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Priory Street Blues

 

Priory Street Blues

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I wrote these lyrics for a new Coventry on line magazine 'Priory Street Blues' (in the planning stage) and collaborated with Coventry drummer and muso Jim Pryal on the music. An short edit of the music is above this post but here are the words. The track is unfinished but I've put the words and the edit track on as it's the Launch of More Than Two Tones - Coventry Music Exhibition at the Herbert Museum and Art Gallery from October 3rd 2009 - celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Two Tone and Coventry music in general.

Priory Street Blues

You can 'pop into the past'
Down on Priory Street
Do the 'walk of fame'
to an old 'backbeat'.

When the sun goes down 
on Priory Street
Angels pluck their harps 
to the Devil's beat

It's either 'Rat Race' or 'Ghost Town'
on Priory Street,
They'll teach you how to yodel 
to a skanking beat.

Underground music spills
across the street
and all the groovy people
dance on Priory Street.

Chorus..
Priory Street, Priory Street
Everybody's dancing on Priory Street
Priory Street, Priory Street
They dance for peace and love down on Priory Street.

'You can live and die' 
on Priory Street
but 'on the radio'
they'll play a Coventry beat

You can hear the bombers 
in the moonlit sky
When they took out the Cathedral
and made the angels cry.

The Lennon's planted acorns 
and a seat
now it's 'Give Peace a Chance'
down on Priory Street.

They say there's 'more than Two Tones'
and 'Broadgate Gnomes'
more than ringtones on mobile phones

We saw the Phoenix rise
from out of that heat
Now there's two Cathedrals 
in one street.

Chorus
Priory Street, Priory Street
Everybody's dancing on Priory Street
Priory Street, Priory Street
They dance for peace and love down on Priory Street

Trev Teasdel 2008

GILLY DARBEY - A Coventry Singer's International Success.

I grew up over the road from Gilly Darbey, in Willenhall Wood, Coventry. I hardly knew her, she was more my younger

Gillybw

sister's age. By the time Hobo was up and running in the early to mid 70's she was playing Coventry folk clubs. It was at the Charterhouse pub, Terry Rd. in Coventry I first saw her perform with her guitar to great acclaim for her young voice. Around 1974 her name cropped up in many of the folk club posts in Hobo.

At the time she was a rising star on the local folk club circuit but I never knew what became of her until the other day, when searching for another Coventry act, I came across her website and e mailed her. Gilly now lives in New Zealand and her website biography makes intersting reading.

You can read of her musical adventures and download her music via her own website but here are some of the main highlights to tempt you to visit her page and to document her success on the this site. 

Gilly says her singing career started in school, joining various groups and then forming her own all girl group called Mosaic.

Gilly also started to "perform solo at local folk clubs in her home town of Coventry, she was still only 14.
Gilly was a rebellious pupil and left school as soon as was possible, to join an Irish showband of all things. She had a great time learning the ropes, and was well chaperoned by the boys in the band."

At 16, she answered an ad in Melody Maker "for girl singers to form an English equivalent of the "Three Degrees". Gilly got the job! Along with two others, she underwent the star treatment doled out by "MCA" records and "Bell" records. However, as with a lot of these record company fiascos,(at one point Gilly was the only one singing all of the parts and the other two were just to create a three girl image), it all went botty up and Gilly was once again solo.

After that Gilly returned to the folk scene and joined Streetband who were about to do a busking tour of Europe. She had a great time despite being arrested twice (busking was illegal then)! Eventually she returned to England as a soloist and the Streetband became the One Eyed Jacks with bass player Martin Allcocks.

Soon she would hear " Waterfall", Keith Donnelly and Martyn Oram, perform at the Lanchester Poly in Coventry. She

Waterfall

 fell in love with the songs (mostly written by Keith Donnelly), This started a new chapter in Gilly's life and career,and a partnership with Keith that lasted for nearly 20 years.Though they no longer perform together Gilly and Keith are still great friends, and Gilly still performs a lot of his material. 

They became very popular on the folk scene both here and abroad. A highlight at this time was to open Cambridge Festival on Main Stage1. Gilly remembers it particularly well as she had taken up skydiving and had to be helped on stage with crutches due to a slightly mistimed landing!

Waterfall toured constantly throughout Europe and further afield, including trips to Belize, Cyprus and the Falklands. They also did a T.V. special for the BBC called "This Is Waterfall." Definitely worth seeing for the ridiculous outfits that they came up with on a shopping spree in London! The trio released two albums to much acclaim, "Three Birds" produced by Johnny Coppin, and "Beneath The Stars" produced by Phillip Goodhand-Tait.

After Martyn Oram left Gilly and Keith toyed with several new names and for a while were called "Little Aeroplane", releasing an album of the same name, this time produced by Richard Digance. Then they changed the name again and became "Nothing By Chance", the name of a Richard Bach book that Gilly was reading at the time. 

