The Books
of
Raz Razzle
Writing a book was something I'd always wanted to do but aside from being daunted by the logistical issues of getting it printed and published, I didn't have any concrete ideas about what to put in it. However, in 2009, during tempestuous confrontations with a former-employer and with Maria Miller & the DWP, I took to busking in Wote Street and it was there that the idea crystallised. I often went into the Willis Museum; I had a passing interest in local history and found time to look closely at what was in there. Among the maps and exhibits was a photocopied and stapled document pertaining to be a list of artists that had performed in Basingstoke in the 1960s at something called the Galaxy Club. The doc had been put together by Steve Partridge and his friend and contained some quite startling names such as David Bowie and Stevie Wonder and many other acts that were familiar to me. 'Surely these legends didn't really appear in Basingstoke?'
Intrigued, I went in search of evidence at the town library (or Discovery Centre as I'm required to call it) and perused the microfiche files of the Basingstoke Gazette. This was precisely the source from which Steve's list had been made but I realised that it was possible to make printed copies of the adverts for the events (or indeed any relevant items about local music) and my first thought was to put them on Facebook where there was sure to be interest. Nevertheless, I had to budget for the photocopies (which were 20p each) so I defined the scale of the project and cracked on with it; systematically finding each advert and any related articles. I would then take them home and scan the info into Photoshop where I created a gallery of these historic happenings. I was then able to research the artists and made some fascinating discoveries that I felt merited far more attention than they were getting at the Museum.
The first step (after astonishing my Facebook friends with some of these priceless artefacts) was to create the WordPress page in 2013:
https://razrazzle.wordpress.com/
This generated lots of interest locally and much further afield even when only the 60s chapters had been posted. I was to add further chapters over the coming years but the desire to put the information in a book was compelling. I contacted and provoked the enthusiasm of Steve Partridge, initially on a consultative basis though he eventually became a friend. His contributions to the first book go beyond the lively articles that appear in it; he had known or sought out some of the characters we describe, he sourced the printer and even found me the ISBN number yet nevertheless declined co-authorship. Steve's true value to the venture is the fact that he saw these acts and went to the events whereas I, a decade or so his junior, did not. I knew the halls and theatres where the gigs had taken place and some of the people that had been involved and I found it quite easy to imagine being there if I'd been born fifteen years earlier; however, the reverent formality of my chapters in 'The Basingstoke Music Scene in the 1960s' are nicely contrasted with Steve's evocative reflections. Paul May also deserves a mention for his invaluable insight into the forgotten world of Basingstoke's jug-band scene.
From memory, there were 330 copies of the 60s book and it sold out within a year. We launched it at the Tea Bar in London Street on November 28th 2015. It turned out to be the proverbial auspicious occasion; attended by Bob Young (of Status Quo song-writing fame) with his wife Sue, Pete Staples (a Trogg) and Official Raving Monster Loony Party leader Alan Hope among many others.
(Left) The proud author with Bob
Young and Rex Everett (Right) Billy Hill
(Left) Martin & Sarah
(Right) Alan (Howling Laud) Hope aka Kerry Rapid, Pete Staples, James (Billy) Taylor and me
https://www.oxygenphotography.co.uk/
Our official photographer on the day was Lee Sainsbury of Oxygen Photography though the Gazette declined or neglected to send anyone. DJ Ian 'Hurf' Hurford provided vintage vinyl sounds.
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Buoyed by the success of this first venture and having learned much about the process involved in making a book; I moved on to look at the 1970s. My approach was similar; facts, photos and data first; anecdotes and reflections second, but there was a slight difference in that this was my era and my own recollections could sometimes give extra depth to the stories perhaps as Steve and Paul had done in the previous book.
I was able to find people via Facebook who could expand on the Gazette reports from forty years earlier and met some splendid people in the process. Through a Gazette article and Facebook, I was able to trace Davy Larkins, the man that made the posters for a string of gigs at the Haymarket Theatre in the early 70s. He very kindly supplied us with three of those images of which this is the most striking:
We held a launch for 'The Basingstoke Music Scene in the 1970s', again at the Tea Bar, on 4th December 2016. This was also well-attended but the surprise was the appearance of some dear friends from a long time back. Skanking Steve provided the musical backdrop. Fifty copies were produced in hardback and a hundred and fifty (I think) in paperback and both editions also sold out swiftly.
(Am I considering reprints of either of these books? Well, actually, no but if there is some switched-on publisher out there that would be interested; feel free to contact me). Demand for copies since selling out has been occasional and random and not nearly sufficient to justify the effort and expense of a reprint. Sorry if you were hoping to get one. I did find an unsigned copy of the 60s book in the charity shop in Church Street a couple of years ago (it was £1) so there is still hope.
