'Most Promising'

Express & Star: December 19th 1968

OK, this article, from The 'N Betweens 1968 page, raises lots of questions and I've decided to break it down and look at them in depth?

ON SUCCESS TRAIL 

AS 'MOST PROMISING' 

GROUP FROM FONTANA

This is December 1968 so I assume they are Fontanas 'most promising' hope for 1969?

THE 'N BETWEENS. now to be known as Ambrose Slade, are certainly getting the big treatment from Fontana Records.

Well that fits in with the December '68 date.

The recording company has nominated them as "most promising" group of the year and as such they are to represent Fontana at the Holland music festival in January.

This is not 'International Sommerradio', they were in Holland on the 8th & 9th of January 1969 so it would appear they represented Fontana and the UK as The 'N Betweens or Ambrose Slade?

Other "most promising" groups in the past have been Manfred Mann and Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mlck and Tich, so the group has a great tradition of success to follow.

On Sunday the group were all Euston Station, where they made a film. to be televised in this country and abroad. to promote their new single, due for release on January 31.

Well, the single didn't get a release until 2nd May 1969. That single was Genesis but in January they were talking about Martha My Dear being the single. Well, the film soundtrack was neither?

A minute of the film footage was made available by Gary Jordan and I have used that to fill the run time of the song. Hopefully. sometime in the not to distant future, the entire film will be made available?

As yet the single is still undecided. Four tracks have been completed, but on January 1 and 2 the group will be in the studio for two days, recording eight extra numbers.

At the filming, a large crowd gathered to watch their zany antics, and among them were D. J. Stuart Henry and ex-boxer, now pop personality, Freddie Mack.

Stuart Henry might be able to remember this, anybody got contacts. I'm sure he wouldn't mind chatting about the good old days?

Archive media supplied by Chris Selby and film footage made available by Gary Jordan. Another great find by those that do.

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The 'N Betweens 1968

Wolverhampton 1968

Another hectic year for The 'N Betweens, kicking off at the Woolpack in Wolverhampton on the 2nd. Playing with their usual circuit buddies like The Soul Seekers and The Californians and new name Hari Kari which featured Billy Bonham on keyboards. 1968 brought the Jimmy Cliff Explosion in January, The Herd in February, Amboy Dukes in March and John Mayall's Bluebreakers making one of their last appearances in April, this time with Peter Green, at Willenhall Public Baths. In July they would split up for 15 years?

Maurice Jones was managing their affairs and the Astra agency considered them to be a strong enough group to compete with the better known bands like The Cream, with whom they were often booked. The group got the opportunity to hone themselves into a four man steamroller during a stint overseas.

 Express & Star:  May 16th 1968

On the 20th May 1968 the group left the UK. Maurice Jones had found them a dream booking – a one month residency in The Bahamas. None of the lads had been anywhere exotic, in fact, there only experiences outside of the country had been less than positive. Suddenly, here they were staying in a luxury hotel and told to order anything they wanted on room service and put it on the club owner's tab. As Noddy Holder relates...

Express & Star: May 23rd 1968

"On the first night, the promoter took us to a club which was part of the hotel complex. It was really posh, full of tourists and fabulous suntanned women. There were a few locals, but mainly it was English and American holidaymakers. 'Is this the sort of place we'll be playing?' we asked the promoter and he nodded. We thought we had died and gone to heaven.

The next day, we came back down to earth with a bump. The bloke took us to our real venue which was right on the other side of the Island, in the black area. It couldn't have been more different from the club we had visited the previous evening. It was in the middle of a field and it looked like a big shack"

The club proved to be little more than a shack in the middle of nowhere and they had to play several sets every night, of which the first was a selection of pop songs for tourists.

"Our set started at 9pm. For the first three hours, we had been told, the audience would be made up mainly of white tourists. We decided that was when we should play our pop songs. We were pretty sure that only chart hits would go down well. 'There's a curfew at midnight,' the promoter told us. 'That's when all the tourists have to return to their hotels. After that, the locals come in. We were terrified when we heard that."

