Still going strong!

Probably the most successful entertainer ever to come from South Bank and the most famous - not to mention the richest!

I knew Paul (Ted) at Coatham Grammar School although not socially as I'm about two years older and I was a member of a boistrous group whose every minute of spare time at school was taken up with a ball in the schoolyard. Whereas Ted Daniels was a loner who just stood around looking miserable.

Some years later I would see him with his mobile shop in South Bank and I may have bought a packet of fags from him but otherwise he didn't really exist.

The first time I really noticed him was an appearance on Look North where he impressed Mike Neville (and me) with what he called Mini Magic with the camera closely focused on his hands. Also he talked - and his patter wasn't bad! Of course he wasn't the polished performer we know now-a-days but it was an impressive start.

The next time I saw him was at the Peter's Club in the sixties. He came down among the audience and was stood near me as he completely baffled me and everyone else with "magic" before our very eyes and he made many fans including me.

His television career cemented his fame and fortune and his popularity soared as he showed his versatility as a presenter of game shows and won awards galore around the world.

But suddenly, Paul was no longer on the telly. Why? He was still popular with the public. Personally I think it was politics in the BBC. After all Paul is a Slaggy Islander and as such would not hesitate to speak his mind. I think a few of the BBC hiararchy couldn't take it and Paul was out.

So where is he? Has he retired? (After all he can afford it!) Definitely not. He's still going strong and touring.

In the Spring Bank Holiday I went for a break down to Torquay with other members of Redcar Amateur Photographic Society and one day we had a walk around Exmouth. As I passed a theatre I saw a life size portrait of Paul Daniels smiling at me. Closer inspection revealed that Paul is appearing there in July with his one-man show.

That same evening we took in a show at the Babbacombe Bay Theatre and posters of Paul advertised that he is doing his show there in June. Don't worry about Paul, he's still coining it in and long may he continue to do so.

Martin in the "Back Alex" at Saltburn

Martin Nesbitt is another of my favourite entertainers and exhibits his wonderful sense of humour and keen eye in the songs he writes. He even wrote one about me a couple of years ago!

He was born at 35 Keir Hardy Crescent and went to Saint Peter's School on Normanby Road. He plays guitar and harmonica and sings and writes his own songs. He's had at least five of his songs played on the radio and TV so far.

Martin is well known on the Folk scene and performs in clubs and pubs (or anywhere he's asked!). He now lives in Saltburn.

I wish he'd bring out a CD - I'd be first in the queue. If you get a chance to catch his act don't miss it!!! (He has. I was. I got it!)
Up to date. Martin has another CD out and you can listen to some of the numbers on his website by clicking on the link below.

Ray, rolling back the years in The Blue Bell

Old friend Ray "Dalla" Dales achieved what a lot of us dreamed of back in the fifties - he became a professional musician. Back then, listening to Jazz records, we would play our "air" instruments while losing ourselves in the music. Some of us even bought instruments. Phil Tranter bought an alto saxophone, I had a clarinet...
However it takes more than an instrument in ones hands - it takes hard work and practice, practice, practice. Dalla did it - we didn't. We look up to Ray because he lives our dreams. I can't praise him adequately enough - but The Evening Gazette did in the following article which appeared on February 10th 2003 (Copyright Evening Gazette)

Ray's got real sax appeal
by Keith Newton, Evening Gazette.

Ray Dales is the sax god of Teesside. He's been at it for more than 50 years, sometimes several times a day.

He says: "I have done well, but only because I have worked hard. "I have been practising this morning and still try to do half an hour every day."

Ray is a god of the saxophone, one of the last of the few, he reckons. Big bands, smaller bands, fine bands, military bands, and backing bands, he has played with them all. He was even a member of one of Teesside's most famous groups and nearly had a number one record.

Next month, he is off to play again in Cuba.
"I'll just pack my instruments and go for two weeks," he says.

At 66, he's a happy man, at ease with himself, and content with the way his life has gone, yet saddened by the state of modern music.

He played saxophone through the big band era, the groups era, the clubland days, and he can rattle off top name after top name after name.

They start with the local fifties bandleaders from Dicky Hunter in South Bank to Bob Potter at Stockton, Charles Amer and Danny Mitchell in Redcar, Jimmy Carr and Alan Waller in Middlesbrough.

