I HAVE A vivid, if not embarrassing, a memory of my days as a mobile disco DJ. We were supporting a band called Crow around several East Anglian venues in 1972 and a crowd had piled into Wells Town Hall – a nice enough venue but with a stage built of trestle tables.
Fine for the band, who were brilliant and very loud, lousy for me as any movement on the makeshift platform bounced the needles out of the record grooves. Thank goodness they’d really come to see the band because I was hopeless. No sooner had a record started than it bounced straight to the end!
Crow’s frontman then was Roger James, who remarkably is still fronting a band to this day. Over the years he’s never compromised his love of loud, crowd-pleasing rock and blues. The band he fronts now is called Buster James and, in his early 70s, Roger shows no signs of giving up.
A decade before I worked with him, he was playing with a group called The Good Goods in Gloucestershire, where he was born.
“I started singing with them when I was 16,” he recalls. And they must have been good: “We had a chance to tour with Chuck Berry when I was 17.”
Roger remembers they rehearsed a lot and, despite not turning fully professional, they traveled all over the country fitting in gigs between work.
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Denne historien er fra September 2020-utgaven av Let's Talk.
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STOP ME AND BUY ONE: Nigel's on the way with his 1981 Bedford
It’s something we all recall with delight. “Mum, it’s the ice cream man!” Let’s Talk’s motoring man David Clayton meets someone happy to be the owner of a Bedford ice cream van. Bring on the Strawberry Mivvis, choc ices and 99s ...
Beautiful Hill: Normandy Origin For A Name Meaning
Let’s Talk’s surnames expert Derek Palgrave, from Suffolk, researches three more of our readers’ names, the first of which probably stems from the geographical presence of a beautiful hill.
Words of wisdom about a hobby so many of us love
Let’s Talk’s gardening expert Charlotte Philcox has been trawling through some books to find words of wisdom from so many people about gardening and farming. Here she shares just a few.
Vicki remains so positive despite missing her panto
For actress Vicki Michelle, Christmas usually means performing in panto. But, due the coronavirus pandemic, this year will be different. Vicki speaks to Rachel Banham about her plans for the festive season, her outlook on life and her fond memories of filming in East Anglia.
Two centuries on Thomas would be DELIGHTED WITH HIS SUCCESS
He was a man without sight but with such vision. Derek James remembers Thomas Tawell who died 200 years ago.
TURNING 50
Here at Let’s Talk we recognise that our magazine is targeted at those aged 50 and older. So we hope we are always fair to our readers and to the older generation in general. But it seems many believe other media and businesses do not treat older people in the best way.
THE CHASE COULD BE ON FOR a Norfolk home for Bradley Walsh
He is one of the most popular celebrities on television at the moment. He’s a comedian, singer, actor, personality and probably the best quiz show host doing the rounds. David Clayton looks back to when Bradley Walsh came to Cromer.
The calendar is rolling around to the WINTER SOLSTICE
Claire Manion, of Norfolk-based Broadsky Astrology, looks at how we have always honoured the winter solstice, our shortest day.
PEACE, GOODWILL AND PROSPERITY must surely follow
In view of such uncertainty hanging over the rest of this year – and possibly well beyond – it was hard to come up with a suitable offering for December in his usual style, says Keith Skipper. So, he has decided to settle for a festive story set in 1951, that he wrote some time ago.
Friends
Readers of our short stories don’t have to have long memories to recall work by Anne Maxwell, who had a previous short story entry published in the summer.