“Some got six months, some got one solid year.
But me and my buddy, we got lifetime here”
‘Viola Lee Blues’ - Gus Canon's Jug Stompers (1928)
So Den says ”Come to my party" have fun, dance, eat & drink and go home safely but "no presents”. He's 70 and no presents? what to do? Lin says bug the Latest CD by Harbour
Town, and he'd like that of course —» not just because they cost a bit to get out but also because
those of us who get involved in such creative projects are storing up a ’Legacy’ of sorts. ln
years to come, after we've gone, stuff survives, granting us a kind of immortality.
So, if no presents, I thought I’d write a story for him about us (it’s been 4-8 years) based on at
least some of the facts - then Phil Langran, a buddy from further back and since helped this
along and it became a story of Den & Two Buddies. He's a buddy kind-of-guy of course so
there are many more here, lot Least in the 21st century, young Sue Dobbyn - by his side
through various incarnations of Divers and Towns. Sue helped the final stages of the story.
Here goes then - think of it as a series of album tracks - and Happy ‘Birthday Buddy.
Dave Allen
September 2023
TRACK ONE: “The Young Ones”
As a cricket-lover my favourite very early story of Den is that while his mum was
carrying him, maybe about six months pregnant, she and his dad went to the Test
Match at Nottingham in June 1953. You know about 1953 of course and the
remarkable events of that year, centred ten days earlier on the Coronation and the
new ‘Elizabethan Era’. For English cricket it was also highly significant as we beat
the Australians in the five-match series and won back the ‘Ashes’ for the first time
since the war. And Den was ‘there’ - although he doesn’t remember much about it.
He was born 21 September 1953 (double Virgo, Aquarius Moon). As a consequence
of his fathers work he moved around a bit as a young man, Yorkshire, Birmingham
and the Lewes! Brighton region where for this story his time at the secondary school
in Lewes was absolutely crucial. He can still do a pretty convincing ‘Brummie‘ accent
but Lewes Grammar School which during his time there became a comprehensive
called Lewes Priory provided the foundation for his later musical life - although since
his father and grandfather were both accomplished musicians, it's in the DNA.
Phil Langran met Den when they started at Lewes Grammar around 1964 and in
their mid-teens they learned guitar. They were in that first (?) generation of
musicians who thanks to the Beatles, Bob Dylan and others took it for granted that
learning to play probably included learning to write songs. And Phil recalls “some
incipient songs already arriving”. They formed a school band with Andrew Cooley on
bass playing at the school folk and blues club — another characteristic of those of us
who came through in the 1960s was that we learned so much by getting out there,
playing live, hoping for applause, risking ridicule. They ran a Folk & Blues Club at
school and on a couple of occasions members of the legendary Sussex Copper
Family came to sing, plus some of their schoolfriends and the local ‘folkies’.
Den & Phil were members of an astonishing musical year group at Lewes Grammar,
including Keith (now Tom) Morley (Scritti Politti), Andy Ranken (the Pogues), Pete
Thomas (Elvis Costello & Attractions), ‘Wreckless Eric’ (Eric Goulden), Pete Davies,
Paul Skinner, Steve Wood, Steve Skull, Simon Blyth, and Dave Finch. There were
also a couple of youngsters Simon and Joe Korner who feature later in this tale. At
the time, Pete Thomas was drumming in a band called The Grobs, and recalled a
“pivotal” gig at the school in 1971 supporting Peter Green. Phil has recounted how
these young people were occasionally a somewhat disruptive presence at another
local folk club, and also that there were bands to see at the Lamb, concerts at
Brighton’s Dome (Lindisfarne, Family) plus Jon Hiseman’s Colosseum at ‘Jimmy's’.
The boys continued playing together in various combinations but by the sixth form
summer of 1972 it was time to move on.
TRACK TWO “School’s Out”
Over the decades Den has played in a wide variety of different ensembles but the
acoustic folk sound has often underpinned his playing, with a fondness for traditional
British songs, including their reworking through Pentangle, Fairport Convention, solo
Sandy Denny, June Tabor and others. By the late sixties the folk, festival and
concert scenes were providing a context for the growing popularity of music,
sometimes called ‘folk’ but maybe more appropriately acoustic or singer-songwriter.
There was a growing number of musicians with their own songs to sing and among
those who have always meant a great deal to Den were Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon,
Nick Drake and maybe most of all, Roy Harper. He still enjoys opportunities to play
guitar and sing in intimate settings around Pompey which have their roots in those
days — popular music for listening more than dancing.
in Portsmouth, around the folk scene l played a bit of harmonica and sang the old
folk-blues of Big Bill Broonzy or Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee with my pal Pete
Gurd — a highly accomplished acoustic guitarist even in his schooldays. l left school
in the ‘Summer of Love’ five years before Den and from 1968-1971 I gave up
studying and had a bash at being a professional musician, also going to all the
festivals and gigs, before, tired, broke and busted I took a job tending the gardens
and green spaces on Southsea Common. At some point, my dad persuaded me that
this wasn‘t a lifetime career option and l might resume an earlier plan to become an
art teacher. So it was that as music seemed to fade away (so l thought) l took up a
place in ‘teacher training‘ at the old Milton College of Education in September 1971.
Twelve months later that’s where l first met Den.
All the students at Milton studied a main subject while focusing on a teaching year
group, so while l was doing Art & Design for Secondary Schools, Den arrived in 1972
and was a Music specialist aiming to work in Middle Schools; eventually we both
followed those avenues — at least for a while. Our paths didn't cross often in our
early student days but we were both playing with other students in acoustic outfits,
Den in a four-piece folk group called Canticle and me with a very clever English
student and blues/roots guitarist Bob Cooper-Grundy.
Those two outfits exemplify one of the essential differences between Den’s musical
roots and mine which I will characterise as English (him) and Black American (me).
Put as crudely as that, his makes more sense; mine were much of my time being
four years older. Away from 1960s popular music, we both came from Church-going
families and maybe our subsequent music-making also reflects something of the
structures and melodies of English Sunday singing. While I note Den’s ‘Englishness’
and his abiding fondness for the Beatles, Roy Harper, Pentangle, Sandy Denny and
others, from back then, we also share a great fondness for a lot of late 1960s/early
1970s soul, funk, jazz & reggae. But what perhaps links most of the music that Den
and Phil and I have made over the years is the acoustic guitar which was basis of so
much of the English and American (black & white) folk revival of the 1950s and
1960s. (incidentally Den also likes Jimi, XTC, King Crimson, Frank Zappa, northern
European jazz of today and well, ask him).
