Return to Childhood.

I have been threatening this blog since I started writing all those years ago, this is a personal one for me, its about people who were a close knit family for more than ten years and then it all  imploded, there are no salacious stories just my interpretation of people who I shared great times with and then I missed (and still miss them) most of them for the last thirty years. This will not be a short blog damn it might even be split into two, I haven’t decided yet! There is an awful lot of sadness and death in this blog and a whole heap of regret!

I am not having a dig at anybody during the course of this blog, it’s the people (not their partners) that I do intend to remember, there were more people out on the perimeter, but this was the basic gang, The Dawn Patrol of which I have blogged before, I will not be talking about my two best friends as I will reserve that for another blog, and yes I know I have spoken about them in the past, this has been the hardest blog of my so called “career” to write so bear with me. I am aware that a number of people who I intend to write about in this blog read it, I have been told that, it won’t alter what I write, if you know me you know I would only ever write the truth, however it will be my version of the truth if there is something written about you as an individual please feel free to contact me and we can review what has been printed!

I have stated how I bumped into the crowd in previous blogs(at a UFO gig on the No Place to run tour in 1980), most of the gang came from Witton Gilbert and Pity Me area even venturing as far as Bowburn, they kind of congregated in Durham, they only went to the town (Newcastle) for gigs and occasionally to go to the Mayfair, I was the youngest by about 3 – 4 years and I was definitely the smallest of the group, with the biggest mouth allegedly, sometimes we would drink in The Angel or The Salutation or maybe just stay in Witton Gilbert in the pubs and club close to hand, we were a great bunch, we rarely had any issues , rarely fell out, rarely had cross words, well apart from me, it would appear that I was an opiniated little oik, not frightened to fight my corner, my cause or who I thought was best musically, I had an opinion on everything!

Now this was never malicious, I wouldn’t have stayed friends with everybody as long as I did, when I was younger I was simply full of beans, I had two sets of friends, my friends in my hometown of Gimpsville and the Mob from Durham, both sets of people were decidedly different and  I needed them for totally different purposes, both sets helped me after I left her Majesty’s Armed Forces but in different ways. In truth I needed to ask for help myself but we all know how long that took to ask (please see previous blogs written about my CBT course) times have changed and there’s not much time goes by where I don’t think of these people, even after all the stupid crap that went down.

What has caused me to finally write this, well I met a friend (yes I still think of him as a friend and not as my nemesis even though he was both from time to time) at work about twelve years ago he was apprehensive to say hello (more of this in a little while) but he did and we had a little chat, he was living in Japan, so it was a fleeting visit to see family, but we stood and chatted for ten or so minutes and thankfully we parted on better terms. Mike Cooke was the Ritchie Blackmore of the group he could outplay anybody who we knew (I will compare most of these people to musical heroes because they are and were still  my local heroes to me) he was doing Yngwie style shredding in 1980 and he is the person that set me down the road  to song writing, we started with a massive row over a set of lyrics, “if you can do better I will see you next week” 7 days later and 17 different sets of lyrics to the same tune, I wasn’t concerned about melody or anything like that, simply because I didn’t know anything about this thing called melody (that would come much later) and he hated every lyric I wrote, but he did take a bit from one and then another from a different set and in the end a song that was called The Knight of La Marr became known as Crusader(my first published works but not my first written song), the original would have seen him sued by Michael Moorcock’s estate the latter certainly wouldn’t! he was mightily impressed with my ability to turn out a large quantity of quality work in a short amount of time, this really was the basis of  our friendship, we both believed in hard work for just rewards. He auditioned for just about every band I can think of Ozzy (after Jake E Lee) Whitesnake before Sykes, Thin Lizzy at the same time as Snowy White, Gillan before Janick he did play in White Spirit for a month after Janick got the Gillan job but quit after punching Brian Howe (yes that Brian Howe) in the face! Iron Maiden when Adrian Smith left and he lost out to Janick again, that was the end of the auditioning days I think he realised he was better off as a gun for hire.

