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Posted: Mon May 18, 2009 10:27 pm
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I don't mean to interrupt your conversation but I wondered if John could give us a few date references so that we can keep the timeline straight.
I am assuming that most of what you related happened during 1961-63?
Or are you past that time by now?

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If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum.


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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:04 pm
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Sorry Dave.
I think your Dad had an acquaintance called John Gee.
The name rings a bell but I don't recall him.
Maybe if I did know him, Tony can remind me.



Hi BC.

I have thought about the time line before,
but remember, it was nearly fifty years ago and very difficult when I have no diary's and very little information on the web to help me.
I am relying mainly on memory alone.

For example, I write part of the story, then suddenly remember something of interest which I know happened earlier than that, and it's too late to put it right.

I don't want to spoil things by constantly going back and correcting myself.
I'm sure, that would soon become boring, so the best thing to do is to write things down as I remember them and as long as it doesn't sound ridiculous, I just write as though everything is in the correct sequence.
Try to read as though it is a story of fiction but based on true events.

Although there isn't any fiction in the story.


JT


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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:15 pm
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By the way, I have just created a new Email address if ANYONE would like to send a message. (Not too insulting please)

I haven't tried it out yet. Only created it last night, so I don't know if it works.

The address is

southtroy@yahoo.co.uk




.


Last edited by Merseykid on Tue May 19, 2009 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 2:30 pm
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Just tried it.
It does work.


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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 3:04 pm
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Hi John & all;

This is a 100% true story, you could not make this up. The dates may be a day or so out, but facts are facts. John is writing about our life story when we were young. I'm now nearly 65, my 60's story started late in 1959 with the Hicats, & a year or so later when John joined me Auzzie & Mal, bringing to us a a more diverse & dynamic approach to our music. If you are younger musicians following Johns thread, remember we came in at the early days of Fender instruments & amplification in general. The bass guitar had only just been invented & at the age of 15 I was having to learn it, following Gene Vincent & Eddie Cochran stuff. Follow John's & our story, a rare insight into the Merseybeat scene of the 6o's. Please rembember this is Johns thread, & I don't want to influence it in any way. Much of what John has written has been forgotten, but even me & Auzzie are avidly reliving our past! Nice one John, speak to you soon!

Tony Gaskell
Tony Tarson
Gaz Gaskell


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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 4:20 pm
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To quote my dad (Tony G) from MerseyBeat re: The Hi-Cats

Interestingly, it would be possible to put Johnny Templer & the HiCats back together with the original line up of Johnny Templer, Stan Smith, Aussie Brown, Tony Gaskell & Mal Theory. Who would want to do a daft thing like that!

http://www.merseybeat.co.uk/articles-details.php?cat=Mersey+Artists&id=564

Who would pay to see a YouTube video of that eh?

I sell ear defenders on an alternative site: www.ear_defenders_r_us.com by the way :lol:


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Posted: Tue May 19, 2009 6:13 pm
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to continue.....

After Stan had lost his AC30 to the thieves. I knew that he couldn’t afford to pay for another amp while paying for the first.
I had a word with the rest of the band and we decided to pay for another AC30 and share the payments.
Stan was delighted to have his own amplifier again.
It proved the high regard that the Hi Cats had for him.

One of our regular bookings was at the Kraal Club in New Brighton.
It was run by an aging bearded Hippy; at least he was aging to us.
He was probably only in his thirties.
I can’t remember his name but I’m sure some one else will.

New Brighton is situated on the other side of the River Mersey further up river from Birkenhead.
In the 60s, it was a thriving seaside resort and a favourite nightspot for the milling masses of the teenage population, especially at night.

The Kraal was a large seafront Victorian house.
The huge cellars had been transformed into a nightclub with a stage set up, and a dancing area.
It always reminded me of the Cavern, and was probably based on it.

We were playing there on Saturday night and I had gone back to the dressing room while the Hi Cats were doing their thing on stage.
I didn’t front the group 100 % of the time.
That wasn’t the way things were done in those days.
Singers, who didn’t play an instrument, usually had a break while the group played instrumentals and took turns singing.
The drummer usually gave a drum solo, which lasted several minutes.
This was simply to add variety to the act. But it suited me fine. I had a chance to chat to the girls and buy myself a coke.

