This concerns the bands that played or rehearsed at the Umbrella between 1969 and 1972. It's not all inclusive, just the
one I know about.
(CBR Card opposite - one of the sources of bands. Their office was near the Umbrella.)
I got involved with the Umbrella from October 1969, after seeing an ad in the Butts Tech for the Transcendental Cauldron Underground festival. Al Docker, a drummer / songwriter and workmate at DF Gibbs got me involved. He put the bands on at the time and I used to do the door and go the rounds of music agencies, networking in pubs like the 'Dive Bar' (Lady Godiva and the Golden Cross, Jaguar, Lanch etc.). After he left to concentrate on his band Tsar, I took over his role around the autumn 1970 until summer 1971.Later in 1972 I took over the Poetry and Folk evenings creating the misxed media Humpoesic Happenings blogs below this.
Some of the bands that played or rehearsed during this period were - Last
Fair Deal, Asgard, Whistler, The Chris Jones Aggression, Whistler, April, Cliff Cowling Trio, Love Zeus, Railroad, Nack ed en, Rogation Sunday, Acorn, Jessica's Theme, Fresh Maggots, Children, Wandering John, Gentle, Tea and Symphony, Ghost, Judas Goat, Don't Pick a Flower Unless You're Sure, Toadstool, Dando Shaft, Tsar, Rocking Chair, Ra Ho Tep, Indian Summer Slitnitza , Dent Beaufoy, Gothic Horizon. I tried to book Medicine Head (see story), Al & Steve Varney ran the disco with Pete Webb. This went under various names - Purple Haze, Alestapeda, Al's Heavy Rock or progressive disco, Atom. Al Varney later became a bass player and played with Fission in 73.
More will be written about the bands in the forthcoming band directory but here are a few personal snippets from the Umbrella during that period.
Asgard -
I first saw Asgard at the
Umbrella Oct 69. Neol Davies orginally played lead guitar for them but left to form Mead. Asgard were a Pink Floyd styled group with Bill on Farfiza Organ, Terry on Drums and a bass player (Can't remember the surnames ). They used to rehearse in the Umbrella
theatre, and I used to watch them. They did a cover of Carful with that Axe Eugene and Set the Controls for the heart of the Sun
but also their own material. I saw them at Warwick University Arts Fest, the Lanch and Pete Waterman's Walsgrave Gig also. They split up c 1970. Bill taught me to play Set the Controls on guitar and one day some one
came in to the reheasal and said 'Bloody hell the sun's hot!" and Terry
quipped back "You shouldn't touch it then!". Later, 3am while walking the 3 miles home to Willenhall I recycled his quip into a song. I often wrote songs on the way home to pass the time, using a Jew;s harp to get the melody and jotting the words down on bus tickets. We'd been listen to Black Sabbath, who were out at the time, and a black cat crept out of the shadows and ran across the London Rd. I looked up at the sky and black menacing clouds were crawling across the sky - It inspired a heavy rock lyric called Black Lizard Stream. The quip is recycled in the bridge (the line
is italics). The song, written in symbolic language, describes the feeling of wanting something so badly but when the opportunity arrives, you blow it, get embarrassed or get burnt - it might be love, it might anything. The quip was a useful image to use therefore. Here's an excerpt-
BLACK LIZARD STREAM by Trev Teasdel
Black cats creep out of the shadows
Liquid black and evil faced
Black clouds crawl over the sky
Like turtles over the sand
Pin-stripe pain within my frame
I have lost my way
We have lost our way.
(Skipping some here to go to the bridge -)
Bridge
The mountain peaks they touched the sun
But promptly burnt their hands
A herd of hills leave their homes
Searching for a match to strike
And I’m so low, I’m bound to go
Cos I have lost my way
We have lost our way.
APRIL -
April were Coventry's answer to Fairport Convention but with their own style. I loved their sound. Sandy Denny is a hard act to follow, but Bill Jackson's voice on Who knows Where the Time Goes did the business! other covers included James Taylor's Carolina On My Mind. Mostly they did their own songs. I loved listening to them and while laid off from the GEC and living near by in Brunswick Rd., I used to open the Umbrella for them to rehease and got to hear them lots! They played in BIrmingham at the Swan, The Lanch, Warwick Uni, The Walsgrave. I booked them for the Umbrella but they split up days before. What a great shame - this was a very talented band. Ron Lawrence, bass player, used to play an 8 string bass using a bow for special effects. Ron later played bass with Sniff and the Tears in the 80's along with Loz Netto. Ron lived in a cottage in Shilton. In the autumn 1971 Al Docker and I moved in after they vacated. Al formed a new Coventry super group with Ron called Runestaff (after the Michael Moorcock novel). The band consisted of Al Docker - Drums; Ron Lawrence
Bass; Bill Jackson (Ex April) Piano / Vocals / acoustic guitar; Roy Butterfield (Ex Indian Summer) on lead guitar; Al
Hatton (ex bass with Indian Summer) on acoustic guitar. And they reheased in our dining room. I'm probably the only non member apart from Ron's wife Pat, who was the technician, to hear them as they never got to the giging stage. Great shame they split up - it was begining to sound really good.
