Studio Blues. Tales from the Thames barrier.
Jan 2009

Hello folks,
I have just been given a nice cup of tea by Dennis here in the 45rpm recording studio in Charlton, London. I can assure you that this is an extremely rare situation as its usually the other way around, in fact, i almost feel like the tea boy here sometimes, ferrying tea and biscuits back and forth from the studio kitchen to the studio control room.
As i write, Dennis is actually recording a vocal on one of the new songs, Hit the ground running. We are in here for two weeks, starting around 10.30am and normally finishing around 9pm. We have had many guests come and go into the studio this week and the wine normally starts to flow around 5pm, well it does for the guys as i have to drive Gerry back to my home as he is staying with me and flying home to France at the weekend only to return on Monday to resume recording.
It feels very odd in my apartment in the morning when i wake up and Gerry and i are walking around in bed robes,..God knows what the old girls in the block are thinking this week?
On a slightly more serious note, Brendan and i actually did a double lead vocal on a song written by myself and Dennis yesterday called The Killing of Nathan John. Brendan actually has a sweet voice and it compliments the harmonies perfectly when we are all in the booth together.
The many people that have come and gone to visit us during the making of this new record have included Steve Martin, production manager for Kylie Minogue, Il Divo, Leona Lewis. Steve actually worked for us many years ago as on-stage tech in the early eighties and has now gone on to heady heights with the afore mentioned artists. Another wonderful suprise was Mr Mick Lister turning up last night to help edit/arrange some things around for us. Mick worked with Dennis when Dennis formed the Truth in 1983, and has now gone on to be a very respected writer/arranger/producer in his own right. Dennis' old pal Terry Rawlings turned up at tea time to help guzzle our supplies of French red and white wine
Our local cafe normally beckons around 4pm for a sandwich etc and the late finishing every night means i make last orders in my local in kent.
We have almost finished most of the fourteen or so backing tracks now and as i write Dennis is preparing to put some electric guitar on Hit the ground running.
Gerry is now putting finishing touches to a song he has been writing for a couple of months entitled Little by little, bit by bit, and that looks like being the last song on the session this week to be recorded.
Glen Tilbrook of Squeeze will be looking in on Monday hopefully, that is if he is not too Jet-lagged from his flight back from Japan.

Ok, will get back to you very soon friends at completion when things become a little clearer.

Feltham.

Run run Rudolph, Santa..s coming to town!
Dec 2008

Good Morning to you all,
I hope you will bear with me as i grapple for the new eyeballs that sit in a jar next my bed. You see, i arrived home at 5am after the long drive home from Ripley in North Yorkshire last night to my home in Kent and i am a little jaded.

We have just had three fantastic shows to finish our year. The first one in our beloved Newcastle at the Cluny music venue, where we had such a great night up there with the great Geordie crowd. I think Dennis is the only man in the world who can wind a Geordie up without them taking offence to him. This was followed by a frantic dash after the show into Darlington Central where we always stay with probably the nicest kindest people on the planet. I'm talking of course of dear Gary and Edythe Chapman... Eydthe must be the Nigella Lawson of the North east, with her various culinary delights always prepared for us when arriving. PS, I take great exception the coathangers (GREAVES) remark that whilst you have the Angel of the north in Newcastle, we, NBZ have the Queen of the south in me.

Anyway, Derby, and the Flowerpot, or pisspot as the gaffer calls it was as ever sweltering with atmosphere in a cold and damp town on Friday night and we are indebted to all our friends who come out to see us there and made it yet again a memorable night too. Thanks go out to Sid the front of house Engineer there for doing a remarkable job with difficult acoustic surroundings.

Onwards to Ripley town hall in North Yorkshire where we traditionally always finish our year and one of our great shows of this year with Dan??? (please someone help me with a sirname here) and pls excuse me Dan if you read this, playing keyboards for 3 or 4 songs. Fantastic.