TRACK THREE: “We’re a Winner”
At college, Bob and I were playing the old acoustic roots stuff but around 1973 he
got amplified and we put together a ‘proper’ band with guitarist Chris Beebee,
Michael Parris, known hereafter as ‘Paz’ on keyboards and Tom Edwards (bass).
Paz and Tom had a musical mate who just happened to be Den and I think he came
to a couple of our rehearsals in the Music Dept. We were called Kindhearted
Woman, and did a student gig at South Parade Pier supporting pub rockers Ducks
Deluxe as the early shoots of something punk were emerging but mature student
Chris was only around for one year and the band drifted apart over the long summer
of 1974 when we took summer jobs before Bob & I returned for our final year.
I don't think back then that Bob & I made more music with Tom or Paz but sometime
in our college days Den played with them, plus Tom‘s girlfriend Teresa who played
some good flute. While Bob and I kept ploughing the old country blues furrow, Den
and his mates were amplified and sounded more contemporary — it’s a while ago, so
you will have to ask him for the details. Meanwhile, at some point either side of
Christmas 1974, a letter arrived in the Students Union and was passed to Bob & me;
it was from Tartan Brewers who were sponsoring a British talent contest for college
bands and folk acts, with a series of heats, later rounds and a Final for four acts,
supporting Steeleye Span at the old Hammersmith Odeon. I wonder whether any of
the acts that entered thought seriously about winning it — I suspect most of us simply
fancied the promise of free beer at every event.
Bob & I talked about doing it as a duo although in truth neither of us were great beer
drinkers, so we turned it to the advantage of as many of our fellow students as we
could and formed at great haste a country-blues/jug band. We called ourselves
Skys is Cryin’ and set about rehearsing a 30-minute set of classic covers and
traditional blues songs. The line-up was great fun - I sang, Bob played the main
guitar stuff (straight and slide), Martin Bond was on 12-string, Pete Stradling on
violin, Nik Tetley (harmonica), Nik’s mate Roger Easey on washboards and noises,
and of course Den on guitar and mandolin. It was to be our first close contact and a it
was a pretty good start.
For the first round, we cobbled together bits of amplification, booked the Union
minibus and set off for Worthing College on a Friday night. We played a set to the
students and the judge, Radio One DJ Pete Drummond, collected a crate of beer
and discovered we’d won the heat. That was a laugh and it meant a further round at
Thames Poly on a Saturday night. l guess we rehearsed a bit more, then went to
London and, beers safely stowed, won again. it was beginning to feel somewhat
bizarre but even more so in the semi-final at Reading Uni when we came out on top
again, at an event headlined by noisy heavy rockers Geordie. We were better.
So, on Saturday 26 April 1975 it was off to Hammersmith Odeon. Our fellow students
were getting excited so we took two coach-loads from Pompey on that Saturday to
compete with one other act (Al Hughes from Scotland) for the Folk Prize and then
against two rock bands (Moonmouse & Alive & Smiling) for the overall prize. The
judges included bandleader Alan Bown and the compere was Bob Harris. We had 20
minutes and played a bunch of ‘roots’ songs and one jazz instrumental: “Georgia
Crawl”, Talk to Me Baby", “Take This Hammer’, “Swing from Paris", “Pearlie Mae",
and “Wreck of the Old 97". After the interval and immediately preceding the Steeleye
Span headline set, Bob Harris came out to announce the judges’ deliberations. They
announced Alive & Smiling as rock winners, then came to the folk section and a big
cheer when we won that one. That meant some handy dosh but astonishingly when
it came to the overall winners once more Bob Harris whispered Skys is Cryin’.
TRACK FOUR: “On the Road Again”
initially everything felt triumphant and l even wondered as l approached the end of
my course whether a music career beckoned again - not least because Alan Bown
came to the dressing room to ask whether any of us had current contracts anywhere
in the music biz. We didn‘t but by Monday morning Bob, Martin and I were back in
college for ten minutes of celebrity status while the others, all third years, were still
on teaching practice. We had, come back with a cheque for £750 some part of which
we invested in the heaviest PA speakers anyone ever invented, got mentions in
Melody Maker and local media, did interviews on local Radio Victory (with Shep
Woolley?) and the gigs began to come in. They were mostly in folk clubs around the
region although we took ourselves off to the famous Cambridge Folk Festival, hoping
to attract more national interest and we were again in Cambridge for a very peculiar
May Ball at the University's Trinity College. This took place on the lawns, marquees
and various panelled rooms of the college with waiters serving champagne and
canapés on the grass and Shakin‘ Stevens and George Melly as headline acts.
Nobody took much notice of us — they were probably too pissed by then but as
‘fellow students’ it was interesting to see how the other half partied. Another
somewhat odd event came at Pompey‘s poshest regular folk venue, the newly built
Centre Hotel next to Pembroke Gardens — on a Sunday night we were the support
act to the highly respected Watersons which should have been fun except that they
played the authenticity card and were a bit ‘sniffy’ about us. Rather more fun was a
Southampton University gig supporting New Orleans blues pianist Cousin Joe
Pleasants who told us we had “the Right Key in the Right Keyhole".
Over the four years after Hammersmith 91975-1979) Skys is Cryin‘ underwent a
number of personnel changes, initially adding Tom on bass and we generally gave it
a good ‘go’, without managing to capitalise on the early break. Meanwhile most of
were pursuing teaching careers and some got married - suddenly, there were
responsibilities alongside the gigs. Meanwhile, in Brighton, Phil Langran had a band
initially called Panama with Pete Foord, Dave Finch, Mick Gibbs, Simon Blyth and
Tigger who reformed as (Dip Dazzle and) The Indicators without Pete, but adding
Den who would travel up from Pompey, bringing Paz with him. Their favourite gigs
included the Six Bells in the Sussex countryside at Chiddingly and the Alhambra on
Brighton sea-front. And with Den playing in both bands, they sometimes shared
those gigs with Skys is Cryin'.
