supplied by Colin Bell
Colin Bell… I was working on a piece for the SMART website on The Who, then on Friday at the last get together the subject of The Who, Roger Daltrey and Hastings Rock came uu, So ive combined several threads together, to answer some questions, provide some info, have a few laughs and appeal for some help from the wonderful SMART community.
‘I Can’t Explain’ a pivitol record by anyones standards introducing The Who to the world. Recorded at Pye Studios in November ’64,
the session didn’t go smoothly….Shel Talmy the American producer drafted in some session players..As Roger was later to say to me ‘ producers paranoia, he didn’t think we were any bloody good to play’…! Hence the presence of Jimmy Page and Clem Cattini(legendary drummer with the Tornados, and a man who has played on more Hit records than you can shake a (drum) stick at. The upshot was Jimmy Page did play on the record, underneath Pete. Moony’s reaction…’get that F*****g bloke out the studio before I F*****g kill him!….Ah God bless Moony!
I first saw The Who live on Hastings Pier in 1967 (im sure lots of SMARTIES did). From that day on I was a die hard fan of the greatest live rock band in the world. I never imagined then that some years later I would be privileged to work at Track Records in Old Compton Street in Soho, home label to The Who, Hendrix, Arthur Brown, Marc Bolan, Marsha Hunt etc etc. Great days and many fond memories. Fast forwarding now to 1995 and Hastings Rock FM. 1995 was a crucial year for the station that its founder Nick Thomas had and has worked so hard to bring to air, great guy. This was the last RSL broadcast before the Radio Authority granted a local licence, I suggested to Nick that it might help to get some more publicity for the station in the pursuit of a permanent licence if I got a few ‘names’ to come on my show and do some interviews. Roger being local was top of my hit list. The studio at that time in December 1995 was in the Old Dairy in Silverhill (since demolished).
It was bloody freezing that year with thick snow. With no real conviction he’d agree to come on I rang him at home
and explained the situation and very generously he said ‘Ok mate for old times sake i’ll come in and do it’. We arranged to meet in The Clarence for a pint first…whilst in there a punter said,,nervously..’your Roger Daltrey!’…the reply deadpan from Roger ‘nah im a fish farmer’….So we crossed over the road to the studio and went live with the interview, he was great and gave over an hour and a half of chat to the people of Hastings an extroadinary amount of his time. It was great fun and he insisted on having the monitors in the studio at full blast..no change there! Very sadly as we all know the licence didn’t go Hastings Rock way, but Hastings Rock has of course lived on to great effect by Nick and his team, and long may it continue!
Now to the appeal for help bit…the only recordings made of this interview and others (i’ll list later} were on a vhs tape machine running off the desk.
I think ive located a copy in my archives and Sarah Harvey has kindly offered to get this transferred to CD.
Copies can then be made available to any one who would like them (free of charge). If you happened to make any recordings and still have them please get in touch via SMART. And we can preserve a bit of Hastings musical history. Thank You.
For Info the other guests who gave of their time and have played/or had connections to Hastings and appeared on my shows were:
Live in Studio:
Denny Laine (Moody Blues/Wings
Peter Sarstedt {who performed Where Do You Go To My Lovely..and dropped Hastings into the lyrics)
Annie Haslam (Renaissance)
Steve Hyams (British Lions/Mott)
The Dharmas (later to become Steadman)
LIVE ON PHONE:
Chris Farlowe
Kenney Jones (Small Faces)
Pat (PP) Arnold
Linda Lewis
Andy Scott {Sweet}
Dave Hill (Slade)
Steve Hogarth (Marillion)
Mick Abrahams (Jethro Tull/Blodwyn Pig
Suzi Quatro
John Steel (The Animals)
Thunder.
Bruce Dickinson (recorded, but not broadcast.
Look forward to seeing everyone at next meeting and as ever kudos to Alan for all his hard work!
Alan Wood… Great article ,thanks
Andy Qunta… Excellent! I love The Who, especially Roger, who was very good to Factory! I went to the record shop after I first heard Can’t Explain, not knowing what it was called or “who” it was by. I sang the chorus to the guy behind the counter, & he somehow recognized it! Who fan ever since! Thanks, Colin, & SMART for posting this!
Valerie Morris… I worked for Track Records … I PA’d for David Thornton-Pickering … Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp. Vernon was a great friend and I did the promo at the BBC for Arthur Brown … Fire … many many memories of The Who, Dave Rafael, Marsha Hunt…… Valerie
