Coventry and said he'd engaged a detached youth worker called Bob Rhodes for the newly created City Center Youth Project. Henry suggested I team up with Bob who could address some of the issues i had raised and also facilitate hobo in terms of office space, duplicator, possible grant aid and a venue for putting on bands who were struggling to get started. A lot came from and I got a summer job as a youth worker at Woodend and got a place on a social Studies Course at Henley College and my social work placement luckily became the Hobo Workshop project combining my work for Hobo and my studies! n eat! And part of that was to assist Bob as a voluntary detached youth worker.
The main thing though was the use of the Holyhead Youth Centre for the Hobo Workshop Project. We had a small team of people who had been involved with the magazine. The building was formerly the Quaker Hall and had been used for pop bands in the mid 60's. Charley Anderson was using the basement for his early band - most of who later formed The Selecter. Ray king of the soul band was involved with them and a few years later the Coventry Automatics / The Specials formed there and the centre continued as a place for community arts until recently - a very special and celebrated place!
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| Hobo Workshop with Analog June 1974 |
alternative films and street theatre until November 1974 when me moved to upstairs at the Golden Cross - where a lot of the musicians drank. Many of the bands we put on were struggling to get gigs but surprisingly a few went on to fame of some sort - Analog (a jazz rock band) had contacted Hobo magazine and I gave them their first gig - in fact they were on twice. Later some of the members formed The Reluctant Stereotypes and on gaining their record contract with WEA, they thanked me in 1979 for helping them get started. Neil O'Connor's first band Midnight Circus had their first gigs there - they later became The Flys in the punk era, before his sister hazel broke through with Breaking Glass. Dave Pepper's early band Phoenix had a first gig there when he was 16 - he went on to form The Xcerts in the punk era. We almost hosted the first black and white jam session with Neol Davies and Charley Anderson's band - however Neol was only just learning to skank then - he'd come to out meetings before the gigs and then go down into the basement to jam with Charley and Desmond and Silverton - the later history of which is very well known of course! This is summer 1974 - Bob Marley was only just on the up.
Of course we held the infamous City Centre Pop Concert which was shut down by the police for 'noise pollution' - we had Memories on led by Ray Barrie's and Dave Pepper's Phoenix were due on along with folkies Rod Felton and Dave Bennett. Despite being shut down, we achieved a grand slam of publicity in the press for the whole week after, on the Front page, the editorial, the letters tot he editor and articles in the Coventry Telegraph and Coventry Journal! You've already written an article on that which can be linked here. Exciting times.
An earlier article by Pete Clemons on the Hobo Workshop and the shut down Precinct concert
Things began to take off again during that period as reflected in the pages of Hobo - Craig
Ward and co had started the Sunshine Music Agency on Gulson Road with the linked Monty Bird Studios. Bob Young was writing for their roster of bands like Smack (an early Doc Mustard band), A Band Called George whose single NCB Man failed to get airplay owing to an unfortunate mining disaster. One issue of Hobo was typed in their office. Direct Enterprises set up by James Reilly who set up venues like the Steam Packet in Coventry and folk clubs and Q Artistes who were a theatrical couple and whom I interviewed for Hobo at the Leofric Hotel. they put on bands and promoted artists. The music scene was buoyant again after its did and on its way to the punk era and all that happened after that.
Ward and co had started the Sunshine Music Agency on Gulson Road with the linked Monty Bird Studios. Bob Young was writing for their roster of bands like Smack (an early Doc Mustard band), A Band Called George whose single NCB Man failed to get airplay owing to an unfortunate mining disaster. One issue of Hobo was typed in their office. Direct Enterprises set up by James Reilly who set up venues like the Steam Packet in Coventry and folk clubs and Q Artistes who were a theatrical couple and whom I interviewed for Hobo at the Leofric Hotel. they put on bands and promoted artists. The music scene was buoyant again after its did and on its way to the punk era and all that happened after that.
At its peak, what was Hobo's circulation figures?
Again, as with the Broadgate Gnome, we were not a mainstream publication trying to reach the whole of the Coventry area, as with, say The Coventry Telegraph. The Coventry Music scene was relatively small and so were our resources. We aimed to promote the magazine through music and record shops, arts centres, music agencies and folk and band gigs. The Two Tone Blue issue was the biggest the biggest – about a 1000 copies, I was working at that stage so had more personal funds available and placed to take it further but then the work dried up!
From your personal memories what were the highlights of Hobo?
Sunshine Music Agency
Despite the financial struggle to keep it going, I enjoyed being based at the Sunshine Music Agency, Craig Ward was a very supportive guy and it was a great place to type the magazine as musicians were popping in all the time - like Bob Jackson and Doc Mustard - c 73 - 74.
Despite the financial struggle to keep it going, I enjoyed being based at the Sunshine Music Agency, Craig Ward was a very supportive guy and it was a great place to type the magazine as musicians were popping in all the time - like Bob Jackson and Doc Mustard - c 73 - 74.
