By 1970 we were trying to get a few away gigs, ‘on the road’, through a local agent which didn’t really work out. One such gig was Dreamland at Margate where we supported “Black Widow”.  After they’d finished their heavy metal set and whipping a near naked girl on stage, we came out in our white suits to see all of the hippies sitting around smoking dope, so we rushed back to change into our jeans. Unfortunately our opening song “Yellow River” didn’t really do the trick. Next was the Hermitage Ballroom in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. We arrived to the crew advising us that we should be playing reggae or ska, as it was mostly full of skinheads and bands that don’t play that kind of stuff usually get a hiding. I recall standing in the doorway tossing a coin as to whether we would stay and play our ‘pop’ set or make a run for it. Regardless of what the coin did, we all rushed into the front of the ambulance and sped down the road. I remember laying over the dashboard and there were at least two people driving! As I had signed the contract I got a letter from the agent demanding compensation. I can’t remember the exact figure, but I sent it to him in Monopoly money. His reaction was that I was being very childish, but I was pretty much of a child in 1970, probably still am.

Plexium

Our next record deal was with Plexium Records in Oxford Street, a label owned by Gordon Lotinga and Andy Cole (singer with the Black & White Minstrels). They were distributed by EMI. Our first record with them was “Deep In My Heart”, written by Mick Harding, the B-side was “My Way of Living” by Denis Boreham, an old friend of ours. Just to diversify for a second, Denis was a song writer with Southern Music and was renowned for his ‘gift of the gab’ (or BS). He would get us the occasional session work on his songs at some top studios, but also book himself to play an instrument so as to get extra payment from the company. One time, we were recording at IBC in Portland Place, Denis was booked to play piano and we were wondering how he was to get out of this one as we knew he couldn’t play piano. He arrived late with his fingers bandaged.

Anyway, back to “Plexium”; we had additional orchestration on this record and it did turn out fairly good, it was commercial and quite catchy in a “poppy” sort of way.  It was released in March 1969 and  Gordon did manage to get us some excellent promotion, mainly through Radio. We recorded a few songs at sessions for BBC’s “Radio One Club”, of which they played one or two a day along with our record. It was the best publicity apart from TV and we were looking forward to some success at last. Unfortunately, for reasons we never discovered, EMI failed to press enough copies, even our local shops couldn't get the record.

With that failure, we try again. Now 1970, still with Plexium, we go to Marmalade studios to record “Old Whitehall Number” and “Annie Wagon”, both penned by Micky Drewer. Here we were to find the strength of Gordon’s budget. The main riff on “Old Whitehall Number” was to be played with a pipe organ. We had put the backing tracks down before the organ was delivered, and when it arrived it was out of tune with the track. We didn’t have the technology in those days to do much about that so we asked for time to re-record the tracks. I remember Gordon asking for the cost of an extension to do this, I think it was about £5 for an extra hour. He decided it was too costly and we went ahead and recorded the organ as it was. The BBC didn’t give us much airtime on this one, so all was lost once again.

We also recorded a single for the European market called “Love at First Sight” with “Deep in My Heart” on the B side. Released on the Ariola label the picture sleeve showed us huddled around my drum kit with Mick H on the stool, so obviously not much thought went into our photo sessions. This record didn’t do much either, successful recording artists we were not to be, well not in this band.  At the time of

writing this, in 2013, our records are now classed as very rare and are advertised on collectors websites world-wide, I’ve seen “Deep In My Heart” for over £70, that’s more than the total royalties we received at the time (and probably more than it cost to record). Also, various spin-offs were released around Europe, one being with a picture sleeve on the Alvorada label for Portugal. We never saw royalties for any of these. Another surprise was seeing an acetate record of “Yesterday Was Such a Lovely Day (Elsie)” being sold on eBay for £126, where on earth did they get that?