See, I told you. There’s places far worse than Pompey …
Here’s Ray:
Another very notorious gig haunt of ours was “The Shoreline Club” at Bognor Regis. New Years Eve 1967/8 saw me playing with two ex Royals, Ray Brook on Tenor Sax and Rick Semark on drums plus the “Gentle Giant” Ray Todd on Bass.
Just after midnight a huge ‘on stage’ brawl broke out between us and some drunken locals who wanted to get up on stage and sing and they demanded that we give them our instruments to play. Tenor sax player Ray Brook was quite a big guy who rode a Vincent Black Shadow motorbike and I can tell you now that it is a very unwise thing to demand of a very stroppy young guy like Ray Brook that you want his saxophone, particularly if you are standing looking up from the dance floor and he is standing above you on stage.
Ray was pleased to oblige but ”bad accidents’ can (and sometimes did) occur …… Have you ever seen the damage that the vertical flange joint under a saxophone can inflict upon a guy’s forehead if he should suddenly jump up onto the stage and the sax “accidentally” strike his head with great force? I can tell you that it’s not a very pretty sight to see a guy slowly slide down off the stage as his forehead opens right up between the eyes….. Ooooh! very nasty and in that horrible key of B flat as well !
After several minutes of bloody battle that night, I ended up with an old-style solid glass Coke bottle smashed into the back of my skull which rendered me unconscious and during which time I had my night’s earnings of about five quid stolen out of my trouser pocket. Fortunately I’d had the very good sense to put my Strat safely away before launching myself into the melee.
Further punishment of several hours at Bognor hospital emergency unit with a very unsympathetic, typically obese Matron shaving my long locks off and digging glass out of my skull with a scalpel and pick without any anesthetic brings back very nasty and painful memories. I think I got off lightly compared with the two poor buggers that were “Selmered” in the head by Ray Brook’s Tenor sax.
Fortunately there was no police follow-up at all although my Dad was absolutely furious at the theft of my wages and he swore for weeks afterwards, “ I’m going to pour 5 gallons of petrol round that bloody Shoreline Club and set light to the f*****g place”. I think it did eventually burn down a year later… didn’t it?
Oh the joys of being a young muso eh? I can still feel that scar on my head to this day.”