"It was the later set we played to the locals after midnight that really scared us. We were four white kids in funny gear trying to please the local black gangs who were into Calypso and Ska. We decided to give them our James Brown soul selection and we could not have made a better choice because unbeknown to us Brown was considered a god in The Bahamas and four white kids playing soul music was some novelty.

"We also had to become versatile and adapt to provide backing for local entertainers like limbo dancers, fire-eaters and_transvestite go-go dancers. One of the big attractions was called Silver Man. He sprayed himself all over in paint and did a wild Voodoo dance"

The compère was a gay bongo player called Eric who used to give Nod a drink out of his special rum bottle each night, which he had secretly laced with marijuana. Nod couldn't understand why it had such an effect on him for some days. Eric overran on his bongo solo regularly, once he was on he was hard to get off. One evening Silver Man sweated in the wings until he eventually collapsed and passed out. Nod managed to revive him by washing his paint off, but it was like that pretty much every night.

"We ended up with the most bizarre show you can imagine. The idea was that we would not only play our own music, but also back a lot of other local acts, which included limbo dancers, a couple of fire-eaters and a transvestite go-go dancer in a cage. It was like an Acid-inspired cabaret show. We were rocking our socks off with loonies every night."

One night they found William Bell in their dressing room. He had just had a huge hit with Judy Clay called 'Private Number'. He sang with The 'N Betweens as his backing band.

"Another night, we had to support a girl group called The Twans who were three gorgeous black girls with a choreographed dance routine. They launched into Aretha Franklin's 'Respect'.

What no one knew was that the lead singer had lost her voice between the rehearsal in the afternoon and the show. The backing gals went “Woo”, after which she was supposed to sing 'What you want'. Instead, there was silence. The girls went “Woo” again. Still nothing. She was opening her mouth, but nothing was coming out. Suddenly, this bloke in the front row of the audience shouted, 'Sing it like it is, sister.' We just collapsed. The girls were still doing their dance, but the four of us were on the floor, laughing."

"After a couple of weeks in the Bahamas, Dave had made friends with a load of American and English girls. One afternoon, they took him to a fashion show, which was happening at one of the other hotels on the island. Dave ended up as one of the catwalk models wearing a dress. He came back to the club that night in it. It was a full-length floral thing, all pink and white. He wandered in with his girls, boasting that his picture was going to be in the Bahamian newspaper the next day. 'I'm keeping the dress on for the show,' announced Dave. Jim hit the roof but it got a great reaction. We hadn't been on stage two minutes when a girl in the audience stormed up to Dave. She was furious because Dave was wearing exactly the same outfit as her."
Noddy Holder: Who's Crazee Now?

Don's first close call seems to have happened at this time. Andy Scott, who would later join The Sweet and score significant success as a top glam rock band, recalls an incident that clearly took place during this residency.

"I first met Slade about 45 years ago, long before they were famous, on the Bahamas. Slade were playing on one side of the Island, and the band I was with were playing on the other side. I remember myself and Don were swimming and got dragged out to sea. We had to hang onto a lilo, we almost drowned."
Andy Scott: 14th November 2012

Half way through this Bahamas rock circus residency, disaster struck and the club owner disappeared with thousands of pounds, leaving them stranded with a massive hotel and bar bill unpaid. The hotel moved them into the equivalent of a broom cupboard and when the club re-opened under new management they took half of their wages until the outstanding amount was paid off. The 'N Betweens had to slog it out for three months, working like musical slaves until they were able to leave the island.

"The new owners were Americans and they demanded we pay the bill for the suites and the food and everything.

Of course we couldn't pay ... so they kept us on working every night for next to nothing to payoff the debt. They put us in a one room staff apartment."

For the next two months The 'N Betweens lived in each others' pockets and Jim Lea, for one, considers this to have been a major factor in welding the group together. Letters to the Astra Agency begging for money were ignored and all determined to put every spare penny towards the cost of flying their equipment home. Nod took charge again and sorted out their financial difficulties. He was always the one who had to budget their money when they needed a new tyre on the van or replacement equipment.

