Heads, Hands and Feet; Patto Newcastle City Hall March 1972
I’d seen Head, Hands and Feet on the Old Grey Whistle Test, playing Warming Up The Band and was pretty impressed so I decided to go and see them at Newcastle City Hall. For this gig the seats were unreserved; you paid your 60p at the door and could sit whereever you wished. Support came from Patto, who I hadn’t heard of before going to the gig. Patto were formed out of the 60s band Timebox, who did a great version of The Four Seasons song Beggin’ which I can remember being a dancefloor favourite at our local Top Rank in the late 60s. Patto were just great, with Mike Patto on vocals, John Halsey on drums, Ollie Halsall on guitar, and Clive Griffiths on bass. Mike Patto and Ollie Halsall have both now sadly passed away. They were both incredible musicians, Patto with a raucous soulful voice and Ollie with a very fast, fluid and jazzy guitar style. Patto live were just great. Head, Hands and Feet also featured a top guitarist in Albert Lee, and Chas Hodges (later of Chas and Dave) on bass. The rest of the six piece were Tony Colton on lead vocals, Ray Smith on rhythm guitar, Pete Gavin on drums, and Mike O’Neill on keyboards. Head, Hands and Feet were quite American (although they were from the UK) and country rock in style. I sat totally in awe of Albert Lee, particularly when they played Country Boy, which featured much country twang soloing from Albert. I remember this as a gig with two great bands, neither of whom went on to achieve the success that they should have. And come to think of it I don’t have lps by either of these bands, which is something that I really need to correct. I’m off to ebay to have a look for a Patto or a Head, Hands and Feet lp!
Posts Tagged ‘R&B’
10 Mar
Heads, Hands and Feet; Patto Newcastle City Hall March 1972
9 Mar
George Hatcher Sunderland Polytechnic Wearmouth Hall 1976
George Hatcher Sunderland Polytechnic Wearmouth Hall 1976
George Hatcher and his band gigged quite a lot in the UK during the late 70s. I remember seeing them at this gig at Sunderland Poly Students Union, and also at the Reading festival in 1977 and supporting Dr Feelgood. My recollections are of a pretty hot southern rock band, who released a clutch of albums: Dr Run, Talking Turkey, and Rich Girl during the years 1976 to 1978. Although George is American he formed the band in the UK in the midst of punk and the NWOBHM, and did surprisingly well touring the UK and Europe, particularly given the musical climate at the time. The George Hatcher Band of that time consisted of George himself on vocals; John Thomas, guitar; Terry Slade, drummer; Steve wrenn, keyboards; Harris Jannou Bass; and Phillip Swan, guitar. They toured a lot; supporting AC/DC, Ted Nugent, The Kinks, Dr. Feelgood, and Supertramp along the way. In 1982 George returned to the USA and has toured there since, with some considerable success. I checked the George Hatcher band out, and they are still going strong, although the line-up has changed over the years, with only George remaining from the 70s. Its about time he returned to the UK for a tour.
7 Mar
Home in concert in the early 1970s
Home in concert in the early 1970s
The band Home don’t get mentioned very often these days, but they were great live and on record. Home existed only for a short few years between 1970 and 1974, and toured quite a lot during that period. A few of my mates were big Wishbone Ash fans, and also got into Home around the time of their second album in 1972. I think they saw some similarities between the bands, and I think we also saw Home supporting Wishbone Ash at one point. One of them bought the new album (which was their second album) and we played and played it, trying to learn the guitar parts. Of course, we weren’t to know it at the time, but Home guitarist Laurie Wisefield was to go on to join Wishbone Ash in 1974 as replacement for Ted Turner. I saw Home in concert at least four times, and possibly more. I remember concerts at Sunderland Locarno, Sunderland Poly, and as support act for Mott the Hoople and for Wishbone Ash. Live the band had great songs written by singer and front man Mick Stubbs, strong harmonies, and exquisite guitar work from Laurie Wisefield. The programme here must have come from one of the gigs in Sunderland. Standout tracks for me at the time were: “Dreamer”; “Fancy Lady, Hollywood Child” and “Baby Friend of Mine” all of which feature on their second album. Their third and final album “The Alchemist” is often hailed as a progrock classic. From the progarchives site: “it was however the third album, “The Alchemist” which was the band’s masterpiece. This concept album is one of the forgotten gems of prog, telling a tale of supernatural events and the reaction of those placed in fear by them. Musically, the album sees the band taking an enormous leap forward.” Drummer Mick Cook went on to join the Groundhogs, and bass player Cliff Williams went on to john AC/DC and remains with them until this day. Mick Stubbs and Mick Cook have both now sadly passed away. If you get the chance listen to their second album or The Alchemist. I have the second album on vinyl; I should really set about getting a copy of their other two albums.