On my way back to the stage, I happened to walk near to the front entrance and I heard someone protesting at the door because they didn’t want to pay.
I moved nearer to see what was going on.
It was Ringo Starr.
The Bouncer was telling him that if he wanted to come in he would have to pay a Half Crown. Which in today’s money would be worth about £2.00 or $3.00.

“That’ll be Half a Crown please” He said
“But I’m Ringo Starr out of the Beatles” he said.

“Oh right” the bouncer said turning to his colleague
“This is Ringo Starr out of the Beatles” he said
Then turning back to Ringo, he said “That’ll be half a crown please Ringo”

Ringo reluctantly handed over his half crown and entered the club.
So Ringo had to pay to come and see us.

Very Nice.


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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 12:43 pm
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OK Mersey, I need more! This is like a great novel I'm in the middle of and left the book on the train and can't find out what happens!


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Posted: Fri May 22, 2009 3:03 pm
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Sorry. I haven't been near a computer for a while.

Anyway

To continue............


One of my favorite groups in the 60s was “The Springfields”.
This was, of course Dusty Spring field and her brother Tom along with a third member of the trio, Tim Field.
They had a string of hit songs, so I was especially pleased to get a booking with them at The Tower Ballroom in New Brighton.
We were one of the supporting groups. That night.

The Tower Ballroom was just a short distance down the Mersey from the Kraal Club (mentioned earlier)
I liked playing the Tower, as it was called, mainly because the ballroom itself was right in the middle of a Funfair, which only added to the atmosphere of the venue.

To get to the entrance of the hall, on foot, you had to walk among crowds of merrymakers amid brightly lit stalls, with vendors all shouting and trying to entice passers by to have a try on their games of skill. Throwing darts at balloons. Trying to drop a hoop over a prize. Knocking stacks of cans over with a small mop, and many others.
There were the screams, as girls rode on the fairground rides, the roller coaster, the electric bumper cars, the waltzer and many other rides. The fairground covered a very large area, very noisy, very bright and smelled strongly of hotdogs and mustard.

We drove our van around the back of the building were there was a private road especially for deliveries, so we didn’t have to struggle through the crowds.
When we arrived at the stage entrance we got there just as The Springfields were carrying their instruments into the building.

I said “Hi” and they returned the greeting Dusty gave us a smile.
She turned out to be a very warm and friendly person and not a bit snobbish.
The other two members were exactly the same.

We made our way up a narrow back staircase to the dressing rooms.

The place was packed out, which wasn’t surprising especially as the Springfields had a record in the top ten of the British Music Charts.

The other group on with us that night was, if my memory is correct, Gerry and the Pacemakers.
I knew Gerry’s brother Fred quite well because he used to work in a factory which made candles for churches, and before I joined the Hi Cats I worked for a company which supplied books, candles and statues to churches, so our paths crossed many times. Fred was the drummer in the Pacemakers.

The night went well and there were quite a few of our supporters there so we got a good reception..
I was very sad later on to hear that someone had crept up the back stairs, entered the Springfields dressing room and stolen Dusty’s purse, it had £20 in it, which at today’s valuation would be worth about £100 or $150.
I felt ashamed that someone from my part of the UK had stooped so low.


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Posted: Sat May 23, 2009 9:18 am
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Hi Tony
Did I understand you correctly. Is Aussie reading this thread as well?

I sent an Email to Mal Thory and included a link to this site. But as yet I've had no reply.

I don't know if he reads his Emails.
The last time I had any mail from him was when he told me that a German guy was writing a book about the Liverpool Groups from that period and wanted photo's of the Hi Cats and a photo of me.
I sent him what he wanted but have heard nothing since.

JT


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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 6:35 pm
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To continue....................

The Hi Cats by now were becoming a very popular Liverpool group.
I felt as though my input had made a difference, since nobody had objected to me taking over the day-to-day running of the group since Vic had gone.
I was mostly kept busy, filling the diary with bookings and negotiating the fees.
Also arranging most of the musical backing.

Although I was not as good a guitarist as Aussie or Stan, (Lack of practise) I knew that they both respected my musical ability to change the arrangement of a Hit pop song to our own style.
Tony, an excellent bass player, could also reach very high vocal backing notes.
Caused by him having a terrible accident trying to leap over a barbed wire fence

(Only kidding Tony)

This was very useful when trying to produce a good backing harmony.
He also had the ability to provide the vocal backing without missing a note on his Precision bass. The continuous practising had certainly paid off.

