5. The Dominoes - One Foot In The Door

Most of you will know by now my handle is BASSMAN  this came about in a strange way. The Blackhawks had reached a crossroads in 1960 and looking back we had gone as far as we could, time to move on. We were playing as a trio Bernie, Rod and myself and none of us really liked it then out of the blue an opportunity came. Across the street lived Bobby Thompson who went on to fame and fortune with the Rocking Berries, and at that time was playing bass with Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes. One night I met him coming home and we got talking, Bobby said he had "Jacked Ted in" (Kingsize) and was joining Rory Storm and the Hurricanes in a weeks time. Well, Rory and his band were Big Time so ,who is playing bass for KST and the Doms I asked? No one, he can't find anyone good enough was his reply.

Now I've never been backward at coming forward as my Mother used to say so, off I marched, banged on Ted's door and said 'Gissa Job' and his reply was 'You have to filliping good to be in my band , I am filliping good ,the best Bassman on the planet says I ( the expletives have been altered to be PC correct which didn't exist in them days! make your own interpretation! )

One Foot in the Door

One foot in the door, I was given an audition the following week. Now ,a couple of small problems - I was a guitar player and had never played bass in my life and an even smaller problem was I didn't have a bass but I had a whole week to sort it. Thank god for my great friend Bernie not only did he lend me his Dallas bass on long term loan but he gave me a weeks crash course in bass playing. I stayed up virtually every night into the wee hours practicing and practicing and practising my poor mother threatened to take me to the Doctors she thought I had a screw loose and guess what, she was right! but ,I got the Job!!! now I was in with the big boys. The Band consisted of the great Ted Taylor who has a very powerful voice and he played lead guitar. My very good friend and buddy Sam Hardy (his name has been changed to protect the innocent) who is one of the best keyboard players and rock singers around, Dave Lovelady on Drums who went on to achieve great fame with the Fourmost and little old Bassman , boy, could we ROCK!!!!!

The New Brighton Tower Ballroom

We played at all the local venues and topped the bill most of the time we were even put ahead of the Beatles on the Cavern.  We would travel to Manchester, Wales and places with strange sounding names but the biggest gig we did at that time was in May 1962 at the New Brighton Tower Ballroom. The show was "Great Balls of Fire" Starring Jerry Lee Lewis with twelve supporting bands all well know Liverpool names like The Undertakers, Lee Curtis etc. What a fantastic show it was electric. Packed to the rafters you couldn't move. It was so tight that Jerry Lee had to stand on the top off my bass amp cabinet and that was six foot height.

Note: for the fashion conscious the Dominoes now wore Lilac Jackets with a Gold Domino Embodied on the breast pocket and KTS a green checked Jacket, boy, could we colour coordinate!

Next: The Hamburg Adventure