6 Mar
Keef Hartley Big Band Sunderland Empire 1970
Keef Hartley Sunderland Empire 1970
Keef Hartley had a great musical pedigree. He replaced Ringo in Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and then went on to play with the legendary Artwoods (featuring Art Wood, Ron’s older brother, and Jon Lord) and John Mayall, before forming his own band. The Keef Hartley Band (which soon became the Big Band) was formed in 1968, played at Woodstock, and toured a lot sharing the bill with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Yes. Keef also did a short stint as a temporary stand in drummer for Jethro Tull, and the band were once joined on stage by Jimi Hendrix. By the time I caught the Keef Hartley Big Band it featured Miller Anderson on vocals and guitar (he was to go on play with the Spencer Davis Group, The Dukes, Savoy Brown, T.Rex and Chicken Shack), Gary Thain on bass (later of Uriah Heep), Henry Lowther on trumpet, Barbara Thompson on alto sax, and a cast of thousands on various horns: Danny Allmark, Mike Davis, Bud Parkes, Dave Caswell, Lyle Jenkins, Jimmy Jewell, and Roger Wade. Something tells me that the line-up I saw at the Empire was a mini big band, and didn’t feature all the members. I also seem to recall that Dick Heckstall-Smith was a special guest; I think I remember him soloing with two saxs at once, but I can’t be certain. I remember being fascinated by this big band set-up, and by Miller Anderson’s excellent guitar playing. I recognised one song Not Foolish, Not Wise, which featured on a sample album of the time. The programme tells me” “The Keef Hartley band will select their programme from the following numbers: Me and my woman, Hickory, Don’t be afraid, Not foolish not wise, Waiting around, Tadpole, Poor Mabel, Believe in you, Rock me baby, You can’t take it with you, Premonition, Halfbreed, Born to die, Sinnin’ for you, Leavin’ trunk, Just to cry, Too much thinking, Too much to take, Danestte kid, Don’t give up, Hartley’s jam for bread, The time is near.” It goes on to say: “The band is in a constant state of progress, somehow making room for new compositions from all its members in a programme already full of “musts” and “requests”.” The programme also advertises their 1970 release The time is near “the latest album – released mid-June on Deram.” Keef disappeared from the music scene in the 1980s and sadly died on 26 November 2011, aged 67.
5 Mar
Humble Pie Newcastle Odeon November 1974
Humble Pie Newcastle Odeon November 1974
The last time that John and I saw Humble Pie was at a gig at Newcastle Odeon in late 1974. I recall my friend Norm being there at the gig as well (will check with him; I did so and yes Norm was with me; he has a strong memory of sitting up in the balcony watching the band). On this occasion the band the 7.30 start time suggests that the band played one show, rather than customary two shows that bands often played when they called at the Odeon. I recall this as a good gig, with Marriott on his usual top form. For me Steve Marriott really came into his own at big, open air gigs. He seemed to draw power in his voice and his performance from a larger crowds. Support for this gig was McGuinness Flint. This was a later version of the band, with a line-up featuring Hughie Flint, Tom McGuinness, Lou Stonebridge and Dixie Dean. I remember them playing When I’m Dead and Gone, The programme says of Humblie Pie: “perhaps one of our hottest bans in the 70s, are also A&M’s most coloirful and illustrious soul childrenof the explosive 60s English rock n roll boom.” 