The group members left me in no doubt that I was doing a good job, and made it clear that they wanted me to continue being the leader.
This made me feel very enthusiastic and I tried very hard to deserve their support.
I knew that if things started to go wrong then I would have a job keeping the group together.
I know that other bands looked at Stan, our lead guitarist with greedy eyes, and if it wasn’t for the fact that Stan was one of my closest friends, he could well have been tempted to join another group, if the job was offered.

I’d managed to get the Hi Cats affiliated with one of the top Theatrical Agents in the country. The Mike Hughes Agency.
When they rang with a booking, we knew that the payoff would be very profitable indeed.
One booking I particularly remember was with the American legend, Gerry Lee Lewis.

I was very excited at getting that booking because Gerry was absolutely the King of Rock and Roll, and in my opinion was at least as fabulous as Elvis Presley.

I can’t remember where the booking was. All I know is that it was somewhere in the middle of England and miles from Liverpool. Perhaps Tony will remember.

We arrived at the venue. It was a moderate sized dance hall built to accommodate about 500 people.
The owners had packed about three thousand people in.
Well maybe I’m exaggerating a bit but that’s how many it seemed.
The place was absolutely crowded with hot, sweaty bodies, fortunately, mostly women.

We arrive at 6.30, which gave us one and a half hours to get changed, set up our equipment and start the show at 8 O’clock.

The arrangement was that we played the first 30 minutes.
Then Gerry Lee would play the next 30 minutes, which took us up to 9.00.
We would then do our last spot finishing at 9.30.
Then he would finish the show off which ended at 10.30 or thereabouts.
He played longer than we did, but he was getting a lot, lot more money than us.

We started right on time, and began to go through our list of songs with a break in the middle, while I went off stage and the Hi Cats did their thing.
Aussie sang a couple of songs and so did Tony.
Stan played a couple of instrumentals, with Mal doing his usual drum solo. Everything was going as we rehearsed, the problem was that Gerry Lee Lewis still hadn’t arrived.

I was on the break and saw that the Dance Hall Manager was beginning to panic.
He kept going out of the door at the side of the stage and peering into the darkness of the car park to see if there were any headlights approaching. There were none.
It was time for me to return to the stage.

The audience clapped and cheered as the curtains closed at the end of our first spot.
And still Gerry Lee Lewis hadn’t turned up.
They put some records on and everyone was dancing to the music.

The crowed was beginning to get restless as word spread that the star turn hadn’t arrived yet and some, where chanting “We want Gerry”
The Manager was really panicking by now.

He approached me and asked if the Hi Cats would do another spot to keep the crowed happy.
I said that if we did that it would mean the star of the show doing nearly two hours non-stop. Assuming he arrived before we finished.

“We’ve got no choice” he said. “They’ll wreck the place if we don’t do something”. “And I don’t want the Police to get involved”.

I asked the rest of our group to get ready to go on again and explained why.
I walked on stage in front of the curtains and went up to the microphone.
The record player was turned off and I announced over the mike that we had just had a phone call from Gerry’s manager and he had been held up because they’d had a puncture on their van and would be a bit late, but Gerry sends his apologies and he would make it up to them.
The audience believed me and cheered loudly as the Hi cats struck up the band just as the curtains opened. I started to sing “Hey Baby”, the Bruce Chanel hit number.
As I sang, I wondered what would happen if he never turned up at all.
It didn’t bare thinking about.

We had been playing for about 45 minutes and the audience was beginning to get restless again.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my brother Dave, our Roady, waving from the side of the stage. I glanced in his direction and he gave me the thumbs up. Gerry had finally arrived.

As I came to the end of the song I was singing, I announced the good news to the crowd.
“And now we will leave you, as the stage will soon be occupied by GERRY LEE LEWIS”
Everyone cheered as the record machine was turned back on and everybody stopped dancing and crowded around the stage.

The curtains closed and we quickly began to remove our Vox Amps while Mal started to dismantle his drums.

There was a well co-ordinated movement of people and equipment from the roadies employed by Gerry Lee. It was obvious that they had done this many times before.
Unloading the vans of instruments and equipment.
Guitars, saxophones, amplifiers, microphones and speaker cabinets. It was organised mayhem.
There was one annoying fart. I believe he was Gerry Lee’s brother in law.
He was bossing everyone around. Pushing people out if the way and directing the traffic.
He had a big Havana cigar in his mouth, puffing smoke everywhere.
He pushed my brother Dave twice, supposedly to move him to allow his people to get past. It was totally unnecessary, and Dave was not the type you pushed around.
But he just wanted to show he was connected to the star of the show, and very important. Everything would have gone quite smoothly even if he hadn’t been there.

