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Topic: this is great - harrison knew how to have a good time |
Spencer Cullum
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Rick Batey
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Posted 11 Nov 2008 3:27 pm |
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| Mr Rettig.... screeeeeeee (feedback)... Mr Roger Rettig to the white courtesy telephone, please. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 11 Nov 2008 4:28 pm
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Hi, Spencer
Yes, it's me - guilty as charged (sorry about the playing, but it was early in my PSG career  ).
Strangely enough, I've only just returned from the UK where I was touring with all of those guys with the one notable exception. We had a ball, and Neil Innes (that's him with Valentino look) was his usual creative and entertaining self. We are all much older - that was 1975 - but we didn't do too badly.
Here's another picture from that TV show.
Here's a more up-to-date shot. This was backstage in Birkenhead (we went to all the best places) and we were visited by, among others, John Gorman and Mike McCartney, erstwhile 'Scaffold' members (who remembers those guys and 'Lily The Pink'?)
See if you can spot who's who now we're all pensioners....
 
_________________
Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Archie Nicol R.I.P.
From:
Ayrshire, Scotland
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Posted 11 Nov 2008 4:41 pm
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Roger; You must be getting fed up with folks `discovering` this clip, but it is all good fun.
Arch.
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I'm well behaved, so there! |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 11 Nov 2008 6:53 pm
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You're right, Archie, but I still 'bumped it' to the top - I couldn't resist posting that 'new' photo from the TV show. I only found it a couple of months ago, and it shows all of us pretty clearly.
Let's trust the matter is now finally put to rest. I can't bear to listen to it!!!! I make JG sound like BE.....
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Ken Pippus
From:
Langford, BC, Canada
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Posted 11 Nov 2008 10:19 pm
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That clip's a wailing riot. Who knew George could could let go like that.
KP |
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nick allen
From:
France
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 2:06 am
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Hi Roger -
Could you give us a "Left to right" on the two pictures? The only one I'm sure of is Brian Hodgson, because he's the only one I've seen recently! Is it Billy Bremner on the left of the recent pic? I seem to recall seeing in a photo somewhere that Neil Innes had lost most of his hair, but that only cuts it down to four!
Glad you had fun - shame you didn't make it across (or under) the Channel.
Cheers
Nick |
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Spencer Cullum
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 2:50 am
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| Roger Rettig wrote: |
You're right, Archie, but I still 'bumped it' to the top - I couldn't resist posting that 'new' photo from the TV show. I only found it a couple of months ago, and it shows all of us pretty clearly.
Let's trust the matter is now finally put to rest. I can't bear to listen to it!!!! I make JG sound like BE.....
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i think the playing sounds great roger - what a cool time that must of been - |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 5:59 am
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Thanks, Spencer - you're much too generous!!!
Hi, Nick
1975 (l to r):
Brian Hodgson, Neil Innes, George, RR, John Halsey (aka 'Barry Wom'*), Billy Bremner.
(*: Previously 'Barrington Womble', but he changed his name to save ink.)
2008 (l to r):
Billy, B., unidentified, John H., Brian H., John Gorman (Scaffold), Neil, Mike McCartney, RR.
We were the original 'Rutles', but only Neil and John survived to make it into the film. Eric Idle was the 'bass player', Neil played 'Lennon', but Brian, Billy and I were not included as we didn't qualify physically to replicate the other two Beatles.
An interesting footnote re: Mike McCartney.....
Mike is, of course, Paul's brother, and we were rehearsing with the Scaffold in the mid-'70s at Paul's house in London's St John's Wood. During a break I spotted an old double-bass hidden in a corner. I don't play, but I couldn't resist picking a few notes on it.
"This looks just like Bill Black's old bass!", I exclaimed (it had that familiar gray finish with an off-white border rather badly applied to the top.)
"That IS Bill Black's old bass...", said Mike.
Wow! I was so excited that I'd actually played the same instrument that was on all those terrific Elvis Presley Sun recordings - I wish I'd had a camera....
(Edited for a spelling error!)
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Last edited by Roger Rettig on 13 Nov 2008 1:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 12:46 pm
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Billy Bremner is looking really good Roger. I remember watching him playing at the Nashville Room for the first time with the ............Kingpins? Not only was he a brilliant guitarist, but he was also very entertaining. However, Ted 'Poultice' who was sitting at our table was complaining that he was paying the trio as much as our 5 piece band - £25.00. I thought they were worth every penny for entertainment value alone.
