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Background
(Con't)
...has been writing songs, stories, and poetry for
decades, but his first love is lyrics...He
is more concerned with
the content of a song, so lyrics are really important to him.
As Bob says: "When a Poem meets a
Melody, that's where you'll
find a song"
Royal
Albert Hall
He played in a few bands in the
60's ("Bands were called groups then."), pumping
chords on a single keyboard organ. No, it wasn't a Vox Continental, it
was a Farfisa Capri made in Italy.
Later on he had a Hammond with
a separate Leslie rotary speaker. ("What a wonderful
sound. I would have one now if we
had room in the house"). He loves writing new songs. In
1966 Bob
was in a group called The Orbits. They played a charity show at the Royal
Albert Hall, in aid of the Aberfan mining disaster which robbed the
Welsh village of a generation. They were signed to Johnnie Saville (Jimmy's
brother), at the time. The line up was amazing for then. It included Dorothy Squires (Then married to Roger Moore),
Lulu, Cat Stevens, Kenny Lynch,
Jimmy
Saville, Alan Freeman, The Soul Survivors, who later reformed as the The
Fortunes, and the Small Faces (Pre-Rod Stewart).
Faces Mania
The Faces had a
Hammond, with a huge stack of Marshal speakers, Bob had to make do
with his Farfisa, and one little 50 watt amp. The rest of the
group had Vox 30 watt amps. That was normal for then. The Faces
were amazing, it must have been like playing in the same show as super
stars. Dorothy Squires was supposed to be top of the bill, but conceded
to going on before the Small Faces. Dorothy was from a completely
different era, and the screaming girls ruined her act, with abuse, and
spitting at her, while she was performing. They eventually rushed the
stage. That was a a very unpleasant scene, and entirely inappropriate
when you consider the reason for the show. of course Bob joined in with the
other artists, and helped clear the stage of the savage screaming girls. If
you remember being removed from that stage by a smartly dressed
bloke in his twenties, that might well have been Bob.
In
those days, they didn't have security as we know now it. It was just a few stage hands, the
artistes managers, and of course
the artistes themselves, who the keeping of order fell to. That same evening
Bob rescued the very, very! young Lulu from another hostile crowd of Faces
fans, who had found their way into the back stage area. Bob is quite proud of that gentlemanly act. It would be
interesting to know if Lulu remembers the incident.
1966...A
very good year
Bob also got married that year, to Sylvia. They
have three children,  Julia,
Bob, and Angela. Between them they have presented Bob, and
Sylvia with 6 grand children. They are both vegetarians, and share the
same concerns for fellow human's dilemmas around the world, as well
being animal lovers. They contribute to several different charities,
both animal, and human.
History
repeating itself?
In the late 70's Bob got
involved with his son's Sea Cadet Unit, and was foolish enough to
let slip the fact that as a boy himself, he played drum and bugle.
Needless to say he was roped in (With not too much protest,
really), to form a band. In a very short time he had 15 boys
and girls marching and playing to a reasonable standard. Sylvia
helped out by making her famous "Band Buns". These were
huge rock cakes, with the currents replaced by chocolate
chips. Four of
the boys went on to play with a much bigger Sea Cadet band, which eventually
performed at the Royal Albert hall in British Youth Band show.
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