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Authors: Mark Blake
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seen before. Jones would be dead in less than two months.
A September 1967 booking for 1984 at the London School of Medicine would be the catalyst for another date with Jimi, after talent spotters took a shine to the band. ‘To this day I have no idea who they were,’ laughs Dilloway, ‘but there were these three guys who fancied breaking into the music business and were looking for a band to manage. We were doubled up on the bill with another group at the London School of Medicine. I think they came to see this band, and decided to go with us instead.’
John Garnham and Richard Thompson are similarly baffled as to the identities of these ‘couple of characters’. Nevertheless, their new patrons watched the band rehearse and told them they needed to sharpen up their image. Early photos of 1984 found most of the group sporting the skinny-trousered, Chelsea-booted mod look of the day, with Tim Staffell and John Garnham taking turns to wear a pork-pie hat. Curiously, it’s Brian May that looks the most ill atease; very much the suburban schoolboy, clutching his guitar like a comfort blanket and wearing a cardigan. As Tim ruefully explained, ‘I never perceived Brian as having the dangerous image which was necessary at the time.’
But the band was tentatively embracing fashion. Staffell would later claim to hate the flowery-shirted ‘Summer of Love’ look, but he, like the others, moved with the times. On 9 September, after a boutique shopping trip, the group showed up for a battle-of-the-bands competition at Croydon’s Top Rank Club looking very much the pop stars in waiting, even Brian.
The contest had been sponsored by Scotch tape, and the proviso for entering was that groups had to submit songs recorded on a reel of Scotch. 1984 submitted two tracks: The Everly Brothers’ ‘Crying in the Rain’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar?’ On the night, they played two sets (the first as backing group to an unknown singer named Lisa Perez) and won the contest hands down. ‘It was a joke, though,’ laughs Dave. ‘Nothing ever came of it.’
Instead the winners were gifted with a reel of Scotch tape and an LP for each band member, deteriorating in quality from Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence (blagged by Tim Staffell) to an album by Irish bandleader Tommy Makem, for which Dave Dilloway drew the shortest straw. ‘That’s all we got,’ says John Garnham. ‘These crappy LPs.’
Still, the winning band were photographed that night, preserving an image of 1984 that year. Twenty-year-old Brian May had a regulation Beatle hairdo and Hendrix-style military jacket. Much to his chagrin now, Tim Staffell was wearing a shirt with pink polkadots.
A similar so-called competition found the band piling into the back of Richard Thompson’s works van and trekking over to East London’s Forest Gate to play to one of their biggest audiences yet at the Upper Cut Club. ‘It was a club run by Billy Walker the boxer,’ remembers Thompson. ‘The Who had opened the club, and I don’t know if there even was a competition. I think it was just an excuse to get people over there. We played to a couple of thousand people that night.’
The aspiring managers disappeared as quickly as they arrived.Still, their hustling skills were enough to secure the group a slot at the ‘Christmas on Earth Continued’ extravaganza. Held on 22 December at the chasm-like Kensington Olympia, ‘Christmas on Earth Continued’ was an all-night musical love-in starring fifteen acts, which included Pink Floyd, The Who (who never showed), The Move, Soft Machine and headliner Jimi Hendrix.
Before the gig, the band’s benefactors sent them out to buy some new outfits. ‘My memory is that Tim and Richard went to Carnaby Street and bought us stuff to wear,’ recalls John Garnham. ‘I was presented with this black shirt with a silver front.’ Though Tim Staffell recalled: ‘Our manager bought us velvet guardsman jackets and put
A September 1967 booking for 1984 at the London School of Medicine would be the catalyst for another date with Jimi, after talent spotters took a shine to the band. ‘To this day I have no idea who they were,’ laughs Dilloway, ‘but there were these three guys who fancied breaking into the music business and were looking for a band to manage. We were doubled up on the bill with another group at the London School of Medicine. I think they came to see this band, and decided to go with us instead.’
John Garnham and Richard Thompson are similarly baffled as to the identities of these ‘couple of characters’. Nevertheless, their new patrons watched the band rehearse and told them they needed to sharpen up their image. Early photos of 1984 found most of the group sporting the skinny-trousered, Chelsea-booted mod look of the day, with Tim Staffell and John Garnham taking turns to wear a pork-pie hat. Curiously, it’s Brian May that looks the most ill atease; very much the suburban schoolboy, clutching his guitar like a comfort blanket and wearing a cardigan. As Tim ruefully explained, ‘I never perceived Brian as having the dangerous image which was necessary at the time.’
But the band was tentatively embracing fashion. Staffell would later claim to hate the flowery-shirted ‘Summer of Love’ look, but he, like the others, moved with the times. On 9 September, after a boutique shopping trip, the group showed up for a battle-of-the-bands competition at Croydon’s Top Rank Club looking very much the pop stars in waiting, even Brian.
The contest had been sponsored by Scotch tape, and the proviso for entering was that groups had to submit songs recorded on a reel of Scotch. 1984 submitted two tracks: The Everly Brothers’ ‘Crying in the Rain’ and Marvin Gaye’s ‘Ain’t That Peculiar?’ On the night, they played two sets (the first as backing group to an unknown singer named Lisa Perez) and won the contest hands down. ‘It was a joke, though,’ laughs Dave. ‘Nothing ever came of it.’
Instead the winners were gifted with a reel of Scotch tape and an LP for each band member, deteriorating in quality from Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence (blagged by Tim Staffell) to an album by Irish bandleader Tommy Makem, for which Dave Dilloway drew the shortest straw. ‘That’s all we got,’ says John Garnham. ‘These crappy LPs.’
Still, the winning band were photographed that night, preserving an image of 1984 that year. Twenty-year-old Brian May had a regulation Beatle hairdo and Hendrix-style military jacket. Much to his chagrin now, Tim Staffell was wearing a shirt with pink polkadots.
A similar so-called competition found the band piling into the back of Richard Thompson’s works van and trekking over to East London’s Forest Gate to play to one of their biggest audiences yet at the Upper Cut Club. ‘It was a club run by Billy Walker the boxer,’ remembers Thompson. ‘The Who had opened the club, and I don’t know if there even was a competition. I think it was just an excuse to get people over there. We played to a couple of thousand people that night.’
The aspiring managers disappeared as quickly as they arrived.Still, their hustling skills were enough to secure the group a slot at the ‘Christmas on Earth Continued’ extravaganza. Held on 22 December at the chasm-like Kensington Olympia, ‘Christmas on Earth Continued’ was an all-night musical love-in starring fifteen acts, which included Pink Floyd, The Who (who never showed), The Move, Soft Machine and headliner Jimi Hendrix.
Before the gig, the band’s benefactors sent them out to buy some new outfits. ‘My memory is that Tim and Richard went to Carnaby Street and bought us stuff to wear,’ recalls John Garnham. ‘I was presented with this black shirt with a silver front.’ Though Tim Staffell recalled: ‘Our manager bought us velvet guardsman jackets and put
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