Hi Pauly.... Sorry but my brain's a little befuddled about exact dates. However, I can tell you that it would have bee arounf the period 1970-1971-ish to around 1976-77ish? During this period I was also in a local (Dover) band myself: "Father Luke1" - We headlined at the Leas twice on local-band-nights which were promoted by Andy MacPherson2, if I remember rightly? These 'local' nights used to be quite a regular occurrance and featured bands from all around Kent such as: Back Van Nasty3; Barnacle4; Dead Dogs Don't Lie5... We also supported "The Pirates" at the Leas ('post' Johnny Kidd) in their nouvau-punk era, and played in and around London; The Music Machine, Covent Garden6; Hornsey Art College7; The Cartoon, Croydon8 and various and many other non-descript pubs etc., as well as in and around Kent in paid and unpaid gigs; like many other local rock bands who were 'chasing-the-dream!' We also won the Southern heat of the Melody Maker9 Competition at Canterbury, getting through to the competition Final at the Marquee Club, Wardour Street in London (around 1978-79, I think?) where we were 'trounced' by the eclectically brilliant band: "Splodgednessabounds" and their anarchic song: "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, please!"
Hey-ho! Annother one of life's 'moments' or 'If only!' - Still never mind eh? It was a great period of my life not only for what I did but for the 'time' itself... Fantastic music; amazing bands and musicians and great friends...
Going back a bit to my earlier post and a consequent reply.... Yes, the Skid Row I referred to WAS the one 'a la Gary Moore' - However, Skid Row were NOT the forerunner of Thin Lizzy.. According to Gary Moore, on last week's Planet Rock Radio, he was playing with Skid Row and was asked, during a break from Skid Row, to replace the guitarist from Lizzy who played on the Whiskey in the Jar single who couldn't make (not sure of the reason?) a subsequent American Tour.
Moore rehearsed with Lizzy (he was only around 17 or 18 at the time, I think he said?); was 'picked' and did the tour and then went back to Skid Row upon his return to the UK. It was only some time after this that he eventually joined Thin Lizzy.
There ya go!
Great site and great to see that there are some other old (Prog) rockers still out there... Maybe some younger ones too?
Steve
This is part of my site The 'Gerald that I set up in a fury of excitement when I first came to Folkestone sometime in '04. I'd been a frequent visitor for a few years previous to that but I am technically one of those Down From Londons you get nowadays. The site used to be updated more frequently with a calendar of events + voting for best venues and things, and I know it was a handy resource for those who were thinking of moving to the area. Now I've moved out of Folkestone again (though just a couple of miles) it doesn't get as much attention as it used to. Ironic really as The town is now becoming the exciting place we knew it was about to become. My name is not Gerald BTW, this comes from the name of a pretend paper in an episode of Brasseye or something, the Portsmouth Gerald, + how there is a local newspaper here called the Folkestone Herald. Puns like this are great aren't they? Do contact me if you have anything to offer, email anythign @ this domain, or try @folkestone or @pauly on the twitter.