ROGER'S SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY PARTY

ROGER & FRANS PAGES

ROGFEST 21st MARCH 2009

Pictures and videos from Roger's 60th Birthday Party

SOME WORDS FROM OUR SPONSOR

The party was held at Harehill Social Club, Ottershaw because my mate Chris-The-Carpet offered it incredibly cheaply and it had easy access from the M25, decent parking facilities, and a licensed bar! I'm also grateful to Fran Jacky and Mel who worked hard to provide the "decor" (balloons) and the excellent catering.

The event was more a mini-music festival than a regular party - and all the hard work of providing and setting up the PA and backline was done by my good friend Colin Pattenden (a founder member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band). The sound desk was also manned at times by other good friends Karl Green (a founder member of Hermans Hermits) and George Leslie Calvert (who has played with everybody - tart - but perhaps most notably Alexis Korner, Jona Louie, Mungo Jerry and Mike Cooper's Machine Gun Company. Interestingly they are all very good bass guitar players as well as all enjoying playing with knobs and sliders.

Colin P had the unenviable task of managing five bands into five hours. Perhaps predictably, the schedule slipped a bit - but he still managed the minor miracle of managing five bands in six hours, ending at 1am instead of midnight. He provided all the equipment and we laboured from 11am on Saturday - through the party - and on till 3:30am on Sunday morning to set up and then strike the stage. Thank you Colin.

The bands were all fantastic - there is a synopsis of who's who at the foot of this page. A lot of the musicians have a prestigious heritage in big name bands and I tried to work out the combined record sales which the musicians who played this gig have been associated with - amazingly it is easily well in excess of 350 million records. They are all stars! I am really pleased that I can call these guys (and girls) friends - they are all consummate professionals and all played for a pittance. In fact many said they would play for free, but I wanted to ensure each had at least their expenses covered, so I paid a nominal £50 per head. Even this got a few refusals, as a result of which I donated the unaccepted £200 to The Thames Valley Hospice - thank you everyone.

Thank you also to all the girls who lined up to sing me a geriatric version of "A Few Of My Favourite Things" (and to Simon for accompaniment - see the video below) - and let's also remember absent friends - especially ace guitarist Grahame White (Capability Brown ; The Retros; Don McLean's Band) who sadly passed away exactly a year to the day before this party.

Finally - a big thank you to the one hundred and eighty of you who came along to support me - I'm proud and honoured to be able to call all of you friends and I hope you all enjoyed yourselves, and that your ears have stopped ringing. Commiserations to those who missed it. Ray Phillips correctly summed it all up as "Roger's little indulgence" - perhaps he'll help me have another go when I'm sixty five?

Roger

Fran had me a T shirt
made to celebrate

THIS PAGE:

Some Words from our Sponsor

Photo's / Video links

The Musicians

PHOTO'S / VIDEO LINKS

Preparation time

Colin
The sound gnome

Andi and Roger

Ben and Natalie

Ian Campbell Band - No Particular Place to Go

The King Earl Boogie Band - This Little Light
(not at my party - the cameras wouldn't work for them)

Ali & Jacqui

So Long Angel

Ian Campbell Band

Colin, Fran and Jacky

Sound desk
Roger, Colin, George

Mel, Fran, Jacky
aka - Catering Staff

So Long Angel

Jackie Lynton Band - Unchain My Heart

So Long Angel - Love Is Freedom

The cake !

The Choir

Jackie Lynton and Chris Bryant

Simon and The Teens

Fran McGillivray

Jackie Lynton Band

Neighbours

Mike Burke

Nashville Teens - Spencer Davis medley

Jackie Lynton - Nonsense for Roger

Roger on stage

Nashville Teens
with Kerry filming them

The choir !

Ray and Roger

Trish

Friends at the party + "Favourite Things"

