Part 1: The records and music
As far as my musical likes and dislikes were concerned, the love of Heavy Rock in general was still at the forefront of my musical tastes. But this was the year that Led Zeppelin and Rush fell from dominance under the continued onslaught from Motorhead. Whilst Led Zeppelin were too much of a massive influence to ever disappear from from affections; they were no longer an operating band since the death of John Bonham in September 1980; whereas Motorhead were very much alive and kicking, and on the ascendant. But for Rush, it was a rapid fall from grace in which the first blow was landed by their disappointing concert the previous year, and culminated with my not inconsiderable disappointment with their new album Moving Pictures, which was released in February 1981. For me it just seemed to lack something. I found the melodies bland, and the overall sound somewhat softer and heading towards the synthesizer dominant approach of their next phase. The album was a bit more ‘Prog’ and a bit less ‘Rock’ for my tastes, although there was still a good track or two which I liked. Most notably the instrumental: ‘YYZ’. At this point, their previous 7 albums; which I had in my collection, were still important to me. Particularly Hemispheres and A Farewell to Kings which best represented Geddy Lee’s influence on me as a bass player.
On the other hand, that very same month; Motorhead were rattling up the charts once again, this time in the company of Girlschool, on their St. Valentine’s Day Massacre E.P. Led by a remake of the old Rock ‘n’ Roll classic; Please Don’t Touch; this helped to keep their flame burning until the June release of their famous live album; No Sleep ’til Hammersmith cemented their position as my favourite band, and relieving the unfortunate Led Zeppelin of the position.
Meanwhile, the classic bands Deep Purple and Black Sabbath were still important to me. By this time of course, I’d heard both Rainbow, Whitesnake, and other versions of Deep Purple; but I never really took to David Coverdale’s style; much preferring the Ian Gillan era of the band, which was reflected in my next choice of Deep Purple album. It was a similar situation with Black Sabbath. I never much liked Ronnie James Dio’s type of singing, and was not a Rainbow fan. So I wasn’t really interested in the contemporary version of Black Sabbath. I was still discovering the ‘classic’ Sabbath era, and loving what I heard. I bought their 1970 debut album this year.
Other albums I bought in 1981 included Van Halen’s Fair Warning. My relatively brief interest in this peaked with this album. It’s still my favourite of theirs, but apart from this one and the debut album, the other couple of albums that I had, went the way of the second hand shop in the end. My album buying choices also reflected a continuing interest in Jimi Hendrix, and an appreciation for Girlschool, who released the more than respectable Hit and Run album that year, and displayed a genuine rock guitar talent by the sadly departed Kelly Johnson. Meanwhile after a two year gap; The Stranglers released their new album: The Gospel According to the Meninblack. I was still curious enough about The Stranglers to get this album, but although I thought it wasn’t a bad album in its own right; I felt I have moved too far on from the ‘Post-Punk’ scene, and it was the last Stranglers album that I bought. This was sealed after a friend a bought their next album La Folie; released later the same year; and I thought it was rubbish.
Another band whose appeal tailed off for me was Pink Floyd, I still liked the 4 albums that I had, but I was disappointed by other albums that I’d heard, such as Animals; and I didn’t like The Wall, which I found quite miserable and depressing. They had begun to sound slow and ponderous to me, although I still appreciated the guitar playing of Dave Gilmour. There were still other albums and bands that I tried out via the second hand shops; which either didn’t grab me, or didn’t stand the test of time. These ranged from the aforementioned Rainbow and Whitesnake, along with the likes of Iron Maiden, and the Michael Schenker Group, and even some older bands like Budgie and Judas Priest. I had begun to feel much stronger about what I liked and didn’t like; and a lot of so-called ‘Heavy Metal’ didn’t do it for me; even though I loved most of those earlier bands like Zeppelin, Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Rush.
