Ark

As is sadly the case with many bands, talent doesn’t necessarily equate to success and this was no more starkly evident than with neo-prog rockers Ark who formed in 1985 following the breakup of local band Damascus. Hailing from the West Midlands, and walking the dangerous line between prog-rock and commercial rock, Ark produced a succession of musically adroit and lyrically meaningful tracks at a time when the music world was by and large turning ‘hair metal’.

My first encounter with the band was when they entered the Edwards Number 8 ‘Battle of the Bands’ competition in 1987 which saw three nights a week, a succession of the great – and not so great – local bands vying for the prize of a studio session at Rob Bruce’s Rich Bitch studios in Selly Oak. On their first appearance in the competition I was a judge and was feeling increasingly jaded by the whole affair as an endless stream of third-rate Bon Jovi clones and thrash bands made-up the majority of entrants, such was the era. When Ark hit the stage, however, I was totally captivated and blown away – as were the other judges (‘Crazy’ Al King the sound engineer at Edwards and Aaron Whan the lighting tech); we were all caught by surprise!

Ark - The Dreams of Mr Jones

Ark wore makeup (in the case of frontman Tony Short, a lot of face paint akin to early Gabriel), they had two guitarists in Pete Wheatley and Steve Harris (who played a synth guitar from which came an array keyboard and piano touches), they had a drummer – Dave ‘Cocky’ Robbins – who could actually play more than a straight 4/4 beat, Andy Harris on bass and produced a complex and well crafted, but accessible, brand of commercial-edged prog rock: imagine Marillion with balls. Furthermore, frontman Tony Short was just that; he was a frontman in every sense of the word, captivating in performance, possessing a strong and powerful voice and engaged with the audience with good humoured banter as appropriate. We were all convinced that we’d seen a band destined for great things and, as those who remember the competition will recall, Ark went on to win the final on 18th December 1987 (I still have a mixing desk recording of the gig!). I was so impressed with the band, and believe me that wasn’t often the case, I went to see them at the College of Food and Art a few days later and got to chat to them and discovered that they were the nicest bunch of chaps you could ever wish to meet which, again, wasn’t always the case with bands both major and minor.

With the studio time won in the Battle of the Bands competition Ark recorded their debut album The Dreams of Mr Jones, a 5-track opus that is nigh-on impossible to come by these days but well worth the effort if a copy can be secured. The album also featured a new bass player, Jon Jowitt. My abiding memory of the band with Mr Jowitt was a rather odd gig at the salubrious Coldstream pub on the Frankley estate in South Birmingham where, mid-way through a track, a group of bikers drinking at the bar picked Tony Short up and carried him out into the car park whilst still singing, fortunately in jest!

Ark - Cover Me With Rain

The band built a strong local following and began to construct a fan base around the country, playing the likes of the Marquee club in London and things seemed to be heading in the right direction for the band. Further recording and tweaks in line-up followed with ‘Cocky’ Robbins being replaced on drums by Gary Davies, and later Paul Rogers, and Jon Jowitt leaving to join prog behemoths IQ – with whom he still plays – being replaced by Nigel ‘Gel’ Newey.

However, whilst building a cult following around the country, and indeed around Europe, true success eluded the band and after 10 years they called it a day in 1995. Rumours have circulated from time to time about a reunion but one has failed to materialise and I can’t help but look back to Ark with a tinge of sadness as they were one of only a handful of bands to understand how to put on a performance and were musically very skilled and yet failed to make a breakthrough into the big league. Fortunately, they did leave behind four albums – and a plethora of cassette EPs and singles – that, whilst extremely hard to find, attest to their legacy as one of the regions finest musical products.

Update 10/05/10

Since I published the above article, it’s been confirmed that Ark have reformed with the calssic Short-Harris-Wheatley-Jowitt lineup with gigs to come later in 2010 and a new album! Get your tickets for their album launch gig on 5th September 2010 at the Robin 2 HERE!