THE MUSICIANS - over 350million record sales

	THE IAN CAMPBELL BAND Ian is one of the Country's leading guitarists. As well as playing with Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Levee Camp Moan and The Nashville Teens, he has depped with such great bands as Thin Lizzy. If they liked him he must be good! He is supported here by Keith Allen vocals, harmonica and rhythm guitar (Keith started his musical career as drummer with Marty Wilde's Wild Cats) ; Simon Spratley keyboards (The Nashville Teens) ; George Lesley Calvert, bass guitar (Alexis Korner, Mike Coopers Machine Gun Co, Jona Louis, Mungo Jerry King Earl Boogie Band); and Simon Baker (Pred8tür) on drums.
	SO LONG ANGEL is a fantastic band comprising Fran McGillivray (bass and lead vocals); Mike Burke (Guitar and second vocals); James Britton (drums) and Roland Kemp on keyboards. Their music is a fusion of blues and jazz - very beautifully presented and with a lot of their own compositions as well as some refreshing interpretations of really classic standards. Fran and Mike also work as a duo around the folk/blues circuit and are sometime available as a trio with Roger Nunn (sadly not with us tonight) on percussion. I was standing with Jackie Lynton when they performed Love is Freedom - one of my favourite pieces. He said he didn't know the song and asked who wrote it. I said it was Fran and Mike. After a minute watching them Jack just said "It's F**king good". That is immense praise from the master - Jack wrote many of Status Quo's hit songs.
	THE JACKIE LYNTON BAND Jack started as a solo singer in the sixties (Teddy Bears Picnic, Over the Rainbow), then became vocalist with The Savoy Brown Blues Band (Jack The Toad). A prolific song writer, Jack teemed up with Rick Parfitt to pen some of Status Quo's best known numbers. He worked with John Coghlan in Diesel before forming his own band. Backing Jack tonight are two lead guitars: Chris Bryant (Bryant's Guitar Emporium, Denmark Street) and Mike Windus (Cryin' Out Loud). His power house comprises Greg Terry-Short on percussion and Colin Pattenden (Manfred Mann's Earth Band) on bass.
	THE KING EARL BOOGIE BAND Boogie, blues and R&B band. Traces it's roots to the original Mungo Jerry, but now evolved to feature an amazing assembly of talent. Colin Earl (Mungo Jerry & Foghat) on Keyboards ; Ian Campbell (Arthur Brown, Nashville Teens) on Lead Guitar ; Dave Peabody (solo blues artist, three times acoustic blues guitarist of the year) on vocals and second lead guitar ; George Leslie Calvert (Alexis Korner, Mike Coopers Machine Gun Co, Jona Louis, Mungo Jerry) on bass guitar ; and John Coghlan (Status Quo, John Coghlan's Quo, Diesel,) on drums.
	THE NASHVILLE TEENS Not a tribute band – this is the real thing – a genuine surviving hard driving R&B band Tobacco Road, Google Eye, This Little Bird. The original vocalist, Ray Phillips, is one of the best R&B vocalists in the Country and still leads the band. The other musicians are Colin Pattenden (bass guitar), Colin was a founder member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band ; Adrian Metcalf (drums) ; Ken Osborne (lead guitar) ; and Simon Spratley (keyboards)

OTHER MUSICIANS WHO WERE WANDERING ABOUT HELPING

	COLIN PATTENDEN You’ll see Colin playing bass guitar with at least two of tonight’s bands, and he has a fabulous musical pedigree, including working with Englebert Humperdink, Leapy Lee and being a founder member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band. But Colin is also a technical wizard - and is the Master of the Sound System tonight. The Sound System used tonight is provided by his company, CP Sounds. If ever you need sound or lighting, anywhere (stage, clubs, restaurants, indoors, outdoors - anywhere!) – then Colin is your man ! http://www.cpsound.co.uk. Colin and I both share a passion for full bodied red wines.
	KARL GREEN Karl made his name as a founder member and bass guitarist with Herman's Hermits. He managed the sound desk while Colin P was on stage with The Nashville Teens. Karl has his own band, called Dave’s Not Here, and hires himself out as a sound engineer. It would be too complicated to explain why he posed for this photograph in my bathroom!
	GEORGE LESLIE CALVERT George is one of the best bass players in the Country today. He was a founder member of Mike Cooper's Machine Gun Company and has played in many bands including Alexis Korner, Jonah Louis, Edwin Starr's Band and he spent an impressive 18 years with Ray Dorset's Mungo Jerry Band before joining the King Earl Boogie Band in 2000. He also moonlights with Jason Manners and joins Ian Campbell in both Cheques In The Post and The Ian Campbell Band. His extra-curricular duties at my party involved both managing the sound desk while Colin P was on stage with The Jackie Lynton Band; and making sure that Stephanie got a continual supply of glasses of wine.
	IN MEMORIAM GRAHAME WHITE A great guitarist and a friend of many here tonight – sadly passed away tragically exactly a year ago on 21st March 2008. We miss you Grahame. The photo of Grahame was taken on Capri in 2005 - a marvellous holiday.

reviewed 07/09