We had quite a turn-over of drummers. There is another publicity photo in the archives with a drummer called Mick Carter, from Bishops Stortford – his head (badly) superimposed over an earlier shot with Roy, but the same maroon mohair stage suit which must have been passed around them all! However, I cannot remember now exactly at what period and for how long Mick was with us.
May 65 saw us on a tour in Denmark and with another change of drummer – this time Geoff Gordon – another Clacton guy who we had worked with on various occasions. We were provided with a Danish VW bus and a driver for the tour, so I guess we must have travelled there by ferry. I have copies of a few gig posters from this tour, including one that bills us as billed as ‘Dave Curties and The Tremoes from Liverpool’.
At some point during the tour I came down with a virus. However, true to the old adage ‘the show must go on’ I did the gig at Aalborg hidden from the audience, playing bass sitting on a chair in the wings!
Geoff has memories from Denmark of Dick doing his Chuck Berry impression and falling off the stage; staying overnight in a small hotel which we hadn’t noticed was 6 feet from a main railway line and kept us awake all night; and an argument with the Danish ‘roadie’ driver of our Volkswagen band bus which resulted in our leaving him behind at some remote location to do the driving ourselves!
After Denmark we did a third summer season at Butlins. We decided to ‘rebrand’ and call ourselves Curtiss and Co after that season. However, we were not getting any big breaks, and the band began to break up. Jack was married, and I guess did not want to continue touring, so was the first to leave. The rest of us rehearsed with the new line-up down in Hastings (where Dave’s parents at that time had a Wimpy Bar), initially with a local guitarist called Chris Sayer. I then decided that I had enough – there were just too many groups and not enough work to go around. Geoff Gordon stayed for a while longer but eventually left, being replaced with Mick Carter on drums, who was originally with the Tremors for a while at some point.
The new line-up, and now with Rod Alexander now on lead guitar instead of Chris (Rod is on the photo of them in Toulouse with Dick, Dave – now playing bass and Mick Carter), spent a month rehearsing at Dave’s parents new place in Llandovery and eventually found work in France.
Rod & Carolyn and the Tremors
On returning back home to Clacton, I joined up with Jack and Roy, and we formed the backing band for Rod and Carolyn Braddy – a local brother and sister duo from Colchester. We were locally popular, and did very well, gigging around East Anglia, and quite regularly on the American air bases at Woodbridge, Weathersfield and Bentwaters. Our name was eventually changed to The Martells.
Roy, myself and another local drummer, Robin Garton, started a small recording studio – Soundsgood Studios – in the ground floor of the old Martello tower on Rob and his father’s caravan camp at Walton-on-Naze. Rob played drums in his own dance band that performed in the camp during the summer season, and was a very accomplished drummer – he can still be heard on YouTube here. (Robin and Roy had previously appeared together as a drumming double act on Hughie Green’s TV talent show ‘Opportunity Knocks’) We made several demo discs for local bands, and made several limited release records of Rob’s band on our own ‘Martello’ label.
We also had an arrangement to make commercials, jingles and programmes for a local ‘pirate’ radio station – Radio Tower, based on an old wartime fort – Sunk Head Fort – off Harwich. The station never really got on the air so that project came to nothing. On the internet amongst pages relating to the history of the radio station I found a section of a pilot broadcast we made that Robin hosted – The Soundsgood Show – have a listen.
Our band rehearsed at the studios as well, and that’s where the name The Martells came from. Roy and I did some writing – nothing came of it then, although I did hear many years later that one or two were published but with my ‘credits’ removed. Two of these songs were recorded with The Martells in the studio as a demo disc. (They can be heard below, although sadly the quality is poor as they were taken from a very worn acetate demo disc)
The Martells
I stayed with Rod and Carolyn until around mid-66, and having just got married (I suspect my first wife wanted me out of music and to get a proper job!) and I also sadly pulled out of the studio. To my regret I had to leave my much-loved Fender bass and amplifier behind as that was my financial ‘stake’ in the company – I wonder what ever happened to it?
(Page last updated on 17th January 2021)