Once again a new chapter began as "Nothing By Chance" were taken on by Jasper Carrotts' management company, after a succesful tour with him. They went on to support such noticeables as Van Morrison, The Hollies, and Tori Amos, to name but a few. During which time they appeared at almost every major venue throughout Britain and Ireland, with numerous T.V. appearances, including several on "Pebble Mill At One".

They were spotted by a BBC producer whilst doing a Phil Cool support, who loved what he saw and wanted to turn them into huge, and I mean huuuwwwwwwwwg T.V. stars.
They had their own T.V. special for the Beeb which received critical acclaim, (a clip was shown on "Points of View") and was swiftly shown again at a prime time on BBC1. Gilly and Keith then spent 6 months working with the people at BBC Pebble Mill on a six part series. At the last minute politics between London and Pebble Mill meant that the TV series was vetoed.

Undaunted Gilly and Keith then made an album called "Ghosts Of Love". The album was produced by John "Bonny" Acock and Mick Dolan at Stevie Winwood's fantastic studio down in Gloucestershire, and features many fine guest musicians including Phil Beer of "Show of Hands" fame and Al Marnie, bass player with Chris de Burgh, This was swiftly taken up by "Chrysalis" records. They started a 90 date country wide tour in their own right. The album was receiving rave reviews, and receiving radio 1 and 2 air play. Unfortunately "Chrysalis" were being bought out by big bad nasties "EMI", Nothing By Chance became tiny, tiny fishes in a huge sea, got sucked through some other fishes gills, and ceased to exist!

Gilly returned once more to a solo career which she is still doing, including some major festivals around the world.

 

Gilly

Her first solo CD "One", is really a showcase CD, trying to show some of these differing sides to her voice, though mostly aimed at the "folk scene". It was recorded totally live at the famous Red Lion folk club in Kings Heath, Birmingham. The infamous Jim Mcphee who ran the Red Lion F.C. signed Gilly up for his agency, Acorn Entertainments, as soon as he heard her doing a resident spot at the club. This is what he had to say about her first appearance there:

She had everyone so captivated that-
1. I forgot to start recording untill she'd nearly finished the first set.
2. The audience were spellbound - you could hear a pin drop.
3.The latecomers entered the room and stood silently, transfixed until she'd finished her song - AND THAT'S NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!
4. I forgot to start the recording for her second set.
All in all I was so gobsmacked that I said I would try and get her some work.
Unfortunately Jim underwent a major operation and decided to end the agency.

Gilly incorporates many different genres of music into her sets, believing that a beautiful song is a beautiful song no matter what genre it comes from, and that if she believes the words the audience will too. With her ability to "feel" a song and to pass that feeling on to her audience, genre is often transcended.
Her haunting voice was used for the title track, and incidental music for the BBC drama "The Tennant Of Wildfell Hall" which has been shown worldwide, and by the same composer, Richard G. Mitchel, for a video of the World Cup,(The Coupe de la Gloire-also available on CD) during which he referred to her as Gilly te Kanawa!! Listen out for her Kiri impression on track 6, "Sunday Prayer".

More recently Gilly has joined up with Maart Allcock for some gigs. The few they have done so far have really taken the audience by storm, including The Mill, Banbury, Godiva Festival, Coventry, and Warwick Festivals.

The demo Maart and Gilly did for the BBC producer was made MP3 of the month for October 2001 on Folking.com This is what they wrote...

MP3 Of The Month...Gilly Darbey- "Ain't No Use Baby"

"Dim the lights, I want to set the scene. It's August and we're at the Cropredy festival, Fairport Convention has just gone off stage and the chatter of well contented, happy people are all around us. Most people are heading out of the main site for either their tents or transport home. We're not leaving the field - We're going to wait for something magical to happen. We walk to the left hand of the stage and pass through the security gate. At the back of the stage there is a tent. Artists and their friends are milling around outside it and the sound of the blues floats out. Inside the tent is "Sugarland Slim" cranking out an impromptu session featuring the extraordinary voice of Gilly Darbey who we have chosen as our MP3 of the Month for October. "Ain't no use now baby" features the talents of Maartin Allcock and hopefully will be included as one of the tracks on a planned collaboration album in the not too distant future. Sugarland Slim have also hinted that Gilly may guest with them on their next release."

And indeed she appears on Sugarlands new CD "Texan Calypso". A song Sean wrote especially to duet with Gilly, called "Dirty girl, Lousy Guy". After recording the track Sugarland had a gig locally and invited Gilly along. This is a review from Relayer. A web site dedicated to bands in and around Bedford, though the reviewer had travelled much further afield to see Sugarland Slim.