Den had spent a year as our Students‘ Union Treasurer before starting to teach and
around 1976/7 (?) he met up with a couple of new students, Sue (now Sue Ryder-
Morgan) who played flute and drummer Paul Hookham. Both would go off to other
adventures across the years, and were still around as members of Scarlet Town very
recently. Back in 1978 Skys decided to go down the competition route again - this
time for the Melody Maker competition - and we also formed a new electric band with
Paul drumming which we called the Operation. We were a bit R&B style ‘rocky’ and
played Velvet Underground’s “Waiting for my Man" plus “Gloria” (Them via Patti
Smith) but in the first round it was Skys is Cryin’ who went through and we played
next on a Sunday afternoon in Soho at the legendary Marquee Club where we
performed our old acoustic country blues stuff in the midst of a bunch of fashionable
Punk and New Wave acts. We went down very well not least I suspect because their
fans thought these ‘old’ guys were cute - and no threat. They were right (about both).
Meanwhile, the Operation didn‘t survive back then but in a few years‘ time
Skys went to Telecomm‘s Studio in North End to record four tracks “Sun is Shining”,
“Cocaine Rag", “Rosie” and “KC Moan" and a little later, we added Chris on alto sax
and art student, Sue, who played accordion very nicely. We had a brief spell trying to
establish a new folk club at the Labour Party HQ in Kingston Crescent - this must
have been around the time of the ‘Winter of Discontent’ - but like the Labour Party,
the club was doomed. During the late 1970s Bob & Den were both teaching in local
middle schools and would put together musical events with their kids which involved
recruiting members of Skys to add to the ‘band’ for some public performances. There
was also a flirtation with the idea of taking a show organised by some of fellow
drama students (Mike Smart, John Hadley?) and including Skys to Edinburgh
Festival but that didn't happen — probably for financial reasons.
By the summer of 1979 however, Bob had decided to move to London to be followed
fairly soon by Nick so after one more summer Sunday in Chiddlingly it was the end
for Skys is Cryin’. For a little while Den and l, no longer playing together, spent quite
a bit of time socialising — sometimes at Fratton Park, the Nell Gwynne or in our brief
disco phase at Southsea’s Pomme D’Or or SPECS. Over the next two or three
years, Den and I crammed in a whole range of different experiences, some very rich.
In the autumn of 1980 I took a new job teaching art in a Pompey school and joined a
band Steel Mill, playing a repertoire not untypical of mid-1960s British R&B bands.
We had particularly enjoyable Friday nights at ‘Charlie Hurdles’ in Eastney, over the
years one of the musical centres of Pompey nightlife. As 1980 became 1981 I was
sharing a house in Devonshire Square with Den and Martin Bond — a real Jekyll &
Hyde existence when Friday night meant school's out and the fun begins. From a
chance encounter in the Nell Gwynne with my old mate Jim Lush and
drummer/actor/tennis coach Timmy Peters, Den joined them and Lily (bass) and
Keith Matthews (sax) to form The Mooks (Mean Streets), a wildly imaginative band,
typical of Jim who wrote lyrics about Paul Weller or about not being Jamaican (he
wasn't but he liked his eggs & bacon). Den was pretty much the MD as well as
performing nicely on lead guitar and I sat in occasionally on harmonica — there was a
gig at Nero‘s and a wild night into the early morning at Clarence Pier, celebrating the
215‘ Birthday of Wade Shufflebottom from the Funfair family.
TRACK FIVE “Brighton Rock to Waterloo Sunset”
In the early months of 1980, members of Skys (with Sue on accordion) and the
Indicators reunited in a Studio in Seaford to record a series of demos of songs
written by Phil. It was a fabulous few days with the Pompey/London deputation
mostly kipping around Phil & Jenny's place in Brighton (thanks Jenny). If Den’s roots
are English and mine more blues-based, you might suggest that Phil’s also owe
something to modern country, although with each of us there are plenty of things in
the mix. Paz and l shared vocals on a set of really fine original songs which I still
enjoy hearing. Anyone from Pompey who saw Scarlet Town in recent years might
remember Phil’s “All Across the City”, which was in our set in the early days, sung
back then by Paz. Other evocative titles included “Bitter Wine”, “Bottle on the Shelf”,
“Boxcar Bertha”, “Cajun Waltz”, Cold Light of Day" and “Mayfair Queen". During the
week there was also an extraordinary trip into the Heart of Darkness on a gloomy
Brighton afternoon to see the recently released Apocalypse Now.
A couple of years later in Pompey, Den & I recorded on more demos for Phil which
included Tom Morley on drum machine but this was in those early days of remote
recording where my bits went to Phil via pigeon post and I never met Tom. At home,
I might have stuck with Devonshire Avenue but in 1981 I bought a house in
Northcote Road where I would stay for around 15 years, while, at some point Den
went to London, where he was the glue that brought together some of his old Sussex
pals including Phil, plus his Pompey student mates. The result was a very fine band
which had a nucleus of around 10 people with extras or ‘subs’ here-and-there. They
revived the Operation name and played around South London, then began busking
at the brand new Covent Garden shopping area which had opened 1980.
That gig had an audition of sorts and fixed times (15 minutes?) enabled a constant
turnover of acts. Bob, Phil, Den and the other guitarists used portable 10 watt amps
and the singer was Andy Ranken until he took off on holiday to the continent, after
which they ‘phoned me late summer and I stood in, going go up after school on
Friday, busking for the weekend, kipping at their place in Leyton and going home on
Sunday evening. The things teachers get up to huh? Eventually Andy returned but l
stayed, by which time Paz was also singing and so too Naomi - four singers of rock
& roll, soul, blues and R&B - and if Nick was missing I'd play harmonica. The busking was quite lucrative and there were other gigs including a posh London party in a
house with a wooden dance floor a fabulous Sussex night in the Village Hall in
Newick supporting the renowned Morrissey-Mullen Band, who were excellent but
knew we’d stretched them, plus an ‘unusual’ night at the South Bank's Festival Hall.
This was the launch of the London Film Festival on 3 November 1981 and the mar
in charge of the entertainment assembled a bunch of acrobats, opera singers, trick
cyclists, jugglers (etc) all from the Covent Garden busking scene. The Operation
were included to lead the dancing bit and the ‘great and good’ probably enjoyed their
uptempo ‘bit of rough‘. The audience included a chap called Charles who is the King
now, accompanied by a lady called Diana, a Princess but sadly too, a Candle in the
Wind. At one point we all lined up for inspection which was interesting given the
political views of most of the 12-piece Operation but we went down rather nicely —
the film featured that night was Gallipoli so maybe they needed cheering up?. That
was nearly the end of that band -— the logistics were complex and Andy went off to
drum in a band called the Pogues while drummer Paul, and Paz joined the Lemons
and then Paul became a Redskin. There was a last rather quiet Covent Garden gig
on a grey, chilly Christmas Even afternoon and a train ride back to Pompey for a
lonely Christmas, after which it was back to Steel Mill for me.