(Left) School friend Stuart Jane and (Right) Evil Eyes' (second) drummer Paul “God of Thunder” Taylor
Me with Steve “Dig” Pimbblet and with Nicole & Andrea
(Left) Me with Pete Brill and (Right) Stu Jane, Lofty Spires, Stuart Campbell-Smith and Bob Jane
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Book three might naturally enough have been about the 1980s but this did not happen for two key reasons: I had lost touch with the local scene in the 1980s and was never keen on the music of the era so had never taken much interest in it and felt that Gary Choppen could probably do a better job. Perhaps more importantly though, book three was under consideration at the very point when Basingstoke Live Festival was being run down and collapsed by the local council. I had been assiduously gathering photos of the free annual two-day event since its creation in 2007 but I'd also kept vast numbers of news cuttings and memorabilia and the minutes of meetings with a view to one day compiling a book about it. That day had arrived, perhaps prematurely but I was compelled to assemble all this data, together with my eye-witness account of the Festival's construction and demolition, into a complete history of what must have been the town's most successful cultural achievement. I felt a need to celebrate the myriad contributors to Basingstoke's best possible realisation of its best ever idea.
My aim throughout was to demonstrate the atmosphere, the excitement and the community spirit of that decade and to include as many contributors as possible, even if they were only named in the line-ups. As a contracted photographer at Basingstoke Live since 2009, I, together with my wife, had formed a team of professional snappers which aimed at systematically photographing every act, every year. Nevertheless, I used only my own photos in the book with a few exceptions. However, the entire collected works of the Basingstoke Live Photography Team can be found on the site we used to call Flickr (as long as Ann continues to pay the £50 a year they require to maintain it online). The folders are labelled alphabetically by artist name but can also be sought by year, tags or photographer and the photos can be downloaded FOC.
Surprisingly, reaction to the third book was somewhat muted but the explanation lies in the acrimony that was caused by the destruction of the event.
The Tory-led Council had offered what were effectively bribes to the event's promoters to support a watered-down child-friendly, paid entry surrogate of the free Festival (proposed for July 2018). This had caused a schism in the ranks between those that went along with the plan and those of us that vigorously opposed any unwelcome interference in the running of Basingstoke Live. Subsequently, what should have been a popular souvenir was to become a historical record of political chicanery that had left a bitter taste in quite a few mouths. In telling the story of Basingstoke Live, it was as necessary to explain its demise as it was to describe its origins and all that happened in between. This required pointing a finger at some locally high-profile individuals and there may have been an element of controversy although everything I said was backed up by facts and evidence. The Gazette would not promote the book; perhaps because they had been asked not to or perhaps because the author had the temerity to criticise the newspaper itself in the course of his work.
In Basingstoke Live's final year, 2017, my friend, Mark and I were given free access to the Gazette's neglected and disorganised archive. The newspaper was planning to leave its Pelton Road site and the archive would have to be disposed of. I expressed my concerns about the future of the archive to the Editor-in-Chief but was given the impression, rightly or wrongly, that this unique and irreplaceable collection was not a priority. We made copies of items of interest; particularly photographs and documents pertaining to local affairs and our excavations led to a number of articles that Mark and I wrote for the Gazette that year; the most notable of which was the story of the rediscovery of souvenirs of the Beatles' brief stop at the Pied Piper Restaurant in 1967. However, when the Council were putting their devious plan into action in December of 2017, the Gazette, rather than questioning or challenging them, printed the Council's news briefs verbatim and refused to listen to the whistle-blowers. My book accused the Gazette of acting like a doormat for the Council. I had emerged alongside Labour Councillor Angie Freeman as the last remaining voice of the free festival but the Gazette did not want to listen.
Back in the heyday of Basingstoke Live (2011-2016) the Gazette employed a journalist (then) named Jo Mace. She had taken the paper by the scruff of the neck and given it a new lease of life. Jo knew (better than any Gazette journalist within memory) the value to a town, of healthy arts and culture and she supported the free festival and other events and made contact with key local figures; bringing them to public attention and celebrating all that was good about our vibrant scene. Jo even wrote an editorial in support of Basingstoke Live when it had come under attack in 2012 and 2014. She was to leave the Gazette in November 2015 and was one of several of the free festival's champions who were out of the picture by the time they were most needed.
Despite having the highest profile among the free festival's depleted army and despite having been a contributor to the Gazette a few months earlier and despite having previously published two books about local music, I was reduced to writing angry letters to the letters page. One such was attributed to 'Raz Razzle, attender'. Until I discovered that 'attender' actually exists, I had wondered whether the Gazette had made it up especially for me. When the Council began promoting its replacement festival, ('B-Love' in 2018), the Gazette printed quotes along the lines of 'this event will put Basingstoke on the map' and despite knowing perfectly well that this was a new and different event; the Gazette referred to it as 'the popular annual festival' as though 'attenders' would not notice any difference (apart from having to pay).
Suffice to say that the Council-run 'festivals' of 2018 and 2019 attracted barely a fifth of the attendance for their predecessors. The Council had succeeded in reducing our great event to an embarrassment that could be more easily controlled or dispensed with in the future.
Arrangements were made for the retention of the Gazette's archive by Hampshire County Council and perhaps other interested parties. The building that it had occupied since 1974 was finally abandoned in 2021. The Gazette's personnel have changed significantly in a few years but news items about local music remain rare and random in 2022. As someone who has been actively checking the pulse of Basingstoke's music scene for two decades, it would be wrong to say that it has been completely obliterated; I can see that there are local gigs and open-mics and people are still playing in bands or trying to get one started. Nevertheless, the death of our Festival and the loss of our last dedicated music venue, (Sanctuary, in 2018) along with the Covid epidemic and lockdown, have all taken their toll. It is difficult to imagine a time in the future when local bands and singers will again fill the pages of our dear old paper.
