After a long break I'm back again!
After the
Skyline Hotel fiasco, and with Louis leaving "Louis and the Bad Boys",
we were approached by this very accomplished guitarist, Harry.
He informed us that he would be able to replace Louis and, not to worry, the band would rock on.
After listening to him play, we mutually agreed that he was the one.
One problem was, we couldn't still use the name "Louis and the Bad Boys", and
"Harry and the Bad Boys" just didn't sound right, so we were now just
"The Bad Boys"!
Forty years on I think to myself, how
would you react if your daughter came home with a long haired musician
(more than likely unemployed), who proclaimed to be from a band called
"The Bad Boys"?!!
There was a guy that used to frequent
the Skyline Hotel on a fairly regular basis and he was the manager at a
really run down hotel in Joubert Park (Johannesburg) called The Astor Hotel -
Google has never heard of it - it's long gone.
This
guy offered us a gig at this hotel.
They hadn't had music there for a
while, so maybe we could attract the crowd, build the place up, and the
more people came in, the more we would make...
Same story that we all hear in one form or another.
So being successfully unemployed once again, we agreed to the deal.
This was now going to be the Rock Band to end all Rock Bands...
The
idea was that they, the Hotel, would advertise for two weeks with
posters, flyers etc. whilst we got the "new" band together.
We rehearsed at the venue every day with Harry, going over our existing repertoire and adding a few new numbers as well.
One song comes to mind immediately - Lazy, by Deep Purple.
Without trying to brag, the band did that number exceptionally well!
My
dear friend Dermot listened to the band on numerous occasions and swore
he couldn't tell the difference between Deep Purple and The Bad Boys!
He knew his music, so that was a serious compliment.
In their infinite wisdom, the management decided to bring in a DJ to the gig in addition to the band.
We encountered this obnoxious little person with a blond Afro, who insisted that we call him Spider!
Heaven alone, (and maybe his mother), knew what his real name was...
Little did he know that I have an aversion to anything with more than four legs.
The
idea was that during our breaks the DJ would play his stuff.
Except of
course, in those days, and even now, DJs and Live music don't always mix.
So what would happen was that "Spider" would try to out play us, can you believe it!
The band was not too happy with this arrangement but we tolerated the situation as after all this was the venue for the Rock Band to end all Rock Bands
One night we were thundering away and were playing one of the songs in which I incorporated a fiddle solo.
Unbeknown to all of us, this Hotel was not earthed...
I was behind my trusted Hammond L100, the violin bow was resting above the top keyboard.
My
electric violin at that time had a Barcus Berry pickup on the bridge and was wired in such a way that the jack plug socket was on the left side of the
instrument, so that when I played, the jack plug would touch my neck (the casing of the jack plug was metal).
In retrospect not such a clever idea.
That night I reached forward to pick up the bow and my fingers touched the metal strip above the Hammond's top keyboard, at the same time my neck was touching the jackplug and as a result I received 220 Volts through my body!
I was thrown back against the wall behind me (about 6 feet - 2 metres) and the violin went flying out of my left hand and crashed onto the dance floor smashing into pieces!
The audience thought that this was part of the act and went wild!
I retrieved, salvaged and repaired the fiddle but it was never quite the same unfortunately.
The word started to spread about "The Bad Boys", more people were flocking in and we were now serious Rock 'n Rollers.
"Spider" was losing his popularity.
One night we were rocking along with possibly either a Uriah Heep or a Deep Purple rendition, the dance floor was packed, the band was cooking and Harry was playing an amazing guitar solo.
Harry always played his solos with his eyes closed - he was so much into his guitar - it was as if he had entered another realm.
There were no facial expressions as if he was in agony or experiencing the greatest orgasm he'd ever had!
Harry just closed his eyes and played the most amazing guitar!
On this particular night, I reckon we might have been a wee bit loud (you can't play serious rock at lounge volume) and the club owner approached the stage, telling us to turn down.
Needless to say, as the dance floor was at capacity crowd, we ignored him.
So he went up to Harry, who was playing with his eyes closed, and reached over and turned down the volume control on his guitar!
Instantly the guitar sound disappears, Harry's eyes fly open and he sees this weasel of a manager standing front of him.
The band stops playing and a serious argument ensues between Harry and this manager.
Tempers flare between the manager and Harry and the next thing Harry hits this unfortunate manager and knocks him across the dance floor!
That of course, was the end of that gig and also was the beginning of the end of "The Bad Boys".
Not a great response from the ruling opposition party:
Why can't you find regular work with some decent money?
You'll never amount to anything at this rate...
You'll be playing in dives like that for the rest of your life..
After our experience at the Astor Hotel we did a few one off gigs including a New Years Eve function (1975 going into 1976) somewhere in Johannesburg where Harry brought along an amplifier he'd built that he said would work perfectly with the Hammond.
"It'll make it nice and loud" he said.
Half way through the gig the amp started smoking and then caught on fire!
We scraped through the rest of the night with a very feeble sounding Hammond, didn't get paid properly because our equipment was faulty and after that the band dissolved with each member going their own way.
A great pity as "The Bad Boys" was a really good band and holds fond memories of some serious Rock and Roll.
Shortly after this episode I received a phone call asking me if I would like to join the band "Tank" who at that stage were performing in Port Elizabeth.
I knew most of the guys from that line up of Tank so I trundled off to Port Elizabeth to perform at a really cool venue called "Is America".
Great band; doing all the current hits of the time (1976), and of course some good songs from previous years.
For personal reasons, I regretfully only stayed with them for three months and then returned to Johannesburg to play at The Top of The Carlton Hotel.
This is the prelude to "A long gig in 1976".