Motorhead were really the only ‘current’ band who I was really into since Rush fell out of favour. Zeppelin and Purple were both over, and the contemporary version of Black Sabbath wasn’t my cup of tea at all. Before 1981 was out had pretty much gone full Lemmy. The importance of Lemmy, both as a bass player and a personal icon, grew to a level of hero-worship by the end of the year, as my personal image gradually changed from the slightly more pseudo-hippy/kaftan look, influenced by Led Zeppelin, to the leather biker jacket and bullet-belt look of Lemmy and Motorhead. But what of Hawkwind in all this? Lemmy had gradually become my focal point as the year moved and by this time I had started to get a bit more of a clue about the era that he was involved in. On another visit to my favourite second hand shop I had acquired the second Hawkwind compilation album: Masters of the Universe, and after hearing bass playing delights Orgone Accumulator, I realised that Space Ritual was the one to get if I wanted to hear peak Lemmy in Hawkwind.
Whilst at the same time as buying Masters of the Universe, there was a copy of PXR5 also in the shop. As both albums were going fairly cheaply, I bought this one as well, and eventually found a copy of Space Ritual fairly soon after. PXR5 was the closest in sound to my very first Hawkwind album; Quark Strangeness and Charm, bought two years earlier, and was the most up to date Hawkwind album that I’d heard at that time. I liked the album, but after I acquired Space Ritual, it took a bit of a back seat for a while as the bass playing lure of Lemmy took precedence. Hawkwind were, and remain to this day, a unique influence in rock music that has seen the band journey through a fascinating array of line-up changes and resulting variations in style. But browsing their record collection as an 18 year old was a somewhat daunting experience. Even in the latter half of 1981, before the overwhelming proliferation of live albums, compilation albums, and related off-shoot albums that are available these days; There seemed to a hell of a lot of Hawkwind albums out there to be collected.
But although they were firmly established this year in my musical psyche, their absolute domination wouldn’t really come to fruition for another year, after I first saw them live, and began to pursue an active interest in the contemporary version of the band. I had bought all but two of my Hawkwind albums second hand, and it was pure fluke that by the time I bought Space Ritual towards the end of 1981, I had completely bypassed their contemporary albums such as Live ’79, Leviatation, and the newly released Sonic Attack.
Within a few months the tables would be turned completely in that regard, but for now I was focussed on seeking out what is now thought as the ‘classic period’ of the early to mid 70’s, when Lemmy was their highly original and innovative bass player.
Part 2: Bass playing and bands
Meanwhile, developments on the local scene were moving on. Back near the start of the year, I was armed with a fine bass guitar and a good little practise amp, which I put to good use for the first 6 months of my life as a budding bass player. During this time, I had learned by ear; playing along to records that I wanted to learn. Top of the list was Led Zeppelin’s first album which was always a great favourite. Soon enough I could play most of the way through it, and I was particularly pleased when I mastered the rolling bass-line on How Many More Times. Similarly with Rush, I learned to play along to most of Hemispheres and A Farewell To Kings, and felt particularly pleased to have mastered such bass-lines as Xanadu.
A little later I would be tackling my first Lemmy bass-lines, But in the meantime, on the local rock scene centred around the Masons Arms, I was still going to Savage gigs as a roadie, and watching and learning from them and other bands, as well as meeting new people on the scene.
One of these bands was a band called Lazee. I was aware of them from having seen them play at the Masons early on in the year, and by chance, I met up with someone I knew from my school days, who ironically had become a roadie for Lazee.
It eventuated that Lazee split up soon after I had seen them, and it came to my attention that the one of the guitarists, Andy Ashley, had teamed up with vocalist Gerry Harley, and was looking to put together a new band, requiring a bass player and a drummer.
Fortunately at that time, I had just turned 18, and recently started a new job in a factory, which resulted in a considerable increase in wages, making it possible for me to buy a bass rig suitable for using on stage, and playing with a band. Even so, this was expensive equipment, and it had to be done in two stages. The Marshall 100w bass amp came first, and the Peavey 2×15, ‘Black Widow’ bass cab came a little later.