".... and then the singer announces a short break .... and invites Gilly Darbey to get up and entertain us. Gilly and Sugarland Slim got together in the small hours at the Cropedy Festival, and they were equally knocked out with each other.... playing and singing through the night. Gilly has been invited to duet with Sean on a number on the new CD.... I'm looking forward to that - she has a superb voice with an incredible range, and treated us to a short set, mostly solo's (guitar/vocal) ...... Jeff solo's on a couple.... great sound! "You'll have to excuse me, I'm a crap guitarist!" she says, before playing very well indeed! Loud applause, from a smallish, but very appreciative crowd ...Wow, what a singer ..... very enjoyable indeed!" The CD is now due out, so check the guys web site for release details.

The year 2000 saw her expanding her horizons with a successful tour to Australia and New Zealand. Since that first tour Gilly has returned several times to growing enthusiam from the audiences in the southern hemisphere. Appearing at some of the countries most prestigeous folk and blues festivals and venues.

Spring 2004 saw the release of her second solo CD...."Blues Movin' In", which is more bluesey than the first solo CD and has really captured the essence of Gilly's voice.
Spring 2004 was spent touring in Australia and New Zealand, with the prestigeous Australian National Folk Festival over Easter in Canberra, and a live appearance on National Radio in NZ. Gilly went down a storm at the National, especially the huge 3000 seater Badewang Hall where she sold out of CD's at the first concert.
Then a return to the UK for more gigs.
Summer 2004 was spent moving to NZ where Gilly now resides.
Autumn gigs included Hong Kong Festival and the end of the year saw her at the huge and wonderful Woodford Festival in Queensland, Australia

2006 saw Gilly recording some songs for Gordon Giltrap and performing them as his guest at the Symphony Hall, London in March. Gordon Wrote of her.......

"You are and always will be one of the finest singers I have ever had the privilege to listen to"

2006 saw her embark on another tour of New Zealand, including a live spot on TVNZ "Good Morning Show". Then back to Australia for the National Festival in Canberra.

2007 and Gilly is now making a name for herself in her new home New Zealand, with great reviews for her appearance at the Queenstown International Jazz Festival, Waipara Wine and Food Festival, and the Alexandra Blossom festival, one of the largest festivals in the South Island, she has also just been confirmed to appear at the Parihaka International Peace Festival in 2008, which is a real honour. Check out their website at Parihaka Festival.

Her new CD recorded in Australia at Rob Longs wonderful studio in Newcastle, with Rob playing guitars and drums and Liz Frencham of Jigzag playing double bass, has received rave reviews in NZ Musician.
October 07 sees her embarking on a tour of NZ with her band to promote the new CD, see date sheet for details.
Gilly has recently joined up with Dunedin based Texan musician Terry Ebeling and the band are starting to get gigs around the wine and food festival, corporate circuit.

 

Gilly also has a My Space (although I haven't yet found it) Will post it when I do! 

 
 

 

 

  

 

 

BERT WEEDON IN COVENTRY

Bert Weedon is one celebrity with a Coventry connection who seems to be little mentioned in Coventry related sites or

Bert weedon

 books.

I seem to recall my father, who was a Hoover Representative, telling us, in the mid sixites that he'd been to fix Bert Weedon's Vacuum cleaner at his home Allesley Village, Coventry. Although Bert was born in London, I think he was resident in Coventry in the 60's at some stage. However I've found no mention of this anywhere and so I googled it and the only thing I found was a You Tube of Bert and on the comments I found this -

"Don't blame me but I used to cut his hair when he lived in the Allesley village area of Coventry area, I always found him very friendly, good luck Burt where ever you are.. "
You Tube

You can watch the You Tube here but to see the comment, you'll have to click through to You Tube itself.

Bert Weedon on You Tube

 

CAN ANYBODY THROW ANY LIGHT ON THIS?

Bio (excert from the Independent)

Back in 1957, Bert Weedon was Britain's first rock guitar hero who turned into a cult figure virtually overnight by writing a book that would enable would-be rock kings to learn his strumming technique. The aim of the book, Play in a Day, was set out in its title; someone picking up the guitar for the first time would be able to play something recognisable within a few hours. The book became hugely successful, selling millions of copies worldwide, and helped to produce new generations of rock guitar idols.

When the 12-year-old from London's East End bought a battered guitar from a market stall on Petticoat Lane, he had no idea how big a part the instrument would play in his life. he found an elderly music teacher who showed him how to play some beautiful classical pieces. Weedon, the son of a London Tube driver, had suddenly stumbled on his vocation. He became adept at playing classical, dance, jazz and flamenco - a talent that took him into the leading bands and orchestras of the time. His growing reputation in the Fifties paved the way for him to work with legends such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby and Judy Garland. With the arrival of rock 'n' roll, record producers turned to Weedon when they wanted a guitarist to back Britain's new stars - he can be heard playing on classic hits by the likes of Billy Fury, Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Tommy Steele, Johnny Kidd and Adam Faith. And when Weedon wasn't in the recording studio working with young rock idols - some of them nearly 20 years younger than himself - he was releasing his own records. Countless teenagers, with dreams of becoming pop stars, tentatively fingered their first guitar strings with Weedon's book, Play in a Day, open in front of them. Some, such as Eric Clapton, Brian May, Pete Townshend, Mike Oldfield and Sting, went on to achieve stardom. Hank Marvin: "In the Sixties, Bruce (Welch, Shadows colleague) and I wrote `Mr Guitar' about Bert Weedon.

