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James Moyes knew Alexis, Davy and Cyril
A lovely evening was spent recently with James (and his daughter) with him recounting tales of Davy Graham for the ongoing film ‘The Man With The Guitar’ – hey can you believe we are nearly finished now? Well the director think we are and then another head pops up. James moved in that small circle…
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10 Tales about these Sex Pistols
10 Tales about the early period of the Sex Pistols to celebrate it being 40 years since the release of their first album ‘Never Mind The Bollucks’. We have 10 Tales for you from the musician Chris Spedding who was an early champion, album producer Chris Thomas plus various EMI Records staff who recall signing the…
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Julie, Kathy, Petula, Alma & More – Early Brit Girls Vol.4
Welcome to the fourth instalment of EARLY BRIT GIRLS, the series in which we explore the rise of UK girlies from the mid 50s to the newly emergent Brit Girl sound of the early 60s, at the dawn of the Beat era. Like its three predecessors, Bouffants, Beehives & Backcombing – Early Brit Girls Vol.1…
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Phantoms, Meteorites, Moonshots & Devil’s Herds – The UK Instro Scene Vol. 4
Long ago, before things started to get Twangy, Britain’s leading instrumentalists usually either honked, parped, or plinked. Dance bands filled the airwaves, and it was wall-to-wall waltzes and foxtrots. Turgidity ruled. The arrival of R’n’R and Skiffle livened things up, and so gradually and not to mention rather belatedly – Britain’s teenagers were dragged into…
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Top Topham was just 15 when he started in The Yardbirds
Yup their original lead guitarist was just fifteen and starting bands were not common place behaviour in those far off days he says, but of course the Skiffle Bug had hit him when he was twelve and his dad had kindly made him a tea-chest bass. Even taking him to the Ealing Club as a…
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10 Tales – Marc Bolan
This new mini E-Book featuring ten tales from people who worked behind the scenes with Marc Bolan is now available exclusively for your Kindle – just search their system for Mark Rye 10 Tales
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Tony Bell on bass guitar
Tony Bell recounted stories of the 2Is Coffee Bar where all the connections were made in the late Fifties with the likes of Screaming Lord Sutch, Tommy & Tony Hicks and Johnny Kidd – and while manager Tom Littlewood used to put people together into groups he was very ‘careful’ with the money and you…
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Ray Connolly was a Fleet Street youngster
Liverpool born Ray wrote about all the stars for the London Evening Standard as their young Fleet Street journalist, becoming very close to John, Paul & Ringo in the process – he still regrets not getting to know George more. He wrote the screenplay for the highly successful ‘That’ll Be The Day‘ which David Puttnam…
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The Marmalade drummer was Alan Whitehead
So it was The Marmalade back in the day and not Marmalade – the things you will learn from the esteemed drummer Alan in this interview. As an East End Londoner he joined this bunch of Glaswegians after first playing on the only hit for Crispin St Peter and enjoyed The Marmalade glory years with…
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Chris Peers – the making of Island Records
Oh dear this has turned into one of those weeks as I am sorry to see reports that Chris Peers has just left us. We filmed him a few years ago now in a home in Henley where he spent a lot of time recounting starting Island Records with Chris Blackwell and the nature of…
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Sue Steward – RIP
It was not many weeks ago that we did an interview with Sue, and then such a short time later she has left us. Here she is on good form remembering working for Richard Branson and how he (mis) treated her
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Marian Segal and Jade
Cherry Red have just released three CD set by Marian Segal and Jade which happens to co-incide with our interviewing her about the Folk Rock/British Psych days of the early Seventies. She played the British folk scene with Dave Waite to start with and things grew from there with their first album as Jade on…