The dust has now settled, its Sunday morning. Gerry has headed back home to Southwest France via Paris and Easy jet from Newcastle, Brendan is busy entertaining any guest he can find in the street and go on endlessly about his wine collection in his cellar. Dennis throws a massive Fort-like bolt across his door and shuts out the entire world and sits around a roaring fire in his home in London with his family, and I sit here with my beloved Captain Beefhearts, Blue jeans and moonbeams, and contemplating going disco dancing tonight in some seedy old club somewhere in nowhere land... Sad old sod that I am.

This just leaves me good people to thank you even more for turning out to see us in what has been a difficult last six months financially for all of us with the credit squeeze etc, and give to you the warmest regards from the band for a happy Christmas and new year.

Ps, now where did i put those flares and stack heels?

God bless you all, Mark, Bren, Den and Gerry xxx

From the Peaks of the Lake disrict to The Thames via Lyon (a day in a life).
Nov 2008

Hello Folks,

We have been very busy in recent weeks, working on both our forthcoming new studio record and various touring schedules.

We had a real whitey (Pale face through lack of sleep) this weekend, as we headed up to stay with our good friends Tina and Alan in... oh I don’t know?, "Something" Dale in the lake district. Tina and Alan run a smashing Holiday B&B up there as well as farming sheep, so lamb is always on the menu, and, the pub in the tiny village is always open into the night hours for a tipple. This weekend gone was no exception as Mr Greaves, not being the shyest of creatures brought the acoustic guitars into the oldie worldly bar and started bashing out his beloved Bad company and Free tunes aided by Brendan on Bodhran (Irish drum), and Gerry on acoustic guitar too. Now this may all sound great fun but I don't think I saw one movement or tap of the toe from a single sheep farmer in there, Needless to say we all retired to bed after the long drive up from London (7 hours).

Having woken up refreshed we ate gammon for lunch in the splendour of the lake district panorama that is evident from Tina's dining room window. A shower after lunch and it was the hair-raising experience of a 50 or so mile drive to Carlisle along sheer drop mountain roads, where you could lay dead for a month and nobody would ever know.

We arrived at the Carlisle blues festival at tea time and had a real ball with the crowd whilst delivering our set of around 90 minutes.

We now had the awful drive directly after coming off stage back down to London Stansted as we had to play a show Close to Lyon in southern France the following evening and British Airways had cancelled its flight from Heathrow the next afternoon. The only Lyon flight that was available was from Stansted at 7.20 am, so we had to get there for 5.20am. I have never seen Brendan and Dennis so knackered in my life when we boarded the plane. All was not quite over as we had a 1.5 hour transfer the other end to the members only Climax blues club.

Our show there was a real back to basics club affair with our dear French friends roaring us on to a great evening.

Our return to the Hotel was only marred by the fact that the cars could not get up the mountain due to the snow and ice, so at 2am in the morning we had to carry all our stage stuff up the hill by foot in the freezing -7 temperatures.

We thank our wonderful French host and his family for copious amounts of wine and food.

We returned to Stansted the following day exhausted.

Our new record is coming on slowly but surely beside the chilly banks of the river Thames very close to the Thames barrier at Charlton. The studio itself is owned by Glen Tillbrook of Squeeze and Dennis and Glenn have become friends in recent years as they live close by.

We have done around 10 backing tracks already with Gerry flying in from France to lay down the Bass, Brendan of course has added percussion, drums and bongos already with Dennis adding some nice guitar parts too. I have put a couple of harmonica things on too, so the project is starting to take some kind of shape already.

What i think i can say is that i believe it will end up being unlike anything we have done before, so I think it will raise a few eyebrows, we will see.
We hope to have around a March release folks, but please don’t hold this against me as I could well be wrong, although we are certainly pushing for an early release.