Q Artistes
Interviewing Q Artistes at The Leofric Hotel was another fun highlight! I'd never been to such a posh hotel and dressed as well as I could being a hippie type! I had a blue collarless Beatle Jacket and some flares that the I Am boutique had given me free when they advertised in Hobo (I was a walking ad for red flares!) I bought a coffee and waited for them to arrive but they were late. I was the only one in there and had finished my coffee - no money for a refill - and so a bit like in Fawlty Towers, the waiters started coughing and taking away the chairs and then the table, hinting I should go. Then the phone rang and I heard the head waiter say, "running late," "a man from a magazine," "tell him he can order a coffee and sandwich and they would pay when they arrive." Suddenly the waiters were falling over themselves - chairs and tables returned. "Are you from a magazine sir?" "Oh yes, I am!" So funny - classic John Cleese scenario!
Hobo - Two Tone Blue Issue
The Two Tone blue issue was a highlight - I had a bit more money at that stage Feb 1974 and
Bradgate Printers at Exhall took on the printing. Two Tone back then was a printer's term and he suggested the cover could be two tone blue - dark blue ink on light blue paper and subsequent issues might be dark yellow on light yellow paper etc. We could afford to continue the Bradgate but we got the two tone blue issue. I later used that idea with a Teesside poetry magazine called Outlet.
Bradgate Printers at Exhall took on the printing. Two Tone back then was a printer's term and he suggested the cover could be two tone blue - dark blue ink on light blue paper and subsequent issues might be dark yellow on light yellow paper etc. We could afford to continue the Bradgate but we got the two tone blue issue. I later used that idea with a Teesside poetry magazine called Outlet.
That issue was a little bit prescient - not only did I refer to it as the two tone issue long before two tone became a record label but we printed an advert for Horace Panter who was just starting out and advertising in Hobo for a 'Happy Band' but also Horace (who was an art student at the Lanch at the time) said in an interview that the black and white squares of Two Tone were influenced by the work of Optical artist Bridget Riley - and in that issue we had an advert for Bridget's exhibition in Birmingham which Horace says is where he came across her work. Bridget's squares were all kinds of weird shapes that together created an illusion but there was an influence there. Horace may have come across the exhibition independently, I don't know, but he certainly had a copy of the magazine. The advert for the band Willow had Joe Reynolds on saxophone - Joe later played on the record and Top of the Pops on Selecter's Three Minute Hero. The elements of what would come to be were definitely accruing at that time in the mid 70's but nobody would know it until later!
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| Hobo - ad for Bridget Riley's Op Art - the |
Hobo Coventry Music Archives
Reviving HOBO as an archive site in 2003 - it was weird going out as Hobo again after 30 years and producing the sites from Teesside but on line. So many highlights but working with all the editors of Coventry magazines like the Broadgate Gnome, Martin Bowes of Alternative Sounds, Alan Rider was a buzz, producing my Broadgate Gnome album already mentioned, being on the More Than Two Tone 30th anniversary exhibition at the Herbert Art gallery with Pete Chambers and Neol Davies and Roger Lomas was fun and Hobo being part of the Ska'd for Life Two Tone mural in Pool Meadow. Just as a series of websites - Hobo has lasted 20 years since 2003 where as initially we existed for 2 years. An amazing journey with press TV and Radio and authors all benefiting from the material uploaded.
How did the magazine get its name. Who came up with that?
John Bargent, who was also known as Bo came up with the name – I wanted a more poetic name but it seemed to sum up the idea that it was a kind of street magazine like the Birmingham Street Press
How many issues and over what time span did Hobo exist?
Hobo ran for 2 years between June 1973 and June 1975. We produced an issue for most months until the end of 1974 but only about 6 got printed. I gave up trying to get the magazine printed in 1975 to concentrate on the Hobo Workshop gigs which by then were weekly at the Golden Cross. It was so hard for me to finance them with rising costs.
Was Hobo, to your knowledge, the first time an attempt had been made to capture the activity of grass roots musicians in Coventry?
I have already mention that Broadgate Gnome carried music articles and adverts alongside counterculture politics and issues in 1979 – 71. Earlier than that a Coventry Folk magazine called Folk Crying Out Loud – existed, which was an excellent but short-lived magazine in 1967 in which Ben Arnold had "pinpointed the exact beginnings of the present-day format of Folk clubs in the city". I have never seen it and can’t seem to find anyone with a copy, even Ben Arnold’s son doesn’t have a copy. Two copies of the magazine were however loaned to Pete Willow by Coventry Singer/songwriter Dave Coburn. But this of course only covered the folk scene.
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| Letter from Bob Rhodes detached youth worker |
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| Advert from Horace Panter 1973 |
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Hobo (blue circle) on the Ska'd for Life Two To9ne mural Pool Meadow Coventry and below |
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| Letter from to Hobo from Horace Panter 1974 (later of the Specials) |
John Bargent (Bo) with copy of Hobo 2017 at Waterstones Coventry launch of Dirty Stop Outs of Coventry 1970's launch.
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| Application to the Urban Aid Grant 1974 |
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Hobo article issue on on the problems of the Coventry Scene |
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