I had been wanting to be involved with music since
I was about 13 but frankly had no idea how to go about it .
In those days few people formed bands , and rarely did girls play electric guitars. In the early
70’s from around 12 and a half onwards , I had been into Marc Bolan and David Bowie , then Lou Reed ( as Bowie produced
Lou Reed’s album Transformer so those of us into Bowie were all intrigued to
buy it ) and also from there The Velvet Underground . I also listened to Motown, Stax , Bluebeat and 60's girl groups and 1950's R and B . I started seeing bands from quite a young age and saw David Bowie perform several times including all 4 nights of his final shows at Hammermith Odean in 1973. I have also seen Roxy Music ,the Rolling Stones and Mott the Hoople being supported by a then unknown Queen ( I remember thinking the singer had a good voice !) I was also always interested in lyrical content and although not a lyricist myself, have always been drawn to artists who were lyrically meaningful such as Bob Dylan , Nina Simone and Van Morrison and from my own generation punk bands who had something to say socially.
The 70’s I remember was a
‘dark period ‘ musically and culturally .I wore 1930’s dresses from charity
shops and Biba make up, (but I was very young , around 13).
Later , During the mid to late
70’s, teenagers, or anyone who questioned anything , were
actually tremendously bored by the musical output at the time .and we
were bored socially as to what to do . It was either novelty bands or long
haired relics from the sixties , playing prog rock , which still to this day
does not appeal to me .
There were, I think
,only 2 or 3 channels on TV , no
technology and no way of communicating with others outside of your social group . News travelled slowly as there was no internet or social media . However the music press such as the NME provided a weekly lifeline reviewing live bands and musical output , even for small bands who were just starting out . You didn't have to be a massive band or have a great following to get yourself a gig in those days , and frequently pubs hired out back rooms for gigs , and there were plenty of small clubs around in most towns.
I felt I was desperate for something incredible
to happen and in early 76 you could almost sense it in the air, the
restlessness of a generation.
I got into punk by accident in the autumn of
1976..The Sex Pistols had appeared on the Bill Grundy TV show …I didn’t watch
it as I wasn’t into Bill Grundy ,but the next day it made front page news and
people were talking about it at school …coming home from school people in the street were calling me a ‘punk’….due to my dress
sense and the way I had ‘doctored ‘ my school uniform in general …I had my hair
in a crew cut, cut by a Soho barber , a knife pleat skirt and plastic sandals ...I
think I was around 17 ….so as I was being referred to as a ‘punk’ in the
street I decided to check out some of
the bands thinking the whole scene might
be something I might be into .
I
remember the first band I saw was The Damned (late 76)..can’t remember where
..and I also went to the Roxy club a few times . I had the great opportunity to see many bands including
The Clash ( several times) Damned , Buzzcocks, Subway Sect ,John Cooper Clarke ,
X Ray Spex , Penetration , The Jam , and The Slits . I saw the Slits 2 or 3 times and found them
really inspiring as they were female and challenged the general ethos of what
being in a band and making music was about and for me , being a female member of the audience, ..it was a different thing than watching a male band .
The list of bands I saw in punk days is endless . in London at the time you could
go out every evening and there would be always be several bands playing , not
necessarily well known , but there was always live music on . We would buy the
NME and Sounds papers and read the listings to see who was playing that week .
You could buy a beer and see a band for £2 a night !
The thing about Punk is
that it gave a sense of empowerment to a young generation initially through
music and subsequently art , fashion
film etc. Punk opened the doors for the future and the next decade. It
kicked out the stale , dead stuff that
had to go.
I saw the Clash on their White Riot tour
supported by the Slits and later on in 1978
( I think) the Clash did four nights at Camden Music Machine and I went to all
four nights . For two of those nights they were supported by a band called The
Special Aka who I thought were ‘interesting ‘, a bit art school to be honest .
Later in
late 78/early 79 the music scene in London at least, was changing, and although
still inspired by the ethos of punk I had moved on from it .
