This autumn, in the music shops across the country we'll find a very valuable
record – the anthology of the long forgotten band, once on top of
the charts, the band that marked the entire generation – The
Shakin' Fellows. Like The Beatles, David Bowie or Mr Lipton from
Worcester, the group came out of nowhere and rapidly conquered the
music industry, only to disappear and never play or record again.
Tony
Pocket (one of few specialist in the band's field) likes to say, the
history of The Shakin' Fellows is fascinating and surprisingly
eye-opening, especially if one was sleeping. It all started in
Birmingham – he told me in the interview we had last month – the simplest story you can get –
friendship and growing up in the working class families during the
economical crisis, sort of classical thing that you can find in so
many biographies of the rock and roll musicians or the 18th
century Italian operetta.
Bobby
Dixon and Richard Cod, the
future founding members of
the band met in school in their neighbourhood, Selly Oak. Very soon
they became close friends, inseparable,
up to the point of being mistaken for Siamese brothers. Tim
Knuckle, the author of ''Untold, unwritten and forbidden
truth about The Shakin' Fellows''
points out that both Bobby
and Richie had problems with their parents,
which enhanced their
friendship.
Bobby for the first 7 years of his life was taking his nanny and the favourite teddy bear as his mother and father, only to find out
during the national census that his actual parents were
either at work or in the toilet. Richie's
situation was different. He had a happy family, his parents were a
good and loving couple,
giving their kids warmth
and comprehension. Richie
hated it.
Their
talents were noticed early.
Like Bobby's drawings. His art teacher at school, Ms Trout, recalled later: Bobby was amazing. Completely over his
age. His technique was very mature, you should see the way he used to draw a house, a square with two
windows and doors, pointed roof top and smoke coming out of a
chimney... I'll never forget his sun, a yellow circle with smiling
face... Great talent. Richie had
a musical background. His father had a radio, and two of them were
sometimes listening to different programmes, including musical shows.
This enabled little Richie to discover sounds of various instruments
and even differ some of them. Soon
he thought about forming his own band.
The
first practices took place in Bobby's father pawn shop where
boys made their own instruments like sardine box guitars or a
“younger brother bass”, made from Richie's younger brother bound
by ropes and a broomstick with a string attached to him. Usually
Bobby was playing
simultaneously
drums, foot pedal, banjo,
harmonica and a triangle,
while
Richie was playing two
guitars, each with different hand, an
empty jug played with his mouth and a washboard played with his feet.
After couple of weeks Bobby
caught arthritis and boys decided to find more players.
They
thought about their friend James. The first jamming
together took place in a church, since James was a bell ringer.
Unfortunately he couldn't find
the right notes, and the people gathered in a wedding ceremony
which was taking place there that day didn't appreciate
their music so the vicar kicked them out of the church with
excommunication. This failure
didn't bring them down, and since
James was completely
dumb, they all
agreed that he's going to
play drums.
Shocking
with their style and behaviour, tweed jackets, vests and ties, usage
of words such as “good bye” or “sticky”,
the boys were noticed and
slowly gaining popularity.
More
and more people were showing up at their concerts.
But the revolution was yet to
come, the moment when Tim
“Chichi” Bloke joined the band.
One day we're sitting in the Cock's Head pub
– as Richie Cod was recalling years after – one
shithole where we used to play karaoke. Suddenly one
guy pops in. He momentarily drags attention of everyone, and shouts
that he's going to be in our band. Then he joined the karaoke
competition and knocked everyone out, even during the
korean hits part. He was amazing. He had an
unusual technique, he called it “singing” -
it was something like talking out loud, but with the rhythm of the
songs and backed by prolonging the
vowels. He was in the band the same night.
After
Tim “Chichi” joined the band, their popularity exploded. They
started a tour through England, changing the band's name
from The Insects, The We Won't Give You The Money Back, “Chichi”
Bloke and The Gentle Coños,
The
Fluffy Fellows to
the final The
Shakin' Fellows. Record
companies were fighting to sign a contract with the boys. Bobby,
Richie, James and Chichi became the idols of the generation.