RAILROAD
Around Jan / Feb 1971 Drummer Steve Harrison (who I knew from Junior School) asked me to write some lyrics for his new band Railroad. yhey were a blues / roack band consisting of Mick
Green on lead / Rhythm guitar, Tony (Mojo) Morgan (later in EMF (Coventry version) who won Battle of the bands in 1980) on bass (I also knew Tony from secondary school and he'd written music to one of my first lyrics The Elusive Metallic Idol (about the rat race) Coventry's a Car town - hence the opening phrase! An Extract..
There’s a maze of minds
Designing all kinds of cars.
There’s a surfeit of time to kill
So the people do what they will
Living in flats, so very high
Working so hard till they finally die.
I wrote some fresh lyrics for them, liking the idea of the poet / lyricist with a band like Pete Brown (lyricist for Cream) and Pete Sinfield (lyricist with King Crimson). They were the ones I looked up to (apart from Paul Simon, Dylan and Joni Mitchell). Railroad asked me to try vocals with them. I booked the Umbrella for the rehearsal in advance and phoned Pete Waterman to see if he knew anyone who could loan us a PA ! It was the first time ever tried vocals with a band and it wouldn't be until later in the year that I played guitar and could write my own music and sing solo. Ultimately the band didn't gel and split up. Here are excerpts from the specially written lyrics - I think I was trying to steer them into a sort King Crimson mode!
BENEATH THE PHAEIC SKY by Trev Teasdel (Excerpt)
The Black Knight's spectre prowls the battlement
Beneath the phaeic sky, sounds his sad lament.
The phantom pillion rider groans
as he leaps a lazing stile.
The faceless henchman totes his gun
and points it with beguile.
And the shivers of my uncertainty
Cloud my mind so I can't see.
And a full lyric about the illusion of life (Glaik is an archaic word for illusion)
GLAIK (The Illusion of the Lake) by Trev Teasdel
I tried to catch the sun
but it was only a reflection in the water.
I was only seeking treasure
But I ended up 'kissing the gunner's daughter'
The velvet coated bard I followed
was just a caird who was in a play.
I looked up to the sky to see
they had blackened the 'eye of the day'
chorus Glai - Aye Aye Aye ack (3 times)
The Illusion of the lake.
I went to see the archimage
but he turned out to be just a javel.
I pulled the bedclothes back
to see a snake unravel.
I almost made the rainbow's end
when it suddenly turned wan
I gledged upon a peacock
who suddenly lost his fan.
NACK ED EN
Prior to Railroad, Drummer Steve Harrison was playing with a group called Nack ed en. He took me down to the Binley Oak where the were rehearsing and asked me to bring some lyrics. The group consisted of Loz Netto lead / Rhythm guitar (Loz was with Sniff and the Tears later in the 80's),
Neil Richardson bass (Neil was previously in a band who played the
Umbrella - Acorn / Rogation Sunday)
and afterwards Drops of Brandy - who were big on the national Rank circuit. I went done the next sunday to the rehearsal only to find Steve had been replaced on drums by Brad (John Bradbury) (later of the Specials). This was the first time I'd met Brad. I was disappointed for Steve but had to admit Brad was a brilliant drummer. I arranged for them to rehease at the Umbrella and often sat in on their pratices. I noticed how Brad worked with a band. He was never one for long boring drum solos that often were more about ego than skill. His solos employed brevity, were were skillfully deployed and enhanced the song rather than distracted from it. He was very technically proficient and yet amazingly creative with it. This was rare! Listen to his solo in Gangsters. At the Umbrella practices I noticed how he worked with bands. It often led to disputes but Brad was concerned for the structure of the song, the tightness of the band, the trasition between sections of the number. A lot of drummers offered the thrash bang approach where as Brad was seemed more concerned with the sense of the number, enhancing it with skilful embellishments. After the Oak session, we ended up in the Dive bar. Guitarist Chris Jones
was there and Brad and Chris looked through the lyrics Steve had asked me to bring in. Chris wanted me to write sonme lyrics for his band Chris Jones Aggression - we set up a meeting but I think the band were falling apart about then - Chris moved on to a Jazz Rock band called Wave, based at the Earlsdon Cottage.. Unfortunately bands split up and reform with great regularity at this stage and nothing came of it all. I think Nack ed en played a few gigs but the bass player joined his old band mates and manager in a new band Drops of Brandy doing 10 cc style covers and they became hot on the Rank circuit for a while. Loz became a good friend - on one occassion we went to see ELP at the Lanch - after the show we met Greg Lake and Carl Palmer outside the Lanch at the Hot dog stall. Loz was interrogating Greg about his work with Robert Fripp. It wasn't the best
moment to do that, Greg had just split with King Crimson, but he did focus on the positive and respected Fripps work. Carl Palmer told us he was from nearby Nuneaton. On another ocassion I went to the Warwick Uni Arts Festival with Loz. The Pink Fairies and local bands - Whistler, Asgard were on too. Loz and I went into the band's dressing room - Loz was after a go on their guitars. It was there he gave me a few lead guitar lessons. Meanwhile the Pink Fairies were having fun in the loos putting a condom over a switched on tap! By the time the condom was about to explode, two academics walked in in suits in time for a cold shower!