"We made friends in the Bahamas with a lot of local kids who were from American families. They brought lots of records with them which had yet to be released in England, like Steppenwolf's 'Born to Be Wild' which we worked into the stage act."

"We couldn't believe our luck but the owners told us they were going to re-decorate the discotheque and that it would be closed for a week. They actually asked us to move our gear out which is what we'd been wanting to do for weeks. So the next morning ... very early ... we drove out to the airport, put our gear on a plane and caught the next one to London."

During those weeks in the Bahamas, the group got their personal gripes out of their systems, which helped them later down the line.

"We discovered that we were four very different characters. The others realised that none of them would get the better of me in an argument.

Jim was probably the most argumentative, he could also be really insulting although half the time he didn't even realise it. We never knew if he was trying to insult people or if he just didn't think, but after spending so much time together, we got used to it. We learnt that, in a band, you couldn't take each other too seriously or you'd just split up."

It was that crash course in survival in The Bahamas that pulled them together and forged the band's strong camaraderie. They returned to England on the 29th August being hailed a success. On the 7th September at Park Hall Hotel, Wolverhampton:

"This Saturday: The return of Wolverhampton's top group from a successful season in the Bahamas"

Express & Star: September 12th 1968

The episode caused further unpleasantness between The 'N Betweens and the Astra Agency and the group switched their allegiance to a rival outfit run by Nita Anderson who later managed the record label Heavy Metal Records. It was Anderson who was to act as the catalyst in a chain of events that led to The 'N Betweens' fortunes taking a crucial turn in the early months of 1969.

"While we were on the Bahamas we never had any help from Astra so when we came back we decided to leave and we went with Nita Anderson."
Don Powell: The Slade Forum 2011

Jack Baverstock was head of A&R at Philips. He was a man hungry to find The Next Big Thing and a little bird had whispered in his ear that Wolverhampton had it. That little bird was Roger Allen who was Nita Anderson's business partner. Allen was also a close friend of Irving Martin, who carried some influence with Baverstock. Allen told Baverstock that it would be in his best interest to invite The 'N Betweens down to London for a studio audition.

Express & Star: November 21st 1968

Baverstock felt that The 'N Betweens implied an element of homosexuality. There had been some talk of the new name being Nicky Nacky Noo (the group's own idea according to some?).

"Baverstock thought that The 'N Betweens was a crappy name, and he said that he wanted us to be called a name that we had said in the studio. Well, we'd been talking about hotels, something about us having said in the poshest place since the Nickey Nackey Noo. And he thought that Nicky Nacky Noo would've been a good name for us! I said that I was going to leave if we were going to be called that:

Anyway, sometime later he rang up Roger AlIen and said that he'd come up with the name Ambrose Slade. I thought it was a crappy name, but as we didn't want to lose his recording deal we decided to call ourselves that."
Jim Lea: Fan Club Interview April 1980

In December 1968, The 'N Betweens spent a whole day in the Phillips Studio at Stanhope Place near Marble Arch in London where they recorded four songs with, recording engineer, Roger Wake. Baverstock was impressed enough to offer them a contract with two suggestions. One was the name change and the other was London based management.

"Jack said he didn't like the name. 'It makes you sound bi-sexual' he said. We freaked out, that had never even crossed our minds. In the 60's being gay was a real scandal."
Noddy Holder

"The notion of Ambrose Slade came from his secretary having a handbag named Ambrose and a cap named Slade!"
Jim Lea

Express & Star: December 12th 1968

It was Jack who christened the group with their new name, as Jimmy Lea explains:

"Jack Baverstock had heard our version of Journey To The Centre Of Your Mind, the Ted Nugent number, and another instrumental which we called Blues In E."

"Irving Martin had produced both tracks for us. Jack rang up and told us he wanted to make an album with us. We just could not believe it. Apparently it was the instrumental he rated as quite distinctive because of the stomping sound.... He maintained that the record had this beat that was new and different. He was quite right really, because in later years the beat used on that record became our stamp."

