The Record Launch in Preston

(Left to Right) Frank Newbold, Paul Varley and Peter Illingworth

Little Free Rock    Part I         by Peter Illingworth

It was decision time. Should we pack up work and turn Professional, or do we sit tight and be content in our Semi-Pro Status. Tough! Especially for Frank who was in line to take over his elderly father's Furniture Factory, and I guess for Paul who worked for his Father as an upholsterer. I too was in line for Promotion to Foreman in Atkinson Vehicles where I was currently a Chargehand Fitter. The perception was that the whole music world centred on London, and you had to be there to be a part of anything. So after not very careful consideration, we said thanks, but it's now or never, and 'Off we jolly well go!!'

Eddie found us a flat in Muswell Hill in North London, near where he shared a flat with Barry Ainsworth the Pye Engineer who recorded Hush for Deep Purple, which was great except for the fact that our Landlord (and Lady) lived downstairs and had no experience of living under exuberant 'would be' pop stars. Within a month they freaked about the noise we were making and we managed to spend most of the Advance from Transatlantic Records on groceries. We then moved to the leafy suburbs of Sydenham, near Crystal Palace in South East London, where we had the whole ground floor of an Old Victorian semi-detached house, with a large garden and basement.

Transatlantic booked us in to Morgan Studios in Willsden to record our Album, and Glynn Johns was secured to engineer the project.

In the event, when we arrived to begin recording, the guy who was ensconced in the chair was Mike Bobak, who we'd never heard of but who went on to record Rod Stewart and the Faces etc. Unfortunately our session turned out to be his first Solo engineering experience, and I have to say that he was less than inspirational. Our next mistake was to allow Eddie to produce it, because between the pair of them there was no one with any experience or motivation to help point us in the right direction. We floundered on; during sessions which were beginning sometimes near midnight (obviously the cheap period), deeply unhappy with the sound our instruments were making at the desk, and trying to play the songs like we did on stage in ad-libbed arrangement. These were fine on the first 'take' but by the time we got to 'take' 10 they had lost much of the spontaneity, which live performance captured. Sod's law! We were so distressed with them that some of the final tracks were one-take re-recordings in the hope of getting something better. In the final song Making Time for instance, Paul actually breaks a stick in his Solo and the broken portion can be heard as it lands on a tom-tom and Paul hastily does some Cymbal work as he scrambles for another stick. That should never have happened. Transatlantic said we'd already taken too long and it would have to go as it was! They'd previously only had experience of recording Folk artists like Ralph Mctell and The Humblebums so weren't used to dealing with the problems of amplification etc. There was no one to help us when we needed it the most. Tim Hinkley from Jody Grind played Melotron on some of the tracks.

However, this was a new journey for Transatlantic too and we were signed at the same time as three other acts, Circus, Jody Grind and The Deviants, under the banner 'Transatlantic - Where the Electric Children Play'. Numerous publicity photos were taking in an Adventure Playground in Notting Hill and duly featured in the Music Papers to announce the forthcoming release of the Albums. Our eponymous Album was set for release at the end of November 1969. I suppose just allowing us to be included in the 60's era with our record. Another beef of mine is that there was no track which was really destined to be released as a single. With planning and in retrospect, this should have been one of the first considerations. I think most of the staff at Transatlantic were too intent on having a good time to really care about anything, or it seemed that way! That was the 'vibe' of the era though. Only ourselves to blame really, but it could have been so much different.

Yet we were signed for a 6 Album, 3-year deal, so things could only get better. With the release, and our auspicious Album Launch in Brady's Music Store in Preston, our fees trebled overnight, and whilst we weren't working every night of the week, things were looking up. We began picking up work in the London area and Little Free Rock began to appear in the weekly 'Gig Guides', which the rest of the country reads, and then proceeds to book, and they are seen to be to ones doing the circuits. In truth, the majority of London Gigs traded on this fact, and paid next to nothing, knowing full well that bands were obliged to do this work, to get into the Melody Maker Adds. That's Show Biz, Folks!!

Places like the lauded 'Implosion' at the Roundhouse used to pay about £10 a night. It would be laughable if it wasn't true! Still, we had some remarkable gigs there, playing with the likes of Freedom, Daddy Longlegs and many more. The Marquee paid little more, and often preferred to pay a percentage of the gate rather than a fee, to cushion the blow if nobody turned up. Fortunately, the place was always packed !