Just for the train spotters out there, Dennis is using Gibson 335 guitars, Fender Stratocaster and Avalon and Tanglewood acoustic 6 and 12 strings through a Marshall custom modded built head, and a Jessie Hoffs hand wired 30 watt combo. Gerry his Musicman Bass guitar straight into the desk, Brendan, his trusty Sonor drum kit, and me with Dannecker, Hohner and Lee askar harmonicas through an Astatic JT 30c microphone and acoustic harmonica through an AKG microphone.

Amongst working song titles at the moment are...

Hit the Ground running
You
Mechanic Man
Eye candy
Fair weather friends
Love supreme

Ok, folks, I’m not telling you any more so there.

Love from the band as always,Mark Feltham.

From Rotherham to Belgrade and Rome and home.
June 2008

Hello folks, both Dennis and Brendan had been moaning how down beat my blog has been and that I have got to be more upbeat and happy. I cant write to you like a school teacher, so I told them to just leave me alone and write to you through my eyes the way I see it. Enough said.

Our festivals really are well underway now and we kicked of in Rommerskirchen, Germany on May 31st. It was a lovely setting there in like a courtyard (outdoor) with a blues museum attached. Dennis had actually been asked many months previous to contribute his thoughts on his blues guitar heroes to the archive of the museum and it was all very impressive to see our guitarist in such company.

The next morning very early we had an 11am show 350 km away in Saarbrucken and was met with a fascinating old classic motor show in the next square to where our outdoor stage was. I can remember it being very hot and to be honest it felt really odd to be finished at 1pm, job done. We sat afterwards with huge steins of German ale and hot-dogs in the afternoon Sun chatting to the huge crowd that had turned out to see us on this lovely hilltop location over looking the city below. At this point I must thank our dear friend and possibly biggest fan of them all, Mr Manfred Maus and his lovely wife Silvia for helping us with our merchandising etc in Germany, Thank you to you both.

It was then home and the short FLY-Be flight to Douglas, Isle of man and the TT races and indeed air displays and motor bike engines roaring up and down the promenade that rattled the hotel windows late into the night. We played two nights there in like a 70..s type of disco, with our mates Status Quo playing just 800 metres up the road.

We flew back to Luton and straight up to Stratford on Avon for our Cox’s yard show and the delightful countryside hotel who’s name sadly escapes my memory at the moment, but it brought back memories of a happier time in my life, so we wont dwell on this or the gaffer will fine me. I think the band are fed up with me right now in my life as I must confess I have had a major personal upheaval and they have been incredibly supportive in getting me motivated again to play. I thank them dearly.

Ok, onwards and upwards and the new RUDIS blues club in Rotherham, a town where I cant recall ever having been before; I dare say someone out there will say I was there in 78 or so??

Anyway, RUDIS blues club was a complete shock to me for as I went down the stairs I was confronted with a magnificent new club; very similar to the clubs we played in the US. Rudi has done a fantastic job in bringing blues artists into the town and we all thought that the club was up there amongst the best in Europe.

We had a great show there and thank the lovely welcome we received too.
Right, back down the motorway and the brilliant Maltings show in St Albans, and our acoustic show. We always love it in there and it has a nice intimate atmosphere to boot.

Next day we were up early again and out to Imola in Italy and the central town square Imola blues festival. We had a real ball as we asked Andy J Forest from new Orleans and guitarist Roberto Formignani from the Italian band THE BLUESMEN to join us for a couple of songs, and a slash look-alike who also got up with us for a tune. It was one of those rare moments when everything you strive for as a professional musician comes together. Fantastic.

We were tired by this time and decided to not return to London but to stay on for two days as our Milan show was only a couple of days away and quite frankly we are sick and tired of being barged around by young cocky backpackers at Stansted airport.

We stayed in a lovely small family hotel near to lake Garda and the town of Simeone. The hotel had a pool and apart from one German couple we had the pool to ourselves all day. I can remember the four of us going down for a swim the first day sucking our stomachs in and resembling four bottles of milk.