TRACK SIX: "Southbound Train”
Den came back to Portsmouth. He’d done some supply teaching in London which is
a good enough reason to flee and for a while he lived with me in Northcote Road.
There was more night-clubbing and the Nell Gwynne for a drink or two. After Steel
Mill finished, the other singer Mick Eveleigh and fine guitar duo, Steve Cole & Jim
Zimmer reformed as a more contemporary R&B band called the Reds which
included drummer Dave Pittard from my beloved late sixties band Rosemary. One
Sunday they had a gig in Petersfield that Mick couldn't make so I stood in and I was
soon back in the band. When the original bass guitarist Steve Browning quit I
recruited Den, who added the four strings to his admirable repertoire of instrumental
prowess. The Reds coincided with the opening of Basins (January 1985) by two
Birdcage Boys Chris Abbott & Jim Lawrence and we were the first band to play
there in its earliest days at SPECS. Eventually it moved round the corner to the
legendary Kimbells where we supported Wilko Johnson one memorable night - then
it moved on to the Tricorn. We played there too - probably the only band to play all
three Basin's venues but it shifted from its R&B origins to find a younger and bigger
audience on the Pompey post-Punk scene.
At some point around the mid-1980s Den and Paz (and Tom?) had a band that
played at my school with Martin Walker playing keyboards — Martin was son of the
Mr Walker who had run the local music shop Courtney & Walker and Den had a spell
working there in between teaching jobs and was also doing some one-to-one tuition.
From September 1985 l was commuting to London which made gigging in Pompey
less straightforward and after the Reds ran its course in the summer of 1987 my
music-making was quiet for a while. l married Lou in May 1986 with Den as Best
Man and we had fun that Saturday night at the Festing Hotel with an impromptu
band featuring many of the guys we’d played with over the previous 10/15 years.
A little while later Den married Lin in a much quieter affair and in August 1987 they
moved to Leeds to meet up again with Phil & Jenny. Their daughter Fran was born
in December of that year and son Jim, in February 1990. During this period Phil &
Den had a band called the Spencer Brothers - the original Phil/Den duo eventually
added Steve Monether, Nigel Rae, Annie Lloyd, and Bob Franklin. They played
various gigs including the Grove which Phil thinks might have been with Skys is
Cryin’ but I can't remember — it happens. At times Paz joined in and also Andrew
Gilliver and others and as well as the Grove they played the Adelphi in Leeds
including, he says “some terrifying supports for Albert Lee and Jerry Donahue".
Meanwhile, I joined a third incarnation of the R&B bunch with Mick, Jim & Steve still
there but adding a new rhythm section (John & Doug) plus Nick Evans a very fine
versatile player, on pedal steel and guitar. We played R&B plus Western Swing and
some contemporary country songs, called ourselves the Notorious Strawboys and
had one particularly terrific New Year‘s Eve gig at the Wine Vaults.
While in Leeds, Den did some teaching and had a spell on a building site. Eventually
Lin, Den, Fran & Jim moved back south, living for a short while in Gosport before, in
1991, they bought a house in Queen‘s Road, Copnor, next door to the old Fire
Station, where my dad, who shared his birthday with Den, spent much of his post-
war working life as an administrator. At some point, Phil & Jenny moved to
Nottingham with Phil pursuing an academic career while continuing to play and
produce albums. He also contributed a chapter about contemporary literature to a
book about Harry Smith and his seminal Anthology of American Folk Music.
TRACK SEVEN “Unplugged”
In the late 1980s the Notorious Strawboys were doing the usual pub rock gigs
around the region while Nick, designing/illustrating for the Mary Rose, was spreading
his wings a bit doing a range of gigs with others — he has a very full musical CV. On
a midweek evening in early 1992 I went to the Mary Rose pub up the road from
where I now live for an ‘Open Mic’ night called ‘lffy Blues’ where Strawboys guitarist
Jim Zimmer was playing with guitarist Stewart Carr. Stewart was with Lesley who at
one time was married to ‘Joe’ Brown drummer of Steel Mill (keeping up?) and she
was now playing bass guitar, so l got to meet Stewart and chatted away. Lesley had
been around the Portsmouth folk scene in the 1960s and having reminisced about
my fondness for the old acoustic blues I arranged to visit ‘Stew’ & ‘Les’ one evening
to play a bit of this and that. I suggested to them that Den might enjoy to join in and
we met at Stew & Les's place in Campbell Road and started playing some stuff — two
acoustic guitars including Stew on slide and me singing and playing harmonica but
with the others singing harmony at which Den excels. There was no plan to perform
— absolutely not — time to leave all that behind after all we were all working, the other
two had young people to care for which they did splendidly and being around 40 it
was time to take it easy and leave it to the youngsters. That was the plan.
There again, there were a couple of possibilities just to stretch our legs a bit. In
September 1992 as Portsmouth Polytechnic became University of Portsmouth I was
involved in launching an interesting new degree, English & Creative Studies and
since these students were expected to turn their hands to a variety of creative
activities, we welcomed them with an opening evening in the studios at which the
three of us played a few numbers to them. In order to enhance the live sound I
started using drummers’ brushes to bash a (metal) washboard laid flat on a music
stand — I bought it on a day trip to Brighton for a tenner.
Operation, found some more old blues songs and raided the repertoire of great
favourites Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. There were also, right from the start, some of
Den‘s songs; it would not be long before Stew started writing too and occasionally l‘d
contribute lyrics and maybe a melody. Of course we weren't going to do any ‘real’
gigs but we did venture out to a well-received floor spot at the Railway Folk Club, run
by Sooty Broughton in the Social Club at the back of Fratton Station — headliners
were Trio Hysteria a very fine acappela trio of young women, who I got to run a
workshop for those new students. We did a gig for ‘iffy Blues‘, after it had moved to
the Wedgewood Rooms and the two Micks from Boarhunt Blues saw us there and
booked us to support an acoustic evening starring American Catfish Keith. Sometime
after that, we went back to support the Gutter Brothers. Suddenly we were gigging.