Sadly the band was to split up the following year. Humble Pie played a lot of gigs during their brief existence. Over 400 are documented in Jerry Shirley’s book from the August 69 debut at Ronnie Scotts to a show in Houston in March 1975.He believes this is about 70% of the total. Steve Marriott went on to play in the reformed Small Faces, which I saw a couple of times at Newcastle City Hall in the late 70s. I also saw Steve playing at a small venue in Sunderland shortly before he tragically died in a fire, which was on April 20th 1991. A bit like Paul Kossoff, Phil Lyonott and I am sure a number of others, Steve Marriott represents everything which is good and bad about rock and roll, tremendous talent, a huge ego, but the inability to deal with the fame and fortune rollercoster ride full of tremendous highs and depressing lows. Shame. Setlist for the gig at the Odeon was probably something like: Thunderbox; Four Day Creep; Sweet Peace and Time; The Fixer; 30 Days in the Hole; Let Me Be Your Love maker; C’Mon Everybody; I Don’t Need No Doctor. Thanks again to John for all his help with memories of Humble Pie and in writing the last few days’ posts.
4 Mar
Humble Pie mid 1974 Buxton Festival
Humble Pie July 6th 1974 Buxton Festival
I’ve already blogged about this festival in a separate post some time ago. The Buxton festival came only a couple of months after Humble Pie’s appearance at Charlton, and they were one of the main reasons that both John and I went to this festival. The festival itself was in an awful location, and it was cold and wet, but Humble Pie played a great set and livened up the proceedings as much as it was possible to do, given the grim environment. The setlist is likely to have been similar to Charlton. A DVD, taken from 8mm film, is available on Amazon and includes footage of Charlton and Buxton; now that might be worth getting, although I suspect it does not feature any sound. I said yesterday that I would write a little abut the Blackberries, who were Carlena Williams, Venetta Fields, and Billie Barnum. The Blackberries were top notch session soul/gospel singers and it was Steve Marriott’s idea to get them into the band for recording and live concerts. In Steve’s own words: “Working with the Blackberries was great. I thought it was the best period of the band. I was almost a bit overwhelmed by them at times, because they were so good. I really dug it, because I was always into black music”. Although today it may seem a relatively obvious move for a band whose roots lay in blues and soul, it was actually pretty groundbreaking for the time, and not something that management and the rest of the band necessarily fully agreed with, at least at first. Jerry Shirley said “A&M and the Management Company thought it was the wrong thing to do, from the beginning” and in the words of Greg Ridley “I was a bit dubious at the time. I liked the music with a hard edge to it, and I was thinking ‘what are the girls gonna do. Are they gonna add or subtract from the band?’ But when they came in they were great. Great singers and a great laugh”. Steve had in his mind moving from a more traditional rock format to something resembling a soul revue, and you could see that in those great Humble Pie shows on 1974. I recall their Buxton set as being strong, and for some reason I seem to recall the Blackberries coming even more to the fore than they did at Charlton a couple of months earlier. It certainly changed the format of the show, and succeeded in blending rock with soul to a much great degree. I saw the Johnny Otis show, which featured Shuggie Otis, and a massive band and singers at Reading in 1972, and I guess this was something like the kind of show that Steve was aiming to create, although much closer to the sort of soul revue that Otis Redding or Ike and Tina Turner will have fronted in the 60s. As I said above, it was very different and refreshing for its time, and didn’t go down well with everyone, some people preferring a much more standard rock format. I found the following setlist for Buxton 74, which seems a little short, but could be correct as the songs were often quite long, including significant jamming: Watcha Gonna Do About It, 30 Days in the Hole; C’Mon Everybody; Thunderbox; Let Me Be Your Lovemaker; I Don’t Need No Doctor
3 Mar
Humble Pie 1973 and early 1974
Hardrock and Charlton 
My next Humble Pie experience was at the Who’s Charlton concert in 1974. John saw them in October 1973 at Hardrock Manchester, as part of a short UK tour which didn’t call in at the North East. Support for the tour was Heavy Metal Kids. John’s uncle lived in Stretford, and he went by train to Manchester for this show and stayed with my uncle. In John’s own words: “My ticket was row AA so I assumed it would be about 27 rows back but it was actually the second row – very exciting. I think I had seen the Heavy Metal Kids a couple of times as they supported a lot of bands at that time. This was of course one of the names proposed by Island Records for Free, which thankfully they rejected.The band featured Gary Holton on vocals who was a loud, brash cockney kid who went on to a successful acting career in Auf Weidersehen Pet.They were a decent band band and got the crowd warmed up. Humble Pie had released the Eat It album and were touring with the Blackberries. The setlist was heavily drawn from that album and the earlier Smokin and featured Up Our Sleeve, Honkey Tonk Women, C’mon Everybody, Road Runner, Hot n Nasty, 30 Days in the Hole, Hallelujah (I love her so), I Don’t Need No Doctor and a couple of slower ones Blues I Believe to my Soul and Black Coffee which heavily featured the Blackberries.”
