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

[Al Sands]

Country Music, Steel Guitar and band memories in London through the 60’s - Al Sands

Following on from my previous article about the general development of Country and steel/PSG in the 50’s, it adds some additional clarity if I briefly mention where we were at in London in the early months of the 1960’s. I hasten to add, as before, that these are my personal recollections of a period that hasn’t been well documented, particularly as this period was essential both to country music and steel/psg and that currently you probably need to be in the 75+ age range to remember much of it! However, I was experiencing this mostly through the eyes/gigs of the band, so it is likely there will be omissions and anyone involved at the time, who has information, might want to add to the record so that we have the most complete picture possible of this time. I also mention my particular experiences when touring Ireland and to some extent, how this added to the development of country groups and eventually psg. Finally I suppose this piece could be dedicated to and subtitled: ‘Jerry West – the early years!!’

At the outset, there were not the steel guitarists or new groups being formed to play country in London in the early sixties, even though the development and appreciation of country music, amongst a wider audience, became essential to the eventual growth of the PSG. The UK public at large were listening to all kinds of pop and certainly, in my experience, didn’t appreciate country and western, or cowboy music as it was known, to any great extent and certainly didn’t appreciate that ’western’ referred to western swing. There was no real room for country groups and aspiring steelies to learn and polish their trade.
The popularity of Country Music therefore needed to increase if it was to be taken seriously and that was no mean task for people such as myself (and there were a few individuals) dedicated to country and also playing wherever we could. The Tumbleweeds country band, that Jerry West and I helped to form at this time, had to find work mainly in pubs to keep the band together as much as anything else! I have to say in this regard that vocal/ bass players were few and far between for country music, most of whom played in rock and pop groups and regular gigs were important to keep them on board. During the band’s lifetime we only changed personnel a few times, but invariably for a new bass player. I really never got that!
In order to get the work we again had to supplement the playlist with some hits of the day like ‘Johnny b Goode’ and ‘Twist Again’ and some pub standards, in order to sing country songs like Cheating Heart, half as much and China Doll, which were also recognised by the public as they had been covered by other artistes during the fifties. This enabled us to do well at most venues, to such an extent that we were able to take bookings for weddings and functions!! Of course, although Johnny Reagan had a fantastic repertoire of all kinds of songs to get us through, the general public were also attracted to the steel guitar playing of Jerry who, having played many standards in a variety of pubs before playing exclusively country music, knew many of the popular songs. His backing for Slim Whitman and Hank Williams songs, many solos including steel guitar rag and the USA steel hit ‘Sleepwalk’ from Santo and Johnny, were always a hit. Jerry and I also got together on country instrumentals introducing our versions of ‘Wildwood Flower’, ‘Under the double Eagle’ and some uptempo boogie material.

For more perspective at this time Willie Nelson wrote songs, wore suits and had a really short haircut, Jim Marshall was beavering away in West London still trying to develop his amplifiers, George Jones was more rock than country, Buddy Emmons left the Ernest Tubb Band to join Ray Price, Patsy Cline died in an aircrash and there were still too few country bands and solo singers in London.
But interest was gradually developing and we were finding it easier to get gigs, the pub gigs were becoming well attended and we were now doing regular USAF bases where we could at last play solely country music to great appreciation and more money! It was a very exciting time playing to bigger audiences and gigs two or three times a week, with country fans seeking out venues where country music was played and country music was more interesting for the audience with a steel guitar! Somewhere around this time Jerry swapped his homemade for a twin neck Fender.

The appearance of the PSG on records in the UK was an eye opener. I’m not sure that anyone was really aware of the developments of the PSG that had taken place in the states throughout the fifties (With the probable exception of Gordon Huntley). As early as 1949, string raise changes were being tried, without too much success: Paul Bigsby along with a very young Buddy Emmons, tried this unsuccessfully at that time . Eventually however the various steel guitar musos did succeed and, with his own developments, Emmons formed the shobud company around 56.

In this regard my own awakening didn’t arrive until around 1962 when I got a copy of the Ernest Tubb record shop release featuring Buddy as part of the band and playing Rose City Chimes—knockout and a revelation for me! It was pretty difficult to get country records (unless you went to HMV in central London) featuring Pedal Steel earlier, but the number of performers releasing stuff with PSG began to rapidly escalate – notably Buck Owens circa 1963 among others. I also think that it was around this time that Emmons added the top two Chromatic strings on the E9, but other players probably know a lot more about these developments than myself. In my case I was no longer playing Lap Steel and Jerry West carried on with his standard setups as before!