The sixties saw him with John McCoy in the fabled Crawdaddies at the Kirk and alongside Jimmy James, Alan Price, Georgie Fame and Jimmy Hendrix.

Then the seventies found him at the fabulous Fiesta in Norton backing the Four Tops, Neil Sedaka, Nancy Wilson, Three Degrees, Connie Francis, Lovelace Watkins, Seekers, Bachelors, Dana and Tony Christie.

He even played for comics there like Dave Allen ("brilliant") and Tommy Cooper ("couldn't go on without a good drink") but in our modern days, he fears the instrument is dying out.

"No one wants to play sax any more," he sighs at his Billingham home. "There are only about five or six of us in the North-east and if we weren't here, people would struggle."

What a difference that 50 years makes. Ray's family lived on Middlesbrough Road in South Bank where his father, another Ray, had a fruit shop.

His dad also ran a concert party and encouraged his children - Ray, sisters Tessy and the late Maureen, and brother Kevin - to be musical.

"Maureen played piano for the concert party when she was 15 and Kevin is Nat King Cole mad and always has been," says Ray.

"I got into music because of Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra and started to play the sax at 14.

"Later I used to go from South Bank to the Palais at Stockton. I went by the old trackless - the trolley bus - to North Ormesby and then got the blue O bus to Stockton. I can't remember how I used to get home. I was only 15."

Most fans idolised the singers. Not Ray.

"I was interested in the saxophone players and used to go up and talk to them. I met Ronnie Scott, John Dankworth and Tubby Hayes who all played sax.

"Then I got a lesson from Lol Wells who played at the Palais in the Bob Potter Band."

He would later join the band.

His first chance though came with the Dicky Hunter Band at the old Co-op Hall above the Co-op shop in South Bank.

"My mam came into the shop and Dicky said 'Do you know anything about this little beggar, Ray Dales?'

"She said 'You just happen to be talking about my husband.' He said 'He plays the sax?' She said 'No, that's my son.' He said 'That's the one that I want.'

"That's how it started. Dicky was a great trumpet player and a great bloke."

Ray even made music in the Army.

"I did two years National Service with the Tank Regiment at Catterick, but I never had any military duties and only went into a tank once."

He had taken the shrewd advice of Bob Dalkin, the lead alto sax player with the Amer band at the Coatham Hotel.

The word was... "Look in the Melody Maker where the Army advertises for musicians, find a staff band not a regimental band, make sure they have just come back from Germany so they will be guaranteed to stay here, and apply to join them."

So he did - and he did.

"After six weeks training, I went into the band. It was the life of Riley, and in the band you didn't have a gun - guns used to frighten me. I never knew if they had bullets in or not."

He still managed to keep up his connections with ballroom bands.

"I played five days a week from 8am to 3pm in the army band and five nights and Saturday afternoons with other bands.

"It was hard work but that never bothered me and my technique came on a bomb."

Then came Kirklevington and the Crawdaddies who included John McCoy, Alan Fearnley, Tony Ayres and Ron Asprey.

"They were great times, everyone came to the Kirk. We were with all the big names but couldn't get a record deal because we didn't write our own songs and everyone else did."

He nearly made it when he Alan and Ron moved on to Rivers Invitation with a singer called Alan Ludley.

"We recorded Seasons In The Sun but after a month, the record company dropped it and gave it to someone else and it went to number one."

He and Ron left Rivers Invitation and when Alan Ludley was killed in a car crash, the rest brought in a new singer, a young lad called David Coverdale who would later sing with Deep Purple and Whitesnake.

Ray worked on the cruise boats doing the Miami to Jamaica run every week. "Then in 1970 came the big one, the Fiesta. That was the best six years of my life.

"The owner Jim Lipthorpe rang and asked if I wanted to come and I was there for six years until he sold it."

That led to a change of career direction.

"I got a phone call asking if I would like to go teaching for Durham County Council.

"I said 'Yes' and did that for 21 years until I retired five years ago. I taught clarinet, sax and flute."

He also played at functions with the Ray Dales Fine Band and at last had a hit - well locally, anyway.

"I wrote Willie's Reggae about Willie Maddren in 1978. It was his benefit year and it sold 17-18,000 copies.

"I still had my own quartet playing at functions but now there are three of us who go playing abroad.

