AL DOCKER - A Tribute to a Cov Musician, Promoter & Friend

08 Sleeping from http://coventrymusichistory.vox.com/

Sleeping - The IS (Feat Al Docker)

Al Docker

The name Al Docker resounds quite often on this site in the lyrics section and the 1971 diaries, the forthcoming band directories and other places. Not surprising as I set out on the Coventry Music Scene with Al from the tail end of 1969, after leaving school and Al was an important part of the scene and a respected musician and organiser.

The last time I saw Al was in 1974 - he joined Divine Light and was leaving Coventry - I hadn't heard of him since. Yesterday I got an e mail from his younger sister Jan and younger brother John - Al had died of cancer in Truro, Cornwall aged 44 in 1996, leaving behind 5 children and and two grandchildren. Some of us had been wondering what had become of him and so it was a bit of a shock.

In the early 90's Al had been playing in a great band down in Truro called

08 Sleeping

The IS

The Is (View their My Space). The Is had supported bands like Hawkwind.

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Al played keyboards, wrote some of the lyrics and music, organised the gigs and drove the van according to his brother John Docker. He'd also been a prominant promoter down in Cornwall. (Have a listen to one of their tracks - Sleeping - here with Al on Keyboards). Interestingly The Broadgate Gnomes have strong connections in Truro who know former members of The Is and also know Al, although the connection wasn't made until we got the e mail from Jan and John Docker. As a result some further information might be forthcoming on Al. Such is the team work that is now happening around this site.

Al's younger brother John told me that the  tradition runs on in the family. John himself was "a former member of the Coventry music scene, come

Crossthuimb

artist, promoter and sound engineer (my era was the 90's)".  John organised bands at the Golden Cross - which still has a thriving band and unplugged scene. The Hobo Workshop was held there too in the mid 70's after leaving the Holyhead youth centre. John had also played in a band with the father of the drummer of Coventry's newest top band The Enemy who have just been assigned to Stiff Records.

I met Al when I was about 18. We both worked as apprentices at DFGibbs - an electrical shop on the Foleshill Rd. Coventry, next to the General Wolf (scene of many a gig in the later Two Tone period). Al was in the electronics

Markbrown-carnaby1967

dept learning to fix TV's (alongside Mark Brown (one of Coventry's top DJ's next to Pete Waterman) (Mark used to DJ at the time at the Red House on Stony Stanton Rd) and I was in the Electrical dept. Al was somehow related to the Gibbs family although neither of us were model apprentices, our

DF GIbbs

hearts and minds were more on music and songwriting and organising. This wasn't lost on the management who eventually made the choice for us!

In 69 we both did our 'Day Release' at the Butts (Coventry Technical College) as part of our apprenticeship. Most of the apprentices were into the Coventry Soul scene that the young Pete Waterman was part of as Coventry's Top DJ.  Ray King's Soul band were enormously popular (and Ray King later comes into the Two Tone story) and there was a thriving Ska scene in Coventry ten years before Two Tone put the Coventry Music Scene on the world map. Although I loved soul and ska (Max Romeo, Desmond Dekkar and Johnny Nash were in the charts at the time and the clubs through Waterman played imports) Al and I were into more progressive music. Sometimes we'd skip college and Al would play The Nice, Pink Floyd, Stones, Ten Years After, Beatles, Blodwyn Pig, Taj Mahal's Statesbro Blues, Tommy by the Who, early Genesis, King Crimson  - these were some of the albums Al would play. Gibbs had a record department so that was handy to browse the latest releases. Keith Emerson was a particlular favourite of Al's and I loved his style of organ playing too. (a year or two later we saw the Nice and ELP at the Lanch Poly. Emerson's stage act involved throwing knives in the keys to sustain the notes while he rocked and generally destroyed the organ at the end of the show. Rumour had it that he'd get the roadies to find a local musician with a Hammond - use their's on stage and then buy them a brand new (more expensive) model as relacement. I think Coventry musician Bob Jackson donated his to the Nice on this basis according to legend).

I'd started writing songs at 15 and after leaving school took it more seriously. I'd been at Boarding school (same one as Mojo Morgan) and wanted to get involved with the local music scene, meet others with similar interest. Al had been at school in Cov (Caludon Castle) and already had gotten involved with the music scene. One day at the Butts tech in 1969, I saw a poster for the Coventry Arts Umbrella - a special underground music and film festival over a weekend in October. There were local underground bands on and much more (see the Umbrella posts). Of course Al was already involved and was putting on bands there. Al took me along to the Umbrella and introduced me. Back then it seemed to be like finding Altantis in your own back yard, where you could meet creative people of all types and get involved.  Much of the creative work I've done since stemmed from that early experience at the Umbrella. This was the kind of apprenticship I was really after. Nowadays if you tell your careers officer that you want to be a musician, actor, songwriter etc they might direct you to a Performance Arts Course. Back then they would suspect that you also had tea with aliens and then ask what your dad did! My Dad was an electrician and so I was directed to Gibbs to sign up for an electrical apprenticship. I wanted to make creative electrons run and so did Al.

