From Amazon to Redwood
ANGUS RIDLEY’S TALKS ABOUT HIS MUSICAL JOURNEY
GUS WAS around 13 yearsold when he first started to learn to play guitar in the early 1960s. He said “It was kind of the in-thing to have a go at. Lots of young people fancied joining a band and I just happened to be one of them, never thinking that 50 years later I’d still be involved with music.
“I was influenced by just about everything I heard, especially the American rockers of the day like Buddy Holly, Elvis, Eddie Cochran and the rest. There was so much music out there, but for me, the Beatles as writers, singers, producers and performers, were the bee’s knees and always will be.
“My first ‘proper’ group played instrumentals of the Shadows variety in the clubs and pubs with a couple of vocal songs thrown in for good measure.
“We did OK because guitar instrumentals were a novel thing at the time, but I don’t think it lasted very long.”
“One of the good things about being in a band around the mid 1960s was there were just so many places to play.
“I think there were something like 80-plus working men’s clubs in the Hull area alone, apart from the bigger venues, and with many of the pubs and youth clubs also putting on live music, finding somewhere to play was never a problem.”
“Come the early 1970s, Gus had already played in quite few bands and had gained quite a bit of experience.
“I was asked to join The John Small Band on bass guitar with John Small, guitarist Paul Sutton and drummer Alan Carey.
“It was really interesting as it was mostly original material and was something I’d never being involved with before. We progressed from playing pubs and clubs to working the university music scene and we even got down to London and recorded a single in a professional studio. It had a few air plays but didn’t make any impression.
“Eventually, John went off to live in America and that was that, but still, it was an unforgettable experience.”
Gus found that he could actually make a living playing music, and for three or four years, with a band called Scud, that’s just what he did.
He said: “We worked as the resident band at holiday camps during the summer doing our own act and providing the backing for the visiting cabaret acts.
“There was no such thing as backing tracks back then, so if an act didn’t back themselves, we had to do it for them.
“For three months of the year we played to packed houses every night. This was before the advent of the annual holiday abroad, it was still in the early 1970s, and most people still took holidays in the UK.”
When the summer seasons finished, the band would find a residency in one of the nightclubs, like Baileys, in Jameson Street, Hull.
The cabaret scene was always very active and the visiting acts would often be nationally known stars.
Gus said: “Again, we were expected to do our set and provide the full backing, or just incidental bits when working with comedians.
“One of the big differences working in this environment was that they would come with their own musical director, who, for an hour or two in the afternoon, would take a show-call to go through their music and make sure everything was good for the evening performance, which was always a bit of an unnerving experience.
“I think in the first three months, we worked with Tommy Cooper, Marty Caine, Max Bygraves, The Nolan Sisters and Lena Martell and, while not exactly the hippest rock‘and‘roll experience you can have, you can’t help but develop a good deal of respect for their craft.”
Around that time, Gus got involved with a recording project at a local studio, which managed to put together a recording which reached the dizzy heights of number eight in the charts in Portugal.
Gus said: “I think that means it sold about 300 copies and, unfortunately, the money made did not even cover the cost of promotion.
“As a follow-up, much to my amazement, in 2019, it appeared on a compilation album exploring the independent side of the UK’S postpunk and synth-pop boom. I was assured the royalties would be forthcoming; the cheque in the post and all that.
“I spent the days thumbing through the catalogues of the latest models of high-performance cars in anticipation of the postman arriving with my royalties. When it finally arrived it was a cheque for the princely sum of a fiver, so I’ve put the yacht on hold for the time being.”
Gus decided being a pro musician was probably not for him and he set about acquiring a career with a more reliable source of income, which ended up being in the new and not quite so exciting IT industry.
He said: “It meant that I could continue to play on a semi-pro basis, which suited me just fine, and most of the next 25 years was spent in clubland residencies backing the local club acts, which also fitted the bill and I really enjoyed it.
“Over many years, we’ve seen the slow demise of the clubs and live music venues across the business in general, but fortunately people do still enjoy live music. I’m presently playing in a well-travelled rock‘n‘roll outfit called Redwood with my old mates Johnny Walker, Brian Levitt and Steve Powell, so, back where I started from really.
“Over the years, I’ve worked with so many talented people, liked the people I’ve met, and have many memories of great times with good friends. I don’t think there’s much I’d change.”