If I couldn’t get an oldie record from the shop I worked in (Tracks ‘n Grooves in Erdington) I would venture into The Diskery on Bromsgrove Street or Reddingtons Rare Records in Birmingham city centre. They seemed to stock every old record no matter what era and never disappointed me. As well as working residencies in the regular clubs, such as The Belfry and the The Elbow Room, Jon also looked to set up his own disco nights at pubs across Birmingham. I started to get some slots DJ’ing. Jon gave me the ‘small’ room at the Belfry while he was in the main room and I used to do the ‘early’ parts of Champers at The Midland Hotel.

One of my highlights while working for Jon was working with ELO. Jon was booked to play music before the gig started (Coventry Theatre) and between the support acts and when ELO took to the stage. Jon probably got the gig on the recommendation of Raymond Froggatt, a Birmingham born songwriter and friend of Jon’s who we would often go and see perform. He was managed by Don Arden who was also ELO’s manager. Jon asked me what was the best type of music to play to an audience of ELO’s, so I drew up a setlist for him from within my own record collection. On the day I was surprised to find that the gear was to be set up actually on the stage and wheeled off when not needed. When the audience started to come in it and it came time to go out, Jon said “it’s your setlist, you do it”, so I left him drinking with Don Arden and off I went. The night is a blur but I think I remember I started with a ‘Pink Fairies’ track.

Despite my youth, over time I earned more trust and more responsibility from Jon. As he was on stage doing the DJ’ing he gave me the oversight of the bouncers, the hiring and firing and the say as to the way they had to behave and treat customers. (There are stories there). Another part of my job was to go out and identify pubs with function rooms, open to running regular discos. (Which I tried to limit to doing during school holidays). The most successful of these was The Roebuck in Erdington, with a regular Thursday and Sunday night, ‘Champers’ which was in a function room at The Midland Hotel in Birmingham on a Saturday night and another was the forerunner to Liberty’s on the Hagley Road on a Friday. (I’ll remember what we called it soon). 

I was walking into The Midland Hotel one evening. The hotel had automatic double glass doors. Coming the other  way was Tommy Cooper. He opened the doors with a “just like that” and breezed through.

From the Midland Hotel connection Jon managed to get a deal on a basement room at the hotel and turned it into an underground business bar during the day and a private club on evenings throughout the week, which he called ‘Steeleys’, (with entry from Burlington Arcade via a faux steel door). He pulled back on most other DJ’ing commitments to concentrate on this. It was open for the business lunches (which consisted of me microwaving something) and closed at 2am in the morning. I was 16 and bar manager and was there from 10 in the morning until around 3am. The idea was that it would become an evening club with dancing and Nicky Steele would be the resident DJ. Nicky was already a local legend, presenter on BMRB local commercial radio and well known on the disco circuit. Nicky came down a couple of times but for whatever reason he never did take up residency and the bar folded after a few months.

While I worked at Tracks ‘n Grooves one of my little tasks was to take any EMI Record Tokens customers had used for payment and walk over to The Music Box on the High Street around the corner and ‘spend’ them there in exchange for stock we were short on. T’nG didn’t have an EMI account so we couldn’t send them in for credit in the normal way. I would always have a laugh with the manageress (Jill) and she would occasionally offer me a job there. After the closure of Steely’s, on one such occasion I said yes and started there full time. After a few months Jill left to run her husbands carpet shop and I got the managers position. Part of the role included meeting with the record labels representatives and placing orders for the upcoming releases. When the area Decca rep., John Aston got the role of Midlands sales manager at the CBS Records Birmingham office he invited me to apply to be his ‘office assistant’. The role was essentially that of a secretary and during the interview the lady from HR kept bringing this up and pointing out that the need to type letters quickly and accurately would be a key part of the job. Before my dad was killed and for a short while after, my dream was to become a journalist. To prepare myself for this I had luckily taken a touch typing course at a night school in Sutton Coldfield and was able to produce my certificate to prove my 60 words per. minute typing ability!

The eight-man sales team won sales team of the year that year, and they, their wives, and John were rewarded with a trip to Amsterdam. While they were there I got a call from London HO to inform me that they had secured a TV advertising campaign on Central TV for a new Johnny Mathis album, The Mathis Collection, for that weekend, and the team needed to concentrate their sales activity on that for the week. This was CBS’s first-ever TV campaign after the success that they had seen K-Tel have with their releases. Rather than panic London I said leave it with me and I came off the phone, went downstairs for a couple of doughnuts and some milk, my normal breakfast, and came back up to give it some thought. I walked over to the Co-op and spoke to the record buyer there and asked how many he would order. I took his order and then went on to Rackhams and took Mrs. Scrivens’ order. I decided the only course of action was to ring every one of the teams record shops throughout the Midlands and make the sale over the phone. Based on the numbers ordered by the Co-op and Rackhams and with the knowledge of how many K-Tel records we would sell at the Music Box, plus the knowledge I had gained from collating the weekly sales figures on past orders, I devised a minimum order scale based on size of shop, from 500 units down to 15, and set about calling them all. It was a double album so I guessed that they would ship 15 to a box, so, if a shop said they wanted 10 I would inform them that, due to the time constraint, they had to have a box of 15 and (I can’t remember how many) cassettes. The sales total was massive, faxed through to HO, who were non the wiser, and the whole campaign was a huge success.

