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IN THE BEGINNING: Steve at the early age 6 started out playing the drums at The Railway Club Bletchley Buckinghamshire. He was then under the professional guidance of his Father Dennis who himself was a very accomplished Pianist - Vocalist and Drummer. Steve could not get paid back in them days because of his age, so every Christmas he received a special present. One present that stays embedded fondly in Steve's memory was a real leather match football (they were great days)
Like
most Mum's and Dad's they sacrificed everything to make sure that their
last penny was spent on their child/children. "I remember my very
first drum kit" said Steve "maybe not expensive by today's
standards, but to me it was the best drum kit in the world, and always
will be". "It is only because of the never ending help - faith
- and encouragement that I have received over the years from both my
Mother and my Father, that I am able to share with you this eventful
biography.
Steve's very first taste of entertainment came when he was just 10 years old, when he was asked to join a local semi professional group in Bletchley called The Resistance. Word fast got around that there was a group on the circuit, who had a very young lad as their drummer. This was of great interest to one of Bletchley's top semi professional groups at that time called The Graduates. They were seeking a drummer and after hearing Steve play, they asked if he would like to join them. After gladly accepting their offer The Graduates continued to enjoy a fabulous reputation as Bletchley's top semi processional band, now with the added novelty of having a very young drummer. The Graduates appeared at The Wilton Hall in Bletchley supporting Chicory Tip who were then at No.1 in the British pop charts with their single titled Son Of My Father.
Steve
turned professional in 1972 aged 16, and his first professional experience
was a 7 month summer season on the Beautiful Island of Jersey in the
channel Islands, working with Loz Marriott together as The Marriott
Brothers.
- Roy Orbison - Sasha Distell - Tommy Cooper
- Diana Dors - Plus
Many. Many More
While working at Caesar's Steve was approached by one of the top song writers in the UK at that time, Roger Cook of the very successful song writing partnership Cook/Greenaway. Roger was at that time working at Caesar's doing a week in Cabaret with his Chart topping group Blue Mink. Roger asked Steve if he would like to team up with another singer/ song writer that he had spotted and signed up, John Gaughan, from Leeds In Yorkshire. Steve
said "Yes" and was at 108, Park St London having a meeting
with Harry Barter, who run the Cookaway Production Company there at
that time. I also remember the lovely Sandra who was the receptionist.
Steve was the drummer/vocalist in this group and toured the Country promoting John's first single on the CBS record label titled "You Gotta Love Me Baby" (produced By Roger Cook) The Hermit's, as in Herman's Hermit's (The Band) provided the backing on this single. John actually fronted The Hermits at Madison Square Gardens USA in the early 1970s. This was on a 60's revival tour along with The Searchers and many other great groups from that fabulous and exciting pop music era.
The first things required when setting up any band who plan to tour, are transport and sound equipment. We fell a little lucky here, well sort of ?? Harry Barter had seen and heard another band playing in London that he signed up to Cookaway Productions "Merlin" They were changing their transport and sound equipment, so we acquired a lot of the equipment that they were getting rid of, Including the yellow peril a double wheelbase kind of post office van. I can't remember what it was like on gas, but i know it did about 2 gallon of oil to the mile...... lol.
Pictured:
left to right Richard Persell - Roscoe Birchmore - Loz Marriott - Steve.
(Front) John Gaughan. Ricky later joined The Fortunes, Roscoe joined
the Freddie Fingers Lee Band and Loz went on to work solo in Hong Kong
and throughout Europe. Steve and John formed The Moone Brothers. Bletchley Buckinghamshire - Leeds In Yorkshire Although
John & Steve were not actually real brothers, Johns Parents Hilda
& Les took Steve under their wing. They invited Steve to stay at
their home in Cross Flatts Ave, Beeston Leeds for 4 years during the
Moone Brothers era. "They were a Kind, Generous and a very down
to earth couple" "said Steve" "both of them so Very
proud of their son John, but they also took the time to make me feel
part of the Gaughan family, they will never be forgot". The Moone
Brothers decided to base themselves in Leeds as there was much more
work in the clubs around Yorkshire at that time, much more than down
south.
