Welcome to Sleep Town.....

......" Dream Carefully,"  Vance Anderson and I would sing together, during the happy days when he was the drummer and I was the singer in a Coventry based Rock combo called Black Parrot Seaside. I just heard the devastating news that Vance has now actually begun his final journey to Sleep Town, over in the USA. What a talent. What a career. What a great band member to have. RIP brother. 

       Vance was the first musician we recruited by interview, having parted with several of our previous percussionists.  His "audition" was astonishing. We'd never seen anything like it. We wanted to go heavier: we had bought a big P.A. We were growing our hair out. We wanted a bass player and drummer who could drive our songs-many of them our own compositions-and project us into the top drawer of Rock Goddery. 

          That actually never happened: not even close: but for a while Dave Anderson (as he was then known)  was our distinctive, flame haired talisman. He was the only one we auditioned: we didn't bother with any more. He downed half a bottle of brandy before launching into an accompaniment which immediately fitted the music. His time keeping and mastery of the kit just blew us away. Working by day driving a truck delivering tyres for Dunlop  by night he would don leopard skin pants and woolly waistcoats to go ever so slightly bonkers from behind  stacks of high hats and snares. In the grainy old photo below Vance is second from the right. Wearing slightly less than usual. Alas, three of this line up are now no longer with us. 

         I have only croaky old fuzzy recordings of Vance's fiery work on songs like "Brutus" "Sleep Town" and "Small Maladjusted and Mean," but all those years later on it remains amazing. Vance (as he soon re-christened himself) bought into the whole BPS thing. All of us had silly stage names like Ted Explosion and Orville Cosmo. We dressed up. We had stage props.  And so Dave became Vance Ectomy. (See what he did there?) and joined in enthusiastically.  

    We performed angry, waspish, loud songs with vitriolic lyrics. We lampooned Punk, Rock, Folk, Country & Western and Reggae. We got "paid off" (i.e. asked to leave usually via a back entrance)  before the end of an evening at a few gigs where we had antagonised the management or wound up the audience with what is nowadays called attitude. 

       All this was right on the cusp of the Punk Revolution although we were not really aware of that at the time. We were more influenced by other angry bands like Heavy Metal Kids, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Edgar Broughton. We also shared a great fondness for the Bonzos.  In one song we staged a mock fight. It was all choreographed: a regular part of the act but one night upstairs at The Golden Cross we forgot to warn the Guv'nor beforehand. When I grabbed Vance round the neck and dragged him off his drum stool, bar staff  came out from behind the bar with a baseball bat and unleashed the pub Doberman. It took a while to calm things down.

    We developed a bit of a reputation. At a very early Godiva Festival some of our followers assured us that such a prestigious appearance would be enhanced by some pyrotechnics. What we didn't anticipate was a huge rocket going awol and detouring through the Police tent. Mercifully, no-one was hurt, the audience thought it was part of the act and the bobbies were very understanding as we apologised profusely. 

      In Cov we played pubs like The Climax,The Craven Arms in The High Street,The Dive Bar,The Campbell The Dog and Trumpet and The Smithfield. We played The Lanch (later Coventry University) and Warwick University. The students also greatly enjoyed Vance and I play fighting. A few joined in and suddenly an armchair found its way off a balcony and onto the stage. We also played a Melody Maker audition at Warwick, where for reasons I cannot remember, we destroyed a full sized mock up  of a grandfather clock on stage.

          We ranged further afield. Birmingham University. Nottingham University. Bogarts-a popular club right in the heart of Brum. We started getting support gigs. To Rocky Sharpe (later The Darts) at Hitchin Poly. Opening for East of Eden at another infamous gig in Nuneaton. 

          We were doing all right, the audiences were mostly getting our cryptic weirdness and we knew we being scouted by an agent or two. We even had some proper photos done at locations like Sutton Stop and Brandon Woods. 

            Throughout Vance kept us tight. He could improvise when necessary but could also be very disciplined.  We knew that we could not hang on to him for long. He was talented, ambitious and keen to progress. We could not satisfy his hunger for gigs and for performance so in a totally amicable parting, he joined another  Coventry band The Flys, They were getting far more gigs than we were. We were signed up and briefly were on the same label. Vance's departure could have broken us. He was irreplaceable and so we slid gracefully into Folk. We never had another drummer: barely even mentioned percussion again.  

           BPS continued to slumber and awaken in various formats until 2014 when we played our last gig together and finally went our separate ways. Vance lost the "Ectomy" and became Vance Anderson. He was known as that for the rest of his life. He continued to keep in touch, taking an interest in what we were all up to. When I started doing radio he sent me promos of the bands he was discovering out in Florida and I played them on air (Still do: The Well Pennies is one example).