He then tried to push Dave a third time but this was a push too far.
My brother grabbed him by the lapel of his coat, and swung him round, nearly choking him on his cigar.

“If you push me one more time” he said “I’ll shove that f**king cigar up you *ss”
“Lit end first”
One of their roadies happened to be walking by, carrying an amplifier, and I saw him grin from ear to ear.

They finally finished setting up all their equipment, then Gerry Lee walked onto the stage behind the curtains.
Before going towards the piano he came to each member of the Hi Cats and shook our hands and thanked us for carrying on playing when he was late.
The Manager had explained everything. Gerry Lee Lewis was a gentleman.

Then He started to play the piano as the curtains opened to the roar of the crowd.
Gentle music at first, as he sang what sounded like a gospel southern style song.
Gradually the beat began to get louder and faster as he played, and sang, one song after another.

Soon the crowd of girls were screaming as the tempo began to increase
The music got louder and louder, soon the whole building seemed to be shaking as Gerry Lee sang “Great Balls of Fire” With the piano and the Saxophone almost bringing the ceiling down.
The noise from the audience was deafening.
I had by now got changed and joined the crowd on the dance floor. The lights had been turned down so I probably wouldn’t have been recognised.
I wasn’t so well known in this town, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

I have to admit that in all the time I have been in the music business I have never, ever experienced the total, heart stopping, gut wrenching, excitement that I felt while watching and listening to Gerry Lee Lewis.
I felt like screaming myself. I did, however, join in with the shouting, cheering and clapping but I’ve never seen another act to compete with the total excitement of that live show.
And remember.

We’ve played with the Beatles.


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Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 8:36 pm
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I don't mean to interrupt but...
Here in the USA, my band (Blue Suede Shoes) played first act with Jerry Lee Lewis on a couple of occasions in 1975-76.
He was a hell of a performer and he rocked the house with his brand of Rock and Roll.
We did the same kind of arrangement- Two shows- We did an opening dance set and his band followed us but they used our back line of amps and drums. That angered us the first time but it was part of the deal.

His bassplayer "Butch"and myself both played Fender Precision basses and we had fun talking bass.
His guitarist was Kenny Lovelace and he played a 1956 Stratocaster and he was a real nice guy.
Anyway back to your story.

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If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum.


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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 1:07 am
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Hi BC

I had no time that night to converse with any of his band (I wish I had)
They were on a tour of the UK and were gone in a flash as soon as their gig was over.
I'm sure you recognize my description of his show though.
I was a huge fan of Rock & Roll and he epitomized the absolute best of that genre. My only regret of that whole music scene was that Elvis Presley never visited the UK. We might have had a chance to have met him if he had visited Liverpool.
As our city was the hot bed of the Pop world it would have been an obvious place for him to call, and being a member of a fairly well known local group, we would have been allowed back stage on any venue. So I could have met Elvis whether we were on his show or not.

Did you recognize the guy with the cigar?

By the way BC, Please feel free to interrupt as often as you like.
It is very reassuring when people do post on this thread.
I know that the viewing figures are quite high but feedback is the only reward I can get for this hard work.
Looking at a number marked "Views" is not much of an encouragement.
When somebody takes the trouble to post, now that IS encouragement.
And that includes those who haven't posted yet.

JT


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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 2:09 pm
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Location: Wallasey, Merseyside, England
Hi Everyone, Mal Thory here, Drummer with Johnny Templer and The Hi Cats. I still live on the Wirral and am proud to have once been a member of this great group. In this group I played a kit of trixon which I still have. I bought it from Rushworh & Dreapers in the sixties it cost me £ 250 and Vic'd Dad signed as guarantor. I hope to contact the surviving members of the band and have a reunion soon.


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Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 2:43 pm
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Well...........


Hi Mal

I see that you finally got my Email (The one with the link to this site)

Glad you could join.

Yes I remember your Trixon Drum Kit. I think that there was only about three groups in Liverpool who had that particular make of kit.
All the others had the cheaper Premier kits.
Speak to you soon.

Johnny T


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