Express & Star: December 7th 1968

The group had a couple of recording sessions in December 1968. One on the 8th. was for radio broadcast and a few days later on the 11th they recorded four tracks for their album. The 3rd December is yet to be confirmed.

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Most of the Noddy Holder quotes are from his book 'Who's Crazee Now?' Media supplied by Chris Selby after many hours of research.Thanks to Dave Kemp for some wonderful trivia.

The 'N Betweens

1968

Tues 2nd January - Woolpack, Wolverhampton
Fri 5th January -W.R.Wheway School, Bloxwich- Hari Kari
Sun 7th January -Bolero Club, Wednesbury
Mon 8th January -United Services Club, Bilston
Fri 12th January - Civic Hall,Wolverhampton-Reg Bradley & his Band/Freddie Mercer & his Band /Dual Purpose
Sat 13th January -College of Technology, Wolverhampton-Jimmy Cliff Explosion
Wed 17th January -Chubbs SC ,Heath Town
Thurs 18th January - Kingfisher Country Club -Wall Heath-Dual Purpose
Fri 19th January -Connaught Hotel,Wolverhampton
Sat 20th January -Queens Beat Club,Erdington
Sun21st January -Queen Mary Ballroom,Dudley
Sat 3rd February - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton-Soul Seekers
Sun 4th February - Bolero Club.Wednesbury
Mon 5th February - Parkhall Hotel, Wolverhampton-The Bystanders
Thurs 8th February - Essington W.M.C, Bloxwich
Sat 10th February - Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton-The News
Sun 11th February - Adelphi Ballroom, West Bromwich
Mon 12th February - United Services Club, Bilston
Tues 14th February Shelfield Y.C, Shelfield,Walsall
Sat 24th February -Le Metro Club,Birmingham
Sun 25th February - Bolero Club, Wednesbury-The Herd)
Thurs 29th February - Kingfisher Country Club, Wall Heath-The Californians
Fri 1st March - United Services Club, Bilston
Sat 2nd March -Woolpack, Wolverhampton-Lucifer Blue
Sun 3rd March -Clayton Lodge Hotel,Newcastle under Lyme
Sat 9th March -Golden Torch,Tunstall,Stoke on Trent
Sun 10th March -Queen Mary Ballroom,Dudley - Middle Earth
Wed 13th March -Civic Hall,Wolverhampton -The Plastic Penny
Thurs 14th March -W.M.C.Tettenhall
Sat 16th March -The Ship & Rainbow, Wolverhampton-Vivid Cherry
Sun 17th March - Carlton Club ,Erdington
Thurs 21st March -British Legion,Lower Gornal
Fri 22nd March- Bolero Club, Wednesbury
Sun 24th March - Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton
Mon 25th March - Park Hall Hotel,Wolverhampton-The Amboy Dukes
Sat 30th March -The Woolpack,Wolverhampton
Sat 30th March - Alton Towers,Staffordshire-The Merseys
Fri 5th April - United Services Club, Bilston
Sat 6th April -Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton-Lucifer Blue
Sun 7th April -The Connaught Hotel,Wolverhampton
Tues 9th April -British Legion Club, Lower Gornal
Thurs 11th April -Baths,Willenhall-John Mayalls Bluesbreakers/The Naque
Sat 13th April -Preincess Ballroom ,Halifax
Mon 15th April -George Hotel, Walsall-Soul Syndicate
Tues 16th April -Borough Hall,Stafford
Thurs 18th April -W.M.C. Essington
Sat 24th April -Mackadown Club,Kitts Green,Birmingham
Fri 3rd May - Queen Mary Ballroom, Dudley-Soul Syndicate
Sat 4th May -Lower Green,Tettenhall
Sun 5th May - Holt Fleet Hotel,Holy Heath,Worcestershire
Sat 11th May - George Hotel, Walsall
Fri 17th May - Community Centre, Pelsall-The Gilt Edge
Sat 18th May -Ship and Rainbow,Wolverhampton
