A Life in Music: Loz Kingsley and Vo Fletcher. Guitar and Mandolin. And how.

Definitely a string thing

In this edition of Lives in Music, I'm talking with Loz Kingsley and Vo Fletcher, Mandolin and Guitar players of great skill and experience. I met this pair, I think, back in 1974, when they were doing a session at the old BRMB Radio. They were no slouches then, and they've only got better since. To listen to the podcast episode, go here, or simply scroll down to the bottom of this post

Vo plays with a bewildering number of talented people all over the midlands and beyond, and he gets together with Loz, who only returned to live work with the much-missed Rhino and The Ranters, for regular and highly enjoyable sessions in some of the nicest boozers in the region. And of course, having spent nearly a year in lockdown, that's something I have missed enormously. There is some compensation with Vo running (as do many others) a live session on Facebook every Tuesday at 6pm.


They have, as you might expect, mighty track records, which you'll hear about. There's also some super live guitar and mandolin work to be enjoyed in this episode, along with a taster from Loz's new album, Vintage Mandolin.

Links

The Tuxedo Bay Facebook page
All you ever need to know about Jellikins
Rick Sanders and Vo Fletcher page on Costa Del Folk
Vo's weekly Wine O'Clock live sessions: Tuesdays 6pm on Facebook 

Albums
Loz's album Vintage Mandolin can be had by emailing loz1954@me.com 
Vo's new album is at vofletcher.com 

Vo and Loz's episode of Lives in Music

 

The Lives in Music Podcast series   

I've been doing this for about two years now. These are interviews with local 
musicians, looking at how music has shaped them throughout their lives. Series 3 
also looks hard at how lockdown has had an impact. There are some lovely stories. 

To see who's in the list of artists, here's a link to see every episode.

One further footnote: the intro and outro flourishes I'm using in this series of Lives in Music podcast come from Vo himself. I asked him for a bit of live impro, and this was the result.  

The Radio To Go blog
This blog has been going since 2007. I started it to focus mainly on radio stories, as the industry went through a series of convulsive changes. Those changes aren't over yet, not by a long chalk. Over the years I expanded the range of topics to cover local music, another subject close to my heart. I think it was a Destroyers gig that pulled me in that direction. I've banged out several hundred posts in that time, and of course deleted quite a few. But if you're interested in thoughts on the local scene and/or radio futures, by all means visit the full topic index on the Radio To Go blog

Photo credit for Vo Fletcher: Colston Halls

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A Life in Music: Steve Ajao. Lenny Henry's a fan

A proper Renaissance Man, is Steve

A stalwart of the Birmingham music scene, Steve has been laying down greasy guitar blues and elegant cerebral Jazz sax in equal quantities, for generations. Oh, and he builds guitars, beautifully... and he's completely self-taught. And he's got the deepest voice in all Birmingham. His Blues trio can be found playing live in all the best joints in the Midlands and beyond. They are astonishingly relaxed and extremely tight - something that comes from decades of playing together. 

On top of this, Steve Ajao's facebook feed carries all sorts of other titbits, such as recipes for homemade Sauerkraut, gardening tips, and more. He's into loads of stuff :-) Gourmet, gardener, guitar restorer, blues shouter, cool saxman. I'm sure there's more.

Music 

The theme music for this series comes from Big Q Fish, a seriously uncompromising Birmingham band that I suggest you check out. The song is 'Boksburg Jive Toon', written by guitarist Brian Neil. There's plenty more to listen to if you follow the link. They're also on YouTube.

On top of this, you'll hear Steve play an improvisation on Steel Guitar in the podcast itself, as part of the interview.

Links

Steve Ajao's Blues Giants website
Steve Ajao's Blues Giants on Facebook
Steve's Club Bebop on Facebook: currently a weekly Wednesday residency at Fletchers Bar in Kings Heath, Birmingham.

And there's a ton of stuff to check out on YouTube, both Jazz and Blues.

