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Some of my favourite music is by people like Frankie Millar, Steve Marriott (sadly now deceased), Rush, ELP, Deep Purple,
Meat Loaf, Queen and Jethro Tull
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I started out in the mid '60s with a few school friends playing Beatles songs (very badly) and progressed to other '60s
bands songs including The Animals, Dave Clark Five, Gerry & the Pacemakers and others of that time, mainly dance tunes
as they were the easiest to do. I played a Jim Burns Trisonic Bass guitar bought for £26 in 1966, didn't know what an amplifier
was at the time but soon realised I needed to connect it to something to make a noise. A little Vox 10 watt practice amp was
bought from a neighbour who decided the guitar wasn't for him and within a short space of time, blew its poor little speaker
to bits.
Our first "Gig" was for the cousin of one of the guitarists. She was getting married in Downham Market and the reception
was in the village of Wimbotisham. I landed the job of singing the vocals because I was the only one who dared to do
it but I found it too difficult to play and sing at the same time, so gave up the guitar to concentrate on vocals. We didnt
have a P.A. at the time but the hall had a microphone so that wsa good enough for us.God knows what the poor guests must have
thought, the stage was at one end of the hall where the mic was but the speakers were at the far end, must have sounded awful!!
but we had a brilliant time and I went home on such a high you wouldn't believe.
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This was taken at Meat Loaf's gig in Norfolk, did the backstage tour
and met the rest of the band too.
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I met Mick Bass in the late '60s and soon realised that here was a brilliant
musician for his tender age of 14 or 15. We soon struck up a good friendship that has remained strong to this day. We formed
our first band which included a guy from the RAF Hospital in Ely called Taffy and a drummer called Bruce Marshall who was
a great guy but a bit eccentric, he would walk around with his radio on his shoulder listening to his music and
he got the nickname of "Radio Bruce". Caught up with Taffy a while ago, he now goes out as a solo artiste by the name
of "Zak".
We did a few gigs around the Ely area, including the RAF Staff ballroom but Taff
got transferred, so the band folded. Mick & I met up with Steve Kerr & Jonny Whetstone who were in an Ely band and
we formed "Pendulum" with myself as lead vocals, Mick on keys, Steve on lead guitar & Jonny on drums. We then brought
in Jeffrey Freeman-Smith on bass. We played locally, as well as securing gigs at various RAF camps including Cranwell
and Whittering, got some work in Hendon too, which was great as it got us noticed a bit further than Ely.
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