Sun 19th May -Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton
Mon 20th May - Tropicana Club,Bahamas
Fri 6th September -U.S.C.Bilston
Sat 7th September - Park Hall Hotel, Wolverhampton-Pathfinders
Fri 13th September -Bolero Club, Wednesbury-Show Stoppers
Sun 15th September -Connaught Hotel,Wolverhampton
Fri 20th September -Trafalgar Inn,Hednesford
Sat 21st September -The Ship & Rainbow, WolverhamptonSat 28th September - Town Hall,Uttoxeter-The Bubble Shop
Sun 29th September -Club Lafayette,Wolverhampton-City Limits
Mon 30th September - Queen Mary Ballroom,Dudley
Thurs 3rd October - British Legion Club, Lower Gornal
Sat 5th October - Town Hall, Bilston-The Tangerine Slake
Sun 6th October - Bolero Club, Wednesbury
Sun 13th October -Ship and Rainbow,Wolverhampton
Mon 14th October -George Hotel, Walsall-The Traction
Fri 25th October -Public Baths, Willenhall- Crosscut Saw
Sat 26th October -Town Hall,Uttoxeter-The Top Shop
Mon 28th October -Queen Mary Ballroom,Dudley
Tues 29th October -Edward Street WMC,Broomhill,Cannock
Fri 1st November - Town Hall, Walsall-Simon Dupree & the Big Sound/Hari Kari
Sat 2nd November - George Hotel, Walsall-Animated Lime
Sun 3rd November- Bolero Club, Wednesbury
Tues 5th November -Holly Bush ,Wolverhampton
Sat 9th November -Le Metro Club,Birmingham
Sun 10th November -Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton
Sat 16th November - Tall TreesClub,Newquay
Sun 17th November -Ship and Rainbow,Wolverhampton
Wed 20th November -Boney Hay W.M.C. Boney Hay
Thurs 21st November -Swan,Yardley
Sun 24th November -Club Lafayette,Wolverhampton
Fri 29th November -Civic Hall,Wolverhampton
Sun 1st December -Ship and Rainbow,Wolverhampton
Mon 2nd December -George Hotel, Walsall-Small Change
Thurs 5th December -Civic Hall,Wolverhampton-Fortunes/Finders Keepers/Animated Lime
Fri 6th December - Baths, Willenhall- Evolution
Sat 7th December - Palais de Danse, Mansfield
Mon 9th December -Brownhills W.M.C.
Tues 10th December -St Giles YC,Willenhall
Thurs 12th December - Queens Ballroom, Dudley
Fri 13th December -Baths, Willenhall
Sat 14th December -Community Centre, Pelsall
Mon 16th December- Wolves Social Club, Wolverhampton
Tues 17th December - British Legion Club, Lower Gornal
Wed 18th Deember - Woolpack, Wolverhampton
Thurs 19th December- Shelfield Y.C. Shelfield
Fri 20th December -John Harper P.H, Willenhall
Sat 21st December -Holly Hall Y.C, Wolverhampton
Sun 22nd December-Connaught Hotel, Wolverhampton
Mon 23rd December -Queen Mary Ballroom, Dudley
Tues 24th December -The Woolpack,Wolverhampton-Tangerine Flake
Tues 24th December- Lafeyette Club, Wolverhampton-The Montanas
Thurs 26th December -Bolero Club, Wednesbury-Source of Power
Fri 27th December - The Ship & Rainbow, Wolverhampton-The Montanas
Fri 27th December - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton-Evolutio
Sat 28th December - Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton-Tangerine Flake
Mon 30th December- Mount Hotel,Wolverhampton
Tues 31st December -George Hotel, Walsall

The Astra Agency

February 1963

Roger Allen began his agency from the front room of his house at 30 Merridale Street West, was one third of PMA (Perry Maddocks Allen) then joined with Astra, opened the Oasis Night Club and later worked with the Nita Anderson Agency. He had some management involvement with the majority of the town's best groups in the 60s, including Ambrose Slade.