"There's Peter Papprill who's 78 on trumpet, Ernie Jackson who's 62 on drums and me.

"I also play with Musicians Unlimited and some of us from the old days - Terry Popple who was in the Crawdaddies and Ray Johns who was in Rivers Invitation - now play with Riverside Invitation.

"They are doing really well and have done a couple of CDs."

Ray met his wife Sue when he was at the Fiesta though they are now apart.

"I live alone, just me, it's heaven," he says.
"I walk a lot, play golf, and have no plans to stop playing music."

He has three children, son Leslie, 27, Richard, 25, who plays guitar, writes and sings songs, and Katie, 23, who manages Jumping Jacks in Middlesbrough.

Lots of others in the family are musical too. Folk singer Vin Garbutt is his cousin and a niece sang as Lena Storm. None play sax.

"The rot started in the sixties," he explains, "with the advent of the groups when people were learning the guitar not the sax - no one was learning a brass instrument.

"After a month, a kid could play three chords on the guitar and sing half the Beatles' songs.

"My son Richard taught himself to play guitar. You can't pick up a sax and play it after three months."

"When I was in the Crawdaddies nobody came to talk to me about the sax like I did in the fifties. They talked to the guitar and bass players."

The closure of the coal mines speeded the saxophone's demise.

"Once every pit had a brass band. They were the mainstays, they and the Salvation Army.

"Sax players normally came from being clarinet players though when I started they had all been violinists.

"I don't know why sax and violin went together, maybe the violin wasn't forceful enough for a quickstep or tango.

"When the pit bands went, that was it. I would love to go to a club now and see a 22 year old playing sax. Everyone playing now is old.

"The average age for Musicians Unlimited is 55 and that's because one girl is in her thirties. Nine of us are over 65."

Ray and the oldies, however, will happily play on. "I can't ever imagine having a life better than mine," he says.

"I would have killed myself if I'd had a hit, I would have been a druggie.

"No I wouldn't," he hastily adds, "I've been around too long to get into anything like that.

"But I did enjoy the life - and the girls. There were plenty of groupies, loads of them, even for a saxophone player.

"There will be quite a few chuckles around Teesside when people read this."
Ray will be appearing at The Blue Bell on Sunday 22nd February. See you there!
Well me and Jack were there - where were you?!
Seriously, anyone who missed it missed a good night which introduced a terrific young (17!) jazz pianist.
Incidentally, Ray said he was pleased to see Terry Larkin in our pages proving that he is a regular reader. Then he told me he had found a site called Redcar Rock. I had a laugh at that one as Ray hadn't realised that it was one of my sites - although I must admit that I have been neglecting it lately but keep looking in...

Martin entertaining in his inimitable style

Photo by Keith Render of Marske
Martin has just released a lovely, melodic CD called "Different Worlds"demonstrating his talents as a Song Writer, Guitarist, Folk Singer and Humourist. It has seventeen tracks on it as follows:
1. Greytown (Actually about Grangetown but Martin didn't want to offend anyone!)
2. Mr.Yesterday
3. Catfishman (Penned while on holiday in Florida)
4. The Fields of County Cork
5. Room Number 9 (Unusual subject given the humourous treatment!)
6. The Girl With The Violet Eyes
7. Vin Garbutt - Everybody Knows His Name (Tribute)
8. I'll Never Be A Miner Again
9. Cruel Fool
10.The Hound From Hell
11.The Tide
12.Living In Different Worlds
13.Time Slowly Slips Away
14.What You Have Around You
15.It's A Shame - We Don't Hang 'em Any More!
16.The Foy Boat Song
17.Doing What I Do
I guarantee that after you hear this CD you'll be waiting for his next one - I know I am!
CD's can be purchased from Martin through his e-mail address:
m.nesbitt1@ntlworld.com

RECOMMENDED!!!!
Martin has another CD out. Have a listen by clicking on the link below. Don't forget to turn your speakers on!

This is the Vin Garbutt CD which includes the Slaggy Island song.

I bought this at the gig and thoroughly enjoy it but I should have told Vin that Martin Nesbitt gave me a copy of his CD!
You can buy Vin's merchandise through his website.