It was not to last as we headed into Milan central park and our evening outdoor concert. This show was the one show where everything went wrong. Dennis had and amp blow up on him into the second song or so, the spare back up amp also blew up after 50 minutes into the show. Nothing could be done, the appreciative audience had to reluctantly see us walk away into the Milan night time darkness and head back to the hotel. This was completely beyond our control as it was a one in a million event.
We came home then out to Elversham in Norway and a hotel blues festival, I can remember trying to get some afternoon sleep in the miserable weather and rain that trickled down the hotel window but it was impossible as other bands were on and my room was 50 metres from the stage. We were cold and damp on-stage that night and if I'm honest I was pleased to get into bed and sleep.

The next morning we were back to Oslo's Guardemoen airport and off again for the 90 min internal flight up to Bodo in the Arctic Circle. As we made the final approach the captain said that air traffic was holding us up as there was an air show going on at the airport. We finally touched down and walked across the tarmac with the thunderous roar of fighter jets above at low level. Fantastic experience.

As you know by now, we frequently have a long onward journey onto the town etc of the show, but not this time, for in fact the concert was to take place in the arrivals hall of the airport.

We entertained some amazing Norwegian champion ballroom dancers into the small hours, and I can remember one nice moment where Brendan and I sat in the dressing room after the show at 1am looking at the mountains in perfect daylight sunshine. Wonderful!

I must take this opportunity to thank our wonderful Norwegian agent Mr Kjell Inga for his belief and support over many years of working together. Ps thank you Oslo airport for the 38 pounds bill for four drinks, strewth!
Home and back to the hotly debated terminal five at Heathrow... well, we thought it was magnificent, calm clean and quiet, and out on the BA flight to Serbia and her capital, Belgrade. We played atop of a hillside looking down over the city and her evening splendour shimmering out like the crown jewels. We were in the company of some of the best blues musicians in Serbia, Hungary and Russia and I must say that I don’t think in all the many years I have been around the world playing, that I have ever been made to feel so welcome by so many people. The Serbs are a tough people but with big hearts. Thank you Serbia for allowing us into your hearts.
I’m almost finished, but Brendan wanted me to make the point that the two last two shows were in the great wine growing areas of the world, the first being in the Bourgogne region of France where we played alongside the ANIMALS in an old castle grounds, and our final show in the Montepuciano region in Italy where we all got bitten by Italian mosqitionis, ha!

We flew home from the absolutely packed Rome airport on Sunday, and with your permission I'm going to make a cup of tea now and sit out on my balcony and give my index finger a rest. Its 12 midday, I started the blog at 8.45,Goodbye and God bless you all, Mark Feltham.

Chucks back in town!
April, 2008

Hello all, I'm sorry for yet again a late blog, and to be honest, I have no excuses except to say that I just couldn't get motivated or indeed inspired to share with you our adventures.

Our year started with a back breaking German and Swiss tour that gave us very few days off throughout the whole of January, Gerry and I fell ill midway through with attacks of benign positional vertigo that waxed and waned throughout January and right up to yesterday when I didn't know the ceiling from the floor when getting out of bed in the morning.
We had brief trips out to Slovenia and Milan as well as going back to the old Bluesiana club in Velden Austria last month too.

It was also nice to go out to Feurtuventura two weeks ago to play a festival, but not nice to come home after the 100 club show in London to grab only three hours sleep and charge back to Heathrow to catch the red-eye out to the Canary islands via Madrid the next morning.

I think in all honesty, the highlight of the twelve weeks since I last wrote had to be the Chuck Berry show at the 100 club two weeks ago. I know for a fact that it was especially important to Dennis as the Gibson 335 guitar that Dens mum and dad bought him in around 1977 was directly linked to Chuck Berry as he is one of Den’s heroes. So it was especially poignant that we be opening for Chuck and that Den’s Gibson be there on-stage gleaming out through the stage lights and steam of this great club.

I know that Dennis was eager to get a photo of Chuck (now in his eighties) and himself, but we now learn that the great man was very tired as he was in the middle of a string of European dates so rushed back very quickly to his hotel suite in Central London.

