Blimey! I was hoping you still had the masters but wasn't sure. It would be great if the songs finally got released, if only to convince me that I didn't waste 4 or 5 years rehearsing 10 hours every week-end and writing songs in the evening.
Just to bring you up to date on my "career" post-Bridge House.The Guvnors stumbled on for a while after we did those tracks with Phil Coulter in Mayfair Studios (did you know Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz fame was working as a secretary there when we were recording those tracks?). We did another set of sessions with Gerry McAvoy, but I have no idea who has the masters for those.
We'd already started down the road of blaming our (to us) inexplicable lack of success on the lack of star quality of a particular member, when we sacked John Blackwell; great guitarist, but he looked like an accountant, so he had to go, apparently. Then it was my turn. Good singer, but a bit short and clumsy on stage. Ah well, hoist by my own petard.
I recall on the day they broke the news to me that they wanted to keep the drum kit which I had bought for our perennially skint drummer, and they also asked if I wouldn't mind doing the vocals on their next demo tape as the bloke they had got in to replace me - who presumably had more charisma than Robbie Williams and Elvis Presley put together - could not hit the notes of the songs I had written with Tony (the other guitarist).
Me? Bitter! Ha, ha.
After that I joined a band called Screen Technique, and gigged around Essex. The keyboard player out of the Rubettes produced one of our demo tapes - there's pop royalty for you!
However, I was pretty burnt out by then. I was only in my mid-twenties but had been kicking around in bands since the age of 11, so when that band folded, I retired from the music biz, though I didn't realise it was going to be a permanent retirement at the time. All my life I have sung for pleasure - round the house, in the bath, walking down the street - and I had noticed that I was no longer doing this. Music has become like a job, and every song that came on the radio I used to analyse rather than enjoy.
It probably took a couple of years before I started singing for pleasure again, much to the annoyance of my wife, who'd probably prefer a bit of peace and quiet now and then to permanent karaoke.
I am still in touch with John Blackwell (the sacked guitarist). He is a full-time musician. Teaches guitar to students at Westminster school during the week, gigs in the evenings and week-ends, most notably with a band called Zubop, who do a fusion of African, Latin American and Caribbean music - i.e. very danceable.
John saw Tony (the other guitarist) at a music exhibitiion/trade show some 15 years ago. Tony was working there as an electrician ...
Lost touch with the other guys. John the bassist moved to the south coast with his lovely wife. Jeff "Grizzly" Adams got married and bought a house with all the money he had saved through me subsidising his train trips and buying his drum kit.
God, this all sounds bitter and twisted, doesn't it? However, I had a stonkingly good time with that band - in all probability, the best years of my life. I'm gutted I missed the reunion - is there another one planned? You are all looking in good spirits; send my regards to the family.
John
P.S. I thought we had cut 4 tracks with Phil Coulter but I can only remember Inside Information, One of the Boys and Bullsh*tter's Arms, so maybe it was three.