Their
albums were having record – braking sales and their songs were on
top of the charts. Such albums as My
Mother's Sexual Life,
Heigh Ho It's Only Rock and Roll
or the orchestral arrangement of Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks are one of the greatest albums of all times. And the song Hey Hey Hey! should have become the rock anthem, if it wasn't forgotten because of the petrol crisis. The Shakin' Fellows were also innovative, for example as the first band to record their previous album backwards, release it again and make more money or to release the entire album with no music in it, just the empty album packages.
But after the period of success, the first problems appeared. Like addictions... The biggest addict was Richie. He was trying many things – Chichi Bloke recalled it years after – collecting post stamps, aircraft models, taking chocolate... But then it was normal, you see, we all tried this or that... I remember the moment I discovered Czech Kofola... This shit blows your mind. But with Richie was different, he was slowly crossing the line. He started reading Agatha Christie's crime novels, and the day he finished one and found the mystery he had to start another. For him there was just no day without “Poirot” as it was called back then. But soon it was not enough, so now he moved on to heavier stuff, like Proust. At that point the rehearsals were almost impossible. During the gigs he could suddenly stop playing to read a few pages, and sometimes he was so dazed by the plot that he played off the key or just couldn't move. When he started with Joyce I thought he's lost.
Bobby's catholic upbringing decided on his attitude to women. Bobby loved girls... – Richie recalls – After each concert dozens of them tried to ask him for an autograph, he used to invite them to our van. I'm sure some of them tried to kiss him, and I'm afraid some could have been married. And Bobby didn't mind, that's the way he was, giving these bloody autographs and even pointing his cheek to be kissed. Disgusting. When we were on tour there were always some ladies, at gigs or in front of the hotels, waiting to see him... I used to shout "Go away, it's a respected band, can't you see?”.
But after the period of success, the first problems appeared. Like addictions... The biggest addict was Richie. He was trying many things – Chichi Bloke recalled it years after – collecting post stamps, aircraft models, taking chocolate... But then it was normal, you see, we all tried this or that... I remember the moment I discovered Czech Kofola... This shit blows your mind. But with Richie was different, he was slowly crossing the line. He started reading Agatha Christie's crime novels, and the day he finished one and found the mystery he had to start another. For him there was just no day without “Poirot” as it was called back then. But soon it was not enough, so now he moved on to heavier stuff, like Proust. At that point the rehearsals were almost impossible. During the gigs he could suddenly stop playing to read a few pages, and sometimes he was so dazed by the plot that he played off the key or just couldn't move. When he started with Joyce I thought he's lost.
Bobby's catholic upbringing decided on his attitude to women. Bobby loved girls... – Richie recalls – After each concert dozens of them tried to ask him for an autograph, he used to invite them to our van. I'm sure some of them tried to kiss him, and I'm afraid some could have been married. And Bobby didn't mind, that's the way he was, giving these bloody autographs and even pointing his cheek to be kissed. Disgusting. When we were on tour there were always some ladies, at gigs or in front of the hotels, waiting to see him... I used to shout "Go away, it's a respected band, can't you see?”.
Girls
were not the only problem on their tours. Their
concerts were so crowded that very often there was no more space
for them inside
the concert hall,
and for the
whole gig they
were
trying to enter the building
and plug the instruments.
Their
career was slowly going down. After years of playing together the
boys were
tired of themselves. When one said
“hi”, the others replied
“oh will you stop it, will you?” or
“very funny”.
Once Bobby came
by
Richie's place to give him back a
car tire, which Richie forgot at one of the rehearsals. He set dogs
on Bobby, who had to run
and
climb on the nearest tree and stay there for 4
months,
until Richie moved out, annoyed by the constant presence of the band
mate on a
tree close
to his house.
Another
time James called Chichi to wish him a
happy
birthday, only to hear Chichi over the phone shouting “Fuck
you and your fucking bitch. And
by the way, the jam session is
tomorrow, 3pm”.
The boys were showing
up for
rehearsals equipped with knives and apple pies.
In
terms of music they
were ahead
of
their times,
underrated and difficult
to classify. This
is how Bobby explained their decision to break up:
For punks we were skinheads, for
skinheads we were punks and for
Spaniards tortilla de patata. One even bit Richie once.
We couldn't stand it any
longer.
The
Anthology of The Shakin' Fellows will hopefully bring back this
amazing band to the place where it should be. Or somewhere around.