Read the full Independant Bio HERE 

JERRY DAMMER'S DIARY - Special AKA 1976 -1979

This is Jerry Dammer's diary from between 1976 and 1979 reproduced from issue three of Coventry's Alternative Sounds Magazine which was published between 1979 and 1980.

 

Alt Sounds - Blue 16

 

 

Alt Sounds - Blue 17

 

Alt Sounds - Blue 18

Visit TWO TONE CENTRAL MUSEUM http://www.2tonecentral.co.uk/

A Three Minute Hero I Wanna Be - BBC Songwriting Comp

 

Radio 2 New Songwriters Academy

 

The BBC are calling for aspiring songwriters or groups with the potential to write a number one song. If you’re genuinely looking for a career in songwriting and are working on material which will appeal to a mainstream audience, they want to hear from you.

60 finalists will be invited to attend a two day master class where they will get information on the business, technology and the craft of songwriting from industry professionals.

Four winners chosen from the master class will be given a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to be mentored and work on original material with chart-topping songwriters.

The competition is limited to just one entry per person or group and songs should not exceed three minutes in length.

It will have some advice from award winning songwriter Sacha Skarbek, who co-wrote the worldwide no.1 hit 'You're Beautiful' with James Blunt and will be one of the mentors on the Radio 2 New Songwriters scheme

Deadline: 3rd December 2007

For further information click here

 

Visit TWO TONE CENTRAL MUSEUM http://www.2tonecentral.co.uk/

Coventry Trades Council Songwriting Competition 1989

Lynval Golding of The Specials and Fun Boy Three was one of the judges.

Cov songwriting comp 1989

Cov songwriting comp 1989 001

 NEW 2013 Visit TWO TONE CENTRAL MUSEUM http://www.2tonecentral.co.uk/

 

"Internet changed "compositional possibilities,"not "principals,"

Simon Frith is a Rock Sociologist and journalist. He was based in Coventry from 1972 to 1987 a senior lecturer in

Sound Effects, Simon Frith

Sociology at Warwick University now based in Edingburgh. In 1975 he astonsihed the academic world by publishing The Sociology of Rock totally revised and renamed in 1983 as Sound Effects (Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock n Roll).

 

In Sound Effects "he challenges the prevailing view that that media conglomerates' efforts to channel and control their markets have succeeded in turning rock into simply another prefab polyvinyl product. In its place he offers a startling new argument that shows how, in the end, the unpredictable and uncontrollable contradictions peculiar to rock's audience, its uses and its very nature, both resist and support the system - and keep the music alive."

Some Interviews with Simon Frith Perfect Sound Forever 2002 May Simon Frith On-line September 2002

Below are a couple of quotes on internet compositions from the above interviews with Simon Frith provided here as 'Think pieces'. If anyone has any thoughts on how the net might change things, feel free to discuss / comment.

Internet technology has changed "compositional possibilities," but not "compositional principals," Simon Frith 2002

>From: Scott Woods
> >Date: Friday, September 06, 2002 8:18 PM

In your recent Perfect Sound Forever interview, you said that Internet technology has changed "compositional possibilities," but not "compositional principals," and that you "haven't seen anything that's really going to shift on the whole the way that music gets made and listened to." I'm wondering if you've heard any of the recent MP3 bootlegs or "mash-ups" (i.e., the Strokes vs. Aguilera, Destiny's Child vs. Nirvana, et al.), and if so, if this has altered your thoughts on this at all? Are these computer mixes merely an extension of DJ culture, or is there any significant difference because of the fact that they're literally made in the bedroom? Also, is mixing two records together in this way to create a new song employing compositional "principals"?

    From what I've heard and, more particularly, read of these they still seem examples of technology making it easier/cheaper for people to do things that were being done anyway. Unexpected juxtaposition, quotation, overlapping pieces, etc., have always been an aspect of avant-garde performance and composition, since long before DJ culture or even rock'n'roll. So this is composition and some of it is as clever, creative, thought provoking, moving, etc., as any other kind of music. But I'm not sure it's new in principal. If the key compositional effects of previous technology concerned volume (loud and soft--use of electrical amplification), repetition and layering (use of tape), I'm not sure what digital has really done, for all the rhetoric of interactivity, etc.

The Original Question and Answer from the Perfect Sound Interview

PSF: What about Internet technology? How might that effect the equation of how songs are created?