A few weeks later, at a monthly sales meeting, the entire sales team received a top-of-the-range Sony ghetto blaster with a plaque attached thanking them for their part in selling 300,000 units of the album. I’m still waiting for mine!

Also a few weeks later, I got a knock at the door of my little 2 up, 2 down house in Ward End, quite late one night and was surprised to see John and his then boss and UK sales manager, Bob Lewis, there. I invited them in and they asked me if I would move to London and set up and run a telesales operation. I said no. However, I do think seeds were sown that night that coloured later decisions.

The BSM driving school shop was next door or next door but one to the CBS regional office building on Colmore Row. On the morning I took my driving test John parked a brand new white, Ford Cortina estate car outside and said “That’s yours if you pass” and I would be taking up the newly created role of ‘Singles Sales and Merchandiser”. I didn’t pass and the role went to a very nice young man named Nigel, and I would have to wait until he was promoted before I took up the role.

Working in the music industry was a real blessing. The Birmingham office was a hive of activity. As well as our artists who would call in when touring or doing regional radio promotion would use the office and many of the Aston Villa squad were regular ‘drop-ins’ looking for the latest releases. Bev Bevan was a regular (JET was a subsidiary of CBS). I remember Ron and Russel from Sparks breezing in one afternoon like a whirlwind.

Tickets for gigs and concerts by our own artists was a given. The Odeon was a major concert venue for Birmingham, and I had a great relationship with the manager, Tony Harvey. When a friend of mine missed out on tickets for Linda Ronstadt I gave Tony a call. He said he would leave me tickets on the door. We turned up and found ourselves front row centre, right below her microphone.

Another memorable concert at The Odeon was Billy Joel. The tour was arranged on the back of the success of “Just The Way You Are” and designed to support the release of “the Stranger” album. However there were only 16 people there and they were the CBS sales team and partners. The band performed as if it was to a full house and he was brilliant.

I had the pleasure of meeting Billy because we organised a promotional event at Luigi’s Italian restaurant in Digbeth. I made a rule not to ask for autographs of our artists, but did make an exception in this case. However I did get a bit of stick from him, because I asked him to sign a ‘white label’, which was a free advance promotional copy of the album. I still have it. The only other autographed album I have is from Chris Rea after I was presented with a Gold Disc for my efforts on “The Shamrock Diaries” album. I still have both the album and the disc.

I did eventually get the CBS singles job when Nigel was promoted to album sales, but this was very quickly expanded to take in regional radio and TV promotion, which took me out of the sales department and into the promotions department. The promotions department was a completely different animal to sales. I got my first taste of the difference before I moved over to them full time when I got a phone call in the office one afternoon. I don’t remember if it came from John P or Bob, but went along the lines of ‘We are both busy and won’t get back to Birmingham until late. Can you meet the guys from Sherbet at The Albany Hotel this evening, buy them a meal and entertain them.”  Sherbet were riding high in the UK charts at the time with ‘Howzat’. The guys were great, and although there was some piss-taking over the fact that CBS had sent the most junior employee in the country to look after them, it was in good spirit. My main concern was that, as time pushed on, the bill would be presented soon. Thankfully John and Bob turned up for late drinks and the paying of the bill. (When I did become a full member of the promotions team I was initially shocked by the level of my expense account. The only time there were any bollockings was if you didn’t spend your weekly allowance. A good fallback to cover this was to buy a crate of Champagne and drop it in to the TisWas team on a Saturday morning).

Working in promotions meant working more closely with artists such as arranging radio interviews around releases and tours. My main radio stations were BRMB in Birmingham, Beacon in Wolverhampton and Radio Trent in Nottingham plus the local BBCs. There were some great shows, Mick Wright and Robin Valk doing the more rock stuff (Robin played a lot of local music by up and coming bands) and the Mike Baker soul night on Beacon. I would often end up in the studio with Mike when he was doing the late show just for a chin wag. (Working in promotions did curtail my own DJ’ing activities a bit).

A few highlights and anecdotes.

I remember meeting three of the Nolan Sisters off the train at New Street station at the start of few days of promotional activity in the Midlands. Bernie gave me something of a bollocking because I picked them up in my Ford Cortina estate and not a Rolls Royce. (‘I’m In The Mood For Dancing’ had recently topped the charts). I confess I handled this with some levity, but over the next few days we all had a good time. Bernie bemoaned the fact that she could never just go out dancing but I assured her she would not have any problems in Birmingham but arranged private VIP rooms at the Opposite Lock and at the Night Out just in case. (Another perk of working for CBS was that all the DJ’s came to us for advance releases, so we were always welcome and well looked after at the clubs).

I was due to take Bruce Wooley on a promo tour when he asked me if I could get him into a studio as he had an idea. I rang up the guys at Beacon radio and they gave me access to a studio. The most I can remember is Bruce laying down some wood block patterns!

