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Chris Pollard has kindly shared his recollections of The Seed
The Seed I suppose were a mod band with two lead singers, Julian and I. Must have been sometime in 1966 although we still played a sprinkling of R & B tunes, we played a lot of Mowtown.
The Seed were, Phil Tucker on drums, Trev Mannell on rythum guitar, Phil Meares on keyboards, Mick Grose on base, and Trev ( Piggy ) Green on lead guitar. Fronted by Julian and myself on vocals. Bass player Mick Grose came to us from the Smokie Joes where he had played rhythm guitar. Whereas Piggy Green was an old school friend. Piggy was always there, even in the Thube days. He was actually a better player than we were, but for some reason or another we were just happier without him. Each time we found ourselves forming a new band he would mysteriously appear with the immortal words "any room in your band for Pig?".
The Seed was I supposed quite a short lived thing, we played a couple of gigs, rehearsed a lot and played at the Annual Beat Competition at the Truro City Hall, now the Hall For Cornwall.
Now the Beat Competition was a big bloody scary gig. We travelled on a coach from Portscatho with our fans and all the gear in the boot. We shared a dressing room with Little Johnny And The Giants. Little Johnny was a midget rock and roll singer and all his band were about six feet tall! And to see him, he must have been about a meter tall, ordering these guys around and shouting at them! We thought it was brilliant!
I can't remember exactly how many bands were in the contest, but it was in the teens. Now get this! Each band had to carry on and set up their own gear ( very quickly ! ) while the previous band was carrying their gear off ! You then would play two numbers and carry your gear off again while the next band was carrying their gear on ! Absolute chaos. We had made a new speaker cabinet (yes we were still into making what we could ) and had painted it with black paint the night before. The only problem was is that it refused to dry ! Julian and I stood at the front of the stage and sang Dancing In The Street and Heat Wave both by Martha And The Vandellas, with out hands covered in black paint ! This however was not the worse of it. The girls we had brought with us had all made signs out of hardboard saying ' WE LOVE THE SEED ' with all our names on. As soon as we came on, they all ran down to the front waving these banners and screaming. Well that was great, we felt really famous, but now comes the problem! All these girls from Truro who I think were obviously supporting another band, came charging down and all hell broke loose, shouting, screaming, hair pulling and the banners all smashed to pieces! It was amazing! As we finished the compare said "well if that reaction was anything to go by, the Seed should turn professional tomorrow! " . Well, we didn't win and I really can't remember who did however this thing between the girls had stirred up a whole load of trouble. Drummer Phil went into the gents and got threatened by some Truro guys and it was all downhill from there really! The bouncers had to line up along the corridor outside the dressing room so we could carry our gear out to the waiting coach. Well we did feel just a little bit famous as we drove away leaving the heavy mob on the pavement waving their fists!
SOMETIME LATER AT THE BLUE LAGOON…
"You two lads would look really nice if you had your hair cut," said the barmaid at the Blue Lagoon in Newquay. There I was drinking pints of Newcastle Brown with Ronnie Wood. "What is six feet underground and smokes a cigar?" says Ronnie. "Don't know Ron!" "Winston Churchill" said he! That was one of his better jokes that evening, no wonder I have forgotten the others!
Ronnie was there playing with The Birds, I was there to steal a few songs! "Got any good numbers for the Seed?" says I! "Ya, Jailhouse Rock" says he! This song and Ronnie would come back to haunt me.
It couldn't have been much more than eighteen months later when I found myself in the company of the spiky haired one, once again at the Truro City Hall. He was by this time, playing bass in the Jeff Beck Group. After the gig I had gone back stage to their dressing room, and was in good company. There was Ronnie, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart along with Mickey Waller and Nicky Hopkins I think.
Sitting chatting to Ronnie I said "I see you’re doing Jailhouse Rock, now then?" remembering our conversation at our last meeting. He picked up this Telecaster Guitar and showed me a few ways to play it. He handed me the guitar and said, " be careful, it's the one Jeff used on all the Yardbird hits ". I don't know how the string broke, it just sort of went .....ping! I was so embarrassed! I saw Ronnie's face just drop as I sat there actually holding the broken string together! I was conscious of Jeff Beck looking over my shoulder, suddenly he stormed out of the room, switching off the lights as he went, and slamming the door behind him! Rod Stewart shouted "stupid bastard!" and went out and had a right go at him! We could hear it all going on outside the dressing room door. Just one of my more embarrassing moments! |
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