Steel and Country Music in London in 50's & 60's Al Sands

[Al Sands]

Hi Ken,
I left the band at the end of the sixties and I only remember doing one gig at the Ponderosa. The Tumbleweeds became an entirely different band after Johnny left, with various people filling in but retaining only John Boniface the drummer and Jerry.
I did call in on Jerry at his house in the seventies and he had a small studio with a twin neck sho bud at that time. I last saw him at one of Gerry Hogans shows in Newbury.
I will cover the sixties in a further article and I have photos which might prove interesting.

Regards
Al Sands

[Dave Nutt]

Excellent post Al, makes a really informative read, thanks.
Dave.

[Ken Byng]

Al - This post about Jerry may make interesting reading for you. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5703&hilit=Jerry+West

[Tony Smart]

Not forgetting at that time, Houston Wells and the Marksmen with Pete Wilsher on Steel. They appeared on the telly in the late fifties, probably the first Country band to so.

Also, Murray Cash who had an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. His BBC radio programme was not to be missed in the early sixties. He featured quite a bit of Steel.

Thanks Al for taking the time to write all this up, made a really interesting and enjoyable read.

[Al Sands]

Hi All,

Just to get back to everyone re some of your interesting posts:

Tony,
I did actually meet Murray Cash when we were promoting the Tumbleweeds early sixties and he came to one or two of our shows with Chris Forde when we were getting recording organised.
Must admit I'd forgotten about Houston Wells (was he Scottish, I thought he was?) and Pete Wilsher, he was certainly among the first.
Other names I'd forgotten and since remembered after dredging my memory, were Karl Denver who used to put in country on his shows, Johnny Duncan who emerged at the end of the Skiffle era with ' Last Train to San Fernando'. He was an American bluegrass singer who came to live in the UK, late fifties, after he had that hit.

Ken,
Thanks for that link about Jerry, I didn't know he had died and obviously the link refers to 2014 but I can answer some of the questions raised by those messages:
1. Jerry was playing steel from when he left the Navy in about 1955. He played mostly standards when we first met, interspersed with Hawaiian melodies and early steel stuff including Steel Guitar Rag etc. I used to stand in for him at a pub in New Southgate London, late fifties when he got the odd gig in country. We were both playing things like Alabama Jubilee, Lady be good, Sweet Georgia Brown, Skylark etc with a great Lady Pianist and drummer; so fairly different from those tunes we played in our own time. But lots of unusual chord progressions and Jerry got through it no problem with his straight twenty string layout!!

2. He was a good ten years older than me but as I am now eighty he must have been around 86 when he died. He had been playing a considerable time already when pedal steel arrived and I have to say that although he loved psg his roots meant he was always thinking non pedal which accounts for him replacing Slim Whitman's steel player on tours. He knew all of his material by heart down to the last harmonic!

3. Re the Tumbleweeds 'London Country' Recording and band members. Everyone gets this wrong! The original band from about 61/62 was: Johnny Reagan( actually Batt; vocals and guitar), Jerry West (Arthur Jerome;steel), John Boniface (Drums) myself Al Sands on lead and a guy whose second name eludes me but Stan was his first. However London Country was recorded quite a bit later but the same personel, except the Bass player who was Dougie Dee (some may well remember). He was with the band also for many tours.
I wrote two of the tunes on the LP and did get an acknowledgement on the cover I also took a digital copy of the LP and put it on CD.
Hope this clarifies things a bit more and I will try and publish pics and tell some more of developments in the 60's.
Kind regards to all
Al Sands

[Willie Gamble]

Hi Al, being a fully paid up member of the crew north of Hadrian's Wall, I don't know much about London ( norf or saff) can I congratulate you on a very interesting story never the less
You mentioned a good friend of mine, Skee Laird, Skee was the Compere in the Grand Ole Opry in Glasgow for a few years and at the end of the night she would sing Satin Sheets and she was a joy to back on steel and harmonies, I can hear her still.
Lovely singer and a lovely lady, unfortunately Skee passed away last year.

Asleep at the steel

[Al Sands]

Hi Willie,
Well a huge number of our family are in Scotland and Ireland and I toured both in the distant past. My brother in law (Brendan Dunne) used to do gigs around Ayrshire and when I was up there I used to sit in on Steel as a duo with backing tapes. We're talking a much later period though, through the 80's/ 90's, and after I got back on the steel.
I did meet Skee in saff London in the early sixties but I was never sure if she was just doing the odd gig or permanent. After our band took up the residency she used to do, we never saw her again. It would have been interesting as she was the only female country singer I was aware of in London that early on. And there were few enough country artistes anyway.
As I said in my piece, without them country wouldn't have progressed as quickly as it did and , of course, the steel wouldn't have taken off the way that it began to at the end of the sixties.

Best regards

Al Sands