It could but I think that at the moment, there's no real sign of that. It's very hard to predict with this sort of technology. It almost certainly will change things but at the moment, it hasn't changed compositional principals, it's changed compositional possibilities. People don't have to be in the same place at the same time at all. You can communicate and you can make your record 'virtually.' You can communicate directly with your audience this way also without a mediator- you can sit down, play something, put it in your computer and then someone else on their computer can download it without having to pass through any other mediator. So all those things are possible but I haven' seen anything that's really going to shift on the whole the way that music gets made and listened to. It's another possibility of communication but it hasn't happened yet where we're now communicating different things.

 

"The Endless Grey Drone" & The Ghost Town - Background to the Music.

All important music, songwriting, poetry and art isn't created in a Commercial vacuum. It reverberates with meaning, maybe with protest, towards a better way of living, often one that has tolerance for different creeds and cultures and respect for gender, race, the environment, peace and love, co-operation as opposed to exploitation,

The wider, international context of the 60's counter culture movement is well documented and here's a time line from 1960 to 1969 - HERE. There are a lot of stereotypes of what a Hippie was / is - the site linked tries to clarify that.

Much inspiration had been received from Gerrade Winstanley's Digger Movement in 1649 - influencing the formation of

Billy Bragg - World Turned Upside Down

the San Francisco Diggers in the 60's and the notions of Flower Power (the ideals of which became watered down with commercialism and derision).

 

In Coventry, in the late 60's / early 70's we had our own Diggers developing co-operative ventures and producing a magazine which was the first to give the Coventry music and counter culture a consciousness of itself - The Broadgate Gnome - represented here in it's new form.

The object of this post is to stimulate discussion / thought or research on how both the ideas of the 60's and growing up in post war Coventry helped to shape / characterise Coventry music, poetry and art. (Maybe somebody will rise to the challenge and study it - and there are plenty of primary sources and contacts on this site to facilitate it! If anybody does this - let us know - we'll help with sources). Here's some pointers -

During 50's and 60's, Coventry was in throes of a major regeneration programme as a result of the city centre being flattened in bombing raids during world war two. The regeneration programme wasn't just down to Hitler though, the process had begun in the 1930's - Trinity Street area had been redesign and plans for a new City Centre were on the drawing board. The bombing raids brought plans forward and widened their scope and significance. Musicians grew up in the a city that was at once highly industrialised with the Car factories and engineering and yet had brand new open-spaced city centre with the greenery of the Broadgate / Lady Godiva Island in the centre - a Phoenix city rising from the ashes! Many of the city's young musicians, writers and artists, growing up in the 60's balked at this bland 'Grey' industrial landscape, where all you could be, mostly, was someone who put bolts on cars on the Assembly lines. The symbolic image of this 'Grey' existence occurs in some of the songs that came out of the city -

The 'Grey' is mindless conformity, the 'default', the 'inevitable' - no one thinks for themselves in the land of 'Grey'. They get their opinions from the tabloids or the conventional opinion handed down to them.. They take the path of least resistance and not the one less trodden by. Their environment shapes them and they accept it (albeit begrudgingly sometimes).

The great thrust which came out in the music was to transcend the 'grey',  To escape the Rat Race, the Ghost Town, the Concrete Jungle - all images which have come out of Coventry songs. The Broadgate Gnome called it 'Throb City'' - in reference to the background throb of the car factories all through the night - I think!

ESCAPE FROM THE 'GREY'

In Whispering Ned (by top Coventry folk band - Dando Shaft) - 1971 they sing -

Well he came to a land
where heads were banned
and the land was grand
and the people were grey
and they worked all day
in a diligent way
trying to keep out heads
and Whispering Neds

In the Selecter hit Three Minute Hero - Neol Davis  wrote 

The Selecter ( Three Minute Hero )

-

 

THREE MINUTE HERO (Neol Davies) The Selecter
They asked you if you’re alright,
You say yes,
But all the time you know, It’s a mess,
It’s 5 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone.

(Chorus): Three minute hero, I wanna be, a three minute hero, I wanna be,
a three minute hero, I wanna be, a three minute hero,

Drag yourself along the road, Sit on the bus,
Switch on your transistor, Cause a fuss,
It’s 11 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another night with that endless grey drone.

(Chorus) I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be, A three minute hero, (Chorus): A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero,

It’s too early in the morning, Stupid job,
Don’t wanna eat, can’t think straight,
Same as yesterday, It’s 7 am and you’re leaving home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone, (Chorus):
A three minute hero, I wanna be, (Repeat to fade)

Escape from the ' Grey' Comes into some early poems by Dave Clarke (Printed in 1970 by a group of Diggers intheir magazine The Broadgate Gnome)

AN EXPERIMENT WITH TRADITIONAL RHYME AND STRONG STRESS METER

Dave Clarke

From  Broadgate Gnome 1971

 

City you cannot last

Nor must you think that time gone past

Will remember you and say

This is how it should be today.

