Web Page 1080
29th September 2012

Top Picture: Nero and the Gladiators on stage

Bottom Picture: Colin Hicks (Tommy Steele's brother)  and The Cabin Boys

Nero and the Gladiators

Nero & the Gladiators were an instrumental band led by keyboardist Mike O'Neill for more than three decades. Mike O'Neill had hitch-hiked from Leigh in Lancashire, to London, where he was instantly hired by Clay Nicholls in late 1958, and then by Vince Taylor in the Summer 1959. By September 1959, he was recruited by Colin Hicks (Tommy Steele’s brother) as pianist of his backing group The Cabin Boys along with Dave 'Zom' Tick on guitar, Rod 'Boots' Slade on bass, and Jimmy Nicol, the original drummer. They accompanied Colin Hicks for four months work all over Italy, where they had rave reviews about their great rock 'n' roll show. The  through a Cameo appearance in the Italian financed and directed documentary movie “Europa di Notte” (Europe By Night) where Colin Hicks and his group appeared singing "Giddy Up A Ding Dong", proved to be such a big hit in Italy it resulted in a very lucrative invitation to go on tour.

In late 1959, Jimmy Nicol left to join Vince Eager and his Quiet Three. Laurie Joseph aka "Laurie Jay" replaced him. At this time, The Cabin Boys always opened the show with Colin Hicks following after the warm-up. However, probably inspired by the surrounding scenery and the Italian movies, The Cabin Boys decided, one night backstage in Milan, to change their name to Nero & the Gladiators. They then parted company with Colin Hicks who choose concentrate on Italy and the Gladiators looked toward home and maybe recording contracts.

Upon their return to England in January 1960, Mike O'Neill and 'Boots' Slade got a publishing deal and spent the cash advance on an echo unit which gave the band their distinctive “Italian sound”. This is how they were billed on the posters when they were supporting Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. On the same bill was another Leigh lad Georgie Fame, who had moved into Mike’s flat when he was in Italy. Georgie Fame introduced them to Colin Green who was then the lead guitarist with Billy Fury's backing musicians the 'Beat Boys'.

Mike O'Neill originally recruited Colin Green to play guitar on their debut single, “Entry Of The Gladiators which was released on Decca in March 1961, only reaching No. 39 in the charts.

Soon they abandoned their flamboyant orange stage suits in favour of Roman Legionnaires costumes complete with helmets, breast plates, boots, swords, shields. In fact all these items were formerly used in the film "Quo Vadis" and so were going spare. Mike O'Neill fronted the group in a toga and laurel-leaf crown like a Roman Emperor.

The follow up record, also released on Decca, was in June 1961. It was a rock version of the Edvard Grieg's classic, "In The Hall Of The Mountain King", and featured the guitar work of Joe Moretti. Unfortunately the BBC decided to ban it because it differed from the original, and it only reached No. 48 in the charts. After recording their third offering "Czardas" (which missed the charts completely), Colin Green moved to the Beat Boys who would become the Blue Flames first backing Billy Fury then later Georgie Fame. The Gladiators then went through 30 different guitarists

Laurie Jay who was also drumming for The Echoes at the same time, left to front his own band The Laurie Jay Combo, and was replaced with Tommy Brown, previously with Chas McDevitt and Johnny Duncan & His Blue Grass Boys.

By the end of 1962, the group went to France but after seeing the Beatles at Paris Olympia in early 1964, they decided to call it a day.

Following the demise of The Gladiators, Mike O'Neil returned to England and played in numerous bands, including The John Barry Seven; Tony Colton & The Crawdaddies; The Division Two first backing The Ivy League and then The Flowerpot Men; The Echoes backing Dusty Springfield; The Jimi Hendrix Band before reforming The Gladiators from 1991 to 2005 and playing various nostalgic rock ‘n’ roll shows. They made their last record  Tovaritch/ Bleak House in 1963.

Stay in Touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

Brian Writes:


Thoroughly enjoyed reading your book. This brought back very happy memories of the late 50s and 60s.
We moved to Highbury Grove when I was 9 and spent all my teenage days on the estate.As you
wrote Ports creek and Farlington marshes was a real play haven for us youngsters.

News and Views:

Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys underwent his second lower back surgery this year. He said, "...before the Beach Boys 50th tour started I was having some lower back pain... This is the same type of problem that Carl used to suffer from, it's hereditary. But being able to tour with the Boys again meant so much to me that I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Luckily, I was able to get this new cutting edge procedure that totally worked. But after this last run in Australia it came back again and I had the procedure redone this week."

On this day 29th September 1960-1965

On 29/09/1960 the number one single was Tell Laura I Love Her - Ricky Valance and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was The Army Game (Granada) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was The Shadows - Shadows. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/09/1964 the number one single was I'm Into Something Good - Herman's Hermits and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 29/09/1965 the number one single was Tears - Ken Dodd and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was LPs cost 12/6d.

Web Page 1078

22nd September 2012 (Happy birthday Mrs K.)

