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Posted: Sun Apr 19, 2009 6:43 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Location: H-TOWN DAWG!!!!!
I'm surprised too I'm 13 (as of the 16th) and have ADHD

As you can see I have the attention span of a zygote lol

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for those who know who Shaun White and and Dan Kass...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0PqyvHx ... D&index=40


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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:26 am
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hahaha, nice :D

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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 10:58 am
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I'm genuinely interested in this story. I think alot of the OP's trouble is his writing style and as a fellow brit i sympathize. American readers do like to cut to the chase. Non of this story strikes me as unbelievable. Britan is a very small place and peoples paths cross frequently and unexpectedly. I have met a few people along my journey who were around in the late 50's early 60's and their stories are all quite similar. Look at forum member Rhumba for proof.

Please continue the story. I for one want to hear it.

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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 3:52 pm
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Location: Liverpool UK
The first thing I had to do was get a repertoire off. A list of songs, I could sing with the group.
Vic, who was an only child, asked me to come down to his house, in a posh part of Liverpool called Wavertree, to rehearse for the first gig, which was only three days away.
I made a list of songs that I knew, so that the group could work out the backing. I reasoned that this would be easier than me having to learn a load of new songs.
I arrived at his large house and found that his parents had allowed him to have the large front sitting room so he could use it exclusively for group practicing. The place was full of amplifiers and microphones.
I gave Vic the list of songs, which I knew, mostly rock songs. Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry. Gene Vincent among others.
He took one look at the list and put it to one side.
“We mostly do Cliff Richard and the Shadows,” he said. “You will have to learn a load of Cliff Richard songs”
I wasn’t at all pleased but decided to give it a whirl and see how things turned out.
I had brought one of those tape-to-tape recording machines with all my songs on and spent most of the day recording Cliff Richard songs from his record collection.
I knew that I couldn’t possibly learn enough songs to cover a full booking but he realized this and had already decided to do the gig without me so I would have more time to learn all the words.
I spent every minute of my spare time leaning the songs on my tape recorder.
I don’t know if Cliff Richard is known in the States, but he was big over here. I liked some of his records but I would have preferred to mix them with other artists, and maybe one or two of our own arraignments.
I went to watch the Hi cats at the Saturday gig and realized then why Vic was so keen on my learning Cliff Richard songs. The group was a complete copy of The Shadows. Dressing like them, moving like them, they had the same instruments as them. Two Stratocasters and a Precision Bass, even the drums were identical.
Have a look at this video to see what I finished up doing (Blush)

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/ ... our-184613

The first time I sang with the Hi Cats was at Ogdens Staff club.
Ogdens were a huge tobacco company in Liverpool and they had their own club not far from the cigarette factory. Hundreds of girls, it was like going to heaven without having to die first. Trouble was nobody knew who I was so I had no star status, that wasn’t my lucky night.
Soon though we were playing all the clubs in town and I was getting more and more experienced. I soon started to persuade Vic to throw in some non-Cliff songs and got the boys to do some vocal backing. I found that I had a knack for arrangement, and was using the guitar, which I never played now, to work out the harmonies for the vocal backings for each of the group although Vic didn’t join in because he played lead guitar and this prevented him from vocally backing the Lead singer.
We nearly always played at venues where there were at least two groups playing and while the other group was playing at one dance hall we would be playing at another, then dash to the other one and swap with the other group. The customers were getting two groups at each venue so the guy running the two shows got four performances but only paid for two groups, and yes we only got one wage packet.
It was at these bookings that we got to know the other groups that were later to become world famous.


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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:29 am
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Merseykid did this guy have 2 strats in 61? Thats a very early arrival into the UK if it was then. Maybe even the first.

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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:52 am
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edited


Last edited by fhopkins on Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:39 pm
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Location: Liverpool UK
Hi Nik
Yes they did have stratocasters They bought them on the "never never" (an English term meaning to pay weekly over a period of time) from a musical instrument shop called Frank Hessy's I believe they were among the first Strats in the UK. It wouldn't surprise me if Frank Hessy hadn't ordered them directly from the States to cash in on the explosion of groups and bands that were sprouting up all over Liverpool. He was a Jewish guy and an excellent business man. If he got wind of a need for anything musical he would move heaven and earth to get it for his customers.
My first guitar was called an Arnold Hoyer. Not being experienced with musical instruments in the early days, I went for appearance instead of quality. It was covered in mother of pearl which looked like crushed red velvet. I looked real cool on stage with my brother and sister but, in hindsight sounded crap.

