JOB said......On my recent meeting I played him some recordings he made with Roxy in 1971 that he had never heard

What recordings were these,John ?The original demo ? And what songs were recorded?

Check the chronology for 1971 in the main menu.

J.O'B.

Dear Smudge,
I can confirm that our hero was indeed on vocals.
I think, although I might be wrong, that Ferry was the first and only lead vocalist for The Gas Board. They were a mod, soul outfit that covered Atlantic and Stax stuff. They were respectable rather than great.
In those years, The North-East music scene was very vibrant and there were a lot of amazing bands and The Gas Board were competing with bands like The Junco Partners, The Graham Bond Organisation, The Real McCoy and The Mandrakes (Robert Palmer's first band).They were all very strong regionally but never broke through nationally and most played R&B and soul.
The club scene was buzzing. We had everything from working men's clubs to quite sophisticated gaming clubs and specialist music venues so there was a reasonable amount of live work locally and not everybody went to London.
Of course, they all wanted to play Newcastle's "agogo" because that is were The Animals had been the resident band before they shot to fame. Everybody wanted that residency but the amazing Junco's won it.
Frankly, I always thought the place was a bit of a dump. I was very young and used to go there for the music but there were some seriously dodgy characters about and you really had to watch your back.
Kirk Levington Country Club (aka "The Kirk") was, on the other hand, a different story all together. It was way ahead of it's time. John McCoy (the former band leader of The Crawdaddies and The Real McCoy) owned it and situated just outside of Yarm, the place was done out like a prototype Ralph Lauren country club. Very cool - as were the crowd. It wasn't very big but McCoy had serious music connections and bands from all over the country flocked to play there. I used to love it and I think my mother though I lived there!
Anyway, these were the two venues I saw Graham Simpson at and I'm pleased I saw him play. Maybe he told J O'B more about his days with The Gas Board in his interview.
Ironically, I could swear I saw Roxy play "The Kirk" in '72 albeit it's not down in this great site's tour history. I certainly remember seeing them at "Redcar Jazz Club" but by then I'm pretty sure that Graham had departed and Rik Kenton had become the second in a very long line of bass players!
Regards,
Windswept

In those years, The North-East music scene was very vibrant and there were a lot of amazing bands and The Gas Board were competing with bands like The Junco Partners, The Graham Bond Organisation, The Real McCoy and The Mandrakes (Robert Palmer's first band).They were all very strong regionally but never broke through nationally and most played R&B and soul.

Interesting post, Windswept2; many thanks.

You may have been slightly harsh on Graham Bond in including him in the list of those who failed to break through. At a time when John Mayall's Bluesbreakers was running through star guitarists (e.g. Eric Clapton, Peter Green, then Mick Taylor on consecutive albums; amazing...), Bond's Organization included Jack Bruce & Ginger Baker in their immediate pre-Cream days.

Prior to taking to the blues/r 'n' b organ (his A Solid Bond CD is well worth a £3.49 punt on Amazon as I write...), Bond had been a decent alto sax player in Don Rendell's Quintet; anyone with half an ear for jazz should check out their Roarin' CD.

But I digress... At least you didn't have one of those moments which would forever haunt you (like the guy at Decca who declined to sign The Beatles) by telling Graham that the Gas Board needed a new singer!

You may be alone among us in having seen Graham in action, even if the significance didn't dawn until years later. That's a memory worth holding on to...

And at least Graham S. had a more peaceful end than the other Graham (Bond), who threw himself under a train at Finsbury Park station, just down the road from me, in 1974 at the rather more tender age of 36.

Apologies for letting my jazz/blues trainspotter tendencies drag this exchange momentarily off topic.

Windswept2 and Smudge:
Wow. A great couple of posts. Thanks.

You might find this website about "gigging in the North East" interesting, a few familiar names pop up on the home page

http://www.readysteadygone.co.uk/bruce-macdonald-lowes/

Thanks, Roxy; really interesting site, even for a soft southerner like me!

Interested in the references to The Banshees, as I've owned one of their Columbia singles for nearly 30 years, having bought it in the (apparently mistaken) belief that it featured a young BF!

According to the Rare Record Guide it's still quite a collectable item, despite having no right to a place in my Roxy/BF collection. Maybe I'll test the water on eBay with it one day...

The "Gigging in the North East" site is indeed interesting for a variety of reasons including the fact that it includes photos of the site of BF's first audition as a singer and the site of his first public performance with The Banshees.

Britain has an amazing tradition of pubs as performance venues that America lacks. Sure there are clubs in The States where cover bands thrive, but the density of such clubs on the cultural landscape is miniscule compared to Britain.