Uploaded April 2024 | Updated September 2026, 21 minutes ago
My first professional band was Reel to Real in 1985. I first met John McGrahan and Ian Horner at Hartlepool Peoples centre. Tony Kramer was running the music class and was also the chairman of Hartlepool peoples centre. Tony helped the band get up and running and helped us secure funding to run as a business through Cleveland Co-operative. We also got a grant through the Enterprise allowance. I wore the 'famous' leather cap for a laugh in the Mail photographs. I used to wear it on gigs with the band. I got some strange looks! I used to wear the leather cap with a biker leather. I looked like Sid Snot!
I was over the moon!... aged 19 and finally off the dole with my first official job!... I was desperate to be in a live gigging band at the time. I was playing in scratch bands and failing auditions for club bands!....I knew I had to do something. Then I had an idea!....I thought stuff this!!.....So I decided to advertise for a full band! Anyway, I went to the local Jobcentre and asked to see the vacancies manager and he agreed to let me advertise for a club band. The Jobcentre vacancy said,...'Drummer requires a club band: Wages: depends on bookings: Job description: Drummer requires bass player guitar player and vocalist to form club band to play local clubs in the North East. Wages: Depending on bookings. Then by chance John and Ian were looking for a drummer in the local Jobcentre at Titan house,saw my advert, then contacted me.
I remember the band saying they would pick me up for the first practice and they turned up in a double decker bus!...The Hartlepool playbus!....It was like something out of the Beatles magical mystery tour!....We arranged to practice at the Queens(when Brian was the landlord) and Tony Kramer managed to get us on the books of an entertainment agency. (V.I.P.) We started playing the clubs around the North East. I never made that much money as we were paying back a loan for the van and the band's equipment. It didn't really matter though as i lived on the money we got from the Enterprise allowance. It was £40 a week. Everyone was on the Enterprise allowance at the time, and loads of the alternative comedians and musicians started that way. The idea was that if you could show that you had a thousand pound in the bank,then the government would give you the Enterprise allowance money. Most people just borrowed the money from their parents then paid the money back the next day. You only had to show that money in the bank on the day you applied for the grant.
We were a three piece with two part harmonies with John and Ian. It was a 60's cabaret band. We played the local clubs. It was horrible waiting to find out if the agent had booked us any gigs,so we would be waiting right up till 6.00 hoping the phone would ring! Once we became self employed we got a call from Tyne Tees Television,who asked us if we wished to film a documentary on the band and the peoples centre. We had to join the Musicians union first before they would film us.
The producer was Paul Black and it was the same production team that filmed Highway with Harry Seacombe! We had to go to Tyne Tees studios to record the soundtrack before they filmed us. I was really excited about it, as i had never been in a Television studio before. It was a huge place. We asked to film the band in The Tube studios,but the producer couldn't get the place as it was too busy, as they were due to broadcast the next day and all the bands were setting up. I remember meeting The Damned in the canteen! We ended up filming the band in Bentleys nightclub in South Shields.
I left the band after the programme was broadcast,as I wanted to do something else. The band continued as a duo, as the agent said he could get them more work as a duo. They finally broke up and John went solo, and Ian formed a duo called split decision with Geoff Trotter. I stood in on drums with both of them as well as playing with Reel to Real now and again.John McGrahan became a lifelong friend. Sadly both of them have since passed away. John died at 40 years old and Ian died at 60. Really sad to lose both of them. Happy days though at the time.
My first professional band was Reel to Real in 1985. I first met John McGrahan and Ian Horner at Hartlepool Peoples centre. Tony Kramer was running the music class and was also the chairman of Hartlepool peoples centre. Tony helped the band get up and running and helped us secure funding to run as a business through Cleveland Co-operative. We also got a grant through the Enterprise allowance. I wore the 'famous' leather cap for a laugh in the Mail photographs. I used to wear it on gigs with the band. I got some strange looks! I used to wear the leather cap with a biker leather. I looked like Sid Snot!
I was over the moon!... aged 19 and finally off the dole with my first official job!... I was desperate to be in a live gigging band at the time. I was playing in scratch bands and failing auditions for club bands!....I knew I had to do something. Then I had an idea!....I thought stuff this!!.....So I decided to advertise for a full band! Anyway, I went to the local Jobcentre and asked to see the vacancies manager and he agreed to let me advertise for a club band. The Jobcentre vacancy said,...'Drummer requires a club band: Wages: depends on bookings: Job description: Drummer requires bass player guitar player and vocalist to form club band to play local clubs in the North East. Wages: Depending on bookings. Then by chance John and Ian were looking for a drummer in the local Jobcentre at Titan house,saw my advert, then contacted me.
I remember the band saying they would pick me up for the first practice and they turned up in a double decker bus!...The Hartlepool playbus!....It was like something out of the Beatles magical mystery tour!....We arranged to practice at the Queens(when Brian was the landlord) and Tony Kramer managed to get us on the books of an entertainment agency. (V.I.P.) We started playing the clubs around the North East. I never made that much money as we were paying back a loan for the van and the band's equipment. It didn't really matter though as i lived on the money we got from the Enterprise allowance. It was £40 a week. Everyone was on the Enterprise allowance at the time, and loads of the alternative comedians and musicians started that way. The idea was that if you could show that you had a thousand pound in the bank,then the government would give you the Enterprise allowance money. Most people just borrowed the money from their parents then paid the money back the next day. You only had to show that money in the bank on the day you applied for the grant.
We were a three piece with two part harmonies with John and Ian. It was a 60's cabaret band. We played the local clubs. It was horrible waiting to find out if the agent had booked us any gigs,so we would be waiting right up till 6.00 hoping the phone would ring! Once we became self employed we got a call from Tyne Tees Television,who asked us if we wished to film a documentary on the band and the peoples centre. We had to join the Musicians union first before they would film us.
The producer was Paul Black and it was the same production team that filmed Highway with Harry Seacombe! We had to go to Tyne Tees studios to record the soundtrack before they filmed us. I was really excited about it, as i had never been in a Television studio before. It was a huge place. We asked to film the band in The Tube studios,but the producer couldn't get the place as it was too busy, as they were due to broadcast the next day and all the bands were setting up. I remember meeting The Damned in the canteen! We ended up filming the band in Bentleys nightclub in South Shields.
I left the band after the programme was broadcast,as I wanted to do something else. The band continued as a duo, as the agent said he could get them more work as a duo. They finally broke up and John went solo, and Ian formed a duo called split decision with Geoff Trotter. I stood in on drums with both of them as well as playing with Reel to Real now and again.John McGrahan became a lifelong friend. Sadly both of them have since passed away. John died at 40 years old and Ian died at 60. Really sad to lose both of them. Happy days though at the time.