Podcast Player

Other podcasts in Lives In Music

all with show notes and music links

1 - Ruby Turner 
3 - The Men who make Mellotrons 
4 - Mike Hatton 
5 - Horace Panter 
6 - Jasper Carrott
7 - Sam Slater
8 - John Patrick
9 - Gordon Giltrap
10 - Jim Simpson

Lives in Music celebrates people who have spent a lifetime in music. They may be famous; they may be people who have spent their lives working in the background for the love of it. They all have stories. Lives in Music is a Radio To Go production.



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The same, not the same. Horace Panter, the Specials after John Bradbury, and more

The many bands of Sir Horace Gentleman

Next month, the man who plays bass with the Specials, founder member Horace Panter, brings his latest project to Birmingham. This is his fourth band. Not sequentially mind – they all run pretty much at the same time. 

The trick is: Horace is now... going Country. That's in addition to a Blues outfit and a very purist Ska operation. Oh, and the Specials. Not bad going for a kid who bumped into Jerry Dammers at Art School in Kettering.

Horace Panter. Special.

He still loves it, all of it. 

Horace Panter is great company: courteous and affable. He is hugely knowledgeable about music and musicians, both local and further afield. He plays in three and a bit bands: blues band Blues 2 Go, and straight-up ska outfit Uptown Ska Collective. And he's also working with Champion Doug Veitch, collaborating with Martin Bell, once of The Wonder Stuff. 

But the big band is, of course, The Specials, who started in 1977, reformed in 2008, and are now bigger than ever. 

Brothers Groove

You can play 35 notes if you really want. 3 sounds just fine from over here

Brothers Groove have a lot of miles on the clock. Their music is not, by any definition, cutting edge or new: stylish blues and funk with a little bit of jazz in the mix. Hipster bands half their age might well sniff – until they see how much work the band gets.

Then again, hip or not hip is beside the point.  Lots of people try to get this stuff right in the UK; many miss the mark. Brothers Groove are doing ok: their music breathes. It has space and taste. Think Robben Ford, Crusaders, Little Feat, Steely Dan in their prime. That kind of ballpark. And...` they’re brummies. There’s a second album in the can - samples later in in this post - and a plan.

Joanne Shaw Taylor: Black Country blues. From Detroit.

JST's latest CD - live, one take stuff

In November, a Detroit-based blues guitarist comes to Birmingham Town Hall. Nothing particularly unusual in that, of course, we get touring US musicians all the time. But this one’s different. Joanne Shaw Taylor is a Brit, born in the Black Country, raised in Solihull and elsewhere across the West Midlands, and she’s got a ton of local connections. .

Now, she’s based stateside, by no means the only Brit to have moved countries to further a career. More recently, Davy Knowles, from tiny Port St Mary in the Isle of Man, relocated to the US to further his blues career, while Birmingham’s Toy Hearts – familiar to Joanne from their sets at the Roadhouse in Stirchley, South Birmingham - are currently in the middle of a very extended spell playing Western Swing and Bluegrass and working out of Austin, Texas.

It's not the first time that British musos have taken their versions of USA music back to the mother ship. Rewarding though it may be, it’s not the easiest of paths to travel.

Still got the Blues. In 2013, in Birmingham, England

Anyone who plays Blues readily admits it's not fashionable. But they’ll also talk of their love for the music. Forthright ideas from two seasoned players.

Robert Johnson

When you think about it, it's astonishing that blues is alive and well in the UK. And it's ironic that blues players like Joanne Shaw Taylor and Davy Knowles, from Rugby and the Isle of Man respectively, should now be plying their trade in the USA. 

That said, there’s some seriously enjoyable blues operators in the Midlands – Steve Ajao’s Blues Giants, The Grey Goose Blues Band from Kidderminster, Babajack from Malvern. Trevor Burton plays some blistering stuff too, and I know I’ve missed out loads of good guys. 

