April 1st Thurs - Pisces at the Earlsdon Cottage but went to the Arts Umbrella.
April 2nd Fri - Fang at Village (Colin Campbell). heard tracks off Gothic Horizon's LP (Cov contemporary folk band).
April 3rd Sat - Disco at the Lanch Poly. Met Chris Jones and the Aggression band
April 4th Sun - Disco at the Plough. Torqwood at the City Arms, Earlsdon. Went to the Umbrella.
April 5th Mon - Geneva Wheel, Fresh Maggots, Whistler, Tzar, Ra Ho Tep - Free concert at the Lanch Poly. Everybody there.
April 6th Tues - Graham Bond and Magic + Pete Waterman at the Walsgrave.
April 7th Weds - Indian Summer, Whistler and Tzar at a Nuneaton School. I went to Umbrella.
April 8th Thurs - Went to Arts Umbrella.
April 9th Fri - Happening at the Kinetic Circus - Birmingham. Went to the Village met with Jackie and Louise and the Jans and Ade Taylor.
April 10th Sat - Met Louise in town then on to the Umbrella.
April 11th Sun - Stayed in writing and revising songs.
April 12th Mon - Went to the Umbrella
April 13th Tues - Indian Summer LP reviewed in Coventry Evening Telegraph. Went to the Walsgrave to see Tiny Clanger and then on to the Umbrella to do a poetry reading (begining to perform now) - Folk group Toadstool played.
April 14th Weds - Went to Umbrella.
April 15th Thurs - Stayed in writing and revising song lyrics and poems.
April 16th Fri - Saw Lucreatia Borgia atht eh Village and the on to the umbrella.
April 17th Sat - Went to the Umbrella - met the drama group - went to the Tally Ho with Tony Cross, Lyndie, Chaz Crompton and other and then back to Tony's.
April 18th Sun - Went to the Umbrella - began practising Guitar and the piano. Al Docker started me off on Piano. Mostly learning chords soas to start putting my own music to my lyrics.
April 19th Mon - Went to Town met Jackie and Louise. Later to the umbrella to practice guitar and piano. Later to Lyndie's with some of the Brooklands drama group etc for coffee and a jam session - a 'mini arts lab' with people writing poems, songs, sketching and discussion all night til dawn.
April 20th Tues - Umbrella Poetry and Folk session - read some poems / lyrics then went to the Thistle for a drink with Esther and Bill.
April 21st Weds - Met Jackie and Louise in town - went to Louise's - wrote her a song in a Marc Bolan style walking home 6 miles after missing the last bus.
April 22nd Thurs - Went to Louise's for tea - walked home from Longford to Willenhall.
April 23rd Fri - Met Lousie - went to Lanch bar andthe Tally Ho. Meanwhile Fresh Maggots on at the Village.
April 24th Sat - Oz Benefit Concert at Warwick Uni. Trees + Judy Dyble's Penguin Dust with Lol Coxhill and Steve Millar at Lanch Poly - Good night.
April 25th Sun - Went to Umbrella to check on the booking for Tsar.
April 26th Mon - Went to Umbrella - Executive meeting.
April 27th Tues - Swargas at Warwick Uni. Roger Williamson at the Umbrella (singer songwriter).
April 28th Weds - Went to Umbrella - Chris Jones and Loz Netto jamming.
April 29th Thurs - Went to Umbrella - Practising piano and guitar and read Esther and Heather's poems.
April 30th Fri - May Ball at Warwich Uni. Love Zeus at the Umbrella (Tony Cross / Loz Netto / Al Docker etc.). Went to Lanch Poly after with the two Jans - Indian Summer, Wild Turkey, Titus Groan, Graham Bond, Bronco, Clouds.
May 1st Sat - Practiced Piano and guitar at Umbrella.
May 2nd Sun - Decided to take Guitar and piano practice more serious from this point. Had partial use of Lyndie's Spanish guitar to learn on and the piano at the umbrella. Stayed in at night writing.
May 3rd Mon - Went to Umbrella to see about Free Concert. (Not sure which one now!). Practicing instruments.
May 4th Tues - Read poems (accompanied myself on Jew's Harp and Bongos) at Norman Wheatley's Poetry and Folk session at the Umbrella. Practised instruments afterwards.. Got lift to town in the Acorn band van>
May 5th Weds - Practicing at the Umbrella - jammed with jazz drummer Bin on bongos.
May 6th Thurs - Booked Umbrella for the Drum Circle group. Worked on songs on piano.
May 7th Fri- - Tsar's gig at the Umbrella cancelled. There was a jam session instead. Hackensack were at the Plough. Went to late disco at Lanch with the two Jans.
May 8th Sat - Audience and Trees at Warwick Uni. Went to twon in day to met Chris Jones - wanted me to do some lyrics for his band and book a practice at the Umbrella. Met the Jans at the Lanch again.