"None of the local groups stood any chance of really making it big without involvement from the London agencies and without recording contracts. That was why I spent so much time down in London. I was probably there for about two years, living down there every week day and coming back to Wolverhampton at weekends."

"Getting recording contracts and better bookings was very much a case of getting to the top man and hustling. It was no use just sitting in waiting rooms. You had to force your way in and push the product. That was how you got your group included on important national package tours. By the time The 'N Betweens or Ambrose Slade, as they became known, got to Jack Baverstock and Fontana I was probably known all over London."

While Roger Allen is possibly the best remembered of the local individuals involved in the 60s music scene, one organisation which is also synonymous with the period is the Astra Agency. Once again, virtually every one of the significant local groups had links with Astra.

The Agency had its beginnings in the front room of a house in Hilston Avenue in Penn, belonging to Len Rowe. He and a local band leader named Stan Fielding and his son Peter, started the agency in early 1963. Within a few years Astra was recognised as one of the most important entertainment agencies in the Midlands. It had started with the intention of finding regular work for the growing number of local beat groups which emerged after the success of the Beatles. In its earliest days it had responsibility for groups like the Strollers (with Roy Grant), Roger and the Dodgers (Rinky Dinks), Johnny Washington and the Congressmen and the Midbeats and venues like the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton where it organised the very successful Rhythm Rendezvous on Monday evenings. As Midland Beat stated in December 1963:

'The Astra Agency sets a fine example to other such organisations. They refuse to take work on more groups than they can find work for. This is their main policy since they will not exploit a group. They have been responsible for the Monday evening sessions at the Civic Hall in partnership with the Council. On the first night 900 teenagers turned up, now a regular 600 attend.'

Astra Agency: Very few promotions within the town did not involve Astra Agency and its three leading members, Stan and Pete Fielding and Len Rowe.

In February 1964 the Agency had moved to offices in Waterloo Road to cope with the increasing amount of work. By August 1964 the agency was advertising itself as having booking responsibility for the:

• Strollers
• Matchmakers
• Black Diamonds
• Montanas
• Dale Gibson and the Detours
• Barons
• Vince Knight and the Sonnets
• Motions
• Memphis Cut-Outs
• Steve Brett and the Mavericks

In other words, there were very few of the more successful local groups who were not linked to the agency in some form, and so it continued throughout the decade with the involvement of individuals like George Maddocks, Tony Perry, Roger Allen, Dougie Eades, Maurice Jones and Alan Clayton and with the opening of new offices on the top floor of the Criterion (now Wolverhampton University Higher Education Shop) on the comer of Princes Square in 1967 and later at the Club Lafayette in Thornley Street.

When Tony Perry and George Maddocks joined with Astra from PMA in about 1967 it meant that the vast majority of the main music venues in the local area were then controlled by the agency. This coupled with the number of local groups on their books and their links with agencies in other areas like Stoke, gave Astra a very strong hold over the local music scene.

Astra also indulged in some 'interesting' experiments in live entertainment during the mid-60s. It was Astra which introduced the Cinediscodollyteque at the end of 1966 which could legitimately claim to be the first local attempt at 'disco'. The music columnist for the Express & Star was John Ogden and he reported on the introduction of the CDDT in Wall Heath. The idea was to have girls dancing in cages and Astra had successfully conscripted a number of local girls for the first experiment. It was intended to have a mixture of discotheque environment with psychedelic music. Two weeks later Ogden reported on a performance by the Move at Walsall Town Hall which involved psychedelic music.

It was in 1968 that Astra started making plans for its most ambitious venture, the development of the former Blue Flame into the Club Lafayette. It was intended to make the new club into one of the foremost live music venues in the area and to provide its customers with a wide variety of acclaimed popular music performers and different styles. It proved most successful and gained a deserved national reputation. It remained open until 1982. The Lafayette also provided an ultimate local showcase for those of our groups who managed to survive the turbulent years of the decade and to gain some well deserved national prestige.