This post talks to two practitioners: a Birmingham 70s original, Steve 'Big Man' Clayton, coming in for a reunion Boogie Woogie gig, and Frankie Williams from the Grey Goose Blues Band. They're not taking any prisoners. 

Ricky Cool - he's got a harp and he knows how to use it.

45 years in the business, with a collaborator list as long as several gorilla arms, and still playing the the music he absolutely loves, ladeez and gennelmen, Mister Ricky Cool steps mike-side...

The thing about long-standing musicians who love what they do is - they simply don’t stop. They keep on coming, experimenting and working. That means they work with a lot of people over the years. While putting this blog piece together, I couldn't think of many posts where I’ve put more links up to more people than this one. Ricky Cool is just... so... connected.  

It’s even a family thing: he is uncle to two Toy Hearts. and if you played Six Degrees Of Separation with him, you'd wind up with Bob Wills, Robert Plant and Richard Nixon - one of the most catastrophically unpopular and inept presidents in US history - in the mix. 

This piece started as a side-bar to the March piece on Toy Hearts, given the family connection. But there's far too much to talk about to even consider boiling Ricky down to a mere paragraph....

Everyone calls you Trix….? 

It started when I left school. It was in 1968, when Richard Nixon was running against Hubert Humphrey for the US presidency. He was known as Tricky Dicky, and I’m Richard, so, I became Tricky Dicky, and then Trick. I was playing on my own then, in folk clubs. Someone misheard it… and it’s been Trix ever since.

What sort of stuff were you playing then, and where?

I was doing blues and folk. The regular haunt was the Royal Oak at Quinton. That was run by Dave Cartwright, Bill Caddick and Mike Billington. I first met Mick Howson at the Royal Oak , who became one of the Icebergs (and of course is hurdy-gurdy man for the Destroyers), and Alec Angel, who played bass in the Icebergs. They had a little trio doing Bert Jansch and John Renbourn stuff, in the folk clubs. 

Then there was the Lock at Wolverley, the Boat club in Strourport, Ian Cambells’ place in Digbeth, and another one in the centre of town, run by John Swift, Tommy Dempsey and Dave Phillips – a great guitarist and singer. Birmingham was more traditional, but at the Royal Oak, you had a lot of singer-songwriters, great ragtime guitarists… you could hear great acoustic blues, great acoustic folk…  

That’s still a stretch from there to Western Swing and the Icebergs, let alone the Hoola Boola Boys…

But it was a great grounding. Blues has always been my first love; I latched onto that as a teenager. I got into acoustic blues. 

I ended up running Sunday nights at the Fighting Cocks in Moseley. And that’s when I first met Stuart Johnson, (now playing with Toy Hearts), around 1971. I met him mainly because I’d got a National Steel guitar! Mick (Howson) had a little band by then, and asked me to come down and have a knock; I did.- I don’t think I was that impressive, but we ended up as a band called Brickhouse Brick. We did support for acts like Barclay James Harvest… 

And in 1976, we decided to get a different band together, to do Rock and Roll and things like that. We’d seen Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers, and we thought they were great - the first time I saw anyone doing Louis Jordan. Another big thing: Mick and myself both loved Commander Cody (and His Lost Planet Airmen) and Asleep At The Wheel. So the band was initially called Tricky Dicky and the Wildcats. But because Marty Wilde’s band had been the Wildcats, we had to drop that…And the link was through Steve Gibbons, who had released 'Johnny Cool' (see the YouTube vid here ).

So I then became Ricky Cool, and the band became the Icebergs.

Ricky Cool and the Icebergs - Wait a Minute Baby, 'Bouncing In The Red', 1979. 

But you dropped right into a character: Ricky Cool took on a life of his own. I remember interviewing you in character.