Brendan's daughters continue to attract record company interest as the Slumming angels (myspace) and I don’t think it will be very long before we are supporting them. Dennis' son Sonny continues to turn heads with his rare and raw talent as a young drummer to be, my son Louis can’t make his mind up if he wants to suck and blow a harmonica, sing, or play a guitar, he tells me that "girls don’t fancy a harmonica player dad", but they love the guitarist in a band, so with that I have advised him to buy a harmonica harness, sing and play at the same time, and that way you can’t fail son.

We have a little downtime at the moment so I have been continuing to decorate my apartment, I have spent £120 on matchpots alone as I'm a perfectionist, but a perfectionist who cannot make a bloody decision, therefore the wall is still not painted.

Brendan is busy in the Studio with his girls, Dennis has been pressurising me into yet more slavery, one example being the "Pull over there please driver, I'm hungry" comment when acting as his chauffeur last week after arriving back into Heathrow.

Gerry continues to lose his home to some type of termite infestation in Tours, France. Tut, tut, tut!

I trust this has brought you more or less up to date 13 April, and hope that you are all well and happy.

We would like to thank all our old road crew who were there at the Mick Jagger centre, Dartford, and are all incidentally all near millionaires now, and of course all our families and girlfriends etc... well... families.

God bless you all, Felts x

Who’s he calling me him? (Norman Beaker)
Christmas 2007

I hope you will forgive the premature Christmas and new year blog, but we have a frantic run in leading up into the new year, so I thought I would pen this one early while I make the most of what little free time I have left.
There are a couple of things of importance to share with you all, firstly, I do hope you enjoy the new "Bring it on home" DVD and CD. Oh! and that reminds me of the time a couple of years back when my mother went into HMV record store in the high st and asked the spotty young sales assistant if they had any NBZ VD here, I said its a DVD mum not a VD, but I guess it would be an easy slip of the tongue for an elderly mum to make... anyway, its sorted now and hopefully the benign wrong use of the lettering will not happen again in the future.

Moving on, we now have a Frenchman playing bass guitar in the band, and id like you to welcome into the fold Monsieur Gerry Le McAvoy, I say this as our dear Gerry has actually left Great Britain for a new home in the Loire Valley and the town of Tours (Close to anyway) and of course with this shift in location goes all the logistical nightmares that go hand in hand with such a move. If our travel schedule in the UK is sometimes hectic imagine now how Gerry feels when he is having to get up many hours before us just to get here before long long journeys up the M1 and M6 in the same day. The move actually happened months ago now and although tough for him, he is coping admirably.

Just to return briefly to the new DVD, I must take my hat off to Dennis Brendan and our mentor Tony Wheatley for countless long journeys up to Wigan and back to do the visual edits. I must admit when it was on the cutting room floor I completely lost interest in the project and could not possibly see how it was rescueable as it looked a mess. The sound was very good from the start, but it took many months of painstaking work for you to enjoy what you now see. We will of course put together next year some acoustic shows to coincide with the general release, so keep looking at the dates board for updates.

I must mention our dear friend Mr Tony Wheatley for guiding us in our careers, as he is a great inspiration and a wonderful man too. Thank you Tony.

Brendan and I continue to disagree on just about everything, Dennis moans about the fact that although we have been working together for 30 years he hardly knows me, and tells audiences across the country how difficult I am, when in fact he frustrates me, as he has bundles of talent, but in my humble opinion, cant do small detail and I sometimes feel like his chaperone. He is a wally of the highest order. Gerry continues to text me from France the last clue in his crossword puzzle he cant finish, after a swim in his indoor swimming pool... well, he tells me its a swimming pool... I’m going to go out there next year and do a bit of carp fishing so I will let you know what the new home is like.