Top Picture: Commercial Road 1950

Middle Picture: Lineside fire

Bottom Picture: Early 1960’s train Spotters Book

Firstly lets welcome two new school pals, John Dean and he has also sent some photos which will be put on soon. 

Also it was great to hear from Pam Hammond and to add her onto our contact list. She also tells me she has some photographs from school days. 

It is amazing as soon as I think that there is no one else out there to contact more and more people come aboard. Its great especially as it is now 50 years (more for some) since we all left school.

Its amazing what some folks will admit to. I had the following sent to me recently.

Trouble on the Lineside.

I'd like to take you back to the summer of 1960. The grass was brown and parched and the afternoon temperature very hot. As a 13 year old I was member of a train spotting gang and our 'manor' was an area in the South West - through which the London to West Coast Mainline passed. We met there every day that summer and stayed well into late evening, collecting train numbers and making enjoyment (for enjoyment read childish 'mischief') in whatever way we could. We were a mix of ages from twelve to sixteen, and a few of the elder members of our gang occasionally smoked the odd 'No. 6' a brand that was popular at the time.

As everybody knows, smoking goes hand in hand with camp fire making, and the order of the day as the early evenings arrived and the temperature dropped to a bearable 20 degrees was a small camp fire consisting of logs and sticks, with fresh potatoes plucked from the cupboards of our various homes while are parents attention was diverted. These served as a delicious impromptu dinner as we told rude jokes and generally misbehaved.

Early one evening in the late summer we were gathered around the camp fire, waiting for the last express of the day to pass through from the Midlands and the horseplay commenced as usual, only a bit more boisterous than in previous evenings. We started to have a roast spud fight. I'd just been struck right behind the left ear with a sizzling spud, which made a popping sound as it exploded around my skull, much to the delight of my friends. In revenge, I scooped up the biggest, blackest old King Edward I could find and with all the finesse of Fred Trueman I launched it in the direction of the perpetrators head. My mate was a keen sportsman and possessed lightning quick reflexes and with little effort managed to dodge the burning projectile with ease. Unfortunately for me and my pals, it didn't miss the embankment, and within seconds of the spud landing the whole embankment - for about 400 yards - was engulfed in a giant wall of flame. Panic commenced and after quickly extinguishing and trying to conceal evidence of the campfire we skulked back to our homes where we set about showering and washing our clothes so as to avoid the wrath of our Dads "For lighting fires- again".

Some time later, my mum came in and asked me nonchalantly how I'd enjoyed my day's train spotting. "Oh, no problems, it was good" I replied without looking up. "That's strange then." She replied "As I just heard on the radio that the whole of the West of England AND the London main lines have been closed for more than two hours because of a line side fire in this area, I don't suppose YOU know anything at all about that, do you?" I don't think even my tan could hide my red face, although Mum did give me the benefit of the doubt. I went to bed shortly after, mainly because I couldn't think of anything to say without incriminating myself! Now with the benefit of hindsight and age, I would like to apologise, not only for the stupidity of lighting camp fires on dry embankments but also to all the holiday-makers who were packed into stuffy trains for hours on end, the commuters whose journeys home was needlessly extended, the train crews who sat at Danger signals, the guards who were no doubt the subject of torrents of abuse from angry travellers and most of all to the firemen and the police who had a very busy evening.

Stay in Touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

I have enjoyed the book and my brother loves his copy. He said it brought back many happy memories. We used to go to the Odeon for Saturday morning cinema and sometimes spend our bus fare on a cake. We would walk home to Farlington. We loved the cowboy films. My brother says he remembers that with a great deal of happiness. We played on Farlington Marshes , the chalk pits and I can remember going to Deadmans Wood. There always seemed to be plenty to do. I can remember some of the people who ran the shops in both Drayton and Cosham. Mr and Mrs Allen who ran the drapers in Drayton. Then there was Mr and Mrs Dennis who owned the chemists. Our shoes were always bought at the shoe shop in Drayton. My father would often walk to Fishy Francis if my parents fancied fish and chips  for a late supper but that was a rare treat. In Cosham High Street my parents knew the people who ran the pawn shop as Dad had done work for them. We were quite friendly with Frank and Rose Arnett who owned the wet fish shop. They were lovely people. All of this ended in the summer of 1959 when we moved to the countryside between Denmead and Hambledon and what fun that was!!! 

News and Views:

Johnny Mathis has cancelled shows for the next several months to undergo a second right hip replacement. Johnny had both hips replaced in 1998 and 1999.

On this day 22nd September 1960-1965

On 22/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/09/1961 the number one single was Reach for the Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain - Shirley Bassey and the top rated TV show was "Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25. The big news story of the day was Take Your Pick (AR)".

On 22/09/1962 the number one single was She's Not You - Elvis Presley and the number one album was Best of Ball Barber & Bilk. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 22/09/1965 the number one single was Make It Easy On Yourself - Walker Brothers and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

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15th September 2012

Bottom Picture: An unfortunate air crash at the Portsmouth Gas Works in 1955. The pilot survived

Top Picture: USS Scorpion in Portsmouth Dockyard in the 1960’s

Folk Lore at Home

What strange phrases were used at home by our parents and grandparents and other relations when we were kids? How many can you remember? Let’s just take a look.

