The Boothy Jones Collection

My girlfriend Susan Sears, had a brother Brian, with a shed and a band. They asked me to be the lead guitarist on account of Brian being a builder and not having very nimble fingers. I graciously accepted.

We had lots of fun rehearsing in that shed but then came the day of our first gig. My Dads mate, Barry and Maurine's wedding.

Mum cried, Dad looked proud and we must have sounded like shit.

But it didn't matter, we'd done the first one and stood up in front of people and performed. I was fifteen and king of the world.

"Don't think we did many more gigs after that."

The Ashley Ward Delagation

I used to go and see other bands play round the local youth clubs. Some were good, some weren't so good and I got into one that wasn't so good. I can't remember the name of it at the moment but we had Robert Burns on bass, who went on to play with the famous female Scottish singer whose name eludes me for now. We were doing a gig in a church hall in Chaulden and these two guys walked in from one of the best bands in town called "The Ashley Ward Delegation".

They were sax players Steve Farr and Stuart Blandamer. They said they were looking for a guitar player to replace Andy Powell who had joined a new band called "Wishbone Ash" in London.

I had always dreamed of sitting on the bus, going to the top youth club in the town with my guitar next to me. That would impress the girls I thought. The reality of it was that you went in the van to the gig, so it kind of spoilt my illusions of getting pulled.
"Not that it would've happened in a million years".
That was the start of it all really. I stayed with that band for a couple of years, doing gigs like The Bag-o-Nails in Kingley Street W1, Samantha's night club, La Val Bonne and of course the USAF camps that were dotted all round the country then. Lovely band, lovely guys. We all lived together in a big house in Croxley Green. Well some of us did. Eddy Spence lived in the living room. One day he was having a row with his girlfriend and she hit him round the head with an iron. Dunno if it was on or not? I was 18 years old, full of enthusiasm and hell bent on making a career out of music.

Trouble was Janet got pregnant. She had a beautiful little girl named Sammy. My daughter who has now given me beautiful twin grandchildren George and Poppy (22-04-02).

She's had another in July 2003 Just one boy this time. Louis as in Louis Jordan. Then she had Edward, but they call him bonky. Not sure what he looks like yet. I'll let you know when the swelling's go down.

Everyone said "You can't go doin' that music any more, you'll have to get a job". Lions "sodding" Bakery. I hated it. Luckily my Aunt Terry and Uncle Dinks had a cafe. They let me work there, so that meant that I could carry on doing gigs. Brill. Janet wasn't too enamoured with it, or with me come to that. 6 months later she was gone. Sadly I didn't see Sammy for years after that, till she came and found me all grown up. (Her that is, not me) Dinks and Terry moved to the Isle of Wight later and I moved to Watford.

Wild Wally's Rock n Roll Show

Wally was great. He used to swerve to miss birds. Up motorways, whoever was sitting behind him used to put their hands over his eyes to freak him out while he was driving. Great fun; he hated it of course.

We did the colleges and Uni's with bands like Status Quo and Aurther Brown, Pink Fairies, Lindisfarn etc. Wally turned out to be gay, but we never knew what that was then so it didn't matter. Don't suppose it would matter now either. Just means happy dun-it?

Hammonds Music Shop

I got a job at Hammonds music selling guitars. Did that for about a year and a half, working with Paul Griggs (Guys and Dolls) and Jimmy Skidmore (Sax player extraordinaire). Griggsy got offered a job with 70's band Mud, but he turned it down cos it wasn't what he wanted to do. I couldn't work that one out then. Still can't.

One day Jock came in the shop. He was the roady with The Nashville Teens. He said that Len Tuckey had met this little American bird down at Mickey Most's offices called Suzi Quatro and fallen deeply in love at first sight. So did she apparently. He immediately joined her band and that was that. Anyway, that left The Teens with no guitar player, so did I want the job? I said what do I have to do? Jock said come round Aurther Sharps house tonight. So I did. Arther sat there and said "Can you play the riff to Tobacco Road"? I played it and then he said "Good, do you like scotch"? We then got pissed and I was in the band. Funny how it goes in it?