Moving forward to May 18th 1974 and John, myself, and another friend Pete went to Charlton Valley football ground for a stellar one day festival line-up which featured The Who, Bad Company, Lou Reed, Maggie Bell, Lindisfarne and Montrose. I’ll blog separately on the whole day and the Who’s set on another occasion, as it was a great and memorable day for a number of reasons and warrants full treatment on its own. Suffice to say it was a legendary concert, and a great set by the Who, and Humble Pie were a very important part of the day. John rates it thus: “For me the greatest outdoor show I have seen in my life with a stellar line up of bands. Humble Pie came on after Lou Reed with Maggie Bell following them before the Who. Pundits saw that it was a close call between Humble Pie and the Who but, despite my bias, I think the Who won it with a great set and their spectacular green laser light show.” Humble Pie opened with a “Ere, get a load of this” from Steve and launched into the Small Faces classic Whatcha Gonna Do About It. The crowd went wild and Pie kept the energy level up for their entire set. Steve had his hair cut short for the show and was wearing a nifty set of denim dungarees. He really wasn’t the archetypal rock and roll guy and retained his pop/soul sensibilities, almost to a fault, and was constantly driving the band heavily in this direction, thus the inclusion of soul singers the Blackberries. I’ll blog more about the Blackberries role in the band tomorrow. The setlist is likely to have included some of the following: Whatcha Gonna Do About It; Thunderbox; Sweet Peace and Time; Let Me Be Your Lovemaker; C’Mon Everybody; 30 Days in the Hole; Road Runner, Hot N Nasty, 30 Days in the Hole, Black Coffee, and I Don’t Need No Doctor; and possibly I Cant Stand the Rain and Ninety Nine Pounds. I’ve searched the internet and can’t find any record of a setlist anywhere, and it seems that no live recordings of the Pie’s set exist from that great day, which is a shame.
On the Eat It album there is a live side which begins with Up Our Sleeve, recorded in Glasgow and the band are introduced as “Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome the finest rock and roll band in the land”. Perhaps slightly over the top and clearly a swipe at the Rolling Stones, with the word “greatest” replaced by “finest” but for a brief period they were right up there. Just a fantastic live band. Thanks again to John for the scan of his signed album, and for helping me write these blog posts on Humble Pie.
2 Mar
Humble Pie early years and live 1972
Humble Pie early years and live at the Lincoln Festival and Newcastle Odeon 1972 
Humble Pie are one of my friend John’s favourite bands. He has helped me a lot with my memories of that band in concert, and with writing the blogs on the Pie over the next few days. We both remember just how great a front man Steve Marriott was, and how powerful a force Humble Pie live were in the early to mid 70s.
