The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33222   Message #3870872
Posted By: GUEST,Pete LeRoy
10-Aug-17 - 09:41 AM
Thread Name: Where are they now Chapter 3 (group)
Subject: RE: Where are they now Chapter 3 (group)
How the group got together was beyond strange.
I moved from South Africa to London with my friend John Kongos in April 1966.
He took up with a bird who had a posh flat in Chelsea.
I had to get a job: ended up at a tractor factory near Heathrow on night shift. Crap Job.
Got a letter from my mother in South Africa, enclosing a letter she had received, addressed to me. It turned out to be from a Scottish folk singer named Alex Malcolm I had run into now and then in Johannesburg folk clubs. He wrote: I'm here in Nice (France) with John Rice ( a bass player) drop me a line or call me at this number. So I called, said: I'm in London.
He said : why not come on down to Nice. I said OK. Then he said: Could you just collect John's double bass in London, and also my 12 string guitar...OK?
Thus began the journey through hell...a bass, a guitar case and my suitcase...london to the boat...Le Havre to Paris...across Paris to Gare St Lazare...train to Marseille...onward to Nice...
Just to add insult etc...I had a ticket but the train was overbooked...so I had to stand in the corridor from Paris to Nice...about 8 hours... played in Nice until mid-September, when all the tourists disappeared overnight. Got a lift to Paris. Onward to London. Arrived with no money and nowhere to stay. Looked in Melody Maker for a fok club open that night. Ended up at the Black Bull in Barnet. Asked the man in charge if we could do a set. He liked us. Stood up and said: Can anyone put these guys up? A singer called Dave Lipson said: My gran just died, you can stay in her house free as long as you like...a long strange journey.....best wishes....