Around this time I purchased my first bass guitar. I chose bass because though I wanted to make music as part of a group I had no desire to be centre stage , so I thought bass guitar would suffice ,I was also intrigued by melodic bass lines and inspired by reggae bass rhythms.
The first one I bought randomly while passing a guitar shop on Shaftsbury Avenue . I picked one off the wall , couldn't play it and asked the guy behind the counter to play it for me .
It sounded ok so I bought it . 30 quid.
I rehearsed with a punk outfit but we
had never gigged and I was looking to put an all girl group together .I was
inspired by punk , reggae / dub , Motown, Bluebeat, 1950’s r ‘n’ b and Stax , 60’s girl groups and singers such as Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone, but it was quite
difficult to get together.
I was listening to
Reggae more at this time mainly dub such as Joe Gibbs’
Majestic Dub and African Dub , U Roy, Augustus Pablo and slower paced rocksteady as well as some
early bluebeat and ska such as Don Drummond who I believe was way ahead of his
time. I worked in Rupert St market in Soho and opposite was a record
shop, now defunct, known as Cheapo Cheapo records that was filled with albums
passed on by the nearby record companies and music journalists. The owner Phil
would let me ‘borrow’ records , listen to them and if didn’t like them I could
return them to him , I was able to be exposed to a lot of music this way and
heard some rare sounds and short lived bands who never made the main stream .
Soho was
different in those days, more like a small, multi ethnic community where
everyone knew and supported each other , rather than the over crowded tourist
affair it is today.
There was a combination of sex shops, French and Italian delicatessens , two streetmarkets, an independent clothes shop run up by St.Martins students , a tiny kids primary school (!) a fantastic newsagent that sold every paper and magazine in the world and The Marquee and Ronnie Scott's jazz club.
Gerard St ( China
Town) had yet to be pedestrianised and at the east end of it was a large
tenement block , virtually a slum filled with families from Hong Kong , in
front of it was a rough unpaved patch known as Soho market where there was a record stall where Shane Macgowan worked . Shane and I and a few other people such as singer Vaughn Toulouse and manager Howard Cohen used to meet up after work and go to gigs around London together.
If I have one
regret it is not photographing Soho to capture it at that time .
In the meantime
a band called the Specials put a
few gigs on in London, the first was at the Hope and Anchor in Islington. Thinking they were the band I ‘d seen supporting the Clash previously, my
friends and I went to check them out and they had really transformed into an amazing live band- blew themselves off stage
really and I went to all of their London gigs
one of which was the Moonlight.
Apart from their music and animated performance I was also inspired by the ethos and ideas behind The Specials with relation to both black and white musicians and artists working together. I saw this as a positive direction forward both musically and socially.
Around that time I met up with Jane Summers (
no relation ) who played drums and had come up to London from Portsmouth to
join a band . I met her on the platform of Highbury and Islington tube and she was wearing a fake leopard skin coat and bright red lips and looked like a young Shirley Maclaine, she moved in and slept on my floor with her drum kit and stash of NME's, and the rest of the Bodysnatchers came together in late summer 79. I did place a few ads in the music press for
band members , (as my girlfriends at the time didn’t seem to get it together to
come to rehearsals or find instruments to play)….in the NME and Sounds..(not
Melody Maker which in those days was for old fogeys and was anti punk).
My criteria to join the band seemed to be that
you turned up regularly to rehearse with a musical instrument . Sarah- Jane and Stella joined via the music press ads , and Penny was studying life drawing at Central St. Martins and she saw an ad we had put on the notice board there , Miranda was still at school and had acquired an ancient sax . We began rehearsing in
earnest at some rehearsal rooms in Royal College St ,Camden .
