Our first recording

We were all trying to write songs by this time, Micky Drewer had a few of which we chose one to record, called “Never”. The “B” side would be “Can’t You See” written by myself and Hughie. We found a studio in London which was fairly basic, even for then. All of the backing was recorded live with the vocals overdubbed on a two track Brennell, state of the art at the time. (A short time later my Dad bought one of these machines for us to use). It was a good experience but nothing came of it, apart from one thing... John Stewart, manager and producer for The Walker Brothers, had heard the song and wanted to hear the band. He had a club in Knightsbridge where we turned up to find we would be playing just to Mr Stewart and a few American guys with dark glasses, looked a bit like a gangster’s night out. The ‘gig’ went very well, despite Mick Harding stamping on Chris Brown’s power lead and pulling it out while shouting “let’s hear that piano” just before Chris’s solo. Tony steamed on to the stage, between Mick D’s legs to replace the plug. John Stewart decided he’d like to record the band and invited us to Bickenhall Mansions in the West End. This was The Walker Brothers headquarters, they had a studio and I think they were also living there. We arrived one day in September 1965, as arranged, all the gear in the VW Caravanette, to find a number of girl fans outside (as you would expect, but not for us, of course).  As we walked into the hallway, a “Walker Bro” ran down the stairs and shouted “number one!”, they had just topped the chart that morning with “Make it Easy on Yourself”.   There was the usual pandemonium that would go along with this event and Stewart asked us to come back the following Monday. Unfortunately some band members couldn’t make it that day and the whole thing was put on hold, in other words he didn’t call us back. Sometimes naivety can be the root of misfortune.