The Nashville Teens

The Nashville Teens recorded Tobacco Road with Mickey Most. As I've already said. It didn't last long with them, one gig apparently. I only had one guitar then. Before the gig, Aurther said there was someone important in the audience so make sure you play good. Of course I didn't. My guitar broke a string on the first number and seemed determined to stay out of tune all night. Which it did.

The one strike and out rule applied, and on the Monday, I went and bought a second guitar. Took it round to Aurthers house to show it and reassure him it wouldn't happen again. Too late, they got someone else. The only thing to do was to form my own band. I got together with Graham Robins and we formed a band called Porky.

Porky

We rehearsed for months in a cellar at my mates house Rob Preece. It was a good band, and we did quite a few gigs around Watford and surrounding area's. They said they wanted to work as a pro band. I believed them until I got us all a gig in Germany. One at a time they all folded and pulled out. I left them to it. They are still in local bands going nowhere. Nice steady day jobs.

When everything's going wrong, I sometimes think I should have stayed with them and got a job. When things are going right, I think they're a bunch of twats. So I started going to auditions. I got offered a gig in Bremerhaven West Germany.

Bremerhaven

I didn't sing until I went to Germany. Well I did but only harmonies.

It wasn't until we were on the boat that the drummer (Mark) said "what songs do you sing"?

I said all of them. He said "I mean on your own" I said "None". "Everyone sings" he said "even me. Or you go back to England"!

Well, I didn't exactly have the means to get home, being as I'd borrowed the fare from my Dad. So I went down to the cabin with Paul Dickens (bass) and he helped me with the words to Take it easy by The Eagles. I've been a singer (of sorts) ever since.

What a time! We didn't see daylight for six months. The club opened at 7.30. We started at 8.30 till 9.15 then 9.30 - 10.15 and so on until the bar shut. That could be 8.00 in the morning. Those sort of hours tidy up your playing like you wouldn't believe.

If we finished early like 4'ish, we used to go down to The City Tref for something to eat. One night the waiter was all beaten up and when asked, he told us he'd pulled a gun on his bosses cos he hadn't been paid. Bad move that, considering most of the bars are run by the Mafia.

Anyway everyone gets paid late in Germany. It was a bit "wild west" out there. One night an American MP pulled a gun on Phil our second guitarist, and the other MP with him reported him to the base. He got sent to Siberia or somewhere for that. The same MP dropped his trousers and pants, and danced along the full length of the bar another time with his Willy wagglin' about and everfink like that.

German TV

That was my second band "Copper" The first band out there was called Fonzee (cos we were cool). Not really, we all ended up fighting.

One night Mark (the drummer) picked a fight with me. I can't actually fight, so I was hitting him over the head with an old upright vacuum cleaner. My girlfriend at the time Christine said to me "DON'T YOU'LL KILL HIM". Seeing the logic in that statement I gave her the Hoover, only to get hit over the head with a broom handle. When I regained consciousness Mark was strangling me from behind. He had his knee at the back of my neck and his fat porky arm firmly anchored around my throat.

After the fight the Doctor said to me in broken English

"Vis friendz like zee's you don't need no enemy's".

Later Geoff, our singer had a fight with Mark, Geoff ripped off Mark's thumbnail. Then a couple of nights later he broke a few of Taffy's ribs. Poor old Taffy spent about two months smelling of Vick. There were lots of punch ups over there. Mainly with the American service guys.

One night three young Para's (due to go to northern Ireland) came in. They were really wound up. One of them punched the mirror in the loo. You can imagine what his hand looked like. You know I said about the City Treff ? One night Keith and I were staggering up the road about half five/six in the morning on our way to bed and a bus came up the hill and Keith said "let's moon at this bus". We ran into our doorway, dropped our trousers, bent over with our arse's pointing at the road and the bus stopped at the traffic lights.

The entire population of Bremerhaven's cleaning women on board. We just froze in that position until the lights changed. One of the few times I've actually got embarrassed.

I really enjoyed my time in Germany. It changed the way I played, it made me more aware that there's a world out there to be seen and travelled. If I could go back and start again, as they say, I'd do the same. It was great. If I remember any more about that time I'll write it in later.

Suzi Quatro

When I got back from Germany in 1977, I didn't do much for a while. My mate Adrian Gooch came round and said would I help him with some back line? It was good money so I said yes. It was for Suzi.