Rhoda was the last to join us .I met her at
a gig in Fulham and I was intrigued by her image
( and beehive !) and asked mutual friend Shane Macgowan to introduce us.
 |
| The Bodysnatchers L-R Jane Summers, Nicky Summers, Rhoda Dakar, Penny Leyton, Stella Barker ,Miranda Joyce, Sarah Jane Owen. |
We rehearsed for about 7 weeks and in November
79 did our first gig supporting Shane’s band the Nips at the Windsor Castle pub
along the Harrow Road . It was for us a try out gig and we were fairly ramshackle , we were having a laugh. We were booked for two consecutive Saturday evenings and
the pub was packed .Just about everyone turned up including Gaz Mayall who was a friend of the band , Pauline Black from the
Selector and Jerry Dammers. Richard Branson was also there running around shrieking had anyone signed us yet .
I recall we always ended our set with Booker T and the MG's ' Time is Tight' - our playing was so loose this number always fell apart - it was an anarchic version , when we improved our
playing and tightened up, audience members were disappointed though we were more musically competent and improved with every performance .
After this we would gig fairly regularly around London including Debbie Harry's birthday bash organised by Chrysalis . We were offered several recording deals , one great offer from Richard Branson to record in the Stax studios in Memphis.... in
early January we were offered a deal by 2Tone for two singles and the
opportunity to go on tour with the Selector , as a band we would vote on important decisions and the winning vote went to 2Tone.
For roughly a year we toured consistently in
Britain and Ireland and had the opportunity to support great bands such as Madness and Toots and the Maytals as well as supporting The Specials on the Seaside Tour in the summer of 1980 alongside the Go-Go's.
We rarely had time off and I remember I wanted us all to
take a break and write some new material, experiment more , but some members of
the band were afraid we might lose the momentum we had achieved . We had signed
to 2Tone but it seemed we were managed by Chrysalis ( the record company 2Tone was affiliated to ) who, for my part appeared to
wish to market us as a pop girl band and for me I felt I was losing my original
intention of why I had formed the band from a creative ( and social )point of view
.
I felt there was a lot of pressure on us to 'perform' ,keep up a certain image, and churn out chart hits. We were not given space to develop. After one interview for a magazine I was reproved by a rep from Chrysalis for not wearing a short skirt (I was in jeans) .
It wasn't what I'd signed up for .
About half way through 1980 several of the band were unhappy with Jane's drumming and voted her out of the band one evening . I felt it was a great loss as we were good mates and I had always been happy with Jane's drumming and input in the band , though earlier in the year we had Sex Pistol Paul Cook come to a few rehearsals to offer drumming tips .
We auditioned many drummers and a couple of months later were joined by Judy Parsons , who was a sharp drummer and good natured personality who fitted in well . But there was now occasional dissent in the group and tension between members who were falling into different camps.
Later during the year, around
October 1980, during a sound check ,I recall, in Manchester (it was raining !) , a couple of band
members fell out and it appeared to be irreconcilable differences . The band
split up and we booked a farewell concert at Camden Music Machine in November
1979 exactly a year after our first gig .
Contrary to what has been published elsewhere I was not kicked out of my own band ! I was not personally involved in any argument and found myself caught between Rhoda, who I understood had starting occasionally singing with the Specials ( which I think destabilised The Bodysnatchers ) and the band members who became the Belle Stars who had different musical inclinations. There were several scenes, arguments and debates and after it all I decided to work with Rhoda ,and with her and Jerry Dammers, John Shipley ( guitar ) and Dick Cuthell ( trumpet), recorded a version of The Boiler , by what was then known as The Special AKA.
After making this recording I thought long and hard about what I should do with my life .
I realised I had spent about 4 years hanging out on the music scene and spending most of my time in clubs or recording studios and decided I wanted to see more of the world . I was still very young , about 22 . I played with a few bands briefly but over the next few years put more energy into travel , holistic healing , painting and photography - went to Art School ( Chelsea) and became a Buddhist .
In 1986 I officially joined the Nichiren Buddhist group SGI-UK.
I have chanted the mantra Nam-Myoho- Renge-Kyo ( The title of the Lotus Sutra ) daily ever since and it has answered all my questions about life and more, revealing the potential for personal happiness and world peace .
Thank you so much for your interest and for reading !
Recent photo of me outside Taplow Court Buddhist Centre, Taplow , Berkshire.