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Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 2:06 pm
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Hey, Ken
Yes - Billy was and is terrific, but I particularly love his singing. George H. remarked that he'd have to get Paul to come and see us - then he'd hear someone who could REALLY imitate Little Richard!!!
George was also fascinated with the way Billy and I played fingerstyle on our Teles - he had us show him quite a few odds and ends. He was a nice man, and, like me, a rabid Lonnie Donegan fan!
I did my time in the Kingpins shortly after Billy - in fact he took my job with Marty Wilde and I took his with the KPs. They were Tommy Duffy and Tony Rocco - and I laughed at them every night, seven nights a week; they were hilarious, and it was fun picking with them.
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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steve takacs
From:
beijing, china via pittsburgh (deceased)
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 4:35 pm The Sixth Beatle RR
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| Roger, so the secret is now out, you were the little known sixth Beatle? Who would have known.? Do you remember which tunes you did that day with George? Hope to meet you sometime when I visit my sisters in the Tampa area. Thanks, for posting this, Spencer. steve t |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 8:17 pm
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| the old pic of billy bremner cracks me up. what a fun looking guy!.....course, after he played the intro to 'my sweet lord', or was it 'my guitar gently weeps'...and it sounded good...and george comes out singing some pirate song...i can imagine it messed with his attitude! |
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Danny Bates
From:
Fresno, CA. USA
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Posted 12 Nov 2008 10:09 pm
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Roger, Great playing because it fit the song so well.
I imagine Neil Innes mad some good publishing money for writing those songs... unless he signed a "work for hire" deal.
Looks like fun times for all involved!  |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 13 Nov 2008 2:23 am
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You guys are too kind!
Chris: If you (can bear to) listen carefully, you'll hear that the 'My Sweet Lord' intro is played unison by guitar and steel. Not to labour the point, but we had actually rehearsed the 'gag', and those pained and confused expressions are a testament to our acting abilities. 
Danny: I asked Neil only recently about this - apparently it was George himself who wrote 'The Pirate Song'; quite a clever lyric! The Rutles songs were all Neil Innes' work. Neil is now doing extremely well from residuals - 'Spamalot' is in the West End and on Broadway, and most of the music is his.
Steve: Hi!!! If I'm the 'sixth Beatle', how come I'm as poor as a church-mouse? Let me know if you come to sunny FL!
Ken: Did you know that Billy only got four Pounds a night with the Kingpins? It was me who got the money for a sideman put up to five! Boy, was I nuts to leave Marty (with whom I was paid as an MD and got to travel the World) for that Kingpins gig (with whom I got to travel as far afield as Hayes, Hammersmith and Fulham)!!!!
Ahh! Ted Poulton - the Fullers circuit's resident Scrooge! Billy used to say that he had teeth like 'a row of bombed houses...'
More 'Billy-isms':
"I'd like to dedicate this next song to my late father; he was very intelligent. I know he was intelligent, because he was always down at the Police Station helping them with their inquiries..."
"Prince Charles once told me: 'Never name-drop'!"
"My girl-friend is an actress, and she's so thin she's just got the 'lead' in 'Lassie'!"
(For you American readers, for 'lead' read 'leash' )
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 13 Nov 2008 11:10 am
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Hi, Doug
No, I was always a guitar-player.
The Rolling Stones: In 1965 we (I was with singer Eden Kane - never a name here in the US, but he had numerous top five hits between '61 and 66 in the UK) were headlining on a four-week tour, and the Stones (who at that point had had two minor hits) were closing the first 'half'. We'd heard a lot about them, of course, so on the first night of the tour we stood in the wings to listen.
We were horrified! Their tuning was appalling, and it seemed a cacophony to us, so we retired to the nearest pub feeling pretty superior.
Three weeks later their next single ('Not Fade Away' - a Buddy Holly cover) went to number one, and our tenure at the top of the bill was over!!!! It didn't bother us in the band - we could go back to the hotel earlier - but it must have been a bitter pill for Eden Kane.
