mr bojangles has gone deaf

Playing in Pudsey, Andy's home town and my home for 10 yrs was expected to be something special and last night at BOJANGLES proved to be just that. It was over a year since we last played in the town so we were long overdue. It was fantastic to see so many old friends in the audience whom I don't get to see very often these days and thanks to them it was a very special night for me. Along with several Fifty 50 virgins who sang along to GreenDay ,the Killers the Buzzcocks and several more all made for a fantastic party atmosphere on a wet Wednesday night. Probably one of the smallest venues we have ever played but created a big atmosphere......bring on the next time.

ace bloke

This man on Bass is Dave Close of the Erics but as the more observant of you will have noticed there is not another Eric in sight. This is because on Saturday night Dave saved our gig at the New Inn at Churwell by stepping in at very short notice after our regular bass player Andy became unavailable. He learnt almost all our songs in three days and ensured that the gig on Saturday was a complete success. Wot an ace bloke!

free live music for everyone

A busy weekend ahead with two pub gigs Friday and Saturday. Both at venues we have enjoyed in the past. The Village at Normanton, Castleford Rd close to junction 31 of the M62 on Friday, and on Saturday at The New Inn on Churwell Hill ,Churwell, Morley. Everyone welcome, free entry and action starts around 21.15hrs.

sexy new gear live!

Fifty 50 bass player Andy has bought a new Ampeg bass rig consisting of head and a 8x10 cab. See it performing at our newly announced gig on Friday 17th March at the Village in Normanton and the day after at the New Inn Churwell.
I didn't know he'd ever been to Tonbridge!

band history 1979-1980

The original Sly Fox and One Adult mk 3 below.






After Gulliver Rob had joined a band called APB unusually featuring two bass players, two Rob Well's and a Pete Wells, none of whom were related. They then modulated into THE SNOOTS featuring dynamic frontman Mick Woodward. When, in Rob's word they left him behind we decided to give this music thing another try. Rob had been hanging out with a friend of his from Batley Art college Lee Walsh aka Lee Valone. We thought he had the ability to sing well and Rob saw in him a potential Mick Woodward. Although reluctant at first, he agreed to be our vocalist. A bass player was sought and lo and behold Simon Verity Mills from Prinz Eugen days brouht along his considerable talents to play bass. We came up with the name SLY FOX. As always Robert and Lee provided some inspired lyrics and music which along with my two penneth gave birth to some excellent original material. Playing mainly in around Leeds and Bradford we attracted the attention of no other than local Leeds promoter John Keenan. After playing at his F club night at what was then Brannigans on Call Lane he spotted on some of our promotional material, a cinema ticket with the words one adult. He was not keen on our name and suggested that we become ONE ADULT. Being the impressionable youths that we were we accepted the advice and changed our name.
SLY FOX/ONE ADULT 1 (1979) me n

• Lee Valone - vocals (later to form pop duo ENGLISH EVENINGS).
• Simon Verity-Mills - bass
• Rob Wells - drums

After a few months Simon once again veered off into space and York based bass player the late Bill Berni answered our advert and came on board. In Rob's eyes this was the most creative and innovative version of the band however the strains of travelling from York and our work ethic of rehearsing two or three times a week took its toll and he left after a few months. Sadly a few years later Bill was murdered in his own home in York by one guy and two girls he had befriended at a local pub. They were caught and I believe they are still serving time. TV's calendar program reported Bill as being a loner.

ONE ADULT 2

• Lee Valone - vocals
• the late Bill Berni - bass
• Rob Wells - drums

Once again adverts were posted and we welcomed Bradford based ex TRAMPUS bass player Chris Bartlett. This was the longest lasting and most succesful line up.

ONE ADULT 3

• Lee Valone - vocals
• Chris Bartlett - bass
• Rob Wells - drums

Continuing to write excellent songs and playing frenetic gigs, including a couple of mass brawls, we managed to get several excellent reviews in the local pop press, the YEP and Telegraph and Argus.The best of which filled jounalist Nick Keyhoe's Rock On column in the T&A with the headline "One Adult are going to be BIG" The B nW photo above appeared in the YEP. Lee had proved to be an inspirational frontman and we got several prestigious support slots at the Fforde Grene opening for Quartz, Jenny Haan ex Babe Ruth vocalist,Nick Lowe and ex ELO violinist Nick Kaminski. However the highlight in our calendar was always the Sunday lunch spot at the Princeville WMC in Bradford sharing the bill with a stripper. We thought we had made it when after our set the unfortunate stripper got booed off because the audience wanted more of us! Our progression had resulted from the hard work of our friend and manager Mark Wilson and thanks should also go to our roadies Pete and Richard alias Shiny Temple now a very succesful business man in his own right.