When I got my monthly advance notice of upcoming releases I spotted a Gene Pitney single on it. (‘Walking In The Sun’). He was at the time performing at The Night Out in Birmingham. It hadn’t been highlighted by HO as any kind of priority but I tried my best to get some traction on it has I was a big fan of his, but I didn’t get much sadly. I did however go along to his shows and went back to his dressing room afterwards (unannounced) to introduce myself and offer assistance while he was in town.  He welcomed us in (I was with Gill) to the small dressing room which had 2 or 3 of his people already in. We were stood by the door, he was leaning against the wall. He then regaled us, non-stop, with stories from his career for the best part of an hour. Possibly the nicest person in pop I met. I didn’t miss a UK tour after that for 20 + years.

It was my suggestion that the release of The Pasadena Roof Orchestra single ‘Pennies From Heaven’ be released as a promotional 10 inch, in a 78 rpm style cover. I think it was partly on the back of this I got an invite to a fairly exclusive party at HO with the marketing department and a few selected artists. (There was no one else from the sticks in attendance). I was quizzed on my thoughts about marketing and promotions by Peter Robinson, who was the marketing director at HO. I twigged that I may be in an interview conversation. It went OK until he told me the plan was to market Billy Joel as a balladeer/love song artist in the vein of (I can’t remember, but it was some ridiculous comparison). I think I scoffed a bit too much. Billy Joel’s next album was ‘Glass Houses’ – which rocked!

The big, big highlight of the year was always the companies Annual Conference. The whole company would get together for 2 or 3 days of presentations and performances from artists. The most memorable one was at the London Hilton and Grosvenor Ballroom. I arrived at the Hilton while Elvis Costello was doing his busking stunt outside the main entrance, so that was a cool start. The big event was the performances. I remember I was swinging from a spotlight during Boz Scraggs’ set, which rates in the Top 5 sets of gigs I have attended. There were artists sat at the tables alongside the sales people throughout the ballroom. As the night was winding down and people started mingling I made a beeline to talk to Meatloaf. I opened with “I’ve got a copy of your Stoney and Meatloaf single on Rare Earth” He looked at me in exaggerated surprise and said “So you’re the one” We sat at a quiet table by the corner of the stage and swapped examples of best unknown artists. The second nicest person in pop I ever met.

Dean Friedman came in to Birmingham for a gig and to do an appearance on Central TV. He was due to be singing to the backing track of his single. However the tape didn’t turn up. Some artists would have had a meltdown. Dean just asked if there was piano in the building, had one wheeled in, and performed a flawless version of the beautiful track ‘Lydia’ live instead.

A big highlight (which got me sacked for a short time) was when Abba played Bingley Hall in Stafford. I went over early morning to introduce myself and check in. I expressed my regret that they were not doing any local interviews. Benny said he was more than happy to do an interview before the sound check. I shot out of there like a bat out of hell, (pun intended) raced to Beacon and grabbed Mick Wright. He grabbed a roaming mic recorder and we raced back to Bingley Hall. Somehow, when we got to the dressing room both Mick and I looked as cool as cucumbers. I have to say Mick was indeed very cool and professional and he and Benny talked for ages in a very relaxed and laid back interview. However the fan and it’s surrounding area was covered when I relayed my activity back to JP when I was back in the office. The word from HO was I was gone. Apparently Radio One had been promised a UK exclusive interview. When I spoke to the big cheese of the promotions department (in what I think was my only ever conversation with him) I explained that I must have missed the memo. Of course, there was no memo and life (and Radio One) went on. ((Mick Wright syndicated the interview to every commercial radio station in the UK). Fair play to the big cheese though, (Malcolm?) he got rid of me later, as part of a 50% reduction across the promotions team via redundancy.

I had a great time at Magnet.

Highlights and Anecdotes.

It was my idea to market the next single release from Chris Rea as a mini album instead of a single. Chris’s albums always sold better than his singles, and I believed this approach would give him more traction with his target audience, and a shot at a decent chart position. (As long as it was a release before a new album was due). The idea was later repeated, (done to death) but the quality of the additional tracks on these were poor and didn’t make sense in the release cycle. I often wondered what the A&R department were doing. I never saw them at any artists gigs outside of London. When I recommended seeing unsigned acts at places like the Greyhound, they never turned up, preferring acts to send in tapes.

I had been for drinks at the Holiday Inn in Birmingham with Rob Davies from Darts. I was just leaving when I spotted a face I knew getting on the lift in the corner of the foyer. I rushed over to say hello. I skidded to a halt and said “Sorry, I thought you were Billy Joel” It was Sylvester Stallone! The doors closed on a bemused Syl and minder.

A constant amongst the Magnet artists during my time there was that they were all great people. Chris Rea, Andy O from Blue Zoo, (one of the nicest people in pop) the entire Kissing The Pink crew. Neil Taylor and Charlie from Violent Blue. Mike Sheerin from The Tempest, who was one of the most amusing people I ever met; he could regale you with stories for hours. John, Kevin and Rachel from This Island Earth were a great bunch. I’m still in touch with John and Kevin. Holly was doing vocals for John on some of his fabulous new tracks. (2020’s)

Kissing The Pink at The General Wolfe pub in Coventry remains one of my all time favourite gigs. Another almost empty venue where the band gave their all. After the gig I bought the band some drinks and some cigarettes, scribbling the cost down on a beer mat, which I handed in with my next expense account claim. A year or so later I was chatting to Nick Whitecross from KTP and he said that beermat was included in the bands annual accounts as a deduction against their advance/earnings.

