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| Sir Bendigo (far right, with scarf) solicits lift home after gig - "I say, you chaps ..." |
Sir Bendy tamps his dottle into the grate, pours himself a schooner of Amontillado, and settles back into his favorite chair to wax nostalgic about the birth of rock, pop n' roll!
Your budding cool person [Sir Bendy writes - Ed.] had a choice in the early 60s: Mod, or Rocker? My mother scuppered my brief rocker career by banning both winkle pickers and brothel creepers, although mysteriously Brylcreem was allowed. Rockers were by definition lower-class, whereas Mods had the virtue of being better groomed and not smelling of engine oil.
I was never a proper Mod. I didn’t have a Vespa or a Lambretta, for one thing, although I could occasionally be found getting a lift home from school on the back seat that was usually reserved for girls. I didn’t even have a parka, let alone a sharp suit. I did have a pair of desert boots, though, as worn by my father in the actual desert.
But I did like the music. I was a card-carrying member of the Sue Records Appreciation Society, and my choice collection of singles – Inez and Charlie Foxx, Jimmy McGriff, James Brown, Willie Mabon – gave me a certain amount of cred with actual Mods. The Stateside label was another favourite – The Isley Brothers’ original version of Twist and Shout, Lee Dorsey, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Reed.
…to reappear ultimately as Procol Harum. By 1969 all the original members of The Paramounts made up Procol Harum, including Chris Copping, who was the original Paramounts bass player. Personal brush-with-fame footnote: I had piano lessons from a woman called Miss Mills – not Mrs Mills, who would have been much more fun. So did Chris. Every so often she would have little musical afternoons in her house, which was a long bus ride away, and I was put into his care (this was pre-60s). He more or less ignored me – fair enough, we went to the same school (as did Robin Trower) and I was a whole two years younger. You could say he’s been ignoring me ever since.
There’s an album called The Paramounts at Abbey Road 1963-70 [in the comments - Ed.]. If you listen to the whole thing you can hear them getting poppier and further away from their roots. The last six tracks, though, were recorded in 1970, and feature Procol Harum, who at that point were all ex-Paramounts, digging out the old stuff in a stretch of spare studio time. It’s more polished than back in ’62-3, obviously, but if you close your eyes and visualise four lads hammering it out in a miasma of sweat and hamburger grease, you begin to get the idea. But really, they were one of those bands you had to see live [gee whiz - Ed.].
Sir Bendigo Wonglepong is inventor of the Dreadnought Night Soil Filtration Nethergarment, as worn by Earl Mountbatten. His collection of Hummel Figurines is second only to that of Chris Farlowe.