We all remember that the ‘Sandman’ was coming and having to ‘Climb the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire’ but here are some not so obvious ones. One of my Grandmother’s favourite phrases when she did not want to do anything was ‘I can’t do it because I’ve got a bone in my leg’. Of course she had a bone in her leg, we all had, but we always swallowed this excuse. Another of her phrases when she got a bad hand at Whist was ‘Back to Missay’ and I have no idea what that meant, but she was Cornish and this is where, she said, that ‘they put the pig on the wall to see the band go by’, again I have no idea why.

If something or someone was rambling on he was said to be ‘Going all round Jack’s fathers’ Well who was Jack and better still who was his father and where on earth did the phrase come from?

A sustained belief was that if children did not behave they would be given away to the local gypsies and also that gypsies were well know for stealing children. Where did that belief come from? As far as I am aware there were no local gypsies; and if there were why would they want to steal children any way, those that we saw around the countryside always seemed to have more than enough of their own!

Another saying was ‘Don’t talk to a tramp, you’ll get fleas!’ Just possible I suppose.

‘Once round her, is twice round the Gas Works’. Well I know what it means, but why the Gas Works, why not the water works or the Dockyard?

Here’s a local one. ‘To lift it (or him or her) you will need the Dockyard Crane. Now I assume that this referred to the floating Hammer Head crane acquired from the Germans after World War One. And while we are talking about the Dockyard why were all the Dockyard workers always called ‘Matties’?

One odd phrase was used by a friend of my Grandmothers; is a phrase I had never heard before or since. She always referred to balloons as air balls, has any one else ever heard that phrase before?

One of the other favourites was as ‘straight (or long) as a yard of pump water’, why a yard and shouldn’t that be a metre these days?

My father used to say 'I'm just off to push back my ears' (ie to go and wash his face). Or he said he was going to ‘Have his ears lowered when he went for a haircut. When I used to ask him where he was going he always said 'there and back to see how far it is'. And sometimes when I asked how long until we get there Dad? 'As long as a piece of string' was normally the answer. And the universal excuse for lost items was that it was ‘Up in Annie's room behind the clock'. Who was Annie?

If the sky was a little dark or stormy and it was likely to rain my Dad would say that, "It's looking black over Bill's mothers" Who was Bill?

When I asked for a cheese sandwich for supper I was told that cheese in the evening would give me nightmares.

And now girls do you remember the shout Charlie's dead which was said at school? I know this referred to showing a length of petticoat.  But why Charlie?

And finally lads, you knew when you looked grown up because after your haircut the barber asked you if you ‘wanted anything for the weekend?’

I am totally confused now!!!!!

Stay in Touch

Peter

DUSTYKEAT@aol.com

Pj.keat@ntlworld.co.uk

You Write:

News and Views:

John Lennon’s murderer, Mark Chapman, was denied parole for the seventh time after appearing before a 3-man Department of Corrections board in Albany, New York. The 57 year-old will be eligible to try again in two years.

A report in the National Enquirer says that 66 year-old Cher plans to marry for the third time this Autumn. The groom is a 42 year-old former Hell’s Angels biker whom she almost married four years ago. The two have already climbed Mt. Everest— twice— and plan on taking a cross-country motorcycle trip that will end with a Las Vegas marriage.

On this day 15th September 1960-1965

On 15/09/1960 the number one single was Apache - The Shadows and the number one album was Down Drury Lane to Memory Lane - A Hundred and One Strings. The top rated TV show was No Hiding Place (AR) and the box office smash was Psycho. A pound of today's money was worth £13.68 and Tottenham Hotspur were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions. The big news story of the day was MoT test introduced.

On 15/09/1961 the number one single was Johnny Remember Me - John Leyton and the number one album was South Pacific Soundtrack. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was One Hundred and One Dalmations. A pound of today's money was worth £13.25 and Ipswich Town were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/09/1962 the number one single was I Remember You - Frank Ifield and the number one album was Pot Luck - Elvis Presley. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was Lawrence of Arabia. A pound of today's money was worth £12.89 and Everton were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/09/1964 the number one single was You Really Got Me - Kinks and the number one album was A Hard Day's Night - Beatles. The top rated TV show was Conservative Party Political Broadcast (all channels) and the box office smash was Dr Strangelove. A pound of today's money was worth £12.24 and Manchester United were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.

On 15/09/1963 the number one single was She Loves You - The Beatles and the number one album was Please Please Me - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Great Escape. A pound of today's money was worth £12.64 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.The big news story of the day was 35 British tourists die in Pyrennees plane crash.

On 15/09/1965 the number one single was (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones and the number one album was Help - The Beatles. The top rated TV show was Coronation Street (Granada) and the box office smash was The Sound of Music. A pound of today's money was worth £11.69 and Liverpool were on the way to becoming the Season's Division 1 champions.