Another time, I got a call from Mr. Levy suggesting there was a small issue with Mike from the Tempest and he asked me to go and talk to him. I suggested that that was the province of the A & R department, but ML said Mike would only talk to me. I drove up to Strawberry Studios in Stockport, where he was recording, for a chat. Magnet wanted him on a plane to Ireland for an appearance on RTE. Mike had an issue with flying. I offered to drive him across. I often wondered what the A&R department were doing.

I found Mr. Levy quite a contradiction. (In all my time there I never called him Micheal). He was authoritarian in his leadership style and was used to everybody agreeing with him, and didn’t like it when they didn’t. I was a young smart arse who always said what I believed in and, inevitably, we had our run-ins. On one occasion he had everybody in his office to play an upcoming release. I (still just a regional promotions person at that stage) suggested it would be great when the final mix was done. I got a few nods and murmurs of agreement from the others. He went berserk, marched us all up to the third floor to listen again on the A & R Departments speakers. Everybody backed down and said it sounded fine except me. Just the fact there were 16 people in a tiny room negated that possibility. Two days later I got a call from ML to say that the artist had requested to go back in the studio to do a fresh mix. In fairness he never needed to let me know that.

As part of a regional promotional visit we invited a local record dealer to join us for a meal at The Albany Hotel with Chris Rea and his wife, Joan. We had a pleasant evening, and, at the end of it, when it was just me and the Rea’s, Chris said “Any chance of a curry?”. I forsook my usual place and took them to a slightly posher one. (I can’t remember the names of either curry house now, but my usual had a tree in the middle).

ML promoted me to Head of Sales and Regional Promotions. Part of my role was to be in the office early on a Tuesday to login on a super slow modern and get the final chart positions, (we used to get a mid-week chart position on a Friday). He phoned me from home to hear the result. A single he expected to rise stayed where it was. He went ballistic. I had been against the track, it was a re-release that shouldn’t have happened, when there were new tracks available. He came straight into the office, found me in the Press office, which was next door to my own, hurled a large glass ashtray at me and left. The ashtray missed me and went through the window I was standing next to. We, as the management team, and ML, always had a meeting on the Tuesday to see where the chart positions left us and discuss next moves. My next move was to say stuff it. Ceri, who was Head of International came down to tell me that Micheal wanted me to be in the meeting. I knew that that was as close to an apology as I was going to get. In the meeting I reiterated my thoughts on the release, said I was more than happy to offer my resignation if that was what was desired. The discussion was moved along to something else on the agenda and life went on.

Libby in marketing gave me a full catalogue set of Chris Rea CDs that had been pressed and sent over by Polydor in Germany. We didn’t have any yet in the UK via RCA. I said thank you, went back to my office, called Germany and asked if it would be possible to buy a few thousand of each title, if required, for UK distribution. They said yes. I phoned Dave Buckley, chief buyer at Record Merchandisers, who ordered on behalf of all the Woolworths stores and asked if he could make lunch. He said yes, so I asked him to book in at his nearest favourite restaurant and said I was on my way. I left the building for the garage and saw Tony, Michael’s chauffeur, sat in ML’s Rolls Royce directly outside. I jumped in and asked if he was waiting to take ML anywhere. He said no so I asked him to drive me over to RM. He thought I was totally insane and drove off laughing. We picked Dave and his number two, another Tony (Wheatley), up and went for lunch. I offered them an exclusive UK deal on Chris Rea CD’s until they were pressed in the UK, and agreed a sales figure. I told them I was only sounding them out and hadn’t yet got full blessing.

When I got back to the office Pat collared me on the doorstep and ushered me straight into Micheal’s office. (The first office door of the building). I got exactly what I was expecting (and deserved). I told him my reasons. He gave me a withering look and dismissed me from his office.

20 minutes later he came up to my office (almost unheard of) poked his head around the door said “call them and double the number of the order” and left.

An hour later I gained permission to see ML again. Went down and said “by the way, on the drive back I offered young Tony the vacant singles merchandising and promotions position for London, please let me know your thoughts” and ducked straight back out. I really did like a laugh. Tony joined my team when ML found his replacement.

Micheal appointed a Director of Operations, Ian Grooves. He sat above me and all other employees in the organisation. He was a brilliant boss and the perfect buffer between me and ML. The short time he was there I was at my happiest.

Record Merchandisers, and by extension, Dave and Tony were pretty powerful in the music industry, and I was lucky to get on well with them, working as I did, for one of the smaller labels. They took me along to the England v. Northern Ireland match at Wembley, along with Phil Lynott (one of the nicest people in pop). They also invited me, Ian and Chris Rea to an exclusive new artist showcase they had organised. There were only 5 or 6 tables of guests and I was sat at the table right in front of the small stage. (Ian and Chris were sat with DLT and his wife). From here I got to see one of EMI’s new signings, Simply Red, perform a set. They were stunning and in my Top 5 live shows of all time. At the end of the evening I had the pleasure of catching up with, and dancing with Bernie Nolan.