*Bastardised from the excellent 2002 online book by Keith Farley. 'N Between Times: an Oral History of the Wolverhampton Group Scene of the 1960s . It's certainly worth a read.

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Bobby Graham and Barclay Records

UK 1960's

Bobby Graham (1940-2009) is without doubt the most recorded drummer in British '60s pop, although largely uncredited. By 1960 he was the 20 year old drummer for the Joe Meek 'In House Band'. In 1962 he was drumming for Joe Brown & The Bruvvers when Brian Epstein asked him if he would like to replace Pete Best in The Beatles but Graham didn't fancy joining a group nobody had heard of. It's worth pointing out that Joe Brown was, at this time, considered an incredible guitarist on the cutting edge of the Rock 'N Roll scene.

As a session musician he played on many releases by all the major British artists of the era, however, I think it's worth pointing out that he played on Baby Let Me Take You Home in 1964 and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place in 1965 by the Animals. He also played on Baby Please Don't Go in 1964, Here Comes The Night in 1965 and Call My Name in 1966 by Them.

In early I964 Graham began production for Fontana Recording Studios.

"Jack Baverstock, head of A&R, didn't want to work with The Pretty Things. He said 'I don't want to work with these animals, I can't listen to that crap, take them if you want to'. They were extremely difficult, especially when they'd all been drinking".

During I965 Graham continued playing sessions, but began to put more effort into production work. In February Eddie Barclay, the millionaire playboy owner of Eddy Mitchell's label, asked Graham to produce an album for the French market. Credited to Le London All Stars, British Percussion was released in September I965.

Barclay offered Graham a job. "I was taken on as the Head of Barclay Records UK. I didn't speak much French, I had an interpreter with me all the time. My job was to produce English artists for the French market".

Finding English language acts for the French market was a somewhat random process.

"We put ads in the trade papers - 'artists wanted for auditions'. I produced the In-Betweens for Barclay at Pye Number 2. I also produced an EP from the singer from Billy Gray and the Stormers, he was called Le Frizzy One. That was Carter, Lewis and Jimmy Page".

Ultimately, the French didn't take to the British acts:

"You could not get anything English off the ground in France. I got pretty fed up flying backwards and forwards twice a week and I decided to call it a day with Barclay".

Graham then landed a job with Dutch producer Freddie Haayan, who he'd met while producing Golden Earring. when they came to London to record. 

"Freddie rang me in I967 to ask if I'd work for him. I went to Hilversum, then EMI (Bovema in Holland) headhunted me, and I started producing Dutch artists for the international market." 

After four years, Graham left Holland. 

'They asked me leave in I97I because my drinking had become horrendous, I disguised it until it got the point where you can't disguise falling over and throwing up in your office. I ended up on the streets in Amsterdam, full of booze, never dreamt I had a problem.  Finally my parents got me home, and I never had another drink".

From I973-75 Graham produced a variety of acts for Christian labels.  He then opened The Trading Post, a collectors record shop in Edmonton.  He soon tired of the 9-5 and started his own band, The Jazz Experience. They played around Hertfordshire becoming very popular.  

"I was thinking, 'what the bloody hell am I going to do?', and there was a drum kit advertised in the local paper. I was just going to clean it up and sell it to make a profit. I set it up in the front room and I was suddenly hooked again."

Graham is undoubtedly amongst the most significant figures of British '60s pop, yet he looks back on his vast body of work with something approaching bemusement.  

"There are many things that I'm proud of, like The Kinks records, but there's not one thing that I can listen to and say, 'that's it'. I don't live in the '60s. I live for today, its history, it's gone. I find it strange that people want to talk to me about ,what I did in the '60s.  How can it be interesting?"

Bobby Graham died at the Isabel Hospice in Welwyn Garden City on Monday, September 14th 2009, following a four month battle with stomach cancer. The drummer is survived by his wife, Belinda, his son, Shawn, and his younger brother, Ian.

For more info on Bobby Graham click here.

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