Canterbury Glass
My first band was Canterbury Glass and they were very important in my early development; not only as a musician but also as a young man, who at that time could have gone in any direction.
I was 13 years old when Mick and Malcolm knocked on the door, and I spent the next few years being encouraged and nurtured by these very talented and artistic people. They introduced me to music I would have never have otherwise heard, let me tag along to concerts, and turned me on to all the cool things to read and in doing so, gave me a relaxed attitude towards other people and life in general. Some might say too relaxed but whatever I am today, I can blame them for at least some of it!
Mick and Malcolm were singer/songwriters and had some success with a couple of singles released on Pye Records. They decided to put a band together and lucky for me they heard me playing as they were walking past our house. I was hard to miss really; I used to play with all the windows open and then rush over to see if anybody was listening. I was always hoping for girls to be there, not that I would have known what to do with them if they had. I didn’t really have clue at that age.
The band were mainly blues/rock influenced with a little bit of Pink Floyd and Moody Blues thrown in, but the thing that gave us something a little special was the Latin Choral that added greatly to our music. I did not know a thing about Latin Choral, I just loved the music and it was great to play. It was 1967 and we were playing gigs at Middle Earth, The Electric Garden and Eel Pie Island, supporting bands like Ten Years After, Jimi Hendrix and Caravan. John Peel was a great supporter of the band; we played at many gigs where he was the DJ. At this time the gigs would have gone on most of the night, we might not even have been able to play until one o’clock in the morning. This certainly was an education and I was an eager student.
We recorded our first demos early in 1968 in Denmark Street Studio. I would have been 14 then and as you can imagine it was all very exciting. We recorded two tracks and all went very well. Our great moment happened when an arranger called Harry Roberts, who had offices above the studio, heard our demo. He had a partner called Cliff Adams who owned Olympic Studio in Barnes, they liked the music and encouraged us to go in the studio to record some tracks. I was only 15 but I don't remember ever being nervous and always confident in my ability. Chris Kimsey was our engineer on the sessions, it was his first session as a fully fledged engineer and he remembers it to this day. Chris has gone on to record many artists one of which was U2.
We recorded 8 tracks and the recording went very well. By this time Malcolm had been introduced to Steve Hackett. Steve was always a great player and was invited to add guitar parts to the track Prologue. Steve went on to have success both with Genesis and also as a solo artist. We used to record during down time at the studio, using the smaller studio 2. I used to have a look in the much larger studio 1 to see who might be recording there. It was about 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning and the Rolling Stones had been in. All the gear was set up around the studio, there was nobody about so I had a look in, seeing how the mikes had been set up around the drums. The studio still felt warm as if only minutes ago they had been there playing. I sat behind Charlie's drums and had a little play. It was amazing to think that while my schoolmates were playing football down the park or kicking a can around the alley, this was my life - it was great and I couldn't get enough of it!
With the album finished Polydor wanted to offer us a deal on the spot, but Harry thought that we could do better and pitched it to CBS. We even did a showcase at Bond Street Studio but unfortunately by the time CBS had made up their mind, Polydor had already spent their budget elsewhere and so both doors closed. After this some band members left and this was when Steve Hackett came in on a more permanent basis. This however was somewhat short-lived. The moment had passed.
Malcolm went on to form Crocodile Music and in later years, I was invited to play on many of the big TV and radio commercials including Mars, British Airways and McDonalds. In fact you name it, we probably did it.
Many years later I received a copy of the newly released Canterbury Glass CD in the post. What a surprise after all these years. The songs sounded amazing and the drumming sounded great, even though I say so myself. Malcolm even found the original artwork. This was the only album I had recorded that had not been released. As it was my first, I was very pleased to see not only the album released, but a happy and deserving ending for Canterbury Glass.