Through the 1990s and even beyond the band became a great adventure, not least
thanks to Lesley who effectively became our Agent/Manager and kept getting us
some remarkable gigs. On the semi-pro scene, however good the band might be,
someone has to persuade the people out there that this act no one has heard of is
worth a booking and then gigs have to be organised around other busy lives —
including that peculiar thing called work. Early on, the three of us saw Nick at a gig at
the Contented Pig and invited him to add mandolin and we were up-and-running. We
needed a name of course — often the biggest quandary among new bands; I mean
why would anyone ever choose a mis-spelled name like the Beatles? Well while we
were sorting out songs to play we worked on one by Louis Jordan, “Reet Petite &
Gone" and as well as performing it from time-to-time, we also picked it as our name,
after which l became Reet; Den was Petite; Nick ‘And’, & Stew, who would often
disappear for a walk before the gig, was Gone. RP&G became a very busy band so
here‘s a diary of sorts in some kind of approximate chronological order.
February 1993: We went up north (well Nottinghamshire) to stay with Stew’s mate
Chris Thorpe and recorded our first (cassette tape) album More Songs About
Chickens & Trains. Mostly we sold them at gigs raising the money for the next one.
May 1993: we were one of the local acts that participated in Pompey’s Bank Holiday
Blues weekend on the Common (Fabulous Thunderbirds, Snooky Prior, Rory
Gallagher etc.). On the Saturday night a storm blew away the big marquee and
everything was moved into the Pyramids but not before we had entertained the
visiting acts at a Saturday night party in the Theatre Royal. in the summer of 1993
we started a regular Thursday night in the Gun Room of the (long-gone) RMA,
Eastney. Other local bands that played there included Blind Lemon, Dagwood,
Jumping at Shadows, Andy Broad’s Burnt ice and the Management.
Winter 1994: at Crystal Studios opposite the King’s Theatre we recorded our second
album (Using that Thing) with Steve Hoff and ‘marketed’ in much the same way but
with a few handy reviews including one in Mojo which described us as “old-timey
blues and folk” and praised us for “taking chances". The album was not merely
blues-based and it included two of Den’s songs (‘Moonshine Madness’ and ‘Waiting
for a Runaway Train’) plus “it Mek’ and ‘Battle of New Orleans’. it also had two
incarnations, as a cassette but subsequently a CD and was eventually issued by a
‘proper’ folk label Terra Nova in a budget line of ‘folk’ albums.
1995: We kicked off the year with lots of folk clubs including the Railway, West
Chiltington Footlights Club, the New Foc’s’le, Southampton, Readifolk Reading,
Twynham Folk & Blues, Christchurch, Willows Folk Club Arundel, Ashcroft Folk,
Fareham, New Express Folk Club, Bournemouth. There were also pub & bar gigs
such as The Cob & Pen at Wallington, the Five Bells in Buriton, Steinbecks Wine
Bar, Southsea, The Portsdown, Portchester, and the Wine Lodge, Worthing.
In March 1995 we did the Wedgewood Rooms with Climax Blues Band, then in April
the Festival season kicked off with the Gosport Folk Festival and a double-gig at the
Winchester Folk Festival. In May there was a Lord Mayor's Event at Portsmouth
Guildhall, a 2CV Safari Event in Cheddar Gorge and more pubs & clubs. June
brought the Devizes Festival, the Grange Farm Countryside Festival, Gosport,
Pompey Dockyard Centenary Celebrations and the Christchurch Greenpeace
Festival. In July there were more festivals: Fair Oak, Folk in The Ruins, Bishops
Waltham, and a Radio 2 Roadshow in Chichester, on stage with Thora Hird while
she recorded “Albert & the Lion". There was the Wetlands Fayre, Glastonbury and
then we sailed off to a weekend playing and having fun in a hotel at Hautville-sur-la-mer, France. There were three notable festivals in August at Broadstairs, Towersey
and then over the Bank Holiday the Colne (Lancashire) Rhythm & Blues Festival.
Through autumn and winter it was back to pubs and clubs; we were still pretty busy.
We did the Wedgewood Rooms with Busted Fender and The Pokers and on 21
December we had a Christmas Party at the RMA. We played regularly at the
Railway Folk Club, the RMA, Five Bells, the Contented Pig, held an annual
Christmas Party at the RMA and quite often played support gigs at the Wedgewood
Rooms to acts including the Balham Alligators, Dave Kelly, and Climax Blues Band.
We went to London one time to play the Mean Fiddler, supporting Hank Wangford.
In 1996 we began the year, with the Railway Folk Club plus the RMA, Contented Pig,
Twynham Folk, Christchurch, Five Bells at Buriton, the Good Intent, Peters?eld,
Den’s local, the Swan and then a trip to Talking Heads in Southampton and a much
longer one to the Mettman Blues Festival, Germany, held in their local Fire Station.
We played “Going to Germany” of course and their paper reported “Die Gruppe Reet
Petite & Gone spielt in der Feuen/vehrhalle an der Laubacher Strasse”. You can’t
argue with that - in 1999 our self-penned track “Bullet Biting Blues” was issued by
them on a Blues compilation with Dave Kelly, Kent Du Chaine, Geraint Watkins, Ben
Waters and Chris Jagger (his brother). Back in the UK, newer venues included the
Portsdown (Portchester), the Selsey Arms Lavant, and Titchfield Folk Club.
ln the spring there was the Gosport Folk Festival again, then the same in Winchester
and further afield down to Kent for the Rochester Sweeps Festival with the worst
accommodation and the largest contingent of Morris Sides we ever saw. In late June
we were at the Bandstand in Southsea and then had a weekend with Lindisfarne and
their stroppy sound man at Shep Woolley‘s Bude Festival. This was when the travels
really began; after a Steam Rally gig in Froxfield, we went north 300+ miles to the
Redcar folk and Blues Festival where we met and became pals with the British
boogie & blues pianist Bob Hall. The gigs were coming thick and fast thanks to
Lesley’s efforts and travelling back from Redcar we did the Grove in Den’s old
stomping ground, Leeds, went west to the Cheltenham Festival, then the Gravesend
Free Folk Festival on the banks of the Thames with Julie Felix and a crowd of
thousands. ln August the Festivals were in Wolverhampton, Broadstairs, Colne (The
Great British R&B one) and the Great Dorset Steam Festival.