Redbeards from Texas - Goodbye T' Jane

A good friend of mine, when I was around 16, got a job at a guitar shop called the Bass Place in Suffolk Street that was owned and run by two members of the Redbeards from Texas and thus my introduction to the band began.  It’s a little tricky to describe the Redbeards act without using the phrase ‘mock ZZ Top’ but it’s fair to say that, particularly in their early days, they really modelled themselves as ZZ Top soundalikes which, at least during that period of the mid-1980’s, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing in terms of gaining a listening audience.

In fact, prior to  actually meeting the band, I do recall reading about the Redbeards from Texas in Kerrang and a few friends of mine told me about a particularly torrid gig they’d seen them play at one of the short-lived ‘Blast, Blitz and Boogie Nights’ at the Birmingham Odeon supporting black metal ‘inventors’ Venom:  whoever thought-up pairing a ZZ Top genre group with a death metal act needed help!

My particular introduction to the band was when a friend asked me if I could help out as a roadie for the day at the Portland Club where the band were to shoot a video for their single Shoot It Up.  I jumped at the chance and spent the day with the band – along with their preferred PA company Tourco headed by Richard ‘Fez’ Ferriday (about whom you can read more as bassist with Cryer) whom I had got to know through Edwards Number 8 gigs – ‘Crazy’ Al King, Tony Smith, ‘Big’ Mick Hughes, Dave ‘Sprog’ and Den York.  It was an eye opening experience and great fun.

The band consisted of:

Morton Pinkley (Ian Allen) – Guitar, Vocals
Wild Hoss Maverick III (David ‘Kink’ Keates) – Bass, Vocals
Bud Weiser (Craig) – Guitar
Duke Delight (Colin) – Drums

Neil Troman – Drums (final tour)

During their time they release several singles from their one and only album – Havin’ a Ball – performed a BBC Peel Session on 25/06/85 and made several TV appearances.  However, despite being a good live act and pulling a considerable audience for their gigs, they were somewhat limited in appeal due to their musical adherence to the ZZ Top mould and their association with their early days comedy gimmicks such as false beards etc which was a pity.

Redbeards from Texas - I Saw Her Standing There

I helped out carrying equipment etc at a number of gigs for them during the mid-late 80s and had a blast – endless Budweiser, practical jokes and far too much running around naked (won’t elaborate further but some of the band’s antics were legendary) ensured a good turn was had by all,  except possibly at a gig at the Kent Custom Classic bike show where Fez pulled the gearstick off the van exiting Toddington Services on the return journey at about 5am in the morning and we had to get the AA to bring us back to Birmingham – which they did, in just enough time for me and Fez to pick up the Tourco PA truck to go off to a gig elsewhere!

The Bass Place was also a hive of activity with many of the City’s musicians shopping there – or at least popping in for a natter with Ian and Kink.

However, by the close of the 80’s the band had called it a day with Ian and Kink going on to form Mazique with vocalist and ex-recording studio owner, Guy Stanway (brother of Magnum’s Mark Stanway) – who had a minor hit with a cover of Golden Earring’s Radar Love – only to reform a year or two later – this time with Neil Troman on drums – for a final (Inland Revenue-related) UK tour. Ian and Kink also had had a song entered to be the UK song for Eurovision but it lost out in the final of ‘Song for Europe’ several years ago.

Cryer

Along with the Starfighters and Quartz, Cryer were a heavyweight in Birmingham rock music circles.  Constantly gigging, and touring in support of such notables as Gillan and Ozzy Osbourne, the band had a great live reputation – not least due to the extensive use of somewhat unpredictable pyrotechnics operated by roadie Stevie Husband – alongside melodic hard rock tunes.

Formed in 1974 the line up fluctuated over the years but by the time they got around to committing their sound to vinyl in 1980 the line up consisted of Graham Careless (Vocals), Garry ‘Musical Exchanges’ Chapman (Guitar), Stu Clarke (Guitar), Pete Wayne (Keyboards), Richard ‘Fez’ Ferriday (Bass) and Roger Whitehouse (Drums):  previously, Steve ‘Bertie’ Burton had been vocalist but had left to form the Starfighters.