While we were at the BBC, Lenny said they were recording a song with twin guitars on it and did I want to be the other one? Of course I said yes. It was "If you can't give me love" and it got to No.2 in the British charts and went No.1 in other countries. I went to loadsa places with her, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, The far East. It was great. We stayed at top hotels, got treated like superstars and everfink like that.

I was given a silver disc for my part in it all which I cherish and have on my wall to this day. Mike Deacon was the keyboard player. He used to play with Vinegar Joe, with Robert Palmer and Elkie Brooks. Good guy Mike, we got on really well together.

Suzi was and probably still is a really hard worker. She would get up early and go and do radio interviews. She never to my knowledge refused to do anything to do with work. Every night on the road, she would do a bass solo to the delight of the crowd. She played well and had every attribute a mainline performer needs

Slowbuck

Well, after all that I formed a band with Andy Powell's brother Lenny. He lives in the states now being a gardener to the stars in Hollywood. Paddy, my then brother in law was on bass and he knew a kid that could play drums. He was 18 then and his name is Paul Hornsby.

We set up in Lenny's house and I remember looking at Paulie like I was gonna kill him if he wasn't any good. But he was good. He was very seriously f*%ing good. And so Slowbuck was formed.
Paulie and I stayed together for twelve years. We were the best of friends and still are. We went through probably fifty or more bass players including:

Paddy Mulkerrins, (moved to Australia)
Bob Morledge
Martin Conolly
Ian Parkinson
Collin Elsworth (Bomber)
Graham Ingram
Andy Pyle (Gary Moore)
Matt Johnson
even Mik Smith did some stuff with us!

Lenny had to go early on cos he got pissed all the time and couldn't play, so we carried on as a three piece. Sometimes we'd add a fourth member like Paul Fox from The Rutts. He's a lovely player. There were others but I can't think of any at the moment. Sadly I've recently heard that Paul Fox has cancer. My deepest condolences go out to him and his family.

Paulie and I worked and we worked for twelve years. Sometimes seven nights a week. The band was as tight as a ducks arse. It all started coming to an end when I got my mortgage at Watford. I had to earn more money so I started going solo. Bad move!

You end up in the solo trap. You earn the money but it gets to a point where you can't afford to split it up with a band so you stay on your own. Sad lonely bloke. It's kind of what I do now. If there's a band gig, I just think of it as going out and having fun. That way you don't worry about how much it's costing you. There aren't any bands like Slowbuck any more. It's impossible to earn a living that way with out a day job

Brian Knight

Brian during the 60's was originally in a band called "Blues bar six". The band was comprising of Alexis Korner, Jeff Bradford, Brian Knight, Brian Jones and Charlie Watts.

I was told by Brian that Brian Jones and Charlie Watts left the band and joined Jagger and Richards because they were both afraid of losing their day jobs. I did see a programe on the telly that contradicted what I've been told so I don't know who to believe. I can't ask Brian cos sadly he died after a lung operation from an infection that he caught at the hospital.

I played for his band, "Kick out the Jams" around the same time that I had SlowBuck going. We played at places like Merlins Cave in Kings Cross, Production Village in Cricklewood, The Half Moon Putney.

We played at The Half Moon the night the Brixton riots were going on. It was a really weird night, like something was in the air. I remember loading up after the gig and feeling like I was gonna get mugged or something. It was great being with Brian.

One night we had Dick Hextal Smith and Art Theman as our brass section. I was set up right behind them and spent the whole night thinking I could tell my grandchildren about this. They are brill players and I am proud to have shared a stage with them.

The Solo Experience

Hmm, solo gigs, well they're bread and butter aren't they?

Sometimes they're really cool. You can have a great night doing them. The songs are tight, or as tight as you wanna make em. You don't have to worry about the drummer having a headache, or the bass player running over an elk on the way to the gig. You just turn up and start.

After my millionth relationship broke down, I fitted a van with a bed, cooker and toilet and pissed off to Portugal where I stayed for a while playing on the streets. They would run a cable out and I used to play in between four bars. People would stop and sit down. Each bar sold beer cos I was there and then I'd get paid a quarter of my money from each bar. Simple.

