Chronicles of Alan: So You Want to Be a Rock-star Part 3 (featuring @awgbibb as author)

Much rehearsal and “THOR” was ready to hit the road, first Gig , hired Florida Town Hall (sound familiar?)

Floods Wife at the Door to collect the Cash, Gordon had suggested that he bring a GO GO Dancer with to amuse the crowd ( in retrospect only the Males)

We have no problem with this, except, he had not told us how much he had offered her for the Gig!

So the Gig goes well, good attendance, Floods Wife is like a Female version of a Bouncer, The Dancer is far from hard on the eyes and most of the Girls in the crowd resent their Boyfriends ogling her, probably not a good idea! Gordon takes her home with three quarters of our takings for the night.

Not going to happen again.

Just to put into perspective , there were no local bands doing originals those days, all the clubs wanted you to be playing the top 10, we varied from this in finding other good songs from:- Kiss, David Bowie, etc One Local Band “ Rabbitt”were doing original numbers , they were not doing Clubs, but Bjg Concerts, filling out Cinema’s ( which were larger those days) Trevor Rabin was their Guitarist.

We do all the Local Halls and then get a residency in Vereeniging at the National Hotel run by a Guy called Frano ( only Red-Headed Lebanese Guy I have ever met) and a Partner (lets call him Jan) who could pick up a soccer ball with each hand , from the top!

So, off with the trusty Ford Transit to The Nash(as it is called). Every Wednesday Friday and Saturday for 2 Months.

We have arrived( in our minds)

We still rehearse every Saturday Afternoon at the Nash , ( as our kit is there)to learn new numbers. This takes place about 1977, I hear AC/DC for the first time and am totally blown away! We do “Let there be Rock” Rocky Horror Show has also just been released and we do a couple of numbers from that ,as well.

Gordon shows up with a few originals , I did not think they were great but the audience loves them, what do I know?
On the way home from Work one night ( We all had Day Jobs) Henry, Floods ,and Myself all Worked at the same place.

I wrote “Harry “ ( the Axeman) when Gordon heard it, “Please let me sing that” and so it was.

Anybody heard of Harry the Axeman? NO, Anybody heard of Jack the Ripper? YES, well Harry was his younger Brother , and this is how it goes 1,2,3,4 LOUD.

We must have done something right because we had people coming through from Pretoria to listen to us and party!
Rabbitt’s producer ( or Engineer , can’t remember) (lets call him John)comes through to listen to us . Say’s “ I love the band , but I don’t hear anything Radio Friendly!” I cannot explain how much this irks me.

I sit down and consciously write a commercial tune ,call it “The Piper”

Loosely base it on the Pied Piper of Hamlin. Write 2 verses and a Chorus , take it to our next rehearsal, Henry does the Lyrics for a third verse , borrow a Roland 4 Channel Mixer, use a track for each person in the band and do a Demo down to a Cassette tape , using several tapes to listen back to ,till the mix is right , put in a Chrome Cassette for final, Gordon gives it to John.

Two Days later , I get a call from John, “ If ever I have heard a Radio Friendly song , this is it” This is what every Musician / Songwriter dreams of, I am over the moon.

A Week later I hear the organisation that John works for has gone under, my cassette is gone, shattered!

A Pretoria Club Owner( has several clubs) asks us to come audition, we go through, get the Gig and get offered a six night a week contract, we were looking for the 3 night a week club. We were all married , with kids, have regular jobs, cannot toss them in for a 3 month residency.Harsh reality often strikes down dreams!

We also played at a Club on the First Floor of a Building ,just below the Jhb City Hall. Does not have a Liquor Licences, so puts labels on the Bottles with our names on! ( This band can really Drink!).We often played in Costumes , I think it was Henry who spotted the owner going through the pockets of our regular clothes in our change-room so we did not stick around there for long.

Gordon’s job takes him down to Durban, we advertise for another Guitarist but really can’t find someone to replace him, it’s not just skill but the character he was.