Pompey’s Paul Jones played tracks from our album on his Radio Two Blues show
and then we got to a ‘live’ recording for the show in Birmingham — the engineers got
a great sound on our tracks, “Going to Germany”, “Stuff they Call Money” and “Little
Queen of Spades”. ln the autumn it was mostly back to normal but in December we
went down to Kent for a double-header at folk clubs in Broadstairs and Rainham
before a Christmas Party at the Wedgewood Rooms with Lowdown — the band of our
old Skys/Operation pal Nick Tetley - and a second set by us featuring the RP&G ‘Big
Band’ with Van on drums, Matt (?) on bass and Laurie and Maria on extra vocals.
ln 1997 we were still playing the region’s folk clubs, plus a couple of Blues Clubs,
one in Bristol and one in Brentwood Essex — quite a trip for a gig with one person in
the audience! In March we went to a club in Dartford, maintaining our regular links
with Kent and also the Boulevard, Covent Garden scene of the busking around 15
years earlier. Den and l had done that with Phil Langran of course and in April 1997
he came down to Pompey with a singer, Yorkshire lass Annie Lloyd to record a new
album at the Crystal Studios. They stayed with Den who played some guitar of the
album as did Stew (slide and banjo) while Nick played mandolin and pedal steel —
so, an album with Petite & Gone, plus our pal Laurie Ede on extra vocals.
The festivals started in Gosport again, then East Preston (Sussex), Tonbridge,
Brighton, Rochester (again), Chippenham and across the sea to Kinsale in southern
Ireland for a weekend of British Blues and point-to-point horse racing. On the first
night we did our usual 2 x 45 minutes sets to a small audience and around 11pm
started to pack way until the landlord asked what we were doing. Sure enough, the
audience arrived around midnight and we did it all again! In June the Pompey News
reported that our PA system was pinched from the van in Southsea - we'd come
home late and risked it. We never recovered it and never took that chance again!
The RMA continued and new clubs included the Riverside lnn, Bradford-on-Avon on
the night before we drove to a very muddy Glastonbury Festival where we played on
the Avalon Café stage - a large marquee with an appreciative but somewhat soggy
audience. We got paid £50 for expenses plus two free tickets each but didn‘t stay
(missing Ray Davies, Van Morrison, Sting etc) going to Crawley the next day for an
American Music day. In July it was the Cambridge Folk Festival, around 20 years
after Skys had been there and we were interviewed for a VH1 TV show. Four days
later, we left work on a wet Thursday evening and drove to Birmingham to play at
their version of Ronnie Scott’s, which seemed an exciting prospect. Sadly, there
were three acts that night, one upstairs, one downstairs and we were under a
canopy in the entrance as people scurried in out of the rain, while we sang and
played to passing buses and taxis. Maybe much of this sounds exotic but getting
home around 3am after a gig like that and going to work the next day wasn‘t always
such a laugh and the great RP&G adventure began to wind down, although there
was another highlight to come and the actual finale end was still 17 years away.
Meanwhile, there was another Gosport Festival, back again to Broadstairs and Colne
plus club gigs in Chester, Dartford, Salisbury and Shef?eld. In September we went
back to the Crystal Studio to record our final album (also called Lifetime Here) and
we celebrated our fifth birthday with another party at the RMA. In October we went to
clubs in Dartmouth (Blues) and Orpington (Folk) and there was also a delightful
evening in Oxford Street, London at the legendary 100 Club for an event called “The
Night of 100 Washboards” which was attended by some of the stars of the old skiffle
days including Chas (‘Freight Train‘) McDevitt, John Pilgrim of the Vipers, guitarist
Diz Disley and Beryl Bryden who had played washboard on Lonnie Donegan’s
recording of “Rock Island Line". Flitting about was the legendary British folk-blues
guitarist Davy Graham but he was not in a good place and he did not play. Following
that gig, Stew was hired to play a night with Lonnie Donegan at the Albert Hall.
1998 was less lively but we did launch the new album at the Wedgewood Rooms in
June, played a few folk events (Arundel, Dorchester, Dartford, Shedfield, Salisbury,
Worth Matravers) and went back to Glastonbury for the Bob Dylan year and played
the Wise Crone Stage on a weekend of even worse weather. It was better over
August Bank Holiday for a skiffle event at Southsea Bandstand which ‘kind of
anticipated a mini Victorious Festival in years to come — we played two sets while the
Lonnigans came from London with Chas McDevitt, Beryl Bryden, Wee Willie Harris
and Diz Disley and there was also the KC Moaners. On 23 December we played a
Tony ‘Stormy’ Munday promotion at the Wedgewood Rooms with the Werewolves of
London, announcing it as our possible farewell gig (“last chance for some time to see
this great band"). We called a halt to regular gigging but every now-and-then
something happened, while a little while later Stew & Les joined up with double bass
player Dave Jordan in the Hot Tamales - they also did some gigs with Bob Hall.
In September 2000 RP&G were back together again to headline a charity gig (‘Kids
with Cancer‘) at the Wedgewood Rooms with support from Workers Playtime, Stew
& Les in Hot Tamales and the Blue Sky Divers a band that Den was putting together
with Sue Dobbyn, which over the next few years had a variety of members (including
me sometimes but also Maria as vocalist). By this time Den was working with me on
an intriguing B.Sc. degree called Entertainment Technology (ET) at the University of
Portsmouth. He is a very fine teacher and a very conscientious worker and he made
a great job of his late career, including the organisation of another degree in Music &
Sound Technology where delightfully he teamed up with an early ET graduate and
jazz-funk guitarist Adam Battersby.
TRACK EIGHT “What’s that Spell?”
Sometime in 1998 I watched the Woodstock DVD (again) and went online to check
out Country Joe (& the Fish) McDonald — I'd loved that band from the late 1960s,
including a live gig at South Parade Pier in March 1969. I discovered his website and
shop address and for no particular reason sent him copies of our CDs. It was to lead
to an adventure or two. On 3 September 1998 Country Joe responded by email: “I’m
not sure how I got your CD but I want to thank you so much. It has all my favourite
old-timey songs and performed so well". In a later message he praised the fact that
we made those songs “swing” and Lesley went back to him to ask whether we might
do something with him on his next visit to the UK. He replied that he'd checked out
Portsmouth on the map but added “I don’t really tour but I do make albums".
John Roberts (JR) and I then spent a nostalgic drunken evening on South Parade
Pier at a Birdcage Reunion night featuring the club‘s favourites, Jimmy James & the
Vagabonds, during which I recounted the tale of Joe and the albums and when he
pressed me on what it would take to get RP&G back together again I said, “a tour
with Country Joe”. So that's what he arranged. It was almost that simple.