I
have just recently been kindly sent the above photograph, this is of
John's very first band in Leeds called "Track" which featured
from left to right (Dave,Colin,Warwick,Andy,and John).
Special Thanks!
Bobby Moone - Bobby Moonshine In between the break up of John Gaughan With Luv, and the formation of "The Moone Brothers" John made 2 solo single's, one as Bobby Moonshine titled "School Fool" written by Roger Greenaway and Barry Mason. Steve was heavily Involved with this record, In both TV and live promotion. "I remember making the video at the ITN Television Studio's for this single" Steve said "I was playing drums on the video", "and it was produced by Mike Mansfield the producer of the Hit TV Show "Supersonic". The second solo release was John with a slight name change to Bobby Moone (the shine was dropped but the E was kept) The song was titled "Bouncing Back" released on the Bell record label. This was to become the foundation for the Drifters hit "Down On The Beach Tonight" In fact one of The Moone Brothers release's "Frankie Was A Rebel" written by Tony Macaulay, became the foundation for David Souls Hit titled "This Time I'm Going In With My Eyes Open"
Hard To Break A New Act I do recall that In those days it was hard to try and break a new act. I always remember Roger Greenaway saying "It's always good to have a Vehicle", meaning a name act, to give the song a lift along the way I guess. And with the list of stars that Roger Cook & Roger Greenaway have written songs for, who could argue with that philosophy. I must say though, that in my opinion, without the fantastic song writing talents of these Mega Songwriters, a lot of Stars would not be the Stars (Vehicles) that they are today. ("I guess the big ends went on our vehicle") lol !
Songwriters - MD's - Female Vocals
Most records were arranged and conducted by either Roger Greenaway - Lew Warburton or John Fiddy. Doreen and Irene Chanter the Chanter Sisters, sang backing vocals on some of our records. And a special thank you to actress Linda Cunningham, for the sexy voice on Right Number Wrong Reply.
I can not remember all the session guys names, but I do remember Mike Moran playing keyboards on a few of our songs. Roger Cook later moved to Nashville to write and produce country music to the highest standard I might add, this you would only come to expect from one of our countries finest singer/songwriters.
A Special Note Of Gratitude It was only because of being spotted at Caesars Palace by Roger Cook in 1973 . That I was able to be introduced into the fascinating and also wonderful world of recording at it's very best. I would like to personally thank two of the Countries finest songwriters, for giving me the ever lasting memory, and the highest quality of experience. This I will never, and could not possibly, ever replace nor forget.
On Behalf Of Myself And The Entire World Of Music Thank You!
This record sleeve (pictured above) from 1976 is displayed courtesy of Mr John Holman of the Roger Cook/Greenaway and Fortunes fan club and Mr Olaf Owre from Norway. Between them these two very helpful and knowledgeable gentlemen have helped me considerably. This record sleeve for example was only issued in Holland and is very rare, I had not even seen this one myself. I have just recently seen this record for sale on the net priced @ 4.00 pounds also on another site @ 7.99 Pounds "Blimey" ! "a collectors item"
The
Moone Brothers
(Very Rare Picture Issue With Lyrics Epic Records 1977) Picture
Sleeve Courtesy Of Olaf Owre
Steve
has appeared on Many front covers of pop magazines back in the 1970's
THE DRIFTERS
There Goes My First Love - Can I Take You Home Little Girl Hello Happiness Also on many other tracks featured on their Love Games Album.