I hung around with Al and began getting involved with his Friday night band nights at the Umbrella, doing the door duty

Queen Vic rd

(and building my own contacts up), going with him to the CBR music agency (pictured here) to book bands, then down to the Coventry Evening Telegraph to put in a small ad, going the rounds of the Dive bar, Golden Cross, Lanch Poly, Village and other places where muso types hung out, making contacts and getting interest in the Umbrella band nights. It seemed that Al knew everyone one in Cov. I soon had my own contacts, meeting old school friends who had become musicians like John Alderson, Mojo

Tea & Symphony gig 2

Morgan, Steve Harrison. This wasn't paying the rent but my heart was in this type of work. Some of the bands Al put on included Birmingham's Tea and Symphony, Ghost, Children, and many more.

Very soon Al was keen to move on from the Umbrella and persue his own musical path and I was primed to take over the Umbrella band nights in 1970. I was well trained, I'd shadowed Al for a good few months and now people knew me as well.

Al also wrote songs and poetry. Before me he had ventured to join the

Al Docker with youger brother and sister

Umbrella poets although it wasn't his scene so much. Sometimes we would discuss our songwriting. Walking home along the Foleshill Rd. he sang acapella his latest - a blues based song called Blue Train. Later on, in Shilton where we shared a cottage in 72, he wrote the words to Castle Stones (already posted on this site) in my Communications Book (A written form of communal blog). It was environmental and angry song he'd written on piano at the cottage after attending a pop festival. It was interesting to note that Al played keyboards in The Is in the 90's, as in Coventry he played drums. Al was a  self-taught pianist in a pop sense. I think he'd maybe had some lessons in his younger days, but the man had a great musical ear. I'd watch him at the Umbrella working out the melody and rhythm to Beatles songs such as Martha My Dear, Obla di Obla Da and Floyd numbers such as Careful with that Axe Eugene. He would work at it until he got it right and could co-ordinate the bass and melody - it was all in his head, no song books in sight and the result was really good, worthy of McCartney. Al got me started on piano, showing be bass lines and chord structures and got me experimenting. I took more to guitar as it was handier to take around but began to write some songs on piano and later in the 80's played keyboard parts on some of my later songs.

Al Docker as a young man

Al joined a London band first called Rocking Chair, playing drums. I think he'd had brief excursions as drummer with

Loz Netto Jpg

the Chris Jones Aggression (a blues band that practiced at the Umbrella) before settling into quite an orginal sounding band called Tsar which became a popular local and regional band mentioned in the Broadgate Gnome. The band included a sax player from  Warwick and a female violinist. (more on the band in the forthcoming band profiles). After Tsar came Love Zeus with Tony Cross on keyboards a violinist (I think from Tsar,) Al on Drums and Loz netto on guitar (Loz later played with Sniff and the Tears). A short lived but great band who played the Belgrade Theatre and Lanch Poly. By 1974 he was playing with Kevin Harrison's Zoastra, an early experimental electronic band that was the forerunner of the excellent Urge. Zoastra  never got to the gigging stage but led to what became The Urge. This may not be the sum total of all the bands Al played in, just the ones I remember, but by 1974, Al had become involved with Divine Light and left Coventry.

Al Docker (later in his Cornwall period)

However before that, in 1970, I'd shared a house with him for the summer with others from the Umbrella over the road from the Butts Tech  in Brunswick Rd. Periodically Al would come in about midnight and say 'fancy hitchin' to London' - after an hour I'd been persuaded. On one occasion we hitched over night to see a Hyde Park concert with Pink Floyd - performing Atom Heart Mother. As we strode into the park, a lone voice and guitar was filling the sky like no one else could fill it. It was Roy Harper singing I Hate the White Man. Roy didn't need a band to make a presence - he did it all on his own. That song and it's lyric is still one of my favourites. Whether it was working out a song, organising a concert or persuading someone to hitch with him, he had tremendous drive.

Late in the autumn of 71 he moved into a cottage in Shilton (a small village outside Cov, with a piano!). It had been

Digger Dave with Roy Butterfield

occupied by April bass player and his wife Ron Lawrence (who  was also later in Sniff and the Tears). I moved in and we spent time writing  songs, playing piano and records (Yes, Caravan, Loundon Wainwright 3rd, Joni Mitchell and many more). Musicians a plenty would visit us, Ade Taylor and John Alderson, Steve Brimstone (Derek Brimstone's son) who was also a talented guitarist as you'd expect and many more. I got down to learning guitar here and bagan putting music to my own lyrics. Al started a Coventry supergroup there with Roy Butterfield and Al Hatton (both Ex Indian Summer), Ron Lawrence on bass, Al on drums and some songs. They called themselves Runestaff after the Michael Moorcock trilogy that Al was reading. The band never came to fruition and I was privledged to be the only one not in the band to hear their music. The music was great and of course Roy Butterfield is a noted Coventry guitarist. Lyndie began living there and

.April v

other friends from Birmingham, everyone of them creative in some way, drama, poetry, musical, songwriters and even candlestick makers - yes true - Al and one or two others started Bludor Candles for a while. It took over the kitchen and the guys were trying to make it into a business but in the end disputes arose and the kitchen became unusable for food with the smell of wax and so the idea was dropped. However the candles they did produced were artistic and tasteful. Sometimes they would

Al 8

go down the Lanch shouting Candletross - Get yours on a Wick, as a parody of Monty Python's Albatross sketch!