My telephone sadly doesn’t ring anymore from the likes of Oasis, Robbie Williams and Will Young. I have gone from doing many tv film and record sessions to a very barren time on the session scene generally. Whether harmonica parts are now being easily sampled and used instead of the real player or just the fact that nobody uses the instrument in mainstream pop/rock, or indeed takes it seriously anymore I cant say, but it is a pity nevertheless, or I wonder if nobody wants to work with me because of Dennis’s "Watch out Feltham’s about" taunts on-stage. One day the four of us will go out and have a pint socially folks, because you know what, we almost never socialise, but I guess that we are almost in a marriage and you can read on the faces of the guys at the end of a string of dates that simply says, "thank god I don’t have to look at you for another 5 days" look.

Well, I guess I’m going to close down now and get a train up to my beloved birthplace, London town and browse the avenues and alleyways and bohemian buzz that makes this the great capital it is. In fact I have just moved into a new flat, South west facing with a balcony, ohoo!, get you again, and it is just 12 minutes into Victoria on the fast train, perfect.
All this just leaves me to thank you all for your continued support, and to thank dear Mick Abraham’s for the blue suede shoes at a gig where I had left my stage clothes indoors, Mick Lister for being well, a really nice man, Norma and Rob at our NBZ office in North Devon UK, for their tireless work in keeping you happy with your merchandise goodies for Christmas, Tony and Kim at lovely couple dot com, Brendan and Maggie for erm?... Dennis Greaves and his lovely wife Helen who still suffers daily from living under the same roof as him. Gerry and the equally lovely Regine Roset for Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Russian translations throughout the year, our agents around Europe, Paul Forrester our web master, and my real reason for my ongoing existence, my son Louis and my daughter Olivia and of course Charlotte.

I wish you all in advance a peaceful and happy Christmas and new year,

God bless, Mark Feltham.

Fatigue?...Its all in your head man. A day in a life.
October 2007

Hello Folks, Firstly, im sorry for taking longer than usual to keep you informed, but we decided to use the Early part of September to get away for our break/family holidays etc. I ended up,lat minute jumping on a plane and heading down to Northern Sardinia for five days and ended up wishing i had not bothered as i must have been the only person in the hotel. Im not too good at holidays, so your comments are welcome. Must try a SAGA holiday next year. Dennis and his clan flew out to the eastern America seaboard, North Carolina, i think? and Brendan crammed every destination on the globe imaginable into his three weeks with his family.
The Mr Greaves birthday celebrations at the Crooked Billet went wildly into the early hours back in July, and come September we were all desperately in need of a rest. I say this without hesitation as what we endured this weekend was human endurance pushed to its absolute limits.

We headed out to Norway on Thursday to Trondheim Airport (560 km north west of Oslo) to be met at the Airport by our hosts at around 11pm, and after a few drinks in the hotel bar headed up to our rooms around 1am.
Our destination was to be Orland, some two and a half hour drive plus a ferry boat trip away, so we duly left at 8am to do make sure that we made the 30 minute ferry crossing in time to be at the hotel at lunchtime.
The problem that lurked ahead of us was that we had a show in the south of France the next evening and we were now up in the Arctic circle.
The logistical nightmare that unfolded was as follows, Onstage at 10pm in Orland, Norway. offstage at 11.45pm, a quick shower in the hotel and checkout at 1.45am, no sleep. Back on the Ferry boat at 2.30am, then a drive back to Trondheim of two and a half hours to Tronheim airport. Tronheim airport to Oslo airport for the first flight of the day at 6am, no sleep, cramped car. Oslo airport with a quick 50 mins turnaround for the Oslo-Heathrow flight, arriving at 9.45 am at Heathrow. It would have been that much easier if our next connection to the South of France had been from Heathrow, but of course it wasn't, and by this time we all had developed a distinctive grey/white pallor due to the Whitey (overnight, no sleep). No no, our next flight at 1.20pm was from Gatwick,...So we bundled into a Taxi and headed off to Gatwick. We then took the flight down to Toulouse, arriving at 4.20pm local time, to then be met by our French promoter who told us Mont de Marsan was two and a half hours away by road.
We eventually arrived in Mont de marsan at around 7.30pm saturday evening having not slept since thursday evening in desperate need of a sleep, but not alas, until after the show, that by this time had been pushed back to let the french public at the venue see france take on New Zealand.
We made stage at 11.15pm, 21 hours after leaving Norway in the Frosty darkness, still minus sleep. If all this wasn't uncomfortable enough, we had to be up at 6.30 am for the journey back to Toulouse airport in the morning.
This was a bastard beyond belief, but one where yet again we met some wonderful people who were genuinely happy to see us play, and that in itself motivates us to go to these crazy logistical lengths to get to remote areas to tread the boards and do what we do.