We were living in the flat at Sydenham, which had become a popular stopping off spot for our friends from Lancashire. Rod Willis an Australian friend from Preston moved in and became our Road Manager. Much of our work in 1969 was still in the North of England, so we would try a work it so that we could spend some time with our folks in the area when we were gigging. By November Eddie had been developing ideas. He'd seen The Rolling Stones Hyde Park Concert, where, during 'Sympathy for the Devil' Ginger Johnson and his African Drummers had joined them. Eddie approached Ginger and invited him to work with us. Initially they would just roll to gigs along in various numbers and add African Percussion to our English Heavy Rock. The solos would be extended to incorporate percussion and talking-drum solos, but as we were mostly ad-libbing anyway, it fitted right in to what we were doing anyway. We were also joined on now and again by Keith Bleasby from Transatlantic Records where he was a distribution Manager, and by Roy Carr from the New Musical Express (and The Executives of March of the Mods fame)on a couple of occasions. Ginger's Drummers included at different times, Lofty and Mac from Osibisa, Speedy Aquay from Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Remi Salaka from The Rolling Stones Tours, Gasper Lawal from Ginger Baker's Airforce, 'Lord' Eric Carboo, and once at the said Roundhouse, there were 26 Africans and a Witchdoctor, and three little white faces in the middle of all. I can say that it was uncontrollable at times, but it went down a storm with the audiences.

However, this was only a few weeks after the Album was released, and nothing like the stuff on the Album. We were playing the same songs but totally differently, with talking drum solos and great swathes of percussion.

CBS and Warner Brothers were trailing us around town, and getting very interested. In his wisdom, and with an eye on the generous Record Advances that these bigger companies would offer, Eddie told Transatlantic that we were leaving, because they hadn't fulfilled their end of the bargain as far as publicity etc was concerned. Transatlantic said 'We'll see about that!' and put us in breach of Contract. As soon as CBS and Warner Bros heard that they chickened out. CBS saying that we were 'too much like Santana!'. God! Too much like Santana! I took that as a great compliment!!! They obviously didn't know the difference between Latin and African Rhythms though! Had Eddie waited and let them become interested enough they could have negotiated us out of the Contract with Transatlantic.

Yet we were encompassed into the new Afro movement which was sweeping London, and we guested at a big Afro Festival's at the Chalk Farm Roundhouse, with Ebenezar Obey and Dudu Pukwana.  Our gigs were taking us further afield, and some, whilst not prestigious were momentous. We played at an Amnesty International Rally on the steps of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, and eminent Radio One DJ John Peel at his Sunday Night gig at the Nags Head, Wollaston near Northampton gave us an impressive write-up in his Melody Maker Column, saying that we were the most exciting band to appear at there since Raven.

In a coupe de force Eddie managed to persuade Peter Green to come and jam with LFR, and a gig was duly arranged at a small club in Soho called The Night Angel. I think Peter liked it because we didn't push him out front, and he was very laid-back and took his turn to solo, just being happy to play. Following the success of this, gigs were arranged for the Marquee Club and for the London Lyceum Ballroom on the Strand. In the meantime Peter invited us to play on his Solo Album Project.   The sessions were amazing, with the tapes just being left to roll and the assembled musicians jamming endlessly. Food and drinks were provided and it was a great party atmosphere.  It was apparent however, that numerous Africans turned up who we'd never seen before and were banging cow-bells and assorted percussion instruments. At the end they stood in line for their session fee and in all good faith Peter paid everyone for three sessions, but then came to deal with an argumentative Ginger Johnson.    To cut a long story short, Ginger thought that he should have been paid the full amount and he would have then pay his drummers according to his own values.  Basically he didn't like the idea of only receiving the same amount as his cow-bell player.     

So Ginger continued to harass Peter for days afterwards until finally Eddie received a call from Peter saying that if Ginger Johnson was involved with Little Free Rock anymore then he wasn't interested.  The gigs were cancelled and that was the last we heard from Peter Green.  Sadly because of this the recordings were never used and never surfaced again.

As it was, after expecting to do 6 Albums, we couldn't record for anyone at all for 3 years. Despondency began to set in with a vengeance. There became no reason to write or rehearse at all. We merely played to live.

It became obvious that we had to rationalise the number of Africans in the band, so we parted company from Ginger, but continued to use some of his men.   Lofty and Mac, the sax and trumpet player who went on to form Osibisa were the next addition, but once again it was money, or the lack of it that caused problems.   We were booked to do two weeks in Basle, in Switzerland followed by the Frankfurt'70 open air Festival at the Raad Stadium on the way home with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Byrds, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Edgar Broughton amongst others.  We knew how much we were going to receive, but Lofty and Mac decided that they wanted more than their share!    That wasn't acceptable so after discussion we went and did the gig as a three piece.     We we got home we changed African's again.  This time it was with Gaspar Lawal who went on the work with Ginger Baker's Airforce, and Remi Salaka who worked with the Stones, but it was hard to work with people who had solo aspirations and ego's to match. Finally we re-united with one of Ginger Johnson's original drummers 'Lord' Eric Carboo, and we were able to develop a more stable musical format.

Meanwhile following a gig in Manchester Frank had a contretemps with Eddie. Frank wanted to stay overnight in Preston to see his folks and Eddie wanted to go back to London so we dropped Frank at the station.  On the way back to London Eddie convinced Paul and myself that Frank was a trouble maker and had to go. Sadly, I was so focussed on Little Free Rock that anything which appeared to threatened it had to be removed, and we agreed with Eddie that Frank should go. I found out later that Frank had unearthed some more dubious events which had occurred about which the rest of us knew nothing.

Go to   Little Free Rock   Part II         by Peter Illingworth

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