That unfortunate 'sandwich' you mention occurred at the Wembley Arena where we were appearing at the New Musical Express Pollwinners' Concert (either '64 or '65 - I've forgotten). Eden had the best-selling single of that year and so we got scheduled. Due, however, to the fact that we were on tour at the time and had to be on the other side of London by 6.00 pm, the only place they could put us was immediately after the Stones and immediately before the Beatles. We were also denied the use of our beloved Fender amps, and forced to play through those awful tinny-sounding Vox AC-30s.
The audience noise was terrifying - 10,000 kids yelling for John, Paul, George or Ringo while we tried vainly to ply our craft.....
We played a number of times with them - Lennon called us 'the guys with the great guitars!' (arch-top Gibsons; Ben had an ES-5 Switchmaster and I had my '58 Super 400! - that was when everyone else played Fenders or 335s). They were never our favourites - we thought the Hollies were the best of the bands and the Searchers ran them a close second - in strictly musical terms, at least.
Somewhere on tape there's a BBC Radio 'Saturday Club' that we recorded at the Playhouse Theatre, WC2. The Beatles were on that, too, but so was Jerry Lee Lewis!! I remember us all staying on to listen to a REAL American rock and roller, and all acting like starstruck fans - the Beatles too!
Here we are - Eden Kane and 'the guys with the great guitars' (The Downbeats)
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 13 Nov 2008 1:48 pm
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Roger
I saw Eden Kane, Marty Wilde, Joe Brown and John Leyton in a 50's revival show just a few years back. Eden Kane looked very good as did the other guys. They were all touring in that show over here for a number of years.
As a young boy in the 50's who was guitar mad, I was a great Donegan fan, and an even bigger fan of Denny Wright and Les Bennetts. They kicked off the whole British scene for me. It must have been great to play behind Marty in those times. How could you ever afford a Super 400 AND a Fender amp. They were priced beyond mortal man's income at that time.
Now as an old man of 59, I can afford to buy all of the instruments that I used to lust over as a kid but could never afford - (nor could my parents). Life isn't fair is it. 
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Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 13 Nov 2008 2:42 pm
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Hi, Ken
I'm still in touch with Rick Sarstedt (Eden Kane) and see him whenever I'm in Los Angeles. He lives in Beverly Hills in almost palatial splendour! We didn't even know about golf in those far-off days, but we've both independently become hooked, so we played every day for a week when I was playing 'Best Little Whorehouse...' in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood a couple of years back. He still, as you say, looks pretty good!
I bought that Super 400 from Jim Marshall's Hanwell shop in 1961. I knew Micky King from Cliff Bennett's band (now there was a great player!!), and tended to take my custom wherever he and Peter Dyke - another stalwart of the London retail music scene - took their services.
(Jim Marshall, of course, went on to become famous for his brand of amplification, and I'm pretty sure that we(Eden) had the very first of his products - a PA system comprising a 50 watt amp and two 2X12" speaker cabinets!; I wish I had them now!)
They had the Gibson in a room upstairs (to keep it safe from tyre-kickers like me!), but Peter took pity and asked if I wanted to see a Super 400. For me it was the epitome of guitars - Scotty Moore had one! I saw it and fell - for the first time in my life - deeply in love. I HAD to have it. This was 1961, and hire-purchase on musical instruments was restricted to a two-year agreement. Jim got special permission to overcome that hurdle - the guitar's price tag was a mighty four hundred and seventy five Pounds!!!!!
That would have bought a new family car at that time, and I recall my installments being over twenty Pounds a month! I was in a good gig, though, and I added a Binson Echo and a Fender Showman (cream with a single 15" speaker cab). A month or two later I added a Gibson J-200. I mistakenly thought that my good fortune (fifty+ pounds a week!) was going to last for ever - how little I understood the vagaries of the music business!
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Lonnie was - and remains - my biggest hero; his charisma still holds me in a kind of spell, even though I did get to play with him in later years. Denny Wright was a God, Jimmy Currie a demigod, but I wasn't so fond of Les Bennetts. He was a bit too flashy for me, and nowhere near as musical as his predecessors.
I'm now coming up for 66, so there's quite an age-gap between us - my musical perceptions are bound to be a little different to yours.
They were exciting times, to be sure.
