After splitting with the Kylastrons, I was introduced to the world of affiliated working men’s clubs. Most villages and districts in the North East had at least one Working Men’s Club and most of them provided entertainment including local bands (or beat groups as they were called back in 1965). Bands were booked by the club’s concert secretary who would address you as ‘bonny lad’ and refer to your band as ‘the torn’ (turn in English). It was the concert secretary’s job to regularly tell you to turn down the volume. He had the power to pay off the band or give you more bookings depending on how you went down. Audiences were mainly seated but in some clubs towards the end of the night people would get up to dance. The upside of playing at these clubs was that the beer was incredibly cheap and it didn’t cost much to get rat arsed and look as if you were enjoying being there. A pint of Federation beer could cost as little as eleven pence (less than 5p in new money). As a comparison, a pint bottle of Newcastle brown ale at that time cost around two shillings and six pence (twelve and a half pence in new money).
When my friend David Snowdon found out that I had left the Kylastrons he asked me if I was interested in auditioning with his band, which played mainly in Working Men’s clubs in County Durham. They were a female fronted five piece outfit playing a mixture of standard pop songs and current chart hits. The other band members liked the sax and I was asked to become the sixth member of the band that was renamed ‘The Six Leaves’. The line-up before I joined was vocals, lead and rhythm guitars, bass and drums. The sax added a new dimension to their covers of early Tamla Motown songs such as “Baby Love” (the Supremes) and pop songs like “My Boy Lollipop” (Millie). After a while a couple of sax instrumentals were slotted into the repertoire. These were rock versions of the “William Tell Overture” and Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” and were real crowd pleasers.
The male members of the band wore matching green waist coats with a leaf pattern while Sylvia, the vocalist, used to wear something low cut and clingy. She was in the habit of roaming around the audience while she was singing and plonking herself on some punter’s knee, risking the odd grope. But she could look after herself and when she let fly with her left palm she always kept on singing!
The Six Leaves in 1965 with Jeff Tait (left) on bass.
The Six Leaves had a fairly busy schedule in working men’s clubs in the Sunderland and Durham areas. Some that come to mind are; The Queens in West Hartlepool, Horden Labour Club, Houghton Glendale, Silksworth Buffs and York House in Seaham.
Apart from Sylvia Tait and her bassist husband Jeff, the other members were fairly inexperienced musicians. It wasn’t long before petty rivalries emerged and the band started falling apart. The first to go was Paul, the lead guitarist and backing singer. His harmonies were sorely missed and, although he was replaced by a better guitarist called Don Sweetman, the overall sound of the band was never quite as good.
The Six Leaves – with Sylvia Tait on vocals (left)
At this time saxophones were gaining popularity and I was getting offers of work from Newcastle and Gateshead bands. When one of the top Sunderland bands contacted me and asked if I was interested in joining, I decided to call it a day with the Six Leaves. My last gig with them was on Saturday 25th September 1965 at the Glendale Club in Houghton-le-Spring. I received the princely sum of one pound, seven shillings and sixpence.
The Six Leaves stage gear – blue shirt, black knitted tie and green waiste coat with leaf pattern