I continued writing songs, the inspiration coming from personal experiences or from friends suggestions, the list stands at about
50 odd and still being added to, for more info on my songwriting see page 7 Link
In 1969 I went to a club over a pub in seagrave road Fulham called "THE ATLAS" the club
was known as the I.C.M.T.C.(international country music tape club) started by Bill Arnettassisted by
Johnny Saunders and Brian Locklin where they enjoyed a mixture of records and live artists,I was a regular performer for some time
along with artists such as Little Ginny,
Lorne Gibson, Brian Golbey and Brian Chalker,to name but a few, they also used to
send out a two hour program on reel to reel tape to anyone who liked to join, and all you were required to do was to listen to the tape and then
forward it to the next person on the list which came with the tape.
Tom Whelan used to do much of the compering but took a more active part in running the club when they moved to new premises.
Also it was where I started dueting with my son Kevin, see photo left,
Photo right was taken at Ealing Town Hall and was Kevins first time on stage
for a Christmas show 1969,he was then about 12yrs old and quite a hit,
and where I earned the nickname Mr Weepy.as I seemed to orientate more to the sad songs.
The club changed venues and the name a few times, changing to
"the Fulham Country Music club" then
"The Four on the Floor" and is now known as
"The Four West" run by some old friends Shirley and
Brian Meades.
My son and I then began touring the country clubs for a couple of years then his voice began
to break,(well thats life)
In 1970 we were asked to appear at the 2nd North East C&W Festival at the Sunderland Empire organised by Ernie Brunning
who unfortunately I am informed, has since died
and the picture left was taken in the dressing room waiting to go on stage
by a fan who's name was Frank Nash and his wife
Alma they had only been married 3 weeks prior to the show, so if you see this Frank or Alma or any one who knows them, please get in touch as the last
address I have is Townsend Lane Anfield Liverpool and I would love to meet them again.
In October 1973 I went to America with the B.C.M.A.(british country music association) actually there were about 140 of us and we
went to a show in Charlotte North Carolina given by George Hamilton 1V & Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith where I was asked to do a song see picture top right showing George on the right
and Arthur at the back, I borrowed George's guitar
And Arthur backed me on lead and it was a pleasure playing with him, plus the fact that he did not know the song
that I was singing as it was one of my own compositions.
On the 4th of July 1974 our daughter Lisa was born, a rather appropriate day really.
I continued to do solo work around the clubs sometimes backed by the resident band or just backing myself
until 1985 when we moved out to the sticks in Sussex, and then the performing tapered off due to pressures
of work, and commuting backwards and forwards to London made it quite a long day,but I eventually found a job locally which gave me more liesure time.
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Fortunately my performing did not stop completely, I later formed a little trio in 1991, see photo right which was actually
taken by my friend Don Donegan mentioned earlier on this page,and continued my favourite hobby.Unfortunately my loving wifeSylvia died on March 18th 2000 from heart trouble
at the young age of 61 and will be sadly missed by family and friends,
and everyone who knew her, or met her, all agree that she was a lovely lady, as well as looking after the family she found time for some hobbies of her
own,doing Crochet, Knitting, Drawing,and Paint by numbers, also writing poetry some of which were published,
she was a very talented Lady.
You can E-mail me(just click on this link)
as I would like to hear from any like minded fans just to chat about Country Music.
'And don't forget keep it country'.
Although I have many more favoured Country Singers in my collection.
Hank remains my number one favourite and a big influence on my material.![[Home]](home.gif){kind=small}