Although the Moone Brothers never quite managed to have a top chart hit in the UK, they did have many near misses. Their best chart success was in New Zealand 1976 when they reached No.37 with their song titled Right Number - Wrong Reply (See Pop Chart). The No.1 in this Chart was Fernando by Abba. Fairfield Welles - Expose' After the break up of the Moone Brothers in late 1976 Steve joined a top manchester group called Fairfield Welles, who were TV's New Faces Winners. The group later changed it's name to Expos'e and appeared on London Weekends Television show Search For A Star. They were also featured in an episode of Aufiedersien Pet. The Cook/Greenaway connection was to continue. The bands personal manager at the time was Ian Redford. Ian arranged a Beatle type of gig and promotion on the roof of his Fathers business in Chorlton - Cum - Hardy Manchester, very close to the then Valentine's Night Spot. Attending this open air concert was a dear friend from my Moone Brother days the sadly now late Paul Young of Young & Renshaw. Paul at this time was singing and writing for his new band "Sad Caf'e. Paul and John Stimpson the bass player in Sad Caf'e, enjoyed what they saw and heard and Invited us into the studio's. This was to record a master demo of a song that they had written, but later decided was also a bit to commercial for themselves. This song was titled "I'll Never Get Over Loosing You" and was financed by Ian our manager. Unfortunately no major record deal was secured from this demo, but we did get an Invite back down to London to ATV Music. In
house songwriter/producer Peter Morris loved the demo, and asked us
to record a couple of his songs. The first was a catchy little number
titled "Something Fine About You" and the second "Twin
City Ride" was later to be released on Tony
Hiller's own record label called "Dazzle" We also performed
this song on London Weekend Television's "Search For A Star"
Pictured
Above: Exposé
The inevitable happened in 1982 when Steve formed a double act with Sheila and Rendezvous Duo was born. They have also enjoyed much success in both Television appearances and live performances throughout the UK and abroad, including Central TV's Saturday Royal hosted by Lionel Blair. Between them they have appeared at most of the prestigious venues throughout the UK including the following:
Wakefield Theatre Club (Yorkshire) - String Of Pearls (Wembley) - The Fiesta (Stockton-On-Tees) - Baileys (Leicester And Watford) - Alison's
(Liverpool) - The Hamilton (Birkenhead) - Cinderella's
(Leeds) Blighty's (Farnworth) - The She Club (Liverpool) - Snuffy's (Bristol) - City Variety's (Leeds) - Tavern (S.Sheilds) - Poco Poco (Stockport) - Wilderspool Leisure Centre (Warrington) - Dolc'e Vita (Newcastle) - Aquarious (Chesterfield) - Talk Of The North (Eccles) AND MANY MORE
AWARDS Rendezvous have notched up over 30 clubland command performances including area command shows such as Blackpool - South Yorkshire - Lancashire - Manchester and the Midlands. They won The Cabaret Show Of The Year award for two years running along with the rest of the cast, at The Abbotts Inn Cabaret on the Isle Of Man 1984 - 1985. They also appeared for a record 6 years at the Brunswick Club Blackpool on the summer season show 1986 - 1991 along with Johnny Meadows - Trevor Wallace - Jean Bennett - Mike Dennett & Chic - Wendy Kaye. Rendezvous will probably be best remembered throughout clubland, for their award winning rendition of The Phantom Of The Opera/All I Ask Of You medley.
In 1992 Steve and Sheila made one of the biggest decisions of their entire life, that was to put their semi detached house in Blackpool on the market and move to Cyprus (not exactly just down the road). They moved to Cyprus in early 1993 and Steve was asked to work at The Musical Tavern in Limassol. In 1995 he was offered the job as Entertainment's Manager/Compere at one of Limassol's top Night Spots called Rosy O' Grady's - Fun Palace, which he proudly accepted and successfully fulfilled until May 2001 when.......... Lucky To Be Alive Steve totally unexpectedly had a Brain Hemorrhage on the stem of the brain and was rushed into Intensive Care at the local Poly Clinic. I am very pleased to say that he is still with me, and is slowly on the mend although he has been left with the disability of double vision due to the hemorrhage damaging his optical nerves. Steve said "The last 18 months or so have taken a lot of getting used to". "I have been so active all my life, but at the moment I can do nothing". "But when I think about how lucky I have been, doing nothing is a small price to pay". I do hope very much that soon I will be able to do a little bit of entertaining, even if it is only part time a couple of days a week". "Entertainment is in my blood and I miss it very very much". Sheila 2003
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