You have no roots, only bricks and mortar.

Conceived in conflict, concerned with slaughter

And shall your offspring, sons and daughters

Pay homage, or plot your doom

Perhaps in the fields at  

Their eyes will turn towards your

Shadowed graves and marvel how once

Men lived like slaves.

In the depths of your swollen womb

Perhaps in green grey gardens through

Mirrored moons

They will sit peacefully and reflect

Upon your ghost forms, cold and derelict

None here will mourn your mutilated form

Nor yet will fevered eyes still gaze

In tomorrow’s dawn.

Upon your profit priests in suited grey

Atheist children all robed in nature

They will laugh aloud to read your beasts

Yet see no traces

Of your golden age of your super race

No gods or ghosts will walk this

Wretched ruin of yours

No angry groans or tortured moans will

Pour molten shapes, mutilated forms

That writhe in fear

No super races here

Only the watchful glare of shapeless

Moon and the eternal gloom of your

Quick, unlit tomb.

 

ON MOVEMENT AND PURPOSE

Spilling from the city's noise they come,    

Slipping past evening's first opportune hour.

From the swollen abdomen of the factory some

Drone their weary way, through gate and tower,

Belched out at five.

They, faceless for a time, molten seep

Into human channels, consumed deep

In the irregular flood, at first a patterned tide

Split only by an aching, frenzied halt,

As, like tributaries unperceived, others join, match stride

-Ooze their thoughtless path, eager to assault

Drawn blank in an organic ritual.

Happy those who conjure imagination

Avoiding the fact that they bear no relation

To cloth arms and unknown feet

That move annoyingly close, almost familiar,

with their own purposeful, aimed retreat.

Many tread homeward with ideas similar

Hurrying towards some mystic meet.

 

                                      Others from college, peacock daubed, set apart,

                                      Flaunt homeward, promiscuously apparent for an early start.

                                      Outcasts but design these, yet not quite free

                                      from economies, or traditions or laws, or all that abstract oppose

                                      The natural instinct. Chained in society;

                                      Yet suspended for a time in freedom's awkward pose,

                                       They, warlike, gimmick a possible future.

                                       Condemned to learn, no tax form claims them or cares

                                        Subtle in her wooing, society hides her snares

                                        Challenging and extreme in her ultimate offering.

 

Parallel, roars man and machine

linked in dash-daring unison.

Revved hearts spurt mean

Grimaces, turned to defy, shun

Limits with limitless power.

Tailored for destruction, they combine in one

Machine, motor, mind and gun.

With fear streamlined in oiled silence

Watch how they move, slip gear, accelerate away

Substitute war or violence

with symbol. Linked thus, they may,

Fuse metal and power with hand and feet

Hide stature on cushion and seat,

'Till mover and moved blurr totally.

But more likely, they will use the thrill

of combining, creation and will,

To risk a future -

To answer in part the constant need

For measuring life, in space and speed

Seeking pleasure or praise or lust.

Watch though, how death rides too a wheelspin away

Rears at a junction, reducing move or stay

To mere instinct. Til machine and man

Lack purpose, unless the purpose be....

To eliminate the lapse between A and C

Between movement, pause and movement.

 

Dave Clarke - Coventry 1970

FLOWERS OF THE WAYSIDE

Song lyric By Trev Teasdel 1970 Coventry
 

 

 

As I pass the streets lined with tears of unexpressed souls

Rows of tins of compressed talents chained in their folds

Lines of ‘I could’ve been if I tried, but didn’t pursue my goals’

Chains of the ‘same as the day before and day before that’ plastic moulds

Boxes of ‘shun the new, it’ll be our ruin, stick to the beaten path’ holes

 

Chorus

I just put my face to my hands

My fear for to hide

That I might yet become just another

Flower of the Wayside.

 

 

Their bins are full of screwed up dreams from the morning of their youth

and yes they still have their dreams in the straight-jacket of their lives.

They follow convention down the steps, in his drunken waltz

To fall into the waters deep, to find they cannot swim, to find they cannot think.

They’re too busy not being busy trying to be themselves,

They’ve been hung up upon society allocated shelves.

 

 

They pay homage to the idle with numerals on his face

And as his arms rotate, they start their diurnal chase

Machines I once thought were extensions of men’s arms

But men have just become extensions of machines,

Turmoiling in their cogwheel confusion

While I stage my independence – the water bearer’s revolution.

r

RAT RACE - (Roddy Radiation) The Specials
You're working at your leisure to learn the things you'll need

The Specials - Rat Race

The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

You plan your conversation to impress the college bar
Just talking about your mother and daddy's Jaguar
Wear your political T-shirt and sacred college scarf
Discussing the world situation, but just for a laugh

You'll be working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

Just working at your leisure to learn the things you don't need
The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
You're working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

By the time Two Tone hit the world - things had change both in Coventry and the outside world. The ideals of the

 

The Specials - Ghost Town

woodstock generation had been thwarted, jobs in the car industry had been moved abroad to exploit the cheaper labour and the boom town that had survived the depression and the war years was now an unemployment blackspot, cities had become violent places. The idealism and optimism of the 60's and early 70's, the hope of escaping the 'Grey' and that of the world evolving towards co-operation and peace etc seemed a million miles away - the city (like many others) had become a Ghost Town and violence and apathy had replaced the thrust for a better world.