An extract form one of the lyrics they read - An early one I'd written in 1968 after leaving school -
Mr Opulent V Mary Annabella (Trev Teasdel 1968)
Mary Annabella wears a face she does not own
and her teeth are in a jar on the table in her home.
She walks the dog around the street
hoping she might meet
Mr Perfect and his family called 'Elite'
All mod-cons are incorporated in the kitchen that she admires..
LOVE ZEUS - Loz Netto moved to Love Zeus after Nack ed en broke up in 1971. Love Zeus was very much an umbrella Club band with Tony Cross (who was on the Umbrella's executive overseing all the music events) and was a classically trained keyboard player. Al Docker on drums, Loz Netto on Guitar, a female violinist, as for vocalist - it may bhave been Paul Feltwell or Paul King (can't remember now and now documentation) - but both had been at Brookland's Annexe Drama college. It may have been too early to be Paul King. This group played the Umbrella and a prestigious gig at the Belgrade Theatre. The Again the group didn't last long and soon split up.
In August 1970 (see ticket above) Al Docker booked Birmingham band
Tea and Symphony who we had heard on John Peel and who
recorded on Harvest. They were booked through the near by CBR Music agency in Queen Victoria Rd. They played in the Umbrella's little theatre and had a great lightshow. Another Birmingham band was -
Ghost -
UPDATES NOV 07
Bands organised by Cliff Cowling until Al Docker Took over 1969-1970 and then Trev Teasdel 1970-1971
May 1970 Postcard
July 1970 Trad B Jefferson & April
July 1970 Asgard
August 1970 - Steve Tayton and his Jazz Quartet
Fri Aug 14th 1970 Vic's Heavy Rock Jam session (See Transcendental Cauldron post)
Fri Aug 21st Tea & Symphony and April (Groups wishing to practice should see Al Docker)
Fri 18th Sept 1970 Ghost and Asgard (Contrasting Styles)
Live Music May 1971
Live Music by Al Docker's group Tsar with Atom Disco (Al and Steve Varney) - Al Varney later became the bassist with Fission c1973. A piece in the Umbrella programme read "A freaky night for anyone who wants to listen to some good sounds!"
April 1971 Toadstool - John Brown's folk duo.
May 11th 1971 Don't Pick a Flower - John Leopold's folk duo. Poetry and Folk session. Contemporary and own songs.
May Tues 18th 1971 Poetry and folk with ROGER WILLIAMSON
Oct 19th 1971 Heron (London based contemporary folk group)
Members joining at this time Early 70's (although some of them had been coming to events a while before becoming members.
Jan Gage and Jan Coombs (Helped with publicising bands when Trevor was organising them in 1970 / 71)
Rosemary Jones (involved with the Folk and Poetry) Charles Bullen (Guitarist with Tsar) (Joined Sept 1971. Also Andrew Court and Nick Day.
Sectretary of the Programme Committee in 1971 was Lindy Watson (now Lyndie Brimstone) and on the committee were Esther Breakwell, Jim Ashworth, Maggie Heath, John Pinder and Gaynor Penton.
Other regular members at that time include Tes Walker, Malvin Preece (later DJ at the Village), John Scott, Jim Porter, Mick Cuttifoot, Lance Goodey, Sally Birch, Jenny Bowden, Doug Deakin, Pete Webb, Heather Lovatt
.
Hobo recieved this from Loz Netto - former guitarist with Sniff and the Tears and Coventry bands - Tsar, Love Zeus, Nak ed en and more - now a solo artist).
Hi Trev,
Thanks for getting in touch. I have had a look at
your site and it's brill to hear about all the old bands and stuff, a real walk
down memory lane. Haven't had time to get involved yet but I certainly will
soon. Glad you like my site it's now been updated with the release of my new
album 'REPLAY' I have audio clips on the site of every song
from the album should you care to take a listen This album is more modern blues
based something I have wanted to do for a long time.
Anyway I will check your site again with view to
getting involved good luck with it all.
All the best.
Loz
Posted by: HOBO - Coventry Music Magazine | 03/29/2007 at 10:54 AM