Below I have outlined some of the lead up and influences and motives leading to the creation of Hobo - Coventry's Own Music and Arts Magazine in June 1973. These include the work of The Broadgate Gnome in 1970- 71 with its blend of Avant Garde Politics and the promotion of the non-commercial music scene in Coventry and are; the work of the Coventry Arts Umbrella and my involvement with bands and venues and the problems they face such as lack of rehearsal space, venues and equipment; the Birmingham Streetpress, Streetpoems and the Birmingham Grapevine and more.
Another influence was reading about the Beatles and the role of Liverpool's Music paper The Mersey Beat
in developing and publicising the music scene there. Although most of us baulked at Mouldy Old Dough or rather sang it in some of the mouldy old cafe's we dared to eat in, it was nontheless a Coventry band at the top of the charts and they had played in other styled bands like Stavely Makepiece. Chuck Berry took the dubious My Ding a Ling to the top of the charts (recorded live at Tiffany's Ballroom in Coventry(now the Library) in a gig put on by the Lanch Poly tech. I couldn't afford to go to it, but did I really want to confess to 'playing with my own ding a ling' on record! On a deeper level Bob Jackson (formerly of Indian Summer, was playing around that time with John Entwhistle's band - Rigamortise and Pete Brown's Piblokto. It seemed that the music scene in Coventry needed more support and development. Many of Coventry's best bands had broken up like Wandering John, Asgard, April, Dando Shaft, Indian Summer and new bands were emerging but finding it difficult to get started. A music magazine that campaigned for wider facilities seemed to be sorely needed.
Another impetus was reading Scaduto's Biography of Bob Dylan published that year. As a young Hobo singer-songwriter - somewhat quirky at that stage! (I was playing guitar by this time.) I found the book inspiring and wished that Coventry had a similar cafe scene to Greenwich Village. In my quirky style of the moment, I even wrote a quirky song about it which I performed where-ever there was a shortage of ear-plugs (mostly folk clubs where they were too drunk to throw me out!) -
Here is my 'campaigning song'!
IF COFFEE BARS WERE LIKE THEY WERE IN GREENWICH VILLAGE
(Kinda had a staccato Loving Spoonful - Daydream type of feel to it)
I spend my time in coffee bars
Cos that's where all my friends go to.
It's somewhere warm where you can get -
a cup of coffee and a view
of waitresses draws, if you're not too poor! (no we weren't too politically correct in those days were we!)
(Chorus)
Wouldn't it be nice if coffee bars
were like they were in Greenwich Village,
with folk guitars and a cool, cool atmosphere,
'stead of Breadhead; shit; plastic fooded Wimpy bars!.
I spend my time in public bars
cos that's where all my friends go to.
The Golden Cross and the Dive Bar,
Not to mention all the rest
They're not cool cos they're all
Breadhead, big scowls, cop-prowls, shit beer, booze Brothels! (hmm! I used to like the Dive and Cross actually!)
I spend my time in discotheques,
in crowded little beer bar rooms,
or in the poly tech, where you can hear the sweet sweet sounds of
Led a Zeppalin; Blackfoot Sue; Hi Ella Guru!;
'Slam it to mee' Slade and all the other groovy things
the DJ's like to play.
Wouldn't it be nice if we had some nice places to go,
to call our own,
where money was only a means to an end
and not given to the millionaires to spend.
Where we could have a groovy time
and do the things we'd really love to do.
(An optional verse was, (depending on how pissed the singer was!!)
I spend my time in public loos
Cos that's where one just has to goo!
Sitting in a cubical
when one has one's bellyfull
of shit like this!
(Bob Dylan had a harmonica - I went one better - I had a Trumpet Kazoo! Possibly influenced by seeing the New Modern Idiot Grunt Band I suppose!)
by Trev Teasdel (am I really going to admit to it!!!)
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