Through July 2001, Joe stayed with Lou & me in the Sallyport Tearoom house in
Broad Street where we rehearsed and from where we embarked in Stew & Les’s bus
to gigs which started on South Parade Pier where l’d seen Country Joe & the Fish in
March 1969. Then it was off to Sheffield, Manchester, Norwich, London‘s Borderline,
Leeds and back to Pete Clutterbuck’s Bandstand on Southsea seafront. We would
kick off the gig with a couple of songs — maybe “Mobile Line”, “Viper (the Reefer
Song)" or “Good Morning” by Memphis Minnie, then we would back Joe for much of
his set, playing classic Country Joe & the Fish tracks much in the ‘jug band’ style of
the very early San Francisco incarnation. At every gig lots of folks of our age would
turn out to get albums signed and to join in with the infamous “FUCK Cheer” — how
they loved it! At the Borderline we were joined on stage on electric guitar and bass
guitar by Bevis Frond; my role was a little bit of harmonica, singing and kazoo but
otherwise washboard or snare drum. In London there was a support act who were
being checked out by a record company and had been told they could use our back-
line and drums. What I brought (which they were welcome to use) or rather what I
didn't bring created a panic (cymbals? Huh?).
In 2005, JR arranged a tour for Country Joe with 4/5ths of the original San Francisco
band. One night Den & I with a line-up that included Sue Dobbyn (saxes, clarinet,
violin) were playing the RMA (front bar) while JR had gone to Heathrow to collect the
band and back in Pompey he brought them to the pub. By some extraordinary
coincidence they walked in as we were playing "Woodstock" and later they borrowed
some of the gear and played an impromptu set with Chicken drumming on the walls.
Joe stayed with Lou and me again and I took off on parts of that tour, taking it in
turns to drive one of them — the conversations with Bruce, David and Chicken were
delightful and there was a gig at the lovely Fairport Cropredy Festival, plus one down
in Brighton where Nick was delighted to sit in for the night — a special gig for him.
There was one more solo tour by Joe in 2007 after which he went into a semi-
retirement. That one concluded with a lunchtime set at the Isle of Wight Festival on
the day that the Rolling Stones headlined the show and JR and I came on with
spoons (him) and washboard (me) for the ‘Fuck Cheer’ and a couple of songs.
Over the years we have done a number of events for John Roberts (JR) even after
he escaped Pompey for southern Ireland. On one occasion Den, Sue and I played
on Southsea seafront to passing holidaymakers as part of his Bank Holiday folk
festival and our drummer, was Den’s ‘little boy’ Jim, around 10-12 years old and
already a very good player. He has maintained the Reeve-Baker tradition with all
kinds of gigs and all kinds instruments over the years and in 2023 having done
remarkably clever sound things with digital technology he was awarded his PhD up
in Edinburgh. Mum and Dad (and big sister) were rightly very proud.
Around 2008 RP&G were back together again to support legendary American blues
and roots man Geoff Muldaur at JR’s ‘Barking Spider’ promotion on South Parade
Pier — the flyer revealed that we were “out of the retirement home (again)”. JR also
assembled various tours with other legends from America‘s late 1960s west coast,
including the Former Members and in 2010 he brought the ?fth member of the Fish
Barry Melton, plus David La Flamme violinist with it's a Beautiful Day (“White Bird").
RP&G reformed again and the evening ended with a jam on "San Francisco Bay
Blues". We also played the Wickham Festival that year and again in 2012, and there
was a King's Theatre ‘Pompey Pop‘ celebration with Shep Woolley performing and
MC along with some of the older rock & roll local bands.
TRACK NINE Girls, Girls, Girls (and a few Boys)
RP&G kept turning up, until finally on 30 August 2014 we played the ‘real’ last gig at
the Old House at Home but during the 215‘ century Den developed a number of
projects in which his musical tastes and his writing were central. l played with him on
some of those but his most constant recent companion has been the wonderfully
talented Sue Dobbyn, who helped with these recollections.
Throughout, Den was underpinning the sound on (sometimes amplified) acoustic
guitar while engaging a range of other players, including Sue. There were at various
times fiddlers, including Sue, Francis and Tim and in one incarnation called the Blue
Sky Divers, Maria sang. He also drew on his university musical links and had Chris
Whitear and Eddie playing with him in a band North Atlantic Drift. At some point I
was back on vocals in a line-up called Ferris Wheel, maybe that was the band that
played to Country Joe and his pals? lt included another guitarist, Lucy, plus Jo who
was married to the university sound man Ahmed Latif, a regular player around the
city. Around then, we played at Sue’s wedding, then the Blue Sky Divers became the
Red Sky Divers with Adam and Ken from the university along with one of Sue’s
students Ben - Chris W was involved again.
TRACK TEN: 21 S‘ Century Washboard Men”
Every October Portsmouth organises an ‘Over-60s’ Festival and in October 2014
Den and l ran a skiffle music-making session playing familiar, straight forward songs.
The participants seemed to enjoy it, so with the generous help of the Guildhall we
met up a few more times and ran it again in October 2015. ln the early days Den and
I raided past repertoires for “Georgia Crawl”, “Working on the Railroad", and “Wreck
of the Old 97" and among the players was washboard king Roger Easey about 40
years on from Hammersmith Odeon. There are around 25 of us including Den’s wife
Lin and my Lou for whom, after years of loyally following us to gigs, opportunity has
knocked! Eventually we called ourselves the Southsea Skiffle Orchestra (SSO)
and played live, at the Theatre Royal, King’s Theatre, Hayling Festival, Ageas Bowl
and a couple of years at Victorious (etc.). We are still playing, mainly Tuesday
lunchtimes once a month at the Guildhall where we get audiences of around 80 and
take collections mainly to support arts and music projects for young people.
SSO had great fun playing at the Victorious Festival in 2018 (World Music Village)
and 2019 (Acoustic Stage and Piano Tree) and every Christmas in the years before
lockdown we also played a charity event at the Square Tower raising money for St
Simon‘s Church project supporting the homeless of Portsmouth. The bill at those
events included Dave Jordan's outfit the Polite Mechanicals, the Muwas (with Chris
Collier of SSO), the Dave Baker Project (DB also in SSO) and Shep Woolley who
ran a linked event every New Year's Day at the Barley Mow.