Monty Python was a fave of Al's - he knew all the sketches inside out and could perform them. One night in 1970, we walked home from the Umbrella along the Foleshill Rd with Neol Davies (later of Selecter, but then with Mead), Al stopped by the Cortina Club, it was about 2am with no one around, knotted handkerchief on his head and rolled up trousers doing the "I'd like to see Two Bricks thrown together" sketch.

Al was a popular and energetic figure on the Coventry Music Scene with drive and talent and the ability to make things happen and it's good to learn his brother John has followed in the tradition in his own way. Al Docker remains one of the alumini that should be celebrated in any history of the Coventry Music Scene.

Thanks to Jan Docker for sending Additional photos of Al and his family.

Thanks to Broadgate Gnomes for all the addtional research they are doing on Al's musical work in Cornwall.

 

Comments

[BroadgateGnome]

That is beautiful ,MAN!
We honour our heroes
.
.
..
We have put The Is'   Mother Gaia  on to our Myspace profile. Must try and find a way of getting it over here..
Its still a powerful message,as well as a joy to listen to.
Synchronicity rules.

[covcitymusic]

[this is good]

Thank you for the kind tribute to my brother (Al Docker)  & also  the education. Being 12 years younger than Al i obviously didn't recall a lot of what was written about him being only about 7 at the time ... nice one :)

[HOBO - Coventry Music Magazine]

Message from Dave Lucas of The Is

Did you know that Al arranged a gig for The Is at the Rugby Railway Club
supporting The Darkside? The Darkside were on Creation and had a Spacemen 3
connection, I believe. That's the only time I remember meeting Al's brother
John., That gig was on 13th April 1990. I have a tape of the gig and about 20 or
so other live shows.

Before The Is, Al was in a reggae band in Cornwall called Style And Fashion.
That was a more conventional reggae band with a full horn section. Again, Al
played keys. Kev Barradell (who started off as The Is drummer & then moved
to lead vocals) was the drummer in that band.

I first got involved with Al & Kev musically when they invited me to a
friend's studio to jam on some recordings they were making. This would turn into
The Is. I remember Al telling someone that he asked me to join because I had a
yellow guitar. LOL

Al's keyboard was known to us as The Beast because it was bloody heavy and
somehow Al rarely got involved in lifting it out of or into the van. :)

Please let me know if you need any more info or stories, music, photos etc.
You are welcome to use any anecdotes or quotes or anything in your articles.

 

Cheers - Dave Lucas (The Is)

(Thanks Dave - yes more  - feel free to post them as comments or if they are longish, I can add them to Al's tribute or create a new post. Gnome are intersted in the lyrics to Gaia to see how they compare to his early song on here Castle Stones (assuming Al wrote Gaia that is!). If you have a lot  - might be good to spread it out more on your Vox (as the Gnomes have suggested once again) - as the our sites are now neighbourhooded! It's all good stuff.

Trev

[Jim Pryal]

[this is good] Fantastic reading. Very sad to read Al has died. I remember many of the people and places mentioned.

[HOBO - Coventry Music Magazine]

Yes some points missed off the article for Al Docker -

Tsar consisted of Al Docker on Drums (his home was the contact point for the band according to a small feature in Broadgate Gnome. Loz Netto was guitarist. They also had an unamed (and I can't remember now) saxist from Warwick and a female vocalist. They were just starting out when the article was writen as it says "They will play their own mateial which will be "Well who knows!". Even though it states they have a female they nontheless advertise for a "Vocalist with a good PA". A bit confusing but despite seeing them often I have no other documentation and can't remember the full line up - but I do remember they were a great little band and played alongside Fresh Maggots and Ra Ho Tep. Loz Netto may remember the line up.

On another note Bill Jack son of April was also in Runestaff (did I mention that!) on Vocals / acoustic guitar and piano. He also contributed some of the songs - what a great voice Bill had - could sing Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where the Time Goes convincingly - so that can't be bad!

Also when I moved to Shilton with Al - he was heavily into Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tiller Man and Mono Bone Jackon etc c autumn 1971 - if that's of any interst to anyone!

Trev

[Ann]

Really good article.

[Dennis Burns]

My thoughts go to all who knew Al. 

I used to jam with Al at Lyndies cottage in Shilton with Charlie Bullen (from Nuneaton) on guitar, and Ron (I think??? ) on bass. Were were into a sort of Jeff Beck groove at the time :).  Al later moved in with me at Grove Farm House in Burton Hastings (I am sure that name will provoke a few memories...) where after having some very memorable times, we both joined the Divine Light movement for a time... Later Al moved out and I lost touch with him (and his story) until today. A vey nice guy and talented musician...