by Ian Ravendale
One of the magazines I contribute to as ‘Ian Ravendale’ is Classic Rock, by a very long way the UK’s biggest selling rock magazine. The mag came up with a feature article idea based on the premise that rock and metal in the UK started in 1969 between the Led Zeppelin 1 and Led Zeppelin 2 albums and asked some of its regionally based journalists to supply material that would fit into this '300 Days That Changed Rock-The Birth Of Heavy' concept. I provided the North East research material for the story, speaking to the likes of The Animals’ John Steel, legendary promoter Geoff Docherty, recording studio pioneer Ken McKenzie and Dave Black who was a teenager at the time but already playing guitar in bands on the circuit.
In light of Dave’s untimely passing and to the commemorate the early days of his forty year-long career as a musician what follows is the full interview I did with him which starts with a brief introduction. Only a couple of paragraphs were used by Classic Rock so most of this hasn’t been generally seen before. The full story, with contributions from many musicians who were around in 1969, appeared in Classic Rock 193 (February 2014).
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Following on from playing in the North East band Kestrel guitarist Dave Black replaced Mick Ronson in the post-Bowie Spiders From Mars and went onto to have chart success with Tyneside band Goldie in the late 1970's.
Dave Black: There was so much music going on in 1969. My older friends were into Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Country Joe and The Fish. I was being influenced by early Yes, early Genesis and Family and wrote a whole album based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. The best bits of that went on to the album I recorded with Kestrel a couple of years later.
Ian Ravendale: John Peel was very influential, of course.
DB: Everyone listened to his shows. He'd play bands who were less famous, like The Junco Partners from Newcastle. He was a big fan of theirs.
IR: Were you listening to much rock music at the time?
DB: The first Led Zeppelin album blew me away completely. I was just getting the hang of the guitar and wanted 100% to be like Jimmy Page. I'd go round to my friend's house and his older brother would be playing John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. All the English blues bands like Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown and Chicken Shack were big influences. I listened to Cream's records until they didn't have grooves left in them! Cream and Jimi Hendrix definitely influenced the rock bands that came later. Ritchie Blackmore has said that Speedking is a deliberate lift of Hendrix's Stone Free.
A friend introduced me to the Edgar Broughton Band. I was more keen on the image of them than the music.That ridiculously hairy, loud, noisy band. I was offered a job with The Edgar Broughton Band in 1975 and declined it. It would have been playing guitar to back Edgar up as he wasn't the most brilliant guitarist in the world.
IR: Did you feel that the music was in the middle of something exciting, that things were changing?
DB: Without a doubt! It had got away from the crooners and pop acts. The snake had shed it's skin in 1969 and went on to crawl through the annals of rock!
IR: Talk us through some of the main local gigs and bands on the North East circuit in 1969.
DB: The Rex in Whitley Bay was the big gig for us who lived on the coast. Two bands on a Saturday and one on a Monday. It was pretty much the same local bands going round and round so you got to know pretty quickly who the good ones were. The Junco Partners used to do it a lot. They were up to the standard of any of the national bands I saw at Newcastle City Hall. Other great local bands included The Sect, who had a lot of country influences, Downtown Faction (who became Lindisfarne) were a great blues band while Raw Spirit were a big, loud rock band, with in-your-face power chords. Mr Poobah's Chicago Line, Dr Finket's Steam Coffin-they were good! They changed their name to Fat Grapple and Eddie Jobson, who went on to be in Curved Air, Roxy Music and UK joined them.
They got name bands at the Rex too. I saw the very early Genesis there and Family. North East soul bands changed into rock bands in 1969. They still had their brass sections but started rocking it up and doing songs like Sunshine Of Your Love. 1969 was the first time bands started writing songs based on riffs. The Newcastle band Bullfrog were a good bluesy riffing band. Their guitar player Robin Herd was particularly good. He had a finger missing on his left hand. Lucas Tyson were a local band who were very popular but I wasn't keen on them. They were doing big heavy psychedelic numbers like The Groundhogs Split Parts 1 & 2. Ginhouse were a really good local band. They won the Melody Maker Battle Of The Bands competition in 1970. They wrote their own material and did weird versions of other people's songs, including a heavy version of The Beatles’ And I Love Her! They had enough songs of their own to make an album which was the prize. There was only a handful of local bands who did original material in 1969. Ginhouse, the Juncos, Spyda. The rest were just doing covers.
Most local musicians were oblivious to what was going on in the other parts of the country, apart from London because you'd read the adverts for the London gigs in the back of Melody Maker.
One of the biggest gigs was Newcastle Mayfair. It was huge! Big dance floor, lots of different bars and revolving stage. With a very diverse bunch of bands playing there from the rock bands to pop groups. The Sunderland Locarno was the sister venue which also had a revolving stage. Kestrel did that one and they didn't tell us to unplug our gear and half the PA was pulled over when the stage revolved round! Then there was the Oxford Galleries, who had their own dance band and was like a smaller version of The Mayfair.
The national bands used to love to come up to the North East because the audiences would go apeshit. In London the audiences had seen it all and were more blasé as everything was on their doorstep.
IR: Was there much of a music business locally in 1969?
DB: Ivan Birchall was the main entertainment agent. He'd get you out four or five nights a week, which is what happened with Kestrel. Ivan was very influential on the local scene because he booked all the main venues. He would put bands into university gigs, town halls like Bellingham Town Hall, all the big ballrooms like The Rex, The Argus Butterfly in Peterlee and the Mayfair along with social clubs. He had a big Volvo and the first man I saw with a carphone, with the aerial in the boot! He was very well educated and well spoken and had a son called Jolyon.
Ian Ravendale (January 2014)