You can’t have a name like that without a character… I had a gold lame suit, drapes, brothel creepers. One of us went down to the Barrel Organ in Digbeth – new landlord, hadn’t a clue what to put on – we bigged up the band, and got a residency: Saturday lunchtime, rehearse all afternoon, and then do Saturday night. A couple of months after starting, people were queuing around the block. The timing was impeccable. Everything we did dropped into place. A secretary at the BBC came down on a Saturday night when the place was heaving. She told her boss; he came down and loved it; and we got a half-hour show on the BBC. We hired out Birmingham Rep, rented it ourselves, and put a gig on there, and turned 200 people away. I can’t imagine how we had the brass neck to do just do it! 

So why didn’t it go further after all that first success?

The problem was: within the band, there was no songwriting going on. In the end, Mick and I stated writing songs. Lots of people really liked us – Mike Vernon wound up recording us – but people couldn’t see beyond the idea of a little rock and roll band. 

You’d have wound up being pushed into a Showaddywaddy mould…

… or Crazy Cavan, that type of thing. So it kind of plateau’d. We did get a lot of exposure – we toured supporting Darts. Jerry Dammers was quite interested in having us on the 2-tone label, but we couldn’t see it. I can see why now. 

And when you plateau…

There’s an inevitable decline; people became disillusioned. So eventually I hooked up with Jon Hickman and Kevin O’Neill (from Little Acre), and we became Ricky Cool and the Rialtos. Bob Wilson was in the band for a time, and Andy Silvester, who had been in Chicken Shack. I was living in Kidderminster then, which is how I had the Black Country connections with Little Acre… and in 1981 Robert Plant came to see us play. I was doing a screaming rock star parody at the time, and Robert really liked it – in fact gave me a pair of his platform shoes. Three sizes too big, but never mind!

It was not long after that that he put forward the idea of the Rialtos joining together with him and his guitarist, Robbie Blunt. Robert wanted to lose our guitarist, but I wasn’t happy with that – which was a bit pig-headed of me, when you think what might have been. But Robert was OK, and when we eventually did the Honeydrippers, it was with Robbie. 

But in the end, didn’t that stretch the Rialtos a bit too far?

It did. When that came to an end, I took stock… and then I set up another band to do Chicago blues, with Andy Silvester. Me on harmonica, Andy on guitar, we’d get a double bass player, a piano player, a drummer who could swing. It was 1982, but there was nothing like that around. It took a long time. Eventually, we formed the Big Town Playboys with Mike Sanchez and Ian Jennings. The goal was to form the best Rhythm and Blues band in the UK. This wasn’t Birmingham based – we were in Bewdley, Stourport and Kidderminster. So we started a residency in the cellar bar of a pub in Bewdley, and it got packed, just like at the Barrel Organ. That led to the Dublin Castle in London. The band lasted a long time – I didn’t, though. I left in 86. By then, I was teaching, raising a family, and trying to run a band…. 

Where did that leave you? 20 years of effort by now, after all…

After a couple of years, I went back to Western Swing, big time. Ricky Cool and the Texas Turkeys. Me, Stuart (again), Howard Gregory on guitar and violin, Howard Smith on drums – and a 19 year old Steve Clayton. It was a great band. We ran to the beginning of the 90s, before Stuart went off to do his own projects. So I carried on, with the goal of being the best Western Swing band there could be. I recruited BJ Cole, Maurice Chevalier on guitar, Bobby Valentino, Chris Haig – Ricky Cool and the Western Swing All-Stars. They were all London guys; in fact we only worked in London. I got them down to Birmingham, once, on a foggy evening to play the Red Lion. I was booking the gigs, setting up the rehearsals, all that, and they were all big time London session players. The logistics were impossible. After a while it was exhausting, and I rather fancied the idea of going back to being a jobbing musician. 

And the Hoola Boola Boys?

I’ve been working with one form or another of the Hoola Boys for ages. The band was an idea, a name for a band, run by Martin Price, the bass player. There was a Mike Sanchez and the Hoola Boola Boys, a Big Man Clayton and the Hoola Boola Boys… so eventually when I was asked to join to join, it became Ricky Cool and the Hoola Boola Boys. It was a ready-made band, which meant less pressure. And that’s how that started. 