Formed in 1969 with Marriott, Frampton and Ridley having significant pedigrees (Jerry Shirley being a kid who got the gig after befriending Steve Marriott when they supported the Small Faces), the name, coined by Steve Marriot ,was a push back of the “Supergroup” moniker which was common at the time and had been applied to them. Their first two albums were almost soft-rock, and quite different to the soulful raucous rock band that they would develop into a few years later. The single Natural Born Bugie (why did they spell it that way?) was a major chart success reaching number 4 in July 1969.The single highlights the vocal ability of the band with Ridley, Frampton and Marriott each taking a verse in turn. A follow up single Big Black Dog did not chart, but was played often at the Sunderland Mecca that John and I both frequented, and the overall “sound” was to be indicative of what was to come.Their next album was the eponymous Humble Pie, with a great cover featured on Shirley’s drum kit, followed by their first “real album” Rock On which contains Shine On, a song which still features in Peter Frampton shows, Stone Cold Fever and Rollin Stone. After poor album sales, but a good live response, Dee Anthony came up with the idea of capturing them on a double live album – sold at a discount – an idea he was to repeat to great effect with Peter Frampton in subsequent years. Performance – 
Rockin the Fillmore, to give it its full name, was recorded at the Fillmore East (not West) over four shows on May 28/29th.They were to play that venue more than 20 times. The album contains only two self penned songs Stone Cold Fever and Four Day Creep plus the standards Rollin Stone and I’m Ready and three covers I Walk on Guilded Splinters, Hallelujah (I love her so) and I Dont Need No Doctor.The latter song would feature in every gig the Pie played. Guilded Splinters is John’s favourite piece of recorded music. He feels that it “captures everything that was great about the band: a long slow jam building to a crescendo with no flash or glitz just a great band keeping solid time and improvising over a solid base.” Splinter is 24 minutes and 30 seconds but in Jerry Shirley’s book he says it was edited down from 33 minutes. They never played this song after Frampton left and it highlights his ability and the chemistry which existed between him and Marriott during that brief but fantastic period from late 69 to mid 71.
The next album Smokin was their best selling, hitting No 6 in the USA driven by their aggressive touring, but only No 28 in the UK. Over their entire history Humble Pie never had an album in the top 10 in the UK. John feels: “While it is their biggest commercial success, for me the chemistry was gone when Clem Clempson replaced Frampton and Marriott took control. Many bands are better when the creative tension between two contributors is held in check – Waters/Gilmore, Page/Plant, Blackmore/Gillan among others – and for me, despite their next great effort, Eat It , the band were never the same. Thunderbox was decent but the next and final album Street Rats less than spectacular.”
John first got into Humble Pie when a friend at School loaned him his Rockin the Fillmore. I’m less clear how I first got into them, but first got to see them at the Lincoln Festival in May 1972, where they pulled off a tremendous performance and got a great reaction from the crowd. We both wanted to go and see them at Durham University in early 72 but it was the Rag Ball, students only, expensive (dinner included) and formal dress (which seems unbelievable for the time, but I’m pretty sure that its true). We both then saw them at Newcastle Odeon in late 1972 with Frampton’s Camel as support. My ticket shows the time as 6pm, so I can only assume that there were two shows that evening, and I must have attended the early show. I remember thinking it strange that Frampton would be supporting his ex-band, but recall very little about his set. I do remember him playing Plain Shame, which remains one of my favourite Frampton songs to this day.
My memories of Humble Pie in concert from those days are primarily of Steve Marriott. He was just such an amazing front man. All cockney swagger, the guy had absolutely no fear, and he took total control of the crowd throughout every performance. His voice, range and power were just amazing, and you got the feeling that he was believed and felt every single word. If you don’t know what I mean go to youtube and look out a live version of I Don’t Need No Doctor or Rollin’ Stone. Do I really remember him shouting “My skin is white, but my soul is black” or is that my memory playing tricks? I don’t think I’ve seen a performer since that even comes close. Or maybe, and I guess its a crazy comparison, I see something of the Marriott attitude in Robbie Williams; the total ego, the power of the performance, the ability to hold a massive crowd in his hand. And I see some of the Marriott mannerisms in Paul Weller, but then he is a big Marriott fan. A typical Humble Pie set list from 1972 was something like: Up Our Sleeve; C’Mon Everybody; Honky Tonk Woman; I Wonder; Hallelujah I Love Her So; I Don’t Need No Doctor; Hot n Nasty; Four Day Creep; Rolling Stone. Humble Pie sets tended to include a small number of songs as each one ended up as quite a marathon with lots of jamming. Thanks to John for his excellent contributions to the above. More tomorrow.