Isn’t it great when a plan comes together. Ian, Libby Griffith, (Marketing) and me devised the sales and marketing plan for the upcoming release of Shamrock Diaries. At the time Magnet was distributed by RCA and it was the RCA sales team who would be pre-selling the album.

I went into the RCA sales meeting and laid out the plan, including what bonus they could achieve for hitting sales targets along each step and their final bonus. The RCA management were a little miffed, as they were much higher than the bonus they could get for their own releases that month.

I did the same for the Telesales team in West Bromwich. (That was a strange day). All targets were hit and the album entered the charts at number 15.

ML had a tannoy system that ran throughout the building. I heard the call go out requesting Ian report to Micheal’s office. This was in November. Ian was sacked on the spot. I was sat with Ian a few moments after he came back upstairs to collect his stuff, when I got the summons. I went down to ML’s office. There was no preamble, he just said “You’re the new Director of Operations”

I replied I was going over to the pub with Ian and then driving him home (ML had taken his car keys off him) and then I would discuss the offer with him. He said there was nothing to discuss and dismissed me from his office.

When I got back from dropping Ian home I gained permission to go into ML’s office and tended my resignation, on a months notice.

I said ML was a contradiction. During my months notice he made a couple of serious attempts to get me to stay (including taking me for a curry and inviting me to call him Micheal – no way). I wasn’t expecting this, I thought once I had said I was leaving he would have me out of the door quickly. At one point I nearly wavered (25% more money and a flat in London) until I had lunch with my contacts at Gallop, the company responsible for compiling the charts. Godfrey and Rick asked me if I was definitely leaving and I said yes, so they opened up on the reason we were struggling to break through on a number of singles I expected to be hits. Gallop had the ability to downsize sales figures (usually reserved for suspicious activity such as hyping) called ‘weighting’. Apparently they were regularly using this to keep Magnet singles from moving up the charts. This, they told me, was in response to an earlier Magnet release gaining a very favourable chart position that, allegedly, involved a Gallup employee being incentivised. (To the tune of a Mercedes, again, allegedly). I felt the knowledge of this would weigh heavy on me if I stayed, so pushed on with leaving.

When I first joined Magnet the General Manager was Graham Mabbutt. A lovely man who had to leave to look after his poorly wife. Later, after I had the management position, I learned that ML had, and still, continued to pay Graham. Again, not a level of loyalty I would have expected from ML. Graham returned to Magnet after I left.

Magnet was sold to Warner Brothers for £10 million a couple of years after. This is hearsay on my part but part of ML’s decision to sell, I was told, was that he was promised the running of Chrysalis Records by Chris Wright and he was somewhat upset when this didn’t materialise.

All those years working non-stop in the music business and I never stopped to consider being in a band myself. I had never caught the bug to play a musical instrument, although I did violin and piano while at school. I did however start writing lyrics. I could give you the exact date as I was writing pen and paper and always dated the sheet. However the folder I have kept all my scribbles in is in one of two rooms in our house we haven’t been in since we lost Holly.

I didn’t know what to do with my lyrics because of my lack of musical ability. I mentioned them to Phil, who was the manager of Andy Cash Records in Erdington at the time. I told him I had an idea of how I wanted them to sound and he said if I bought them round one evening he would come up with some tunes. I had gatecrashed a holiday in Greece with Phil and his brother a couple of years earlier (when Phil was singles buyer at Virgin in Birmingham) and remember we were in a bar on a beach and he took a guitar down that was hanging on a wall and kept everyone entertained with Beatles and other pop classics.

Phil was already a local hero of the music scene and had had a record deal with DJM as The Hobbs, a tongue in cheek punk band (although DJM didn’t know that) who wrote awesome ditties such as “Pass the Spanner Diana”.

On that first evening in September 1986, Phil put chords to the lyrics of Long Road, (which I never recorded) Dum Dum, Big Moon, What R U Doing 2Nite and Why, O Why. (which was also never recorded)

(Thanks to the magic of cassette to computer recording this session (and others) survives).

Some time later, (November/December) word got to James Binning of these song writing evenings and he suggested coming along and joining in. This meant we were now electric, I’d purchased a tiny Casio 2 octave keyboard with built in drum machine (which I still own), and another, slightly bigger one which I soon moved on from.

A week or so after that Jim announced that we had our first gig! He came up with a short set list of a couple of my songs, a couple of Phil’s and a couple of his. (Homeland and Lovin’ Net).  As part of this gig I would need to come off keyboards to play bass on Dum Dum, so set about learning my part. We were to do our short set at the Record Dealers Xmas party at The Opposite Lock, just as a three piece, and with no name. I was going straight from work so asked my girlfriend if she could pick up some footwear for me. She didn’t, so I played the gig with bare feet. I think we did alright, but I didn’t record it sadly. In fairness though, we were blown off stage by a record dealer (Phil? from Lichfield?) and his two female assistants singing the Theme from Fireball XL5 to a backing track.

After the winter we discussed adding a drummer and growing the band. We tried Richard, the manager of Goulds, Great Bridge and Des the CBS rep, before Adam Fisher, the Virgin rep, joined full time. Initially, bass duties got swapped about, depending on whose song it was and who was singing, until Dave Stinson joined. Dave worked at Sounds Good in West Bromwich.

