First met Clive after he and Derry Wilkie borrowed a PA System from me for a gig at The Load of Hay in Belsize Park.
I ended up playing with them and slowly but surely and after several personnel changes the line-up became : Clive Sarstedt on guitar and vocals, Tony Muschamp on bass, Bernie Hotzl, Harbans Srih, Mike Sturgis, Jamie Connell or Johnnie Gunsell and sometimes Thomas Lang on drums, myself on lead guitar.
The Robert Peel in Kentish Town run by the great Seamus Dolan provided a venue, not only for us, but also for a whole wealth of live bands.
These included: The Runner Brothers, Johnny Johnson and the Shuffling Hungarians, Wicked, Barcode, Charlie's Blues Band and a host of others.
This was complimented by a regular gig every Sunday afternoon at The Sir Richard Steele's in Belsize Park,which lasted for over five years courtesy of Kirk and Paul who run probably the best pub in London. It became something of an institution with guest musicians sitting in on the gig for fun.
The assortment of fantastic special guests included: Danny Rivers, Arthur Lewis, Johnny Gunsell, The Simon Cookson Band, Brian Connell, Chris Wilson, Derry Wilkie, Tony Ashton, Peter Sarstedt, Johnny "Snakehips" Johnson, Paul Francis, Harbins Srih, Ed the Duck,John Murray, Beverley Martin and Johnny Elstar to name but a few.
We played an eclectic mix of rock, blues, jazz and country to out and out improvisational mayhem.
Mp3s taken from the album The Strange Case of Bernie's Collapsing Drumkit courtesy of Dr. Dick's Backlash Records with a special thanks to Robert Hodson for helping with the live recordings.