       Abroad he thrived and achieved his ambition to work in music full time.  Vance worked ( I think ) with Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder and many other well known acts. He clearly had an affinity with Tony Bennett and was distraught when he died recently. I bet they are having a gas up there together now.

That night at NFC was HOT!

        And (thanks to the state of the art air conditioning in The Queens Hall), last night was perversely also very VERY cool ). Festivals aside it may be possible to get three talented Folk performers like Lauren South,  Kevin Dempsey and Phil Hare together inside three hours, one after the other and under the same roof on the same night, midweek-but I've never seen it before anywhere. With the added bonus that all three are really nice, grounded  people, supportive of each other and different enough in style and content to complement each other. Their talent, positivity and willingness to entertain radiated joy from the stage and into the auditorium. 

        Phil Benson and I ( aka Bits and Pieces-still a work in progress), began the evening with three songs designed to lighten the mood and a spontaneous version of Its a Long Way to Tipperary with which the audience enthusiastically joined in. This interesting  combination had been triggered over a pub conversation about the overall body count in traditional Folk songs nowadays. Plus a shared concern over the tendency of some performers to marginalise Comedy and Music Hall tradition. We'd already had one public run through at Phil's Red Lion venue at Atherstone earlier in the afternoon. There, we had  performed  versions of Jollity Farm, If It Wasn't For The Houses In Between and Owd Sammy Shuttleworth. That latter one allegedly a Mike Harding composition-but quite clearly influenced by Music Hall and Vaudeville tradition. The Dave and Al Sealey format of Cosmotheka set the bar for this kind of material and we would not expect to emulate them-but undoubtedly they were (and remain) an influence.

      Lauren South was a delight. She looked delightful: unflustered and composed despite the temperature outside and the fluctuating ones in the hall. She sang delightfully as she worked  through some newish material, soon to be released on a long awaited solo album. And she played delightfully. Incorporating a competent technique on the Sruti box thanks to a foot pedal, and employing delightful tones on the guitar and fiddle. As Lauren continues to  progress and grow she is developing a distinctive vocal style. For my money this puts her in an elite group of British female folk singers who can be identified within a few bars of first hearing. As a Folk DJ I get to hear hundreds in this genre. Lauren for me is up there with Kirsty Merryn, Kelly Oliver, Ruth Notman, Kitty McFarlane,  Kathryn Roberts and Laura Ward. 

     Kev as he always does, paced the floor at the back of the hall like a prowling and predatory lion as his cameo appearance began to draw near. He always does this to psych himself up beforehand whether on tour in Europe or playing a half hour set at a local club which is virtually home turf.  And once on he coaxed complex intros from the fretwork with popular standards like "Wicked Polly and the delightfully nostalgic "Every Time We Say Goodbye." What a gorgeous song and what a sophisticated vocal combined with elegant chords making the arrangement as sumptuous as a box of swiss chocolates  

      After an interval we got back under way as the evening was handed over to Phil Hare. I cannot think of anyone other than perhaps Keith Donnelly, to match Phil Hare for ingenuity, quality ad-libbing and nudging asides off camera. I think there are many on local and national circuits  who think they can do this with their pre-rehearsed patter treading the same ground  but few on the circuit imho can reach or surpass this level.  There is so much in Phil Hare's armoury. At the heart of it, immaculate and delicate guitar playing as in "Music for a Lost Harmonium." A wicked sense of humour. Both in his off the cuff patter and banter in between numbers and as in the satire of "Ive Got My Country Back."  Or his brilliant audience participation finale " Everyone's a Hard Man Nahhhhhhhhhhhh."  In his energy, grimacing as he wrings every last note, every harmonic from his guitar and making it look effortless. ( Clearly no such things as the sweat rolled off him and a towel was used to mop himself down after each number). 

        He ranges through stand up, bluegrass, jazz notes, blues, boogie and folk with style and aplomb. There is a sensitive side to him too, epitomised in some of his superb vocals. Besides being an extraordinary guitar player Phil is a good singer "Will You Marry Me?" took the mood right down and clearly moved a few people.  

        For various reasons it was important to make this a good evening for Phil. He's not been well but has decided that the best way to combat serious illness is to stand toe to toe and scrap with it. It says much about the audience that there were three Folk Club organisers there last night and ten local performers (all of whom who have performed at NFC previously). Plus a number of people who were newcomers, drawn in by the billing and astonished by the performance level. "First time here. Absolutely brilliant! How do you do that?"

  Thanks once again to Jane for sterling work at the bar, and to Rich for continuing to provide us (free of charge) with facilities well beyond those at some other venues. Thanks to those who came and stayed, and a special mention for Charlie. New to the mixing desk and supervised throughout by Ross, it says everything about his debut that no-one on stage requested any adjustment whilst performing. 

   Finally thanks to Ray Buckler, Sue Sanders, and Karen Jones for the photos and to Lauren for her videos uploaded to the NFC Facebook page.