We used to rehearse in Phil’s living room, above Andy Cash Records. I still have a cassette of every rehearsal we ever did as a full band. One of the highlights of the rehearsal is a 9 minute reggae version of Working In A Coal Mine we did with me on harmonica. I do remember Aubrey Nathan and another member  Linton (?) of the reggae band he was in, turning up and jamming with us (Linton on sax) at an early rehearsal, and giving me some tips on the keyboard. (I think that was before Adam joined and before I began taping).

I kept the tiny Casio ‘cos it had an audio sampler built in and we used it for the ‘open’ intro on Homeland, (it’s still in the saved pre-sets) but I added a SEIL DK80 synth and a Roland SH101 to my set-up.

Video of our gig at The Marksman in West Bromwich is on my YouTube channel. We were blessed with the number of friends that turned out to see us. The pub manager told me after the gig that they had had to lock the doors early to stop more people getting in ‘cos the pub had hit their fire regulations number.

It was decided that we needed to concentrate on either just the psychedelic rock or just the pop to continue. I really enjoyed being in a band but didn’t have the confidence in my musical ability to feel I could help carry just mine and Phil’s pop songs, so I voted for the rock route, with Jim as the only vocalist.

I instantly regretted my decision. I managed a few more rehearsals but missed the old vibe too much and quit. I seem to remember we were packing up the gear in the car park and expressing my feelings to Adam, and I think he was of the same mind.

After leaving Big Moon I bought myself a white Squier Strat copy guitar, a Saehan acoustic and set myself up with an Atari 1024ST – running Steinberg Pro-24. I also bought a Fostex 8-track and 24 channel mixer. I continued to write  the 3 minute-ish pop songs that I most enjoyed.

Working with Ian Rushbury, who worked at Andy Cash Records in the Harborne branch, we produced an album of these songs, with me on vocals. Most of those tracks would later go on to be the first Go Birch album ‘Pop’, re-recorded with my son Neil on lead vocals (on all but one track). Ian is one of the hardest working bass players in music. He has forever played in multiple bands, and still does, including Roxy Magic, the UK’s premier Roxy Music tribute band.

The Glove Puppet Orchestra 1990.

Me, Dave and Ian at Synatra’s (Jim out of shot)

…Ian Rushbury was called in to provide some interesting bass lines that would go with the sequences and synths. Go Birch was also invited to play keyboards. A set featuring some of Jim’s work and some of mine were given “the glove treatment”. As I recall, the set included “Dreamtime”, ”Homeland”, “Basic Essentials for Environmental Control” and “Refugee”. A number that I don’t recall featuring, in the now culturally famous “Synatra’s” gig was the “Glove version” of Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman”. We backed this with “Dreamtime” as a potential cassette single. I do remember that we gave a copy to Donovan and he sent Jim and myself a card saying how much he’d liked “Dreamtime” and asked us to keep in touch. Dave Stinson 

James and David had been working on some ambient music projects that they released on cassette, before it started to ‘rock-up’ a little. They decided it was worthy of a live set, so beefed up the sound with Ian on bass and me on keyboards. We did a one off showcase gig at Synatra’s in Birmingham. It was a strange but enjoyable set of 5 or 6,  5 to 15 minute tracks of ambient rock. There is audio here…

Druidspear 1992

Druidspear started off in 1992 with sessions involving Ian Rushbury, Go Birch, Mike Richards and yours truly (James Binning) jamming through songs in the back room of my home, and came to it’s (temporary) halt in 2002. James Binning. Druidspear.

James called to say he had some new songs so I went round with my little Casio keyboard and joined Jim and Ian for a jam. The following week we were joined by Mike Richards on bongoes. Jim felt there were enough songs (there were, with the new ones plus Jim’s songs from the Big Moon set, there were plenty) to call it a band and start looking for other members, and so Druidspear was born. Jim added a fiddle player, Paul Miller (The Professor) and Jayne Powell to play acoustic guitar and started rehearsing with vigour. The plan was that this would be very much James’ project so I decided I would concentrate on being their manager and carry on writing my own stuff. I secured a live recording session for the band at BBC Pebble Mill for broadcast alongside an interview with James on Radio WM. The band went through many personnel changes and I stopped managing sometime during the second or third incarnation.

I loaned the band my Fostex 8-track and 24 channel mixer and, set up in Ian’s living room, engineered the first album Slow… There were many guest musicians bobbing in to add bits. Ian asked if he could add a guitar riff on keyboard on a track (Owl?) so I offered up my synth. We had to write the notes on the keys. Unfortunately they were in permanent marker so are still there today.

The mixing of the album was pretty heavy going, it’s quite surprising how heated an argument about how loud a Dulcimer should be, can become. This ghastly task was performed in Bakewell, in the home of Druidbuddy, Go Birch. Whenever things got too much, we’d take his dog, Lucy for a walk by the river. By the time we’d finished mixing, the poor thing could hardly move. Ian Rushbury

When Jim opened Anew Music record store on the High Street in Harborne I loaned him my 8-track and mixer so he could open up a studio upstairs. The second Druidspear album was recorded there.