May 9th Sun - Went to Umbrella to book the room for Chris Jones.
May 10th Mon - Went to Umbrella to practice songs - Esther gave me some piano lessons. Chris Jones never showed up. Talked to Barry Bowerman about his play.
May 11th Tues - Keef Hartley and Formerly Fat Harry on somewhere - possibly Walsgrave) (Diary doesn't say). Saw Don't Pick a Flower at Umbrella poetry and folk session. Read poems with accompaniment.
May 12th Weds - Went to Organ Centre in Grafton St with Clive and Paul. Think this is where Bob Jackson got his Hammond Organ. Went Umbrella, jammed. Tony Cross and Mick taught me some piano.
May 13th Thurs - Typing songs up all day at Lyndies pad on Umbrella's old typewriter. Evening went to Umbrella - Heather Lovatt's Art Exhibition.
May 14th Fri - Gin House at Plough. Cliff Cowling (Rock n Roll Pianist) had rock party at Umbrella. Met Chris Jone's Bassist Terry there. Went back to Lyndies and practiced guitar.
May 15th Sat - Michael Chapman / Jo Ann Kelly / Mike Cooper at Warwick University. Poetry and Fok session at Umbrella.
May 16th Sun - Went the Plough - saw Martin Barter about a potential songwriting collaboration and Clive about forming a band. Clive was willing to perform for the Umbrella Music Marathon I was organising with Lyndie.
May 17th Mon - Pete King from Birmingham came to Umbrella to discuss playing at Umbrella Music Marathon. Getting organised now. Lyndie arranging sleeping arrangments for bands from out of Coventry. The two Jan's were doing posters. Talked to the Umbrella Drum circle. Gaynor helping with publicity and selling tickets for the marathon. To phone Pete Waterman about band contacts.
May 18th Tues - Toadstool playing at the Umbrella poetry and folk - read poems accompanied by my guitar. (basic at this stage!).
May 19th Weds - Went to the Boatyard (Hand in Heart). Met Bazz of Chris Jones Aggression - discussed doing the Music Marathon with him.
May 20th Thurs - Met Terry Watson (Chair of the Umbrella) - sorting reciepts and invoces from the Umbrella band nights.
May 21th Fri - Went to Gaynor and Angela's brithday party at Merrick Lodge.
May 22nd Sat - Genesis and Noir at Warwick. Went to Umbrella was guest DJ until 2am for the disco.
May 23rd Sun - Went to Plough to get my songs back from Martin Barter and tried to get Ra Ho Tep's No for the Music Marathon. Lyndie read through my songs and offered feedback and use of her typewriter to type them all out.
May 24th Mon - Practising at the Umbrella - went back to Lyndie's in Barras Lane to plan Music Marathon.
May 25th Tues - Warm Dust - at Warwick University. Singer Songwriter Roger Williamson at the Umbrella Poetry and Folk. Performed some poems and lyrics. Did a cool collage for Lyndies' flat.
May 26th Weds - Went to Kongoni Cafe in city centre to talk to Martin barter about the Music Marathon gig.
May 27th Thurs - Went to see Bob Dylan's Don't Look Back and Joan Baez's JOAN at the Odeon. Then to the Umbrella to practice while Heather painted Lyndie.
May 28th Fri - Practicing at the Umbrella.
May 29th Sat - Practicing at Umbrella - went for drink with Heather and Lyndie.
May 30th Sun - Our proosed free Whitsun concert canceled - problems at the Umbrella. Met Heather at the City Arms - Rod Felton was playing.
May 31st Mon - Practicing piano - Al Docker played Martha My Dear; Obladi Oblada by the Beatles and Careful with that Axe Eugene on Piano and taught me some chords and bass parts. Heather loaned me Full House by Fairport Convention and I loaned poet Ian Gage Deep Purple in Concert with the Philharmonic.
June 1st Tues - Spyder were due to perform for Arts Umbrella Poetry and Folk. We stayed at Lyndies place in Barras Lane, people were writing poems, songs, painting and drawing and being creative well until dawn. Wrote a song lyric about it called It's All Happening at Lyndie's Mini Arts Lab.
June 2nd Weds - Umbrella Club were told we didn't have local authority clearence to hold the 2nd Music Marathon at the Umbrella advised to checkout other locations. Lyndie and I went to the memorial Park and then to the Charterhouse, met with the representatives of the police and fire brigade and local authority. They envisaged the simple Umbrella based Music Marathon (like the first relatively small affair) as if we were proposing a full blown pop festival. Nothing we could say could deter them from that mind-set! They mentioned major traffic concerns and all kinds of things that just wrn't of the scale of what we were porposing - the scale was the usual small Umbrella fare that had no problems when ran a year or so back. Lyndie argued the case but they called us 'naive' and then told us to scale down. WHAT! - It was they that scaled it up in the first place. Much annoyance and frustration was felt after a lot of unseen work had gone into organising it and priming bands and musicians for it. I practiced piano for a while at the Umbrella and then went to Lyndie's to see if we could rescue it some how.
