When did you first start playing music? Who were your first influences?
I have always loved music and remember enjoying the TV theme songs when I was younger. Then I saw Sonny Boy Williamson II on my old black and white TV and things started to change. An older sister of his classmate lent me Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee’s EP. After that, the rest just follows.
I wanted to sing like Muddy Waters, play the harmonica like Little Walter Jacobs, and be as tall as Howlin’ Wolf…but unfortunately that didn’t happen. But Ray Charles introduced me to soul and gospel music. Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and the Staple Singers.
Who was your first band and what type of music did they play?
I think my first band was The Graveyard Shift when I was a student. We played 1960s R&B music and a lot of Chuck Berry.
After leaving school, he played guitar, harmonica, and occasionally piano in several local bands. We formed the (required) art school band, the Steel Mill Blues Band, with some friends from art school. I then joined a short-lived club band called The Mel James Set, but it didn’t last long…and I wasn’t very good.
Next came another working club band called Dice. We got tired of clubbing so we decided to take some time to work on a song or two of our own. There, Dice eventually transformed into the Eastside Torpedoes.
Originally we were a five-piece band: Ian Rutland on guitar and vocals, Derek Nicholas on bass and vocals, Steve Colley on keyboards and vocals, Trevor Wearmouth (soon replaced) on drums, and me on second guitar. I was in charge of vocals.
A horn section soon followed, with Al Wilson on alto saxophone, Ian Robinson on trumpet, followed by Terry O’Hearn on trombone.
Do you have any interesting stories from your early days?
Ah, yes, but there’s not much I’m ready to say…well, maybe one thing.
East Side Torpedoes were playing a gig at Dingwalls in Hull. When we returned to the boarding house (not far from the venue) we were very pleased to find that the landlady and her husband had kept the bar open. The band drank until the early hours, but eventually gave in and staggered to bed.
Road manager “Beazer” Bob Kirkwood did not do so and continued drinking. Once he had had enough, he literally crawled to his room on the top floor. Once he reached his second landing, he gave up and curled up in a fetal position and fell asleep.
The next morning after a hearty full English breakfast with lard, he put us on the bus and headed to his next gig.
“Beazer” Bob, great company and great roadie…has the constitution of a cow!
How did Smokin’ Spitfires come about?
One night Terry O’Hearn, Steve Corey and I were drinking Guinness at the Traveller’s Rest in Cockerton, Darlington. We weren’t playing in any bands at the time, so we thought it might be an opportunity to form a band that would play original songs. Just to see if it can be done.
We wanted players who knew about The East Side Torpedoes but weren’t familiar with their songs. So some of the older songs will be played their way. I was hoping for some sort of difference between The Torpedoes and The Spitfires.
How did the connection with the Bubble Foundation come about??
Gil Wheeldon, the Bubble Foundation’s fundraising manager, was a frequent visitor to East Side Torpedoes’ Sunday lunchtime sessions in the foyer of the Newcastle Playhouse Theatre. When she started working at The Bubble, she asked The Torpedoes (and later the Spitfires) to occasionally do fundraisers.
It was her idea to start regular Sunday afternoon performances at The Cluny. First Sunday of every month.
We expanded the band to 10 pieces and played an entire first set of originals, then a couple of soul and rhythm and blues covers…now we’re the Mighty Smokin’ Spitfires. Ta.
How much did the Smokin’ Spitfires raise for the bubble?
Since September 2013, the band have raised £24,000 for the Bubble Foundation. (And if it hadn’t been for coronavirus and a sore throat, it probably would have cost another £7,000 or more).
What is the Bubble Foundation?
The Bubbles Foundation supports the work of the Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Great Northern Children’s Hospital, which cares for children born without immune systems. Without treatment, all these wild birds will die.
The foundation funds toys and educational equipment and supports parents and siblings. This will help with the purchase of special medical equipment and all-important medical research to help find better, less painful treatments for these precious children.
At last count, Gill had raised £5 million for the bubble, which is a significant amount of money… but unfortunately, just a drop in a huge ocean.
Now that I’m somewhat retired, I volunteer at a local food bank two mornings a week. And it’s infuriating that so many companies are handing out huge bonuses to people who clearly don’t deserve or need them, yet there are so many charities in this country looking to help. And the government is spending millions of taxpayers’ money to fly planes to Rwanda.
We shouldn’t need charities like food banks or the Bubble Foundation, but unfortunately it looks like we do.
The Mighty Smokin’ Spitfires play on the first Sunday of every month at The Cluny, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyne.Starts at 12:45pm
they are:
Neil Hunter on vocals, Gary Kane on drums, Bob Garrington on guitar, Ian Rigby on bass and vocals, Mike Hepple on keyboards and vocals, Lloyd Howell on percussion, Terry O’Hearn on trombone, Dave Blakey trumpet, Alan Thompson tenor saxophone, Steve McGarvey alto saxophone and vocals.
Click here for Smoking Spitfire’s Facebook page.
Click here to learn more about the Bubble Foundation.
You can donate to the Bubble Foundation here.