To my knowledge there was still at that time a lack of steel players generally and no one I knew of, playing a pedal steel of any description in London. Apart from anything else the cost was prohibitive, It would take time for lead guitarists and others to acquire and learn to play the instrument, apart from those who were playing lap steel, who could adapt more easily. I’m quite sure there were country fans thinking about it and I’m sure that Gordon Huntley was heavily involved and developing his own PSG (the Denly??). These pioneers showed the interest was there and the market for a UK made steel guitar was open.
Opportunities for our band were now coming far more often and we were working more regularly throughout the week enabling us to invest in the equipment and outfits that would become very helpful in opening up the Irish Ballroom Market to dedicated country bands ( which I explain later).

Eventually we had two sets of suits, Mexican styling: one turquoise with silver embroidery (copied from the cover of a Webb Pierce LP ‘Cross Country’) and tailored by Cecil Gee in the Charing Cross Road, a similar one in orange; Stetsons from Dunne and Co and cowboy boots. We really thought we looked the business! More importantly, an Irish singer promoter: Johnny O’ Boyle, thought we did as well and asked us to accompany him at some of the Irish Ballrooms at the time. It went very well and once again Jerry’s steel guitar promoted a lot of interest. His solo numbers were well appreciated, but the Irish National Anthem, required to be played at the end of every evening, not so much! I ended up taking that job over.
As the decade moved on the US charts continued to reflect traditional country music with George Jones having many top ten hits including no 1 ‘Walk through this world with me’ of course Buck Owens with ‘Loves Gonna Live here’ which sort of ushered in a ‘modern’ country sound which others, including ourselves, followed. But who can forget ‘Together again’ which influenced so many future steelies listening to Tom Brumleys’ output and other, perhaps lesser known artistes at the time, like: Charlie Pride, Bobby Bare and Dolly Parton.

Lloyd Green became popular with many country and other artistes, in this period, using him on their sessions, after he initially struggled to establish himself on the scene from the fifties. He recorded a lot of sessions (around 500 subsequently) with the upcoming artistes of the time. He influenced many steelies in the late 60’s and into the seventies, including, I suspect, a young Sara Jory and certainly myself, when I eventually returned to the country scene, after a ten year gap, on PSG around 1979. I actually owned most of his recordings at one stage!

The decade was now beginning to introduce new faces over the London Country scene and I can recall one or two like Jon Derek who I first met at one of our pub gigs along with Jerry Hogan who played guitar and eventually steel in Jamie, Jon and Gerry (??) and ‘ Country Fever’, Jan Holly; one of the first female country singers in London and Dougie Dee who was eventually to play for the Tumbleweeds on bass and vocals. I’m sure there were many others at that time that readers will remember, but not too many working bands and that favoured those already working finding regular gigs in the venues and pubs in London that wanted to book a country band at that time.

The Tumbleweeds went through a rich period of promotion from 1964 onwards but also sadly a number of missed opportunities. We were able to record material at KPM studios in Denmark St using Gordon Smith, who promoted a lot of country recording at the time. He was as keen as a number of us to get country more popular generally in the UK and, we got a two record deal with Pye and issued two singles, neither of which were well chosen numbers: ‘All of my Love’ and ‘Four Strong Winds’. In an effort to make them commercial they were overproduced and, with hindsight, nowhere near good enough for a commercial market that was pumping out pop music on radio. We also had to do promotion work which involved appearing on the new Radio One roadshows of the time. On a brighter note we recorded the ‘London Country’ LP for Decca at their West Hampstead studio. For posterity and to avoid doubt (there was a lot of speculation) the line up was: Jerry West (Steel), Johnny Reagan (Vocal and guitar), Dougie Dee( Bass and vocal} Johnny Boniface (Drums) and Al Sands(lead guitar). We also did a demo for EMI at the Abbey Rd studios and we recorded ‘Ruby’ on a demo for KPM (KPM had a number of demos sent over from American publishers which they were trying to promote) featuring Dougie Dee on vocals, but we were told the BBC wouldn’t playlist it because of the contentious content featuring a disabled war veteran. About three years before Kenny Rogers had a hit with it in the UK!
By now we had a full diary and turned professional: the London scene was hotting up considerably and I became aware of more bands appearing. This was largely because sometimes we had a midweek spot at the Red Cow pub in Hammersmith and they began to feature more country music. I assume that Fullers Brewery, who owned the pub, decided that country music was the way to go and subsequently booked bands at a number of their pubs, most in West London; including the Red Lion Brentford, one on Hammersmith Broadway, one on the Great west rd and one South of the river, in Lewisham. At a later date they converted a pub which became ‘The Nashville Rooms’, also in the Hammersmith area.It had a visit from Chet Atkins and received a lot of publicity. I’m sure some readers will remember most of the venue names, unfortunately I can’t!
At this time there were still no signs of Country Music festivals on the scene and some of the hit artists were Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, Glen Cambell, Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash. Buddy Emmons was about to join Roger Miller playing Bass and move to California!