In the meantime, A meeting was arranged in a small rehearsal room upstairs room at the Masons Arms with ex-Lazee guitarist Andy Ashley, and singer Gerry Harley, along with Lazee band manager Trevor (‘Georgie’) George.
I was a little nervous, and felt a bit green around these guys who were a couple of years older and more experienced than me. I also felt a little self-conscious about my relative youth and shorter hair; especially around Andy who really looked the part of the Heavy Rock musician with his longer than shoulder-length hair. But I set off for the meeting, armed with my trusty Rickenbacker copy bass, determined to have a go.
I think it’s fair to say that Andy was a little distant at first. I got the impression he was disappointed that Lazee had split up, and he found it hard to imagine anybody replacing the previous bass player, Russ Haywood, with whom he was used to working.
However, we played a few numbers and I did ok; and Andy gave me a tape of a Lazee gig which had been recorded through a mixing desk, telling me to learn the songs; and before any decisions were made, we would have a further practise the following week. I spent the week learning those songs, and making sure I knew Russ Haywood’s bass-lines in order to satisfy Andy, who was going to continue to use some of the old Lazee songs which he co-wrote.
As it happens, Russ played some great bass-lines which I was more than happy to pinch! And I had obviously done good enough on the second practice; as after a little encouragement from Georgie and Gerry; Andy gave me the go-ahead for the job of bass player. We still needed to find a drummer at this point, but nevertheless, I was in a band!!
This was obviously a tremendously exciting time for me. Within a year, I had got a bass, learned to play, and had joined a rock band. And to cap it all off, I had a new, better-paid job, where I was allowed to grow my hair as long as I liked!
A couple of weeks later, we found a drummer called Paul (‘Gilly’) Gilliat, and we began to rehearse in earnest; eventually at a local youth club every Sunday morning.
As my confidence grew, I began to put bits of my own bass-lines into some of the songs; And although at this point I hadn’t yet gotten to the stage of writing anything of my own, I was more than happy with what we were doing. We worked on a set which comprised of re-vamped versions of Lazee songs, and a couple new numbers co-written by vocalist Gerry Harley. Mixed in with these was a selection of cover versions of songs by Deep Purple, Status Quo, and ZZ Top, amongst others.
Andy and Gerry had decided to call the band: WHITE HEAT, and soon, we began to do a few gigs, and recorded a demo tape of three original songs. Initially, I had to borrow a speaker cab for my first couple of gigs. I had bought a Marshall bass amp, but had to save up like mad for a few more weeks before I got my ‘Black Widow’ bass cab. My first ever public performance was a gig at a local pub called the Talbot Inn. I was really nervous, and I stayed in the background, letting the experienced Gerry and Andy take the limelight. But the audience responded well for the most part, and my confidence grew as we did a few more gigs; And soon enough, another little dream came true when we played upstairs at the Masons Arms, where a year before, I had watched my friends in ‘Savage’ play in the same room; dreaming of day when I would also be up there playing to the crowd. Now I was in a gigging band, and we developed a bond of our own over the next year or so. Andy and I became good friends, and I look back on 1981 with happy memories of a great year.
Sunday morning band practise at Edwinstowe Youth Club in 1981.
Pictured on the roof of the Masons Arms in Mansfield. White Heat and roadcrew before taking part in a sponsored walk. Back row – Roadcrew: Rob Eardley, Steve Pope, Tony Ruston, Martin Brown. Front Row – Band: Paul Gilliat (Drums), Gerry Harley (Vocals), Andy Ashley (Guitar), Wayne Jefferies (Bass and Vocals), Seated – Trevor George (manager)
An early gig at the New Penny Club, in Lincoln.
‘Into the Night‘ – Taken from a Demo tape recorded in 1981.
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