One studio session produced a four track cassette featuring original songs 'Hardman/Richman' 'Street by Street' 'Trevira Trousers' and a cover of Tom Petty's 'I Need to Know' - still in existence today! But by February 1980 divisions had developed. Rob had taken up the offer of a job in Kuwait later that year and Lee believed he could further his musical career elsewhere. To his credit he did, quite succesfully, obtaining a record deal under his duo's name of English Evenings, releasing two singles and appearing in the studio on Saturday mornings kids telly of the day along with an airing of the video of their single 'I will return'. He was the face of One Adult and irreplacable. The entry of 23rd Feb in Sounds announcing "One Adult play a long weekend of gigs at Leeds Gladrags 21st, Leeds Royal Park 22nd, Bradford Palm Cove 23rd and Leeds Staging Post 24th proved to be our last ever. (four gigs in four days - those were the days!!,)

band history 1977-1978

Myself,Robin and Charlie having tasted the big time!! did not wish to quit yet but we were without our mentor Les and Simon(Verts) who had reputedly gone on a visit to his own planet.We continued our association wth the Fountain Inn in Morley but we needed a vocalist and a bass player. Robin decided to migrate to bass and fellow drinker Alan Ward became the vocalist. Since these were punk times ability to sing did not seem important. This band was GULLIVER.
GULLIVER (1977/78)

• Alan Ward - Vocals
• Robin Buttrey - bass
• Charlie James - drums

We played mainly original material, all of us having some hand in the outcome. During 1977 and early 1978 we played locally at such long lost Leeds venues as Vivas Wine bar - a live band every night - The Haddon Hall, and the prestigious Fforde Grene (how we got to play there I'll never know) gathering a small but enthusiastic band of followers along the way. We even got as far as Dewsbury as the pic above from the Turk's Head proves! We added my old mate and ex Dirty Doris drummer Rob Wells to play extra percussion but unfortunately it couldn't mask our lack of real quality or our general appeal so we agreed we had taken things as far as they could go.

local band history 1976

One evening in 1974 after lessons a pupil at Batley Grammar school was entertaining his schoolmates by playing T-Rex songs on his guitar. His name was Paul Beever and one of his schoolmates there that evening was me. I thought "I want to be able to do that."
By 1976 we had left school but remained friends and since by then I had learned to play it was no surprise that we decide to form a band. Another schoolfriend Matt Parkinson was press ganged into singing, Paul's friend Rob Wells had some drums so he was in, in fact the pair of them had done one gig together as a pre-tribute band T-Rex, but we had no bass player. Then along came Steve Davies who we got to know since he regularly collected his girlfriend from the place we worked. He couldn't play bass but said he would like to, so that was good enough for us. We should have been called Asda Morley since we all worked for, or had connections there but the DIRTY DORIS BAND! was born.
DIRTY DORIS (1976) me and:

• Matt Parkinson - vocals
• Paul Beever - guitar
• Steve Davies - bass ( later to play with BEWARE THE DOG and 25 RIFLES)
• Rob Wells - drums (later with GULLIVER, SLY FOX/ONE ADULT, THE DENTISTS, THE SNOOTS and DIRTY MAX)

We wrote our own material with Rob and Paul being the lyric writers and Paul and I doing the music. Rob's religious and mythical lyrical overtones spawned such greats as Jesus don't you p*** on me and Knaresborough Zoo. We never did any gigs, pehaps because we never knew how to get one. We really were crap and things fizzled out but we had a few laughs.

Later that year through both Asda and nights at the local hostelry, The Fountain Inn in Morley I got to know Les Johnson who played guitar in a band with friends, accomplished folk singer songwriter Robin Buttrey, SimonVerity-Mills and Charlie James. Not sure how, but I managed to jump aboard and played my first ever gig at no lesser place than Hull University. This band was PRINZ EUGEN.
PRINZ EUGEN (1976) me n:

• Les Johnson - guitar and vocals (later formed the HAIR RESTORERS and now with the BARE ESSENTIALS - see links)
• Robin Buttrey - acoustic guitar and vocals ( later with GULLIVER then the HAIR RESTORERS)
• Simon Verity-Mills - bass (later SLYFOX/ONE ADULT)
• Charlie James - drums( later GULLIVER, HAIR RESTORERS and currently with CHEESY RIDER)

A mixture of covers and original material written by Les and Robin. Not long after, Les appeared to retire to his bedroom and the band was no more. When he came out the three piece HAIR RESTORERS (see above) started growing..............next episode soon.

How I create my version of music

For all the techy heads out there this is the gear I use onstage.
My main guitar is a Black Les Paul Custom 1974 with a Seymour Duncan custom 5 pickup in the bridge position. Alternatives are a Hamer Californian 1988 in midnight blue and a Tokai Explorer sporting a dimarzio 36th anniversary PAF in the bridge position. This is usually prepared with alternate tunings. The original signal from guitar is fed to an AKG wireless system reciever then through my Zoom G9.2tt signal processor to my awesome Rivera M100 2x12 combo amp.
Due to my delight with my Rivera I now also possess an R100 2x2 Rivera combo as a backup.
This is the current result of about 20 years tinkering and for the first time I am totally happy with the sound (at least for this week).

To keep the kids away from the fire

It appears that I have grasped the technology so look forward to more scary pics of the band.

Two private parties set to rock this weekend

Looking forward to two private parties this weekend. Saturday night at the Stoneleigh Hotel on Doncaster Rd Wakefield and then on Sunday afternoon at Sandal. Hope neither complains about the volume......we are a rock band not a karaoke show.