Faye Nesbitt described as having "a voice from Heaven"

This story featured in the East Cleveland Advertiser and I include it in my website because Saltburn girl Faye Nesbitt is from Slaggy Island stock! Her father Martin, born and bred in South Bank and one of my favourite entertainers, is already featured on this page.

by the staff of the East Cleveland Advertiser

TEENAGE singing sensation Faye Nesbitt is on her way to student stardom after being shortlisted in a national competition.

After her talent was spotted by a singing teacher when she was in the school choir, the 17-year-old is one of the youngest finalists in this year's National Student Music Awards. The competition aims to showcase new student talent to the music industry.

The best student artist will be presented with recording time at the BBC's Maida Vale studio, with production and mastering at the legendary Abbey Road Studios and distribution through the American Blood record label. The winner will also receive Lee Cooper products and an appearance on music show CD:UK on ITV1.

Faye, who is studying Performing Arts at Middlesbrough College, has her father Martin and brother Neil to thank for her recent fame.

Teesside University student Neil, 21, spotted a poster for the competition in the corridors of the university and her father entered her into the awards.

Faye said: "It all happened pretty quickly and the next thing I knew, I had a call telling me I was into the last 30 out of 500.

"I couldn't believe it. There are so many brilliant bands in the final 30 and I'm one of the youngest.

"I can't wait for the final, I'm just relying on the people of the North-East to vote for me."

The part-time worker, from Saltburn, is now rallying for votes from her local towns and villages.

The final takes place in London on May 11. It will feature the three artists who receive the most votes, one of whom will be voted best student artist.

Faye has been singing competitively for seven years and last summer returned from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with excellent reviews and an award for her outstanding contribution.

Her voice can be heard on the website at www.nsma.com where people can also vote.

Vin and Pete Betts strike a jolly pose at the wake of a friend!

VIN GARBUTT GIG LIST

June 2007

1 SALTBURN SALTBURN GOLF CLUB - 01287 622623
4 EAST GRINSTEAD CHEQUERMEAD ARTS CENTRE - 01342 302000
5 SAFFRON WALDEN THE BLUEBELL INN - 01799 599199
6 BANBURY THE MILL - 01295 279003
9 SOUTHWELL, NOTTS. GATE TO SOUTHWELL FOLK FESTIVAL MARQUEE - 01636 812852
10 SOUTHWELL, NOTTS. GATE TO SOUTHWELL FOLK FESTIVAL MARQUEE - 01636 812852
21 SHREWSBURY ST. CHADS CHURCH - 01743 281281
22 BROMSGROVE AVONCROFT MUSEUM - 01527 575476
23 LINCOLN FOLK FESTIVAL WESTGATE SCHOOL - 01526 352153
29 WHITEHAVEN ROSEHILL THEATRE - 01900 604765
30 PANNAL PANNAL MEMORIAL HALL - 01423 868632


July 2007

5 CHESHIRE THE RAKE, LITTLE STANNEY - 01516 789902
6 CLECKHEATON FOLK FESTIVAL CLECKHEATON TOWN HALL - 01924 404346
8 ELY ELY FOLK FESTIVAL - 01284 705780
9 PRIVATE FUNCTION -


August 2007

3 NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE THE CHILLINGHAM ARMS - 0191 287 3135/ 0191 265 9628/ 01670 516797 all evenings only
10 SIDMOUTH FOLK FESTIVAL T.B.C. THE HAM MARQUEE - 01395 578627
11 BROADSTAIRS FOLK FESTIVAL PIERREMONT PARK - 01843 604080
12 SALTBURN FOLK FESTIVAL VARIOUS - 01287 622623
26 STOCKTON-ON-TEES PRESTON PARK - 01642 525199


September 2007

1 FYLDE FOLK FESTIVAL THE MARINE HALL - 01253 770547
6 LYMM THE RAILWAY INN - 07919 270916
7 ISLE OF MAN THE CENTENARY CENTRE - 01624 845146
8 KIRKBY STEPHEN THE ACOUSTIC TEAROOM - 01768 372123
10 CANADA through to September 28th. Details to come later. -
29 TOTNES HARBERTON PARISH HALL - 01803 863468


October 2007

4 WORKSOP CIRCLE ARTS CENTRE - 01909 474458


November 2007

1 GATESHEAD THE SAGE - 0191 443 4666
8 SLEAFORD THE PLAYHOUSE THEATRE - 01529 305040