You had to be off the streets by 10.30, so that left the rest of the night till 6.00am to get pissed. So I did. Great fun, sunbathing most of the afternoon at a five star hotel swimming pool. Let me explain.

I met all these other people living in vans. We were all parked outside The Monty something Hotel in the parking bays. Ron O'Brian used to go in like he owned the place and nick towels. We would go in the swimming pool carrying the towels and they thought we were guests. So they left us alone, until we started getting really brown, but even then they only asked for our room numbers. So we just made them up and carried on. It came to an end when a guy called Craig parked there with an Elldis camper. The next day the Police came and chucked us all off. Ron and George ended up on a rubbish tip. I just moved around and parked anywhere for one night at a time.

It all came to an abrupt end when I met four kick boxers up a dark bit by the market. They broke my ribs and my thumb. The first kick was in the eye. I always wondered what I'd look like in glasses, I know now. That sent me home. I couldn't play, (broken thumb) I couldn't sing (broken ribs) so I embarked on the four day journey home, no medical treatment, driving with one eye open, the other shut like a Victoria plum. Hurting like crazy and feeling really angry at the kick boxers. Done twice by the French customs (at night then in the morning) Still shit happens. I did get two and a half years of great fun out of it.

There's always got to be a down to any up.

Screaming Lord Sutch

Dave Sutch, a legend in his own loafers.

We went to Hamburg, but the show started at Gatwick airport the minute Dave turned up. We were totally rock n roll, as in leather jackets, jeans and T shirts and he turned up late in track suit bottoms and loafers. He was giving away fivers with Margeret Thatchers head on them instead of the queens, talking to everyone and anyone, making each person he spoke to laugh. He was a fantastic showman all the time he was in the public eye.

We missed the plane and had to wait for the next flight. That meant in the bar, where Tony Dangerfield and Harvey Ellison had to get completely obliterated. So what's new? When we finally arrived, the streets were lined with prostitutes who instinctively knew we were English. They were telling us we could pay with pounds and stuff like that. We had to drag Tony away from one who he was convinced that she fancied him. Well she did really, but only until she'd find out he had no money.

The gig itself was brill. 15 bands all on the same night, all from the 60's. There were The Pirates with Micky Green, The Remo Five with Tony Ashton, The Undertakers. I think The searchers were on too. We had the best spot with The Pirates, about 10.30 ish. It was great fun. We stayed in a posh hotel within the complex and ripped the arse out of room service and of course the minifridge. Dangerfield had the highest bill for room service, but I think that's cos we ordered eight or nine breakfast's on his room.

quite funny at the time. Not too clever when we found out we had to pay for what we'd ordered. After that we did, (I think) the last gig at The Railway on the bridge at Harrow. It was the last gig I did with Dave before he hung himself. At the funeral, I said to Harvey "If he knew how many people loved him, he couldn't have done this". But he did, and now the world is a sadder place without the clown of rock n roll. He's with his Mum now

Rest in peace Dave.

Solid Gold

I stood in for Alan Lovell when he went and played for the "Swingin' Blue Jeans". Loved it. Mac Poole on drums, Andy Hamilton on Sax, Jeff Banister on piano, Dave Glover bass. We backed The Vernons Girls, John Leyton and Eden Kane. Good fun, all the sixties stuff. Marty Wild and Joe Brown were headlining but they both had their own bands so we watched. Marty had a guy called Nevile on guitar who is the editor of guitar magazine. Everyone on the tour was slagging off Joe Brown for being such an arse.

I can't report on that, even though I only did a few gigs he was always alright with me. Not that I said much to him, or him to me. Marty was great, he let me play his acoustic. Out of the whole thing, I thought Eden Kane was the best act on.

BC Sweet

I joined Brian after he had the seizures that almost killed him then and eventually lead to his death. Pete Hemsley (drummer) and I felt that we couldn't carry on with it because Brian was so ill at the time. We both pulled out there and then.

The band obviously went on to do great things, even with Brian so ill as he was. Glen Williams covered the singing for him and Brian joined in when he could. However after his death, I was approached by Marc Pearson and Mik Smith who asked me to join them to carry on with Brians legacy. I'm glad I said yes.

The songs are a fantastic buzz to play, and the crowd love em to bits. As you will see if you go to the photo section of this site.

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