Also on those two bills each year was Scarlet Town the new band Denis put
together with Sue Dobbyn (saxes, clarinet, violin) her ex-student Adam Smith (sax,
clarinet, flute), those old college pals Sue Ryder-Morgan (flute) and Paul Hookham
(drums), Nick Evans (mandolin & dobro), Dave Jordan (double bass) and me on
vocals and harmonica. We played covers by Joni Mitchell, Country Joe & the Fish,
Grateful Dead, Paul Simon, Pentangle, Bob Dylan etc., finished the set with a couple
of up-tempo bluesy things but increasingly played Den‘s songs and it was nine of
those that we recorded for our album Dark Outside at Pompey’s Old Blacksmiths
studio. We launched it in early 2019 at the Emporium on the corner of Elm Grove.
From around 2015 we started doing local gigs including some very fine Saturday
evenings at Milton Village Hall for an event called ‘Barebones’ organised by Dave
Jordan. Summer 2014 was one of the last nights of RP&G where the ‘support’ came
from the other three guys with new ‘projects’, Nick with King Rollo & Ruby Tiger,
Stew with the Hot Tamales and Den with Red Sky Divers. ln 2016 we did the first of
a couple more of these all-acoustic evenings with Phil Langran who made the trip
from Nottingham. During those years Phil was consistently writing and recording his
fine songs, releasing them on albums such as The Distance, Juke Box Love Songs
and Still the Heart. On another Barebones night we caught the hilarious live act of
Nick’s brother Rory Motion — he used to do the RMA too, way back. Dave Jordan is a
very busy man and he also organised annual ‘Mayfly’ events — all day at the sunny
Square Tower overlooking the Solent — where we played. In 2017 we did a support
there to Barry Melton & Stephane Missri for one of JR’s evenings and there was a
gig in the Gaiety Lounge on South Parade Pier, plus the Winchester Arms, Sirloin of
Beef, Old House at Home, and the annual charity event at the Rose in June raising
money for Motor Neurone Disease but the most regular and very enjoyable gig was
at the Barley Mow, which also sells good eggs. Around then Den’s guitar playing was
inhibited by a wrist broken falling on ice and a subsequent series of operations. It‘s
still not quite right but he still ran a series of workshops at the Guildhall on popular
music history and song writing — plus a weekend folk and blues workshop event.
Scarlet Town and SSO were both hit by lockdown, doing very little until getting back
together about a couple of years ago — Scarlet Town re-opened the Guildhall Studio
in July 2021. One of JR’s events in recent years has been a weekend devoted to
Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead and he finds all kinds of acts who perform their
songs very nicely. The first of those events, years ago, involved RP&G organising a
new set of songs that had influenced Dylan, not least by Woody Guthrie and pals, so
we renamed ourselves the Woody Allen Band. In 2021 & 2022 the event moved to
the Dockyard Club and versions of Scarlet Town did appropriate sets.
During lockdown Den wrote furiously, songs emerging on a regular basis, and he
was keen to work up a new set but l had been a poorly and no longer had the energy
for new songs and regular gigs, so Den re-organised the Scarlet Town line-up
although we still do the occasional gig. The new band became Harbour Town with
Joanna Aldridge now doing the bulk of the singing, Tim Walker playing for a time
on violin and mandolin while Paul, who had been travelling from London for the
rehearsals and gigs, joined me on the ‘subs’ bench. ln January 2022 we did one
Saturday night with both bands at the Guildhall Village opposite the Theatre Royal,
then Harbour Town followed Scarlet Town to the Old Blacksmiths Studio and an
album of 16 new songs emerged. You will hear some tonight.
TRACK ELEVEN: “And in the End”
Are we there yet?
“The main challenge for any historian: history does not exist in the minds of the
people who lived it as a static, stationary thing" - James Graham Guardian 20.8.23
lt’s your turn now
For helping an old guy to remember some history, special thanks to:
Linda Reeve-Baker, Phil Langran, Jenny Langran & Sue Dobbyn
(Any mistakes belong solely to me and are copyright)
PHOTOS:
(Front Cover): Den & Phil, Den & Dave
(Inside Front): The Indicators, Skys is Cryin’, Tom & Den, The Operation (Covent Garden)
(Inside Back): The Operation, South Bank, London, The Mooks, The Reds at Basins,
Reet, Petite & Gone (+ with Country Joe), The Spencer Brothers
(Back Cover): SSO, Scarlet Town, Harbour Town
A few line-ups not listed fully above:
The Operation: Andrew Ranken, Naomi ?, 'Paz‘ & Dave Allen (vocals), Den, Phil, Bob Cooper-
Grundy (gtrs), Nick Tetley (harmonica), Simon & Joe Korner (bass/gtrs), Paul Hookham (drums),
Keith Matthews & Carl ? (saxes)
The Reds: Dave Allen (vocals, hca), Mick Eveleigh (vocals, gtr), Jim Zimmer & Steve Cole (gtrs),
Dave Pittard (drums), Steve Browning & Den (bass guitar), Brian Kemp (keyboards)
Southsea Skiffle Orchestra (9/23), Den, Dave Allen, Lou Allen, Pat Allen, Dave Baker, Michelle
Barnard, Dot Bates, Steve Bates, John Beardall, Rosie Byerley, Sue Cansdale, Chris Collier, Cecilia
Creagh, Brian Cruickshank, Roger Day, Roger Easey, Chris Elemer, Peter Findlay, Chris Fosbrooke,
David Goble, Elaine Halsey, Richard Johnson, Dave Jordan, Jean Maxwell, David Parry, Vanessa
Peters, Lin Reeve-Baker, Tony Spender.
The Spencer Brothers: (1) Den, (vocals, gtr) & Phil (vocals, gtr) then (2) plus Steve Monether (gtr,
vocals) then (3) Den, Phil, Annie Lloyd (vocals) & Nigel Rae (bass) then as (3) plus Bob Franklin
(drums). And others occasionally.
The First XI ‘Album‘ Tracks: ‘The Young Ones’ (Cliff- came out when Den was eight), ‘School’s Out’
(Alice Cooper), ‘We’re a Winner’ (Curtis Mayfield & the impressions), ‘On the Road Again’ (Canned
Heat), Brighton Rock (Graham Greene) to Waterloo Sunset (The Kinks), ‘Southbound Train’ (Ken
Colyer or Vipers, skiffle), ‘Unplugged’ (take your pick: Clapton, Nirvana, Lauryn Hill ...), ‘What's that
Spell?’ (Country Joe & the Fish ‘Cheer’), ‘21“ Century Washboard Men’ (sort of King Crimson), ‘Girls,
Girls, Girls’ (Elvis) and ‘Boys’ (the Shirelles/Ringo), ‘And in the End’ (the Beatles).
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