1 Mar
Uriah Heep Stockton Arc 28 Feb 2013
Uriah Heep Stockton Arc 28 Feb 2013
Support: Virgil and the Accelerators
Went along to Stockton Arc with my mate Norm to see the mighty Uriah Heep last night. Support came from new up and coming blues rock power trio Virgil and the Accelerators who are fronted by a young ace guitarist. We only managed to catch the last couple of numbers of their set as a result of a detour to the Stag Inn, but were very impressed by what we saw. Virgil and Co are very much from the Cream/Taste/Hendrix mould and have been getting rave reviews, going down a storm everywhere they play. After a short wait Uriah Heep came on stage to a great reception from the packed house. The current Heep line-up has been stable for some time with front man, Heep main man and orginal guitarist Mick Box, longtime and great frontman singer Bernie Shaw, Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Russell Gilbrook on drums. Sadly Trevor Bolder is not able to join the band for this tour, as he has recently being undergoing treatment for cancer. The good news is that his treatment has gone well, and he is expected back in the band later this year. Bass duties are currently being handled very ably by JJ Jowitt. The set was a mix of new and old, with the usual favourites. I’ve seen Uriah Heep several times over the past 10 years or so, and they remain an amazing live act. All of the ingredients that brought them to the notice of rock fans in the 70s are still there; screaming harmonies, swirling organ, great powerful vocals, and very LOUD volume. For the encore some ladies from the audience were brought up on stage to dance to Free n Easy; which seems to be a regular feature of the set now. Stand-out tracks for me were Sunrise, Gypsy, July Morning, Lady in Black and Easy Livin’. 
Its strange to think that over 40 years have past since I first saw this band at Newcastle City Hall; I remember them announcing Easy Livin’ as their new single. As Mick Box said last night as he introduced Gypsy “where did all those years go?”. Mick was on fine form; his showmanship still continues to develop, as he waves his hand around and above the neck of his guitar, casting spells that cause the instrument to play itself (that probably doesn’t make sense, but if you see him play you’ll know what I mean). Great rock, great nostalgia, and still very powerful. Long may they continue to rock. Norm and I both enjoyed the concert. Uriah Heep left the stage around 11pm and we were back around 11.45pm. Setlist: Against The Odds, Overload, Traveller in Time, Sunrise, All My Life, I’m Ready, Between Two Worlds, Stealin’, Nail On The Head, Into The Wild, Gypsy, Look At Yourself, July Morning, Lady In Black. Encore: Free n Easy, Easy Livin’
16 Feb
Geordie in concert
The band Geordie are probably better known because of their lead singer Brian Johnson, who is now lead singer with AC/DC, than as a band in their own right. But they had a few hits in the early to mid 70s and gigged constantly, particularly in their hometown Newcastle and the rest of the North East of England. Geordie feautured Brian Johnson on vocals, and Vic Malcolm on guitar, and hit the charts with “Don’t do that” (their first single which reached No. 32); “All because of you” (No. 6); “Can you do it” (No. 13); and “Electric lady” (No. 32). Geordie grew out of the workingmens club circuit. There were many rock bands playing the clubs at the time, playing mainly covers of bands like Free and Deep Purple. Geordie developed their blend of rock to become a sort of heavy rock glam act, of a similar ilk to Slade and Sweet. 
In fact they supported Slade on a UK tour. I saw Geordie many times in concert during 1973 and 1974, particularly at Sunderland Locarno, where they performed on several occasions. Brian left Geordie in 1976 and was asked to john AC/DC in 1980 after the death of Bon Scott, and the rest is history. A Geordie gig was always good fun, and a great live singalong favourite (if a little corny) was their version of the traditional song “Geordie’s lost his liggie”…”he lost it down the nettie…..so he got a case of dynamite…and he blew the stinking nettie along the Scotswood Road…..it was in his bloody pocket”! Work that one out! Happy days.
Vintagerock's Weblog. 