A self-financed single – the Single, aptly enough – was released (with the much better B-side ‘Hesitate’) and an album ‘Set Me Free’ recorded at the Old Smithy studios in Worcester.  However, this album was finally released after the band split in 1983 on Heavy Metal Records who decided to change the name of the band to Force for reasons better known to themselves!

Post-Cryer, Garry Chapman (lovingly nicknamed ‘Frog’) was manager of Musical Exchanges (where I ’enjoyed’ a Youth Training Scheme upon leaving school and was mentored there by Steve Husband) on Snow Hill and can now be found running Professional Music Technology (PMT) on Lawley Middleway, Fez Ferriday formed Tourco (for whom I worked) which operated out of offices next to Musical Exchanges and later premises on Gooch Street, and Graham Careless and Roger Whitehouse formed a band called Force to gig the album material:  I do recall Force in the later-1980s with Musical Exchanges very own Gary Sharpe on guitar regularly gigging at Edward’s Number 7 and 8.

All-in-all a good Birmingham band that enjoyed 10 years of ‘cult’ success but never quite made the big-time.

The Starfighters

A more classic example of a rags to riches – to rags again cautionary tale of the music industry could not wish to be found than that of Birmingham’s Starfighters.  Formed in 1979 the band comprised of Steve ‘Bertie’ Burton (vocals) – previously of Birmingham rock band Cryer, Stevie Young (guitar), Pat Hambly (guitar), Doug Dennis (bass) and Steve Bailey (drums) and followed a very hard rock/ACDC-type groove – understandable with Stevie Young being the cousin of ACDC’s Angus and Malcolm (a band with whom Stevie would tour covering for Malcolm in the late 1980s).

Signed to Jive records (who at that time hosted an eclectic artist list including Tight Fit, A Flock of Seagulls, Billy Ocean and Samantha Fox!), things looked bright for the band.  A self-titled album was released in1981 featuring a raucous blend of hard blues-based rock with Bertie’s rasping, sneering vocals on such track as Don’t Touch Me – a uptempo ditty about a flasher with a penchant for younger viewers – a real standout.

The band hit the pub/club circuit relentlessly and began to gain some press and support slots to some of the bigger names in the hard rock/metal scene of the early 80s.  Often retrospectively co-opted into the ‘New Wave of British Heavy Metal’ genre, the Starfighters ploughed a more lonely furrow – not succumbing to the increasingly bouffant brigade that was beginning to emerge through such bands as the Tygers of Pan Tang, Def Leppard etc – preferring to keep to the tradition of unpretentious, hard drinking rock and roll.

Following the 1983 release of their second album, In-Flight Movie (featuring the Starfighters battle-cry ‘Who Cares’) the band were on tour in the States when they were unceremoniously dropped by their record label . . . and drifted into Birmingham band history.

Fortunately, around 1987 two great things occurred in the history of the Starfighters.  Firstly, Bertie and Stevie decided to give the band another try and reformed – with Rick Sanford (guitar), ex-Surface Jamie Hawkins (drums) and ex-Hostage Steve ‘Redvers’ Hill (bass) – and I met them!  Not that the latter was of any significance in their career but does allow me to introduce a few anecdotes to this tale.

By this time the band were based at a rehearsal studio called The Pits  – having previously been based at a house in Rotton Park Road on the side of the disused railway embankement into which they joked the house was gradually slipping due to the vibrations caused by their extremely loud rehearsals there – which was housed in an incredibly old three storey early Victorian industrial premises on Granville Street backing onto the then-Davenports brewery.  The various floors were accessed via the narrowest, steepest wooden stairs imaginable – almost like long ladders – which I spent a considerable amount of time – in various states of sobriety – falling down and up!  The very top floor contained a ‘recording studio’ and a ‘lounge’ with a pioneering half ceiling which contained Bertie’s bed, as he also lived there.