It is with sadness that news has reached us of the premature death of Gary Primmich, one of the worlds greatest blues harmonica players from Austin, Texas, at the age of 49. We send out our thoughts to his family and friends.

I hope you enjoyed reliving with me a glimpse into what is not always as it may seem on the surface into the trials and tribulations of a working musicians travels and life.

Speak soon, Mark

Ciao,.......Scunthorpe!!
June 2007

No disrespect of course to our dear Englishmen up there in North Lincolnshire but i thought this new blog title just illustrates how diverse the places and folk are who live work and play in these areas/countries and just how lucky we are to witness this.
Without further ado i will move on as i have much to share with you today, June 21, in Central london at around 09.54am.
I have been granted permission to tell you that it is our Dennis` birthday on 23rd July, and that it is not any old birthday but a "Special" birthday,..Whoooooooo!!, i hear you say, ..Yes its Mr Coathangers 60th,...no no im only kidding, its his 50th, and to mark this special occasion we will be playing a lovely informal acoustic show on the very night at the famous Crooked Billet in Stoke Row, Henley on Thames. Den and i will also showcase a couple of songs from Gary Fletchers new record that we both contributed to,with Gary himself on the night. I have no idea how the evening will fall into place as it really is a celebration of a man reaching a milestone in his career and indeed life.
Mr Dennis Greaves and myself have been through much in our musical careers with both massive highs and terrible lows. We met quite by chance in 1977 when a friend i had been rehearsing with told Dennis that if he needed a harmonica player then to try me out. I duly received a phone call from this cocky so and so, not realising he lived just a couple of doors away. He was very much "in your face" and had the arrogance to dip his bread in my fathers soup on meeting my folks for first time.
This potentially could have been a disastrous first meet, but in fact, it broke the ice, and "Stans blues band was established in mid-1977.
Dennis` father, also named Dennis was very instrumental in pushing and encouraging the young musician to find gigs, and would often come home tired after work, throw the equipment into his black London taxi and head off to the evening pub gigs in London. I can remember them being very close,..yet rarely does Dennis mention the cruel loss that he suffered on the afternoon of 26th June 1979.
I happened to be sitting with Dennis and Norma (Dens Mum) that day in the family home when his dad unusually didn't come home or ring in and say he was to be late.
Dennis Greaves senior had in fact suffered an Anneurism, or brain clot, to which he never survived, and of course Dennis junior was still a very young man and very close to Dad.
The reason i mention all this is that we had just been given our first ever big break and been booked to play the very prestigious Dingwalls club in London 2 days later, and Dennis insisted we play Dingwalls in honour and respect for his dad. We did just that, and that night on-stage still haunts me, let alone how Dennis must have been feeling.
So, Mr Greaves now is approaching his landmark after privately confessing to me that he had a secret fear that he wouldnt make his dads age. All this is behind us now and i am absolutely certain that Dad Snr, is very proud of his Boy, as indeed Dennis is of his Two young sons Jake and Sonny (both drummers).

Dennis and I led separate career paths after we parted in 1982,...Den went on to form "The truth" and i drifted off into session work. We kept in touch, and i guested on a couple of the truth records in the mid eighties. The Gig we did at a Computer function in 1977 as Stans blues band seems an eternity ago now, yet as we played St Gallen In Switzerland on tuesday night I caught just for just a brief moment, in his eye, in front of 3000 people, that young rage and intensity that makes him the great front man and Musician that was there from the early days of playing seedy beer soaked pubs, to now, the International stage.