Ian, Mike and myself did a few low key gigs as Boom Moon playing just my songs.

I kept writing lyrics through the ninties/noughties and on. I enjoyed the process of writing music, but it was mainly about having somewhere to sit my lyrics. I kept pretty much to pop, but if a lyric idea lent itself to another genre, that was OK too. Most song lyrics came with the finished track in my head. I also preferred the 3.30 minute format. That was what I was bought up on and loved that a story could be told in that time span. I was writing just for pleasure.

It was only when Neil started writing songs I started to think about doing more with the songs I had. Neil played me:- Ten Years Out, How Can I Be and Jump! on acoustic guitar, and I was stunned. This was around 2009. We talked about me finishing them off as fleshed out pop songs with him on vocals for those songs plus on all of my tracks.

Holly was part of a school initiative where everyone got a musical instrument in year one. (Or was the final year of juniors?) Holly got a tuba. She was very good but I confess I was pleased when she changed to a trumpet the following year. She became very proficient on the trumpet, playing in the school band, and added clarinet as well. She always had free access to my instruments and picked up the acoustic guitar very early. She had an ear for music which gave her an advantage. She started writing lyrics too and I was amazed by the maturity of her lyrics, even those as early as age 14. We later started to record them for her solo album release and she also helped me a lot on my songs. She did all the acoustic guitar (her timing was better than mine) and backing vocals for my later tracks, She gave me invaluable input during the recordings, often showing me better melody and keyboard lines. When I recorded ’Swift’ I told her it was one of my Harleyesque tracks. (Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel was the first of “my” artists that I took Holly to see when she 12). She set up a vocal channel and recorded some la, la, la’s, straight from the ‘Come Up and See Me’ playbook. Genius.

I hadn’t really thought about putting anything up on streaming platforms. Then, early 2022 Holy and I starting adding music to the lyrics I had written for a Christmas song. (Holly had already written her own brilliant Christmas song called ‘It’s Christmastime Here’)). Thanks to Holly’s help with the music and Neil’s vocals it came out really well. (By my standards!).
So, bizarrely, ‘Find A Way (For Christmas)’ became my debut single release on streaming platforms in December 2022. It didn’t set Christmas streaming on fire but it did get a favourable review from ‘Essentially Pop’

I decided I would put the future releases up close to the order/era of when they were written, so listeners could follow the journey (and hopefully growth) of Go Birch. I started with the synth era of songs, with ‘Five Good Years’ and started my social media presence. The track got picked up by a presenter (Casimir Engine) on a radio station local to me, Kinetic 7 Radio, for his synth based show, and he stuck with me through my synth releases.

Early in 2023 I discovered an online community of songwriters called the New Artist Spotlight and joined them. It is a community of over 1,000 artists, where the artists can share music, get songs reviewed, do interviews, etc. It has it’s own radio station and it’s own Top 20 weekly chart show. (Members vote for their favourite songs). There have been 14 Go Birch songs in the NAS Top 20, my ego implores me to note here.

The album ‘Snap!’ was our third album, recorded during 2022 and 2023, with 13 tracks. 8 of the tracks were Neil’s lyrics, (the first time I moved away from mine), 4 were mine, and one was a co-write with Holly.

When Holly and I co-wrote ‘Hope or Hurt’ she really wanted it for her solo album. In the end we agreed she would do a version for her album if I could have a version of her song ‘Bittersweet Tears’ on my next album.

I had plenty of lyrics left to turn into songs when we lost Holly in February 2024, I just didn’t have any heart.

When I kissed her goodbye for the final time I said to her that I wouldn’t be long, but I would write one more song.

This Is My Last Song was my final song. I hadn’t the heart or the capacity to do the music myself so turned to Suno for assistance. Going that route I have completed all my unrecorded lyrics.

All I need to do now is get Holly’s album up on Spotify (which is proving a bit of a battle, but I hope it will be streaming before the second anniversary of her passing) and my life in music will be completed.

I have found everything difficult since I lost Holly. I function for no more than an hour a day max in terms of getting things done. I seem to have lost the ability to spell. My general decision making is poor. The reality is that nothing really matters. I bumbled through the first year with zero focus. I didn’t do anything. This year (2025) I had no desire to live through the ignominy of another Father’s Day (June 16th).

On June 11th Jayne was told there was a problem with her latest breast scan. She had breast cancer. I tried my best to support her. One operation to remove the lump didn’t go well at all and a second operation was needed, with major infection issues in between, which pushed the radiotherapy behind the optimum timeframe. Throughout all this Jayne still had the responsibility of caring for her mother, aged 88  and suffering from dementia. She refuses help from anyone outside, she doesn’t want hem in her house. We arranged for her to go into a nursing home while Jayne was in hospital. She wanted-out on day three and I got the call to collect her. (She left with the homes TV remote in her suitcase, adamant it was hers). I struggle with Jayne’s mom. Facially I see so much of Holly in her and it breaks my heart.

When Jayne and I started dating she talked about the horrors of childbirth and how she would never want children. It came as some surprise then when she said she wanted a baby shortly after we married. The only caveat was that it had to be a girl. I was relieved when the tests showed it was a girl. (Although I would have been happy with a son having enjoyed bringing my son Neil into the world 22 years earlier). The due date was Christmas Day 2000. Holly was born by caesarean section on December 12th, 2000.