The promoter who booked us at the Irish ballrooms: Chris Forde, was now beginning to feature the occasional country band at his London venues and he also arranged for the Tumbleweeds to tour Ireland in the ballrooms there. We had to join the musicians union and we were only allowed to appear with an Irish band on the same bill. As a result of this the promoters put us with the top Irish showbands at each venue to maximise exposure. For any interested Irish readers these were: Butch Moore and the Capitol, Dicky Rock and the Miami, Eileen Reed and the cadets and the Dixies. They were very well attended (in Dublin we had 2000 at one show) and the reception was fantastic with Jerry West once again being the centre of attention and afterwards he was quizzed by many interested musicians.

A little known fact is that although country music was popular in Ireland and played by the showbands, there were not many guitarists available to Irish bands at the time; most musos were learning brass instruments from a young age and small guitar based groups, playing country were not really evident.

As a direct result of this tour one or two of the larger band managers and promoters in Dublin were in touch with regard to the formation of a simliar small country band in Ireland for specialist appearances. They sent over the musicians who were to form the band to get similar band suits, Stetsons etc. One such group formed the Cotton Mill Boys: I think this was the first dedicated band for country music to regularly play in Ireland and other groups began to form. I am really reaching into my memory here but I think the first known professional steel player came over from Manchester but possibly any country fan or Irish steely might know the answer and can help by adding to the record. In any event a seed had been planted and it established itself fairly quickly. Unfortunately it would not be too long before Johnny Reagan decided to leave the band and accept an offer to form his own band in Ireland. He went to live there some some two years or so later.

(N.B Irish Musos. As I was playing with the band I can only comment from what I know, the events that came after and the band managers’ telling me what was happening at the time. I’m sure if you can add information it would be very helpful.)
After the Irish tour Chris Forde helped promote the Country scene further by putting on three concerts around the UK, opening at the London Albert hall, featuring Butch Moore and the Capitol showband, as the main attraction, for Irish Audiences resident in the UK. The Tumbleweeds were a support act and played to around 5000. The largest audience I have ever experienced and quite a boost for country and, by association, the steel guitar.

Other interesting events were interspersed both before and after this time. The Tumbleweeds were spending a lot of time in Europe and been travelling on a number tours to American airbases and were approached by promoter Lou Rogers (as it happens singer Clodagh Rogers’ Dad) who was taking American Country Stars on tours of the American bases in both the UK and abroad. He booked the band for a number of events, the first of which was with Hank Locklin, not too memorable because of the amount of drink available to the star act. As a result I had to tune his guitar a lot and Johnny sometimes had to remind him of the words to his songs on stage!! Both Jerry West and myself also found ourselves doing more solo breaks than normal!
The second tour was more memorable with Melba Montgomery, whose main self-penned hit was: ‘We must have been out of our minds’ in a duet with George Jones. Johnny was able to do the George Jones part for which she was grateful. She was a really lovely person and, for reasons I never really understood, she kept producing ‘Mountain Dew’ in a stoneware bottle at the clubs and giving everyone the occasional sip, of which I was really not too fond. I think some country fans at the bases were giving them as a present. As you can tell, the tours with these stars developed a theme, that involved a certain amount of drinking more than usual!

Carl Belew was the next tour we did (he co- wrote the ever famous ‘Crystal Chandeliers’ along with ‘Am I that easy to forget’ and ‘Lonely street’, all of which were hits for himself or others ). Of Cherokee Indian extraction I believe, he was another really appreciative performer and at the end of the tour he gave Johnny one of his authentic ‘Nudie’ tailored suits; pink with all the fancy rhinestone embellishments. There were some short trips with other artistes, including Jerry Alison, formerly drummer with Buddy Holly and solo performer in his own right.

We were getting towards the end of the sixties and the band were now working more outside London than the venues we had grown up with and a variety of bands were being used on the London Circuit. Obviously there had been many developments outside of London during the period I’ve covered, particularly in Liverpool. Johnny Larkin in Hartlepool was bringing up bands from different areas for short tours of the North East in working men’s clubs and the occasional night club spots and Stan Laundon was writing about them. The band did a number of these but there were now many more bands country wide.
In this period ‘Country meets Folk’ began on Radio one; Merle Haggard had hits with ‘Sing me Back Home’ and ‘Mama Tried’ and some of the hits were playing on UK radio like ‘Stand by your Man’, ‘Harper Valley PTA’ and ‘Wichita Lineman’. Buddy Emmons remained in California doing session and other work and Buck Owens was mainly recording albums and touring Europe; Johnny Cash recorded ‘Folsom prison.’ Mervyn Conn was bringing over American Stars, preparing for the first Wembley Festival.
Around this time Dougie Dee left the band to form his own group and Dave Peacock (later of Chas n Dave) joined the band on bass and vocals. There was one memorable trip I remember with Dave and that was Italy where we were booked on a residency for a number of weeks at the NATO base in Naples and the USAF base in Brindisi, on the opposite coast. Great gigs because of the audiences, the food and the US hospitality while we were there. In Brindisi we were performing on stage with direct current (DC) supplied and something was wired up badly. The mic became ‘live’ and Johnny touched it while announcing and couldn’t let go! Dave was the quickest thinker and booted the plug out of its socket before any further damage was done. After a stiff drink and a re-wire Johnny was OK to continue on stage. Sometimes in the evening after the gig Dave would play an old piano and sing Jerry Lee Lewis stuff to the squaddies. It was also an occasion where the commander on the base gave a party for everyone at his house. My only remaining memory of that occasion was waking up under a table, with Jerry West alongside. Think that was the Jim Beam we finished!