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The Audio Art of Basingstoke was intended to be the bookend to a quartet of books about local music. The two decades that I had skipped past (the 80s and 90s) would not be served in the same way that the 60s, 70s and 2010s had been but the final part of the project could include information about those missing eras if only in acknowledgment of the acts and venues that were around. There were certainly articles on my blog (and most still are) pertaining to 80s and 90s bands and gigs so I resolved to incorporate such info into the final book. During the process of curating the blog, I acquired or became aware of, a number of tapes, records and CDs by local people and bands. I had been keeping these items separate from the rest of my music collection; filing them alphabetically in an anorakky type of way. At some point, the local collection began to look like the kind of thing you would want to show to people so the idea of putting it all in a book seemed like a very good one. I gave careful consideration to the immense amount of hunting, searching, researching, scanning and mental legwork that would be involved but I'd reached a pause in my own music and other interests so I launched gung-ho into my final offering to the annals of Basingstoke's history.
Compiling the Audio Art of Basingstoke went pretty-much to plan but the issues that emerged were mostly in connection with online correspondents. Miscommunication could mean annoying delays and I was constantly re-adjusting the pages as new info or entries trickled in or sometimes didn't. There was also an element of feather-rustling; not everyone has fond memories of their experiences in bands or in the music biz and reluctance to cooperate probably added to the difficulty of being unable to trace people or information. It is also quite probable that potentially interesting correspondents had assumed that Raz Razzle was some weirdo who wanted to ask about a tape they had made several decades ago and didn't feel like getting involved.
The venture actually cost quite a lot just in purchases from Discogs and elsewhere. I liked to buy items if they were available at reasonable prices (quite a few are not) but had to resort to copying images of the disc or artwork from the web when it could not be begged, borrowed or bought.
The 2020 lockdown was an awful time for many people. Ann & I got on with the things we do; in my case, compiling a book. Another advantage (hmm, perhaps an inadvertent convenience) was that Basingstoke's usual gush of gigs and CDs had ground to an abrupt halt as though the factory was closed for stocktaking, which, in a sense was what I was doing. The hiatus in the recordings, combined with the apparent exodus to digital format (one that I had expressly determined not to include) meant that I was focused on a finite number of recordings that was less likely to expand than it would have been in the past.
Launching the book at the Tea Bar or anywhere else was not possible so potential sales were lost from the start. The Basingstoke Observer ignored it (or probably would have printed a glowing review if I'd written it myself under a pseudonym) while the Gazette, as previously noted, were unlikely to take any interest. Thus, the somewhat inauspicious release was something of an anti-climax although it was well-received at the town library (the Discovery Centre) where it was to nestle among the previous three on the shelf of the local history reference section. A thousand or so of us were chalking our names next to those of Jane Austen and John Arlott. In this respect at least, the book and indeed the whole quartet was a huge success.
In case you were wondering, I have often considered a compilation CD or an online collection of local artists but the logistics are daunting. Choosing how much or how little to include, copyright ownership issues, sound quality issues… Exciting as it may seem; I shall not be making any compilations.
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In between writing and compiling these books I was still writing songs and recording my own Frankenstinian music. To have the time and facility to do all these things was the luxury I'd always craved and I was determined that the opportunity would not pass unexploited. Privately I might have said that a book about a thousand other artists (as above) was just the requirement for someone stuck in their own tunnel of thought. My songs and poems were becoming notably more self-critical; stopping just short of obsessional so there had been obvious merit in the idea of exploring the musical universes around me.
Indeed, but when the local music project was completed, I was back in that old tunnel again. Some days I could defy and deny the words that formed in my head but on a great many other days, they had to be scribbled down, typed and shunted backwards and forwards until they said something worth saying.
The Rememberer (Songs & Poems 1993 - 2018) was my first foray into published verse. It is a round-up of my personal favourites through quarter of a Century. To most readers the music and melodies of the 'songs' would not be known. However, a friend had pointed out to me that the lyrics could be read as poetry. Throughout my 20s and 30s, most of my songs had begun as instrumental music (which has always been my preference) sometimes with lyrics written to fit, but in 2018, in part down to my friend's observation, my lyrical dam burst and my propensity was to write poems that obeyed musical rules in respect of their rhythm and rhyme. I found that what I was writing was easy to fit to any melody that sprang to mind in any genre appropriate to the lyrical content. Thus began a tsunami of poems that I posted on Facebook; most of which were destined to be given melody and grooves whenever the time was right. Some personal faves from the first collection can be found in the 'Poems' chapter of this site but The Dislodger (Songs & Poems 2018 - 2022) appears in its entirety. I have a few copies of both books; feel free to contact me if you'd like one. There is also a PDF of my most recent verse venture 'Self-Obsessment' and indeed the recorded versions too as MP3s. Same deal; contact me.