Regular inhabitants, Bertie aside, of The Pits were a band called Pavlov’s Dogs and Frazer Young – Stevie’s brother – who was an absolute madman and served as the band’s roadie/tour manager/security and just about anything he wanted to be as – despite being of diminutive stature – had a wild temper and heavy Glaswegian accent and, after a few Jack Daniels, could turn from your best friend to your worst enemy in the blinking of an eye . . . remember Robert Carlyle’s ‘Begbie’ character in Trainspotting?  In the bowels of the studio also lurked Phil – a hippie sound engineer with a yellow Luton van and a Tac Blue mixing desk who ran their PA service for local gigs.  Finally, a band from Whitehaven – Teacher – along with a couple of girl friends of theirs – had also come down to live in Birmingham and various members of them and their entourage also kipped down there most nights.

Anyway, back to the band! I got to know them well through working for a PA company and getting to know Phil and through working at Edward’s Number 8 nightclub where Bertie would come for a drink from time to time.  Further, I also did bits of roadie work for a band called the Redbeards from Texas who were long-time mates of the Starfighters . . . if I was particularly drunk and/or too skint to get home from the City Centre, I’d stagger up to The Pits at any time of the night and be given a sleeping bag and a mug of coffee . . . Bertie was an incredibly hospitable chap!

I saw them a few times in the late 80’s era at Birmingham University, an incredibly good turn at the Portland Club in Ladywood along with the Redbeards, and at an Edward’s Number 8 organised metal all-dayer at Goldwyn’s nightclub which, again, was an absolute knockout.  Their energy live was incredible and boy could Bertie sing – and drink, his trademark bottle of Jack Daniels on stage during the set – and spike Rick Sanford’s pint with something rather hallucinogenic causing Rick, mid-gig, to do something rather unseemly in a plastic cup on stage . . . but we won’t go into that any further!

It was during a very late night intoxicated chat with Bertie that I asked what happend to the ‘Mark I’ lineup on their US tour.  Apparently, the band spent their entire US tour’s money from the record company within the first few days of the tour and then when they contacted Jive for more funds, on the back of a few other ‘issues’ with the band,  were swiftly dismissed from the label.  Unfortunately, they had no money to get home so a couple of the band had to get some casual work to get the money together to fly home!

Apart from feeling very lucky to have been around the band and having seen them live – as they were truly a great live act – they were also responsible for one of my biggest regrets.  One night I was at The Pits with ex-Cryer bassist Fez Ferriday and Metallica sound engineer (Big) Mick Hughes having a beer and a chat with Bertie between a sound check and a gig at either Edward’s or Goldwyns.  Apparently a couple of minutes after we left, long-time friend of Bertie’s Ozzy Osbourne turned up for a binge – still gutted to this day that I missed that as Ozzy is another ‘hero’ of mine!

The ‘Mark II’ line up of the band was all too short lived and split in 1989 with Bertie going on to form the E-Numbers who were – whilst good live – more of a traditional blues band and not of the high-aggression and energy of the Starfighters.  In more recent years Bertie fronted Vincent Flatts Final Drive who released several albums (all of which appear to be now only available second hand) and toured relentlessly through Europe and the US with their southern rock stylings.

The last contact I had with any of them was with Pat Hambly – who I hadn’t known during his period in the band – who runs a gents hairdressers (Hair Razors) on Weoley Castle Square.  I went in for a trim and saw a Starfighters poster up on the wall so asked where he’d got it from – as soon as he said he used to be in the band it clicked who he was (second from left in the above photograph) and we had a good old natter about the band.

Shame they’re not still going – as I’m sure anyone who saw them live would agree – and I’ve no idea if Bertie is still gigging:  if anyone knows please post the details.  Both their albums have been released on CD too for anyone interested – I’d recommend them – with bonus tracks not on the vinyl releases and are available from the US on Amazon.

As for The Pits, things went a little downhill following a gig at the Powerhouse when the PA – engineered by Phil – was far from up to scratch and he was last seen being chased down Ridley Street by Fraser Young with a piece of 4 by 2 in his hand.  The studio building has sadly long been demolished and is now a complex of appartments.