With Beatle George...

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Nov 2022 8:25 am

I know the TV clip has been posted on here countless times and I dread hearing myself on it.

I'm much happier with still photos!!! Here's one I just came across from a different angle.

(L to R): Brian Hodgson, Neil Innes, 'Admiral' John Halsey, Roger Rettig, George Harrison and, obscured, Billy Bremner.

My hair was almost luxuriant back then, wasn't it???

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 9 Nov 2022 8:30 am

You played with Neil Innes??.
AWESOME!!!

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Nov 2022 8:55 am

I played with Neil a lot. There's even a double CD of us, captured on our UK tour in 2008. I did countless episodes of 'The Rutland Weekend Show' (ITV) as well as appearing in 'The Innes Book of Records', another series.

The band you see here was the original 'Rutles', but only the Admiral (and Neil) made it to the actual movie.

Here we are on tour...

Tucker Jackson · Post by **Tucker Jackson** » 9 Nov 2022 9:38 am

I've had some interesting moments in life, but none of them are called "Backing up George Harrison on steel." That's 'better than average,' Roger.

Your friends probably thought your were insufferable after that gig -- wouldn't quit working it into random conversation. Or maybe that's just how I would have been with every sentence beginning, "Well, when I worked with George..."

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Nov 2022 9:55 am

To be honest, Tucker, I was never much of a fan. George was lovely and Billy, George and I spent long hours drinking draft bitter in the BBC bar talking about Lonnie Donegan - the major influence on all of us in the 1950s.

I thought little about it afterwards (we'd played theaters and radio shows with the Beatles quite a lot from '62 to '65). It wasn't until I came to America that I was pressed to recount stories of the fab four. They were huge in the UK, of course, but I suppwe were all familiar with each other.

I'm a lot more excited at having played a TV with Phil Everly!

Tucker Jackson · Post by **Tucker Jackson** » 9 Nov 2022 10:05 am

Ah, I see.

Update: "So, when I worked with Phil..."

Bill Ladd · Post by **Bill Ladd** » 9 Nov 2022 12:49 pm

Man, where has my memory gone? I would have bet a thousand pounds that Billy Bremner was in the movie as well, but no.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Nov 2022 12:54 pm

Bill

All there is in the film of this band is a still photo of us.

Billy and I (especially me!) were a bit chubby - they didn't want fat Rutles!

Bill Ladd · Post by **Bill Ladd** » 9 Nov 2022 1:01 pm

Roger Rettig wrote:Bill

All there is in the film of this band is a still photo of us.

Billy and I (especially me!) were a bit chubby - they didn't want fat Rutles!

Lol. Might have to stream "All You Need Is Cash" tonight.

Lee Baucum · Post by **Lee Baucum** » 9 Nov 2022 3:20 pm

Such great memories for those guys:

"So, back when I worked with Roger..."

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 9 Nov 2022 3:56 pm

At last, Lee!!!!

Thank you!

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 9 Nov 2022 5:19 pm

Roger Rettig wrote:I'm a lot more excited at having played a TV with Phil Everly!

I suspect George felt the same.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 9 Nov 2022 5:47 pm

Wasn't Ollie Halsall also in the Rutles? I remember seeing the band Timebox, which later changed their name to Patto. John Halsey was their drummer.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 10 Nov 2022 1:53 pm

Ollie played on the later records. The Rutles (for visual purposes) were Neil, Eric, John and Ricky Fataar.

The list of participants over the years, though, is much longer.

Neil always said that our appearance with George on 'The Rutland Weekend TV Show' was the spark that started the whole idea. In that sense, I was an original 'Rutle'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rutles

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 10 Nov 2022 4:51 pm

Hey diddle diddle the cats and the fiddle, piggy in the middle'

Great stuff Roger,loved the Rutles! 'All you need is Cash'!

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 10 Nov 2022 5:16 pm

What an an amazing experience. Very cool Roger.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 10 Nov 2022 9:07 pm

So cool, Roger! Thanks for sharing.

Joachim Kettner wrote:Wasn't Ollie Halsall also in the Rutles? I remember seeing the band Timebox, which later changed their name to Patto. John Halsey was their drummer.

What a great guitarist he was. I am familiar with Patto and Boxer recordings. But Ollie was also guitarist in Tempest when Allan Holdsworth was leaving the band and they did play some shows together which were broadcast by the BBC.

K Maul · Post by **K Maul** » 11 Nov 2022 5:03 am

You played with Phil???
AWESOME!!!!!

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 11 Nov 2022 6:30 am

Mike Neer wrote:

I am familiar with Patto and Boxer recordings

In '68 when I was fourteen I was at a festival in England. There were Hippie bands, Skinhead bands (Slade) and a Mod band (Timebox) and Jerry Lee Lewis. He was banned to come to England for a few years before.
He had a big following there and I'v never seen rockers before on their BSAs and Triumphs, there were lots of them.
Timebox went on before Mr.Lewis and they were booed by them. I'll never forget how Mike Patto was so unafraid. I even remember what he said to them.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 12 Nov 2022 5:41 am

K Maul - yes it was!

I had my old '51 J-200 at the session and I thought 'How cool it would be to get Phil to play it??' He took some convincing - he couldn't have been nicer or more friendly - because, as I learned that day, Don was the guitar-player of the two. Phil wasn't a player, he was never plugged in and could just play fundamental chord shapes.. The twin Gibsons on stage were for the 'look'.

Never mind, someone snapped a photo and Phil signed it for me a few weeks later at rehearsals for their '83 reunion at the Albert Hall. (He misspelled my name but so what?

)

Mike Patto was a good golfer! We (John H, Mike and myself) played a few times. He had a talent for it. He never put any work into his game but he was so physically coordinated that he always hit the ball solidly.

How sad it was that he was taken so young.

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 12 Nov 2022 6:41 am

Great picture Roger... You know, I lived in Rutland for a time... Rutland British Columbia

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 12 Nov 2022 12:22 pm

Roger, that's some great cool memories. You had a fascinating experience no doubt.

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 12 Nov 2022 12:24 pm

Roger, that was always my dream guitar

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 12 Nov 2022 12:38 pm

Hi, Duncan

I bought that from George Gruhn's back in 1982 for $1350. In those days. George's store was where Roberts is now on Lower Broad, I believe; someone correct me if I'm wrong, please. This was long before he moved to that fancy corner location on 4th & Broad. He's no longer in downtown Nashville.

I sold the Gibson some years later in London for £6000 ($9.5k at the time). It was very pretty but, in all truth, wasn't an exceptional guitar. In retrospect, I wish that I'd spent the same money on a really nice old Martin 000-28 - goodness knows, Gruhn had enough of them!