Gigsmobile, Austin Texas

Texas, 1982


5 Guys, 1983

first ovation

1978-1990... The Middle Years

Breaking my ties with the city and relocating to Bath enabled me to focus on the task of getting that first record made. I managed to find various odd jobs to fund my first demos in a 4-track studio run by local ex-BBC sound engineer David Lord. I was kindly assisted in these recordings by Mick Feat, Les Binks and Alan Lisk. They volunteered their services and were to reappear at various points throughout my career. These demos led me to Nigel Grainge at Ensign records, who signed me up and funded more demos, again in David Lords 16-track studio.

The following year the album was done for real at Ridge Farm, using a new batch of musicians chosen by my producer Geoff Haslam. Unfortunately these recordings were not to our liking as they had lost all the feel of the original demos recorded in Bath using local artists.

This two-year period left me drained and fairly downhearted. My dream was in pieces. But from these ashes grew a collection of recordings from the earlier demos that was to form the basis of my first release. I had played the demos constantly since the first 4 track recordings and realised I only needed another 4 tracks to do it. ‘Talk to me’ and ‘Some People’ were done in Andy Allen’s Cave Studios in Bristol in one day. ‘Put a smile on your face’ and 'Farther Along' were recorded and engineered by Paul Rideout on his newly acquired Fostex 8 track. The record was mastered at the Town House by Tony Cousins who had been involved with me in the London Pub Rock Scene of the mid seventies.

With the recordings now mastered another good friend at the time Chris Wroe helped enormously on the sleeve design and artwork. The final piece of the jigsaw came with the launch of the new Government Enterprise Allowance Scheme to help people set up new businesses.

All I needed was a name for the label. Chris and I were big Robert Crumb fans and his Crumb inspired logo design lasted for many years until the revamp in 1999. Doodah Records was finally born.

The Album entitled ‘Picking Good Tunes’ came out on Doodah and I personally drove to the pressing plant in East London in a hired Ford Escort Van. I barely made it home; the rear of the van was under so much weight. The record was distributed by Making Waves, quite a force in its day.

So that was it, I was on my way, gigging and selling albums around the country in 1983. I was rather surprised then to get a call from Joe Boyd at Hannibal Records who finally got to hear a promo demo I sent him some 18 months earlier. After a few chats I signed 'Picking Good Tunes' over to him, which he released as my first ‘proper’ record under the title 'Road Dreams'.

Meanwhile Doodah records was already preparing for its next release. In 1984 I returned from my first trek across the US, where I found my holy grail in the shape of Austin Texas. There I heard my first Texas Swing bands and became intoxicated with that sound. It was so uplifting and was the perfect vehicle for my thirst for slide guitar material. Returning to Bath, I gathered around me some of the finest acoustic musicians in the area and formed '5 Guys Named Mo' This band was to embody material from all the various slide/swing/Hawaiian/country vocal ensembles I was into at the time; Louis Jordan, Mills Brothers, Sol Hoopii, Jimmie Rodgers, Cliff Carlisle, and steel player Howard White to name but a few.

We recorded two sides for a double A sided release to be sold at gigs and placed on local juke boxes (sadly missing today) Five Guys Named Mo and Kalakamo Kamoo were the featured cuts. The record helped increase demand for the band and we were soon the talk of the nation!

My repeated visits to Austin and the release of my second album for Hannibal left little time for the swing outfit. However we still managed to expand and Five Guys became ‘The Four Frenchmen’ which then became 'The Three Caballieros' Offshoot bands also made their mark in the form of the The 'Glee Club' and 'Hot Strings'.

In recording 'Rust', my second release on Hannibal I used mainly local people who knew and understood where I was coming from. I believe this resulted in some outstanding recordings and I really thought things would start to happen for me after its release. However, nothing seemed to change much and I continued to gig around the country with my band at the time, featuring Dale Marshall on drums, Jerry Soffe on bass and Richard Dutton on Hammond.
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