In between, I played with a Soul Band, called Soul Train, and that led on to a reggae band, called Top Ranking…We went for the Studio One sound; we did ska, rock steady…we found a fantastic singer from Kingston, called George We did a gig at the Drum which blew the roof off. I’d build him up – ‘Ladies and Gentlemen – all the way from Kingston, Jamaica, Mister George Nightingale!” - and he’d come walking on with a huge smile.

I’d never come across this before, but we’d start a number off, and somebody from the audience would jump up and shout “Rewind! Rewind! Rewind!” And the drummer would do a fill and you’d start the number again. And if they really liked it you’d wind up starting the number three or four times. We had a lot of fun… but my god the arguments! It’s like dominoes – open warfare! 

So eventually, I was ready to front a band again – and when Martin called a few years back, it was an obvious thing. Two saxes, piano, rhythm and lead guitar, drums, bass. Including David, the guitarist from Top Ranking, who is terrific. 

 Where does the band play now? 

 Most of the gigs are around Shropshire, and some festivals, the Jam House, and so on… But gigs are had to come by. It’s all about connections. 

Well, judging by the gigs list on your site, it’s not all bad. Who’s managing?

Martin does that. 

Which leads me to ask this: after all this time – well over 40 years - you’ve worked as a pure front man, as a band leader, as music director, manager, agent, booking the gigs… you’ve done the lot, working both full time and part time. At some point, as a band grows – and you’ve seen this more than most – you have to make the decision to either carry on handling everything by yourself, or to delegate – especially with all the web work everyone has to do these days. What’s your take?

Well, I think Toy Hearts are a good example of how to negotiate all those areas. From the time where Stuart has been booking the gigs, driving the van, getting to the gig, setting up the PA with Hannah and Sophie… it’s all back-breaking work, with Hannah and Sophie doing the web stuff. They’ve taken that on, and the band has continued to grow and develop. Now they’ve got an agency involved, and that’s taken a lot of load off – the gigs are coming their way now. There comes a time when that is essential. But it’s different for each band.

Links 
Ricky Cool and the Hoola Boola boys website
Gigs list
Ricky's series of Harmonica YouTube clips starts here

Steve Ajao talks and plays on Radio To Go

A conversation with live music from Steve Ajao and Ade Wakelin

This is the second in a series. The concept is childishly simple; making it work right, and sound right, is another matter.  I sit down in the studio with a small group of musicians; they play, we talk. In this session, two much loved Birmingham veterans, Steve Ajao and Ade Wakelin, who regularly play together and accompany each other in their respective bands, came together to play, sing... and talk. 

I've watched Steve play for an embarrassingly long time. A live night with Steve, in whatever line-up he chooses, is always good, rip-roaring fun, played from the heart and the gut. He has great stories, and some forthright opinions to go with his huge gravelly voice, and there's a hair-raising account of the time he was spent spinning down his local High street like a rag doll after being slammed into by a speeding car on a pedestrian crossing. It put him, unconscious and severely damaged, in hospital for a while. He broke a lot of bones, but none, thankfully, in his hands or head. That story, and his protracted recovery, aided and and abetted by Ade, makes for uncomfortable but compelling listening.      

We put this together last summer at Music Up in Coventry, as part of a project brokered by UB40's Brian Travers. So this is part one:

Steve Ajao with Ade Wakelin - In The Studio part 1 

and this is part two:

Steve Ajao with Ade Wakelin - In the Studio  part 2

As always, all the shows I do on Radio to Go are available on request, free of charge, to any station that might like to use them. The only stipulation is that the show must be played in its entirety. I build them to run for about a commercial hour, or between 50 and 55 minutes. So if you're a station - terrestrial, internet, local or far away - and you'd like this show, email me through the blog.

Also in the In The Studio series:Steve Gibbons
360 at the Elephant House

Links

Steve Ajao

YouTube Videos featuring Steve

Albums
Steve Ajao - Pure Evil
Ade Wakelin - Going Down That Road