We wrote on a regular basis over the next ten years and he was the first person I knew to sign a record deal (with EMI in 1981) he never released one bloody record, instead he became a session player for just about everybody, before heading out to Japan to work with Yamaha as part of their development team, he loved playing, he simply hated all the rigmarole that went with doing gigs, he also struggled to maintain his groups because he had an ego, sad but true, he’s made a great living out of it over the years to the point that he is now retired and back  in this country, how do I know this because I bumped into him just before the lock down and what a difference 12 years makes, he was diagnosed as having MS just before Christmas of last year and already he is a totally different person to the man I knew, did we have had our ups and downs, hell yeah we did, but at the end of the night it was always forgotten  or talked through, there wasn’t any animosity there from my side, the problem arose later when two friends died and we didn’t have open lines of communication, it was before email it was before mobile phones and texting, I know if it had happened now we could have resolved our issues before they festered into the ugly mess that they became.

Again I wont go into the issue in this blog Mike thought that he was simply doing the best for a friend and I was asked by that friends wife to ask him to wait, he didn’t it all kicked off and here we are 30 years later wondering why we simply just didn’t talk, ego’s of the pair of us more than likely, that’s happened I  know we aren’t going to be the friends that we were, I’m not after that I simply wish in what little time I have left on this planet that I know I can part ways with everybody on good terms, that remains to be seen, it would appear that its not true about a grudge being for life, we simply carry our grief in different ways.

Then there was Gary Webb who so wanted to be Paul Raymond he even had the same hairstyle and that’s the reason he didn’t get the gig with UFO on the High stakes tour, at the audition both Pete Way and Phil Mogg couldn’t help staring at this Doppelganger, so Gary said at least. a lovely lad who drifted off into ill health and I’m told he passed away in 2001 with Leukaemia, we wrote a few songs and it was Gary who suggested me for the Satellite gig (before I sounded like a wart hogg) A big miss and a lovely person.

Phil Webb was Gary’s older brother and a great bass player again he passed in the early 90’s I’m not sure of what, although I can always remember struggling to get him to go out to a pub, but once he was out you couldn’t get him to leave it was his flat in Croydon that I bought back in 1983.

Simon Fox was our resident Rick Wakeman he even had a cape, he’s now a maths teacher I just wonder if he wears the cape in the classroom. Again over the years he did lots of sessions for the likes of Ozzy and Uriah Heep but was never asked to join the groups, He became a teacher and I don’t think (from what I have been told) that he has regretted the decision.

Bob Edwards was our resident Cozy Powell, and was the pinnacle of the cluster fuck of our relationship within the group, we had a slight altercation in my local Asda where I bounced a tin of soup of his head at the till and then had to be dragged off a very surprised drummer, I was foaming at the mouth, me and Bob up until that point had been very close, I haven’t seen him since, would I apologise for my behaviour, no not for that, I feel I was justified however the world has moved on and I feel that we have all had time to reflect I certainly don’t hold a grudge.

Tom Willis the Bob Daisley of the group He and Bob Edwards were a fearsome rhythm section, they usually played with various artists over the years including Bonnie Tyler, Sheena Easton and I’m led to believe Tom Jones.  it was Tom (Willis not Jones)who I sunk my teeth into as he tried to drag me off Bob back in Asda, what can I say I was committed there was two of them and only one of me and I had every intention of winning, again the world kept turning!

Gary Shaw was our Gary Moore and he played with tons of 70’s stars on the holiday circuit Gary was a troubled shy soul, I shared lots of rooms over the years, he always drank to oblivion, sadly he drank himself to death about 10 years ago in Sweden on tour with someone who I don’t remember , I like to think that he died peacefully in his sleep, I have lost a few friends over the years because of the drink, Gary had the potential to be great however he was crippled with shyness outside of our circle, I think that’s why he drank, I still see his dad from time to time and we always chat his dad is 94 and the spitting double of his  only son, his dad has been tea total since he was 23. Maybe he knew that the demon alcohol wasn’t for everybody, as he said though you have to follow your own path,

Peter Craig a great guy who never said die, Satellite was actually his baby and he kept it going from 1978 right up until 2004 in various different line ups, he ended up playing mainly American air bases and the such like, in the early 90’s he even had a bunch of 18 years old go out and play they nearly got signed as well, he played off stage keyboards and was there manager, but then grunge happened and it was back to stage plying the army bases, I had the privilege of singing for his baby and I wrote about 90% of their material with Peter, maybe that’s why they never got signed, I think I still have the demo tapes kicking around somewhere, we both shared a taste for obscure Canadian bands (Trooper) Peter met a  lady retired and had a massive heart attack two days after moving to Spain to live his life on the beach, he got his wish, bless him.