PS: I finally parted with the Gibson at Bonham's Auction House in 2000. Albert Lee had bought it from me temporarily in the mid-1960s (he returned it when his then-wife found him out!!!) which lent it even more provenance. The last time I played it was on the Freddie Starr Show (Carlton TV) - Fred sang 'King Creole' and he had the Jordannaires over for the recording; I thought the Super 400 an appropriate addition to the show.....
(I sure am getting long-winded, aren't I?)
Below: Eden strums that Super 400 while I'm relegated to backing-vocals; Liverpool Cabaret Club, 1964.
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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Danny Bates
From:
Fresno, CA. USA
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Posted 13 Nov 2008 5:10 pm
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Roger. Great stories! I could never get tired of stories like those.
Just think, if Eden had changed his hairstyle or had a better manager (or something equally silly), he probably could have been super famous like the Beatles.
As far as age goes, John Lennon would be 68 years now and Paul's 66, so you're still young enough to rock the world!
Keep the stories coming. I love 'em!
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Ken Byng
From:
Southampton, England
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Posted 14 Nov 2008 11:01 am
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Wonderful story Roger. That guitar is just beautiful. £50 a week in 1961!!!! Most blokes didn't earn that in a month or even 2 months - certainly my dear old Dad didn't. You have had a great musical career - long may it continue.
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Show Pro D10 - amber (8+6), MSA D10 Legend XL Signature - redburst (9+6), Sho-Bud Pro 111 Custom (8+6), Emmons black Push-Pull D10 (8+5), Zum D10 (8x8), Hudson pedal resonator. Telonics TCA-500, Webb 614-E, |
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Ray Kedge
From:
Middlesex, England
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Posted 14 Nov 2008 1:26 pm
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Hi Roger,
Just looked in and saw the thread,I also was one of the lucky ones to play with Lonnie Donegan.
He came to a gig I was playing with the Muskrats, he was after our guitar player John Smith to do a tour with him but he thought a steel would fit in as well.
I did about a dozen gigs with him,I have to say he had such a stage presence, the audience were in the palm of his hand within minutes,and I never knew how many hits he had until he rolled them out on stage they just went on and on.
He was the first guy I had worked for who payed us to reherse,but you had to get it right he did not suffer fools on or off stage.
But is good to look back and say that you played with a real legend.
Cheers Ray |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 14 Nov 2008 1:31 pm
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Thanks for your kind remarks, Ken. I've never made much money (not when you average it all out!), but I've kept a roof over my head through playing a guitar. If I'd have been offered that as an option while sitting at my desk in Enfield Grammar School in 1957, perhaps while gazing at a picture of Lonnie and his group, I'd have leaped at the chance!
Here's a little more background on that Gibson Super 400. It was new in 1958 and was odered by a customer through Selmers in Charing Cross Road. When it arrived, however, it proved too costly for him and he didn't complete the purchase. He'd ordered it with a Bigsby (!!! ), and that's how it was when I first took delivery. The guitar got shuffled around a bit, and I believe it was Peter Dyke who obtained it for Jim Marshall's inventory - Peter was a well-respected salesman and an excellent jazz guitarist.
That's how I bought a 1958 guitar in 1961, that was still - technically - new.
I pestered Peter Dyke endlessly for the proper gold-plated tailpiece with its 'Super 400' engraved inscription, and he eventually dug it up from his house (where he'd stashed it in the hope that it would be forgotten!) and I put the guitar back in its proper condition.
I was allowed 160 Pounds for my Gretsch Jet Firebird (exactly what I'd paid nine months earlier), which was a generous trade-in figure.
I only have one picture of the Gibson with the Bigsby. Here it is, shown on a EP sleeve. I'm with the Rhet Stoller Group (he had a hit called 'Chariot', and has survived the ensuing years on royalties from his ubiquitous 'Match Of The Day' theme!), and here we're seen with Jess Conrad. We appeared together in a number of scenes in an episode of 'The Human Jungle' (starring Herbert Lom as a Harley Street psychiatrist, ATV, 1963); if you're ever unfortunate enough to see the installment, please excuse that ugly two minutes where I sing and play piano - live!
In the picture below I'm on safer ground. The four songs we recorded were written by Gordon Mills who went on to manage Tom Jones and Engelbert. We were called 'Danny Pace and the Pacemakers' for the purposes of what passed for the 'plot'.
Anyway - here's the Gibson with the Bigsby!
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles, Martins, and a Gibson Super 400!
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