In the late seventies I was producing bands and running a record company in Wallsend (UK). At night I played in the Mick Whitaker Band. We played the Burgundy Cobbler in Whitley Bay on Tues and Wed nights. I lived in Manor Court Next door, a block of bedsits owned by the Sid McCulloch who also owned the Cobbler. So the Cobbler became my living room. A whole gang of musicians and muso type people hung out there and for a few years there was a great “Cobbler Community”.

Now here are some sounds from the recording session that spawned this line-up. It is a studio session but it is all live with no overdubs. Typical of the stuff we were playing at the cobbler. Sorry it’s in REALmedia but if I get the time I’ll dig the tracks out again and MP3 them.

Long May You Run -|- I want To Be Loved

Onstage at the Cobbler Left to right (above) Carl Gustaffson, Mick Whitaker, Arny Watson, Phil Caffrey

Onstage at the Cobbler Left to right (above) Keith Gustaffson, Steve Thompson, Carl Gustaffson, Arny Watson

The View of South Parade from my Attic Room in Manor Court

Thompson And Whitaker in the Cobbler Cupboard Dressing Room

Of Course you can’t spend your entire life just having fun so I got married (just kidding) With such proximity it was bound to happen – I married one of the Cobbler barmaids – Molly (that’s my Gran in the Picture)

Live at the Marquee Club Wardour Street.

That’s me on the far right playing keyboards. This was a blast for me because I never got to play the Marquee and this gave me the chance. Can’t remember when this was but it was knocked down soon after.

John V  (left in top pic) was in Argent for many years so naturally “Hold Your Head Up” was in the set. I had not rehearsed with this band so when I arrived at the gig I asked the guys about keys for different songs and they seemed fairly uncertain about many of them. When I got down the set list to “Hold Your Head Up” I was pretty ok on that one but there is a middle section with a bunch of funny chords in it. I asked the guys to give me a rundown and none of them knew the chords.

So I go into the dressing room and say “hey John, your band don’t know the keys to half of these tunes and the definitely don’t know the middle section to Hold Your Head Up Norman (in joke) Anyway, John just looks at me and he’s white as a sheet so I thought it best not to bother him. It was a great gig though. Jon and Neil of the Tygers of Pan Tang were there and the said it was too loud for them —  Rockkkkin!!

Me, Neil Sheppherd and Jon Deverill (Tygers Mk2)