June 3rd Thurs - Went to Charterhouse - we hadn't given in, to Cathedral refrectory and other places exploring alternative venues. Still working on the project. Went for drink in the Thistle to chill out in evening.
June 4th Fri - Dando Shaft were palying at the Village. Met Jackie and the Jan's at the Village. Village gave me Ra Ho Tep number - to involve them in the marathon (if a new venue could be found). We all went up the Umbrella after.
June 5th Sat - Proposed Free Concert (Can't remember too much about this but it was crossed out in my diary). Ra Ho Tep phoned me at the Umbrella. Went to the Village again.
June 6th Sun - Went to the City Arms (Earlsdon) to see Rod Felton perform. Went to the Plough club and the Tavern.
June 7th Mon - Typed my songs up at Lyndie's on the Umbrella's type writer.
June 8th Tues - Met Dave (Byron) Reed and Jackie. Went to Tech College; Deaf Centre; Henley on Marathon Business and then to Lyndie's to report back on Marathon.
June 9th Weds - Lyndie went to London and left me a 'todo' list for the Marathon.
June 10th Thurs - Helped Lyndie rehearse her lines for her play Bretch's Good Women of Schezwan at Brookland's Annexe. Phoned the Deaf Centre and more work on Marathon.
June 11th Fri - Went to Birmingham for Lyndie - met her friend Jan and went back to Kings Norton - listen to Basket of Light by Pentangle. Went back to Steve's of Ascension (one of the Birmingham bands) Stayed over. Steve taught ne some bits on guitar. For the first time I wrote a song on guitar, words and music and alternating bass line. It wasn't the bees knees but it was good progress.
June 12th Sat - Back from Birmingham. Helped Lyndie rehearse lines for play and wrote another song.
June 13th Sun - Went to Plough and then Umbrella. Clive taught me of the Indian Summer riffs on piano.
June 14th Mon - Still negotiating witht he Deaf club for a venue. Practiced piano at Umbrella and tested Lyndie on her lines for the Bretch Play, typed more of my songs.
June 15th Tues - Typed more songs and practiced piano. Went to Walsgrave. It was a changed scene.
June 16th Weds - Typed more songs and practiced piano.
June 17th Thurs - Typed and wrote songs. Watched Tsar practise at Umbrella in little theatre. Went for a drink with Heather in Thistle to talk about the Poetry and folk nights. Went to see Lyndie's play at Brooklands - got great review in Cov Telegraph. Lyndie gave me good feedback on my poems and I read through some of hers. We talked about literature and I looked through some of the books on her self - she was studying literature and my knowledge started to go beyond rock poets.
June 18th Fri - Went to Lyndie's play again.
June 19th Sat - Went to party in Birmingham - Ascension. Learnt some more guitar off Steve.
June 20th Sun - Had stayed over in Birmingham - wrote another song while there.
June 21st Mon - Stayed in Birmingham. It was looking like our best efforts had been thwarted about the Marathon. Getting a suitable venue was proving difficult as the the weekend marathon would go on all weekend all night. It worked before at the Umbrella but the Umbrella at that time was used to gigs that went on late. Other venues were more normalised! we'd gotten a lot of support from bands and music fans but not any support from the venues or the powers that be. And yet it was a positive thing, providing bands with gigs and young people with a bit of culture.
June 22nd Tues - Still in Birmingham - went to Cannon Hill Park Arts Centre with Jan for the first time. later would write some pieces that formed a musical installation performance piece in the early 80's which we performed all around Teesside and Sheffield etc.
June 23rd Weds - Came back to Coventry.
June 24th Thurs - Marathon was off - nothing was going to give - wrote to all the groups and those who had showed support both in Cov and Birmingham. Don't ask how it felt after a lot of hard work trying to promote Cov music. We went to the pub!
June 25th Fri - Went to the Umbrella - breaking the news of the Marathon to Heather and the two Jan's who had shown support. Introduced Heather to the mysteries of Jew's Harp as arol had done for me a year before at the Umbrella! There was a low-key feeling all around.
June 26th Sat - Still phoning around groups and supporters of the Marathon.
June 27th Sun - Practiced piano - went to Plough.
June 28th Mon - Went to Lyndie's still tying up ends of the Marathon.
June 29th Tues - Went to see Love Zeus at the Belgrade Theatre. Tony Cross, Loz Netto, Al Docker 's band and a girl singer / violinist. What a great band I thought. They split up sometime after though - as band's do!
June 30th Weds - Went home and then to Lyndie's. In a day or two we would move to Birmingham for the summer in communal house occupied by the singer of Birmingham band Ascension. Needed a change of environment. Everyone was pretty much disappointed about the Marathon.
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