Jon Darren was our John Deacon as in quiet and a great bass player he left our merry little tribe before I did, he got married to Mary (who was just so nice to everybody we all called her Mother Mary after the UFO song) he retired from music and went into retail, had three kids and allegedly lots of grand kids, he is now living in St Austell, which funny enough was the last place I saw him on his stag do, I didn’t think anybody could throw up that much, until I discovered that can you not so long back.

Andy Ross, our Norse god and the tallest of the group at 6” 9” he worked as a sound engineer, he disappeared off to Norway in 1993, and has fallen off the edge of the world quite literally, when we went to gigs Andy normally got me in next to the sound desk or I stood in front of him if he wasn’t working, I was thought he would have looked good in Manowar, I never said that within striking distance. Even with his look and size he was the softest spoken person I have ever met, until you pissed him off LOL!

Craig Stevens was a great guy but nobody could tell you what he did for a living he was rarely short of cash (no I don’t think he did anything illegal, he just had lots of fingers in lots of pies)he could get you onto any guest list and I mean any guestlist, the only problem was if you asked (and I never did) it was like you had sold your soul and Craig was our particular Lucifer!

Chris Hughes the most grown up of the group he became a radiologist and his story is itself so sad, the first of the group to die Chris was definitely like a big brother to me, he lost his wife to cancer after she gave birth to his only daughter, she died in a car crash with his in laws about 18 months later Chris hung himself me and his brother helped the police break into the house, he had passed us  in his car as we were going to the Salutation, he just was blank we knew something was wrong, again a long blog all by itself, it was the first time I had ever seen a dead body, and the first time (but not the last) time I saw someone who had hung themselves, I think in reality this was actually the start of our tribe unravelling.

Jeff Hughes the Ian Paice of the group he was without a doubt the best drummer I ever knew what he could do on a little kit was awesome, and he always played with a little kit, he was the nearest age wise as he was the younger brother of Chris, and we usually shared rooms when we had flats together it was Jeff who bought my flat from me in Croydon in 1985, he retired 4 years ago and sold  it to buy a four bedroom detached in Bowburn(for cash…..i wish I had just rented him my flat, oh the benefit of hindsight), we still chat when we see each other (not often) I wont mention that he worked for Stock Aitken and Waterman, no honestly I won’t, the cheque  is still waiting to clear!

Paul Dean another wizard of the keyboards, name a pop act of the 80’s & 90’s he was your go to guy, I have seen him on top of the pops more times than Status Quo he was on one night with three different acts, he was always a busy boy, worked damned hard but was fun when he let some steam off again he ended up working with S.A.W (his cheque cleared) he did that until about 2002 and then buggered off to Crete, I’m told he’s still out there and he does read the blog as he has told me off in the past, he always was our man of mystery!

 Dave Brooks was our resident Simon Phillips and played with just as many bands, I was told that he had drowned off the coast of Florida in 1995, but I am reliably informed that he didn’t and he rose from the grave and works at a collage somewhere in the great state of Florida.

I am going to end it there as it seems  that there are too many ghosts sitting with me (real and imagined) and it has been a lot of information about people you won’t know, I’m not expecting this one to do  the numbers of previous ones, but I don’t really care, the name game is in play but it’s a live album not an actual song, it’s not that hard! Some of the information in this (and the next) blog is over twelve years old so if there is anything I have gotten wrong (me with my reputation) please let me know and I will correct any facts that I got wrong.

It’s not written as a sad blog if it comes across that way then, there’s not a lot I can do about that, its written with warmth in my heart for people who I still class as family, no matter what has transpired over the years, these were good people some have had harder times than me some have lived their lives with no regrets, isn’t that the best way?

I will conclude this blog (but not this story) next time, I don’t wish to dwell on the bad times in reality a small period of time compared to all of the good times and yes there were some good times most of the historical/hysterical, musical blogs has this cast of reprobates tagging along as a happy clan, so enjoy and watch because I have a feeling that the next one will be here sooner than this one was, so far this has been the longest blog in a couple of years, I hope I haven’t put anybody to sleep! So until the next one stay safe, stay alive and keep watching the skies for incoming……Toodles!