To their great credit - the Two Tone bands reflected this change in their lyrics and music -

Visit TWO TONE CENTRAL MUSEUM http://www.2tonecentral.co.uk/

 

POETRY OF ROCK

Although music was the main focus Hobo covered more than than that - some community, art and poetry features. Here are short articles and ramblings therefore -

This appeared in the first issue of Hobo in June 1973, having developed useful links with the Birmingham Scene.

POETRY: POETRY: POETRY.

The Birmingham Poetry Centre hold regular Poetry and Folk gigs at the Fighting Cocks in Moseley Village. These are

Ndcity2

usually quite zany and not the least bit boring. The next gig is on Sunday 24th June 1973. The Centre is also set up to promote local poets; compiles anthologies of work by local poets. Anyone intersted in the Centre or in having some of their own poems printed can contact the Centre at this address -

The Birmingham Poetry Centre (BMI), Margaret Street, Birmingham.

Copyright remains with the author. It is essential that your name is on every sheet. They cannot pay for the poems but you get a free copy. Incidentally we'll try, in future editions, to include a bit of local poetry in this magazine. But first we must find our feet. Amen!

And from Hobo issue 2 August 1973 had a poetry section with poems by Dave "Byron" Reed, Trev Teasdel, Lesley Jane Holmes and Big Geoff - co-edited with Umbrella Poet  - Bruce Norris. Birmingham had a thriving poetry scene apart from Streetpoems (blog about) there were the Second City Poets and the Poetry Centre with plenty of exciting community based anthologies coming out and events and support. Some of the anthologies juxtaposed name poets alongside new and unknown poets. So of the energy of that influenced in part my own own thrust on the move to Teesside in 1980, where I organised poetry and music events and built an infrastructure around OUTLET magazine

And this in Hobo 1 also
POETS "A special local poetry magazine is being compiled by some of the HOBO staff. the edition is planned, tenatively, for late September. The only problem is we need some poetry so if yu're intersted, please send your poems, preferably on the short side and also typed or printed legibly. Name and address of course with SAE. If you wish MSS to be returned and send them to Bruce Norris, 215, Bagington Rd. Coventry. Thanks."

Hobo struggled for finance and cheap but decent printing facilities after that and the Poetry mag never came off.

and  (visualising the future Hobo Workshop) -
WARNING - HOBO will be staging various benefits, concerts and Humpoesic Happenings in the near future. Nothing confirmed at present. Offers of venues and artists welcome.

City Voices

They would be a mix of Poetry and music..

Middle England Poets

Poetry events in the 70's Coventry were mainly centred at the Umbrella club or the University of Warwick as far as I recall. In the late seventies MEP's (Middle England Poets) set up and launched an anthology called City Voices. I was in it!

Although I wrote song lyrics from the age of 15 (and more seriously at 17) influenced by the more poetic lyricists, my interst in just poetry was limited. it was listening to John Peel on Sunday afternoons from 1967 onwards that made the bridge for me. Listening to Ivor Cutler (although I was not too keen on that) and the Liverpool poets - Adrain Henri, Roger McGough and Brian

City Voices2

Patten. With their 'Pop Poetry' and music and poetry combinations. I found that exciting and inspirational - went out and bought the The Mersey Sound

12094

Anthology and the The album Bread on the Night by Adrain Henri's Liverpool Scene.

This was followed by buying similar Penguin anthologies with Ginsberg, Corso etc and then others. I tramed over to Birmingham to find an anthogy of Pete Brown's poetry (the lyririst with Cream - White Room etc). I only found a few poems of his in an anthogy of 60's Love Poetry and the Jack Bruce Song Book. It was Lyndie at the Umbrella club that widen my appreciation of poetry with all the poetry anthologies on her shelf while we were organising the Music Marathon at the Umbrella. I ended up teaching Creative Writing Courses on Teesside for the Workers Educational Association and Leeds University Adult and Continuing Education on Teesside for 15 years, but rock lyrics porvided my way in rather than the poetry we did at school!

The Liverpool poets were regulars at the Lanch Polytech (for non Conventrians - The Lanchester Polytech was in Coventry! - Now more appropriately called Coventry University). Both with their bands - Liverpool Scene and Sticky George, The Scaffold, Grimms and as individuals. The great thing about them was that the didn't seclude themselves  in the dressing rooms but mixed in with the students or fans. On one occasion the Lanch had a fair outside the Union block and the Liverpool poets were having a whale of a time on the roundabouts with everyone else. There was always a crush on the Students Union bar - and I mean crush! One time Adrian Henri was being crushed against me which I discovered when he boomed out to the bar staff to serve him as he was back on stage in a few mins!