And, as the decade gradually came to a close, the musical style was changing and the band began to change as well. For personal reasons I left the band around 1969, Johnny eventually left for Ireland and with the replacements came some new styles. For the record Steve Simpson joined on guitar and he was replaced by Roger Dean: Albert Lee never did work with the Tumbleweeds although he was a good friend of Dave Peacock. I believe at some point the vocals were taken over by Thom Fricker and others and John Boniface and Jerry stayed with the group. I know there are steelies out there who know more about Jerry West in the seventies and beyond, although I did go over to his house, after meeting him at a steelies convention in the eighties. By then he was playing a sho bud, as I was by then, and we swapped some ideas. I never saw Jerry West (aka Arthur Jerome) after that.

I met John in Dublin once for a drink while he was with his band; unsurprisingly called the Tumbleweeds. He got married over there and eventually moved to Australia. When I last heard from him around 2012 he told me he had at some point met Jerry who was with Slim Whitman on tour at the time. I was also able to send him a copy of most of our recorded stuff and some pics for which he was grateful. He had learnt and was playing Sax with a trio in a local pub!!

When I first started to play country music and lap steel back in the fifties I never thought that either would become as popular as they did, particularly with the amount of pop music being promoted at around the same time. But I am extremely grateful I was able to play it professionally, with some top artistes and some dedicated musicians and some great times through the sixties; which was a decade that put country and the pedal steel guitar, in the UK, firmly on the map.

I particularly thank the original band that Jerry and I formed and which contributed right at the beginning of this journey and all of those bands, bookers and writers who continued to promote the music afterwards. A special mention for the British Steelies Society who have given a great deal of time and facilitated and recorded the experiences of so many different players like myself.

This piece remembers my friends: Johnny Reagan (aka John Batt vocal and Guitar), John Boniface (Drums), Dougie Dee (Bass and vocals) and of course Jerry West (aka Arthur Jerome on steel guitar). Thanks - Al Sands



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[Ken Byng]

Nice potted history of those times Al. Love the pic of Jerry with the Fender lap!!

[bazmusicman]

Thank you for that Al, a lovely written record and look back on the 'Fuller Country Curcuit' and more that we spoke about on the phone.

Brings back some good memory's of the Red Lion, The Nashville Rooms, The Adam and Eve etc. where my Wife and I done most of our courting!
I even got to play at some of the them....the Red lion, the Nashville rooms The Robuck in lewisham etc. It was really the best time ever to be playing in a band.

Regards,
Baz.

[philcollis]

Hi Al,
Phil Collis here. You probably don't remember me but I stood in for John Boniface for a week on drums when he remained at home while his wife was having their baby.
It was the summer of 1967 and you were touring US bases in Germany with a floorshow called Glennis England. I stayed over with Glennis England and her husband Dennis Pursaard (guitar) and an English bass player whose name I've forgotten.
I remember that Jerry West was saving all his money to get his "Knowledge" as a taxi driver when the band returned home.
I remember yourself, Johnny Regan and Dougie Dee as well.

I stayed in Germany for six months and returned to work with a country band called The Sidetrackers, with Tex Withers managed by Chris Forde. We did a Country Meets Folk appearance with Wally Whyton once which was great.
We also did the Ted Poulton circuit in Hammersmith (Red Lion/ Red Cow/ Nashville Rooms etc). We had a steel player named Dennis Brown, who was slightly older that the rest of us. I remember his showpiece was the Buddy Emmons number "Steel Guitar Rag".
I also did a stint drumming for Thom Fricker in The Nitelife. I remember we appeared at one of the Cecil Sharpe House Country Music Festivals and Dave Peacock was on bass. Thom was kind enough to recommend I stand in for Jon Derek's drummer for a week with Country Fever, and I was privileged to get to work with Albert Lee at the Roebuck, the Poco-a-Poco club in Stockport and a couple of other dates.

Thanks for the memories!

[Danny Mitchell]

Great stories and treasured memories, I'm sure. Thanks for taking the time to put these down.