The Crickets, The Beatles, The Hownds!!!!

Buddy Holly.

 A long long time ago, I can still remember how the music used to make me . . . you know the lines but I have to say that the music did more than make me smile. In fact I suppose all my life I have judged people as to whether they are rock and rollers or not. 

A friend of mine said that once and the phrase kind of made the penny drop.

There are two rail stations in West Hampstead – one overground and the other the tube. All part of London Transport – or Transport for London as it is now called. Between those two stations, on the same side as the tube station, is an alley way and that's called Billy Fury Way. Here it is:

and here is a photo of the man himself.

Billy Fury; great British Rock singer of the 50s/60s.

 

I was walking passed there last year some time and as I approached it I said to the woman I was walking with 'hey look; Billy Fury Way.'

I don't know what she said but it was something like 'who was that' 'who cares' or something like that and I must have said to myself, or even thought out loud, writing as I spoke, 'what the . . . ay?? ' - I don't know which department of my mind that women went in to.

How can someone of my age – and she was around my age - not know who Billy Fury was, not be impressed by all the music that came when we were young?

I said to a good friend of mine once, 'I saw The Beatles live, you know' and he said 'I saw Nina Simone!!!

Didn't seem to impress did it? – he was my age too but obviously lived in an alternative world the same as the woman I was with that day.

With? I hear you say; no it wasn't my wife. I couldn't be married to someone for this long if she was a non-rock'n'roller – it just wouldn't have worked. Marriage is built more on tastes in music and senses of humour and without those the husband should get some ferrets.

But rock'n'roll music has been very important to me and in a way it changed society here – that and the end of conscription.

I said it did more to me than make me smile – it made me very happy. I always wanted to be a rock and roll singer but I lived in a world miles from any influence even though my parents loved rock'n'roll and pop music in general. 

I went on to appreciate a lot of classical music, the blues, Irish music, Cajun and loads of styles but never background or elevator music - and certainly not music they play over the phone when you are on the interminable wait for your party to answer.

When I was a child I got my dad's mandolin - which have 8 strings (four notes doubled) probably like the tuning of a tenor banjo or fiddle - put guitar strings on it and, instead of a plectrum, I used a penny. 

Yes you know what it sounded like and you would be right. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!#$%

Also we made a bass out of a tea chest; here's one:

I can't remember what we used as a bass string but the American jug bands used similar things and probably made as much noise as we did.

When I was about 10, I went to a party and one of the party organisers asked if any of us could sing. My brothers shouted 'yes! Chris.'

I went up and stood there. 'Go on sing!' they said.

I stood there.

Eventually I sang the Christmas Carol Away in a Manger on one note.

And that was my pop music career till I joined the army cadets at 14.

After one of the Christmas parties there – and I was a sergeant by that time so must have been about 16 – a singing contest was organised; everybody got up and I won.

I sang the old Emile Ford song What do you want to make those eyes at me for and as I sang I waved my hands around. I won because I had the biggest applause and maybe because I was the sergeant.

Later we were going to form a band – a group really as a band plays at a band stand – and we were going to call it The Hownds. Great name aye? 

Although there was a better one staring us in the face.

I figured the greatest groups were The Crickets and The Beatles - both insects so we would be dogs. The Beatles got everything from the Crickets – well Buddy Holly - in fact Buddy Holly influenced more song writers, guitarists and singers than even they know.

When I was 20 I went with my brother to Butlins Holiday Camp in Pwllheli, in Wales. 

Also along were the other two members of The Hownds.

We told all the girls – and why would we go to Butlins if not for the girls – we were a group and some of them were very impressed.

Don't forget we hadn't sung or played together, hadn't even had a meeting, but my brother's mate, Rod, I was told, was a great guitarist and Dave said he would play the bass.

At Butlins I had a girl friend for a while in a girl group called The Crisdolins, or something like that – a Chris a Doreen and a Lynn, I suppose, and I was out with the Do. 

Do was very attractive but her friend looked like Jean Shrimpton!! 

They may have been a kind of fantasy group like The Hownds, who knows, but I did read some time later that a group who were doing well were once called The Crisdolins!!! You never know.

But it didn't happen did it.

I hardly sung again till I went in to the theatre as an actor and only recently recorded songs; although I wrote loads in the 70s when I learned how to do some guitar chord sequences but I don't know where half of them are.

Now what would be a better name than The Hownds? Well it was staring us in the face. My brother's mate, Rod, the one who played the guitar, was called Rod Gilbert.

We should have been called Gilbert and The Sullivans.