Hi fhopkins welcome back.


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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 2:48 pm
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Location: Liverpool UK
People often claim to have met or even claim they knew someone famous because they maybe lived in the same town or city. “Yes” they might say “I used to serve Elvis Presley’s mother with her groceries, and Elvis used to call in for candy when he was just a kid”. Could well be true, or a pack of lies.
I suppose they are just trying to share a little bit of that person’s fame.
It doesn’t harm anyone, so just act amazed and impressed and let them get on with it.

I do, however claim quite openly and directly that I knew John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe and George Harrison.
I also Knew Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) in fact I had met him years earlier when I was a child because my mother used to work with his mother and I remember her taking me to Mrs Starkeys house in Admiral Street and Richy and I played together although he was younger than me. He had some Dinky Toy cars and we were playing crash. (We made that game up) until the adults made us stop.

We played many times at the Cavern Club on the same bill as the Beatles but I was sad to hear that Lennon’s pal Stuart Sutcliffe had died of a stroke. He was a nice friendly guy.
Now I’m not claiming to be personal friends of the Beatles far from it. They were our competitors but they were certainly not our enemies. When we met, we got on reasonably well.

I can remember once working at a dance hall named the Holly Oak Hall in Smithdown Road not far from Penny Lane. There were three groups working that night and we had just finished our gig and were standing around chatting up the birds, when we heard someone arguing in the room were the bands left their gear (Instruments). I sidled up to the door.
It was John Lennon, and he was complaining to the manager that the Beatles were getting underpaid. He maintained that they had been promised ten Pounds and had only received eight. Sounds laughable now but of course no one knew were they were headed.
I would add though. Had I known, I would have become John’s “absolute bestest friend in the whole wide world”.
I did once have an argument with John Lennon. It happened some time earlier during one of those times I said I would leave out to save boring everyone.
Between the time that our family group split up and the time I joined the Hi Cats I had got a ragmataz of a group together and got a booking at the Railway Club in a disused railway station that someone had hired to run as a teenage venue. (They were everywhere in the early 60s) We called ourselves The Diablo’s and were absolute crap. The Beatles were on with us (Called the Silver Beetles in those days)
When we finished our gig (or should I say giggle) we were loading our van with our one amplifier that we all shared and my Arnold Hoyer guitar.
The Silver Beetles were also loading their van and John Lennon said in a loud and sarcastic voice “Here come the Diablo’s lads, get you autograph books ready”
I’m afraid that I had a very short fuse in those days and the rest of our group had to hold on to my coat to prevent me from doing some serious harm to him.
I don’t think that some time later he remembered that I was that same person who wanted to give him a face-lift, because he never mentioned it.


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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 3:48 pm
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edited


Last edited by fhopkins on Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:00 pm
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wow, thats really cool...well kind of, even though john was a jerk to you :?

but its still an amazing story :P

if there is anything else then please do go on :D

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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:01 am
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An ex girlfriends mum went out with elvis costello in her youth.

She's more suited to abbott and costello now :lol:

I could easily see that happening with lennon he was quite the troublemaker.

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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:13 pm
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Waiting on the next installment from the Mersykid! He should sign on in a couple of hours! :wink:


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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:49 pm
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Are you kidding me? this story is better than whats on TV right now I had to read the whole thing and right now I am getting excited LOL
next chapter plZ!!!


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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 1:55 pm
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I have to point out that I work during the day (I’m a heating & gas engineer) and only have the evening to post these replies. The next post below, for example took me over two hours (Microsoft Word) I’m definitely not a typist. I also have to constantly read and edit the script a lot, then alter it and add things for it to be interesting and to make sense.
More importantly I have to make sure I’m not committing slander. I don’t want to be sued.


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Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 2:03 pm
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dont worry about it mate, take your time, the important thing is that we get to hear it, not how long it takes :D

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