I know that Dennis is in fact, despite his ferocity outwardly a very modest man, possibly lacking belief in his own ability and talent and would urge all of our friends who cannot get down on his birthday bash on the 23rd July to wish him a very happy birthday . Happy 50th Den, from Feltip Marker.

Ok, back to business, and we have had a gruelling six days away this time around. My faithful old alarm clock screamed out to,... "get out of bed M" at 4 am on thursday last week for our Milan/Bergamo, Stansted flight, and the resultant pick up from the airport from our dear Italian friend "Czech" and our hotel for a quick nap before Dinned Al fresco in a wonderful hilltop Restaurant in the town of Chiuduno in Lombardy, Northern Italy. Great show, great people and family buzz (Typically Italian). Our beds were a source of calm after a hectic 20 hour day.
Friday morning, and we were back at the airport and the return flight to London and considerable high clear air turbulence, that i promised would never get me on a plane again. I hate turbulence, even now after close to 2,800 flights over thirty years.
From the Airport we had a 200 mile journey up to the Scunthorpe area and the Burton on the Stather festival in North Lincolnshire . The journey took us close to seven hours to complete due to the UK being gridlocked because of heavy rain and accidents on the closed sections of motorway.
After the fledgling festival, we got back into the cars and headed back down to London and reached the hotel around 3.30 am for a morning call at 9am to go back yet again to Stansted airport for our flight out to Frankfurt.
We picked up a "flying machine" of a vehicle at Frankfurt and headed out onto the magnificent German Autobahn motorway system and north west for the 330 km drive into Belgium and Charleroi.
We opened the show for Slade, who bashed out hit after hit all night long and the 2000 strong crowd went wild after an "Interesting double bill", it was an unnerving experience, as the dressing rooms and dining rooms were in a very old Psychiatric hospital and i personally felt ill at ease in there, especially as it was still in operation,...but thats just me feeling odd and precious i guess?
We headed back after the show to the hotel at around 11pm but had to be up extra early for the 11am (morning show) 300 km away in Saarbruecken. we had alarm calls at 5 am.

The Saarbreucken show was a real ball and felt really odd at 11 in the morning to be playing in front of what by now had swelled to around 2000 people. We played for around 2 hours and 10 mins and chatted with many French and German families after the show. Fantastic.

That afternoon i lost my keys, Block key, front door key, Garage key, Car key, car alarm key.
Dont even go there, suffice to say that hastily made phone calls were made and it seemed at one point that the whole of western Germany were looking for Felthams keys.
I also designed an Ingenious washing line, whereby i hung an ironing board out of the hotel fourth floor window, wedged internally by the tv and hung shirts out to dry, only to realise at dinner that night that it was pouring of rain.
The next day was a day off, Oh for a day off !, and we headed down to Lorrach, as we remembered a nice hotel and Steak house there. The big mistake i made was to get a haircut there (Whats left of it).
I walked into a unisex barbers, told to sit down, and a handsome tall German man in his mid twenties, id say? Lurched over me and started to flex his hands between Edward Scissorhands-like fingers. All was well until his short sleeve tee-shirt revealed what seemed to me to be the whole of the Bavarian black forest underneath his armpit. He absolutely stank of BO, and every time he worked on the front of my head, his underarm ended up under my nostril. I couldn't move, and was trapped.
In the end i couldn't care less about the bloody haircut,..my need was for oxygen. HORRIBLE! Worse than clear air TURBULENCE.

A long long drive on tuesday placed us in St Gallen. Switzerland, where we played to a huge crowd of 3000 plus people and we had a fantastic show even though the technical backup was a little on the short side on stage.

We drove back the 500 km to Frankfurt and the flight back last night to London.

Now i have the unenviable job of cycling to the airport as my Car and Garage are keyless.

Regards, Feltip, Marker.