In the 80's I got to interview Roger McGough and Brian Patten about their approach to music and poetry and the interview in on the Outlet site here. There's another article on Henri's used of the Ad man's diction here.




 

MAKING PEOPLE AWARE OF LIFE

One day in March 1974 (I think it was in the Coventry Journal Office (opposite The Coventry Evening Telegraph), I met

People's Awareness

Adrienne Harwood and Steve Kouchi. They'd been interviewed for an article in Coventry Journal for a new Awareness group they were forming and giving out leaflets in the precint. I liked the idea and offered space in Hobo (if we could keep it going given our lack of finance to get it printed).

 

We were planning another magazine around 1974 called Trenchcoat that would deal with more social issues had available resources worked out better, and we thought they could have space in that magazine. Hobo was then going to be a part an important cultural section of Trenchcoat. Unfortunately Hobo folded in 1975.
However there was an entry in the Hobo News section of an unpublished issue of Hobo (unpublished because the printers had reduced the size to unreadable proportions and we couldn't put it out. It was redone and updated.

The piece read
SOMETHING TO SAY
Every Monday at the Lanch Polytech in room B 315,  a meeting of the People's Awareness Group will take place.
Anyone who is interested in getting things together in this fair city - who has any ideas - who can help or is just intersted - bring them and yourselves and your friendz, friendz friendz...
People awareness need you...
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Below are some lyrics to in relation to the ideas -

MR BUSINESSMAN - RAY STEVENS c1968
Itemize the things you covet
As you squander through your life
Bigger cars, bigger houses
Term insurance for your wife
Tuesday evenings with your harlot
And on Wednesdays it's your charlatan
analyst, he's high upon your list

You've got air conditioned sinuses
And dark disturbing doubts about religion
And you keep those cards and letters going out
While your secretary's tempting you
Your morals are exempting you from guilt and shame
Heaven knows you're not to blame

refrain:
You better, Take care of business Mr. Businessman
What's your plan?
Get down to business Mr. Businessman if you can
(Before it's too late and you throw your life away) 1st time

Did you see your children growing up today
And did you hear the music of their laughter
As they set about to play
Did you catch the fragrance of those roses in your garden
Did the morning sunlight warm your soul,
Brighten up your day
Do you qualify to be alive
or is the limit of your senses so as only to survive
Hey yeah.....

Spending counterfeit incentive
Wasting precious time and health
Placing value on the worthless
Disregarding priceless wealth
You can wheel and deal the best of them
And steal it from the rest of them
You know the score, their ethics are a bore

Eighty-six anesthetic crutches prop you to the top
Where the smiles are all synthetic
And the ulcers never stop
When they take that final inventory,
Yours will be the same sad story everywhere
No one will really care, no one more lonely than
This rich important man, let's have your autograph
Endorse your epitaph

refrain

Summer in the City
The Lovin' Spoonful
(John Sebastian - Mark Sebastian - Steve Boone)

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city
Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop
Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

------ instrumental break ------

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

Coventry's Dave Cooper (Dando Shaft) showed this awareness in his lyrics as exampled here -

LAZILY SLOWLY -  

Dando Shaft

Lazily slowly, flows that old river

I’m of a mind to dream a little while

For tomorrow comes with the morning

And there’s no time for troubles

Or bursting of bubbles tonight.

 

All the good guys, they’re on my side

And that old river, she’s playing tunes.

Dando Shaft

Dando Shaft

Come lay by me, I don’t mind sharing

We’ll dance with the water

Until we are caught by tomorrow.

 

In the morning there are soft sounds

An Evening With...

Dando Shaft

Maybe the echo of some siren sounds

Will come creeping through your window

You reach for the sunrise

Your innocent eyes, they might open.

 

Lazily slowly, flows that old river

I’m of a mind to dream a little while

For tomorrow comes with the morning

And there’s no time for troubles

Or bursting of bubbles tonight.

 

RAT RACE (Roddy Radiation) THE SPECIALS (Written in the Lanch Union bar Coventry)

You're working at your leisure to learn the things you'll need

The Specials

Specials

The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

You plan your conversation to impress the college bar
Just talking about your mother and daddy's Jaguar
Wear your political T-shirt and sacred college scarf
Discussing the world situation, but just for a laugh

You'll be working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine

Just working at your leisure to learn the things you don't need

The Very Best of the Specials/Fun Boy Three/Neville Staples

Neville Staple

The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me

Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
You're working for the rat race.

 

 

 

 

Check out Another Tree Will Grow by

Indian Summer (You can listen on their My Space)

 

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