We discussed what life should look like with a child and it was agreed that if we each bought 12K into the household we could bring Holly up and spend more time with her. Jayne set up as a wedding photographer. Working for myself running a small marketing agency gave me the flexibility to choose my working hours. As such we never missed a school play, concert, sports day etc., ever. I never missed a football match when she was playing.

We used to laugh when we went to the junior school sports day. Everything was non competitive. How many times can you bounce a ball, and the like, but with no winners. We were somewhat surprised then, when the Head organised a football match against another school. We enjoyed playing in the park and the garden so football wasn’t new to her. For the match Holly wanted to play in goal. On the day she was stunning. She was determined that nothing would pass her. Racing off her line to block players and diving all over the place. She loved it.

The one thing that Holly hated about playing in goal was that we insisted on her wearing a Peta Cech helmet and a gum shield!

Soon after she joined the Bakewell Under 12’s, which I managed with Stu. This was a mixed team, and there was only Holly and one other girl in it. Holly was in competition with Ben for the goalkeeper position. After a few training sessions/games, Ben gracefully said Holly was the better keeper and he was going to concentrate on an outfield position. Holly really showed class. An ex-goalkeeping coach told me she was as good as anyone he had seen by that age.

I decided to take my FA Goalkeeper Coaching Badge the following season and had the pleasure of being coached by one of Leicester City’s goalkeeper coaches. I also took over as manager of the U14’s. We struggled for numbers. We had a squad of 12/13 players and sometimes played with the minimum number of players (7) against 11. They always gave their all and played to enjoy the game. We had a fun season. Although we finished bottom of the league we went on to win the cup. This was down, in no small part, to Holly saving her penalties in the shoot out after the match finished 1 – 1. We won on penalties 1 – 0 with only Ed, the captain getting a penalty on target for our team.

At 15 Holly moved to play for a girls only team (she couldn’t play mixed once she hit 16 anyway so the time was right) and joined Matlock Ladies, winning both the league and cup in the first season. In the cup final it was 1 – 1 with a couple of minutes to go, and I was quietly confident Holly would produce her magic in the penalty shoot-out. Then the ref awarded a penalty against us. My heart was in my mouth. So much pressure on her. However she dived to her right and saved the pen., and went on to save more in the shoot-out for the win.

The Bakewell boys U16s also made the cup final that season and Paul, the manager asked if Holly would join the squad just in case the game finished with a penalty shoot-out. They were 2 – 0 down at half-time. Paul gave them an inspirational team talk and they pulled it back to 2-2. Paul asked Holly to warm up as the likelihood of a shoot-out loomed. Then we scored a winner!

The rules changed again and girls were allowed to play with boys up to the age of 18. When Holly went to Birkdale school, in Sheffield, for her A level year, it’s all boys football team found themselves a goalkeeper down for a match. Holly stepped up. As usual I blagged my way onto the coach for the away match. (My FA Badge came with DBS cover). Birkdale were 1 – 0 up with minutes left to play when a penalty was awarded against them. I was so nervous for her. However the penalty taker blasted it straight at her and high so it was a straightforward push over the bar. I was dammed if they were going to score off the corner, so I was on the sidelines shouting like I was the manager, organising the defence. It finished 1 – 0 to Birkdale.

Because I have been blessed I could tell similar stories about Neil as a teenager/young man. The practise we did where he could only shoot with his weaker left foot (which worked) or the time we played 5-a-side together and he smashed a shot that hit the corner of the goals and broke the goal frame apart on it’s way in, but the memories of Holly are just so bittersweet now.

The loss of Holly has crushed me. She was a beautiful, sweet, kind young lady. As well as the music and the football she enjoyed long walks, rock climbing, skiing, windsurfing, trampolining and dogs. I cannot bear the loss of everything that she will not do, see or achieve. Everything that is open to me is irrelevant in the knowledge and the guilt I feel because it is not open to Holly. I only had one job and I failed. I should have seen the signs and had the conversations. Every day is a struggle. I’m crying as I write this. Jayne finds walking and art helps her through the day a little. I walk with her, but I just think this is something Holly should be doing, and am keen for when it’s over. The only time there is any happiness in the house is when Jayne gets up and comes downstairs and Boo Boo the dachshund gets excited because she is going to get a cuddle on the swing chair cushions on the floor where BooBoo and me sleep. We watch countless hours of TV for the sake of it and the noise it creates.

I cherish every moment I spent with Holly but I grieve every moment I will miss and that outweighs everything. Sometimes it comes in small, like when I see a tiny cottage with a for sale sign or a young lady lady with a new puppy. Sometimes the weight of every one of those future minutes hits me all at once and I feel crushed and unable to breathe.

Once I have Hollys’ album uploaded to streaming and the links added to our websites I will have absolutely nothing to do. The emotional support I bring to Jayne is minimal at best. I have so little to say or give. When Jaynes mom dies Jayne will be financially secure but I think that she is more likely to live forever.

In the meantime here I sit.

January 14th, 2026