It wasn't rock 'n' roll - but they liked it

This was called skiffle, and they were called the Black Jacks.

They formed in 1955 and, for drummer Roy Richardson, it was the start of a rhythm that he still beats out to this day in the Bush Big Band. One of the more colourful episodes of his career behind the drum kit was the Shift Workers Special - strippers and a show - in Spennymoor.

His love of drumming began shortly after he was born, in Bank Top, Darlington.

"When I was about five, I used to drum my knife and fork and that became my ambition," remembers Roy, who now lives in Chilton. "Other boys wanted to become a fireman, a policeman, an engine driver. I just wanted to be a professional drummer."

He lived conveniently close to the Hippodrome (now the Civic Theatre) where a resident band performed every night. The drummer was Freddie Bell, who liked to make sure his drums rolled properly by nipping over the road to the Greyhound pub during the interval.

"My dad, a bricklayer's labourer, used to get himself a half and stand in there and pester Freddie," says Roy. "When I was 11, he gave him some plastic matting and some sticks and said I should practise on that.

"Tuesday night was a variety show and he would get me a seat in the front row so I could watch him in the pit."

The Black Jacks were formed in a front room in Cobden Street. "By the time we had finished rehearsing there were crowds of lasses outside," says Roy. "They used to stop the traffic - and we were only rehearsing.

On the tea-chest bass was Mick Woodmansey, on the washboard was Vic Patterson. There were also three guitarists: Pete Daley, and John and Brian Smith (who later featured in Jet Storme and the Cyclones).

"Vic and John used to do all sorts - jumping about over each other's heads and through their legs while still playing," says Roy. "It would send the lasses daft."

The Black Jacks played local youth clubs until 1957 when they went as far afield as Leeds and Sheffield.

But by then rock 'n' roll was coming in; tea-chests and washboards were on their way out. The Black Jacks started to learn the new sounds of Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis.

"We played half-an-hour, every Saturday morning, at the Empire cinema in East Street, Darlington, between the B-movie and the A-movie," says Roy. "We did the Lyric at Northallerton and the lasses were screaming 'we want the Black Jacks' so we came back on and did the full afternoon instead of the film.

"And I remember at the Durlia Club, in Duke Street, Darlington, there were people waiting for us coming out, grabbing anything we had on. There really were not any other groups playing in the area round this time."

The Beatles broke in 1963 and inspired most of the other bands that have featured in our Beat era series. The members of the Black Jacks, though, were already well into their twenties, and needed to move on.

Roy spent two years touring the region with the Fearnley Mitchell Orchestra, from Sedgefield, and then, for £12.50 a week, joined the John Wray Set at Cockerton Silver Band Club, backing the night's guest artiste.

"It was five minutes in the band room and then on," says Roy, "and the first singer was Jimmy Young. Too Young was his record at the time. He couldn't sing, but he had a name."

In 1966, Sid McCulloch at the Top Hat club at Spennymoor offered the Set full-time employment and Roy was able to give up being a heating engineer. "Sid said 'you start next Friday'. It was a pro job on £38 a week. I had done it!".

In his time at the Top Hat and the nearby Variety, Roy backed Freddie Starr, Dickie Valentine, Bobby Vee, Little and Large, Cannon and Ball, Ray Ellington...

"Spennymoor was like Las Vegas with pitheaps," he says. "The Variety got 1,000 people in most nights alone. Then there was the Shift Workers Special on Monday afternoons for the lads on nights. It was strippers plus a show. You couldn't move in there."

Roy was playing at Marton Country Club into the 1970s; the Derek Burn Orchestra took him into the 1980s.

Then he helped form the Bush Big Band, a 17-piece outfit which rehearsed at the Wheatsheaf in Chilton, where the pub sign apparently looked like a bush.

The Big Band still rehearses every fortnight in Coundon Working Men's Club. Its next show is the mayor of Durham's charity concert at the Gala Theatre, Durham City, on April 25, and after that a series of Matt Monroe tribute concerts - probably in Chilton, Whitley Bay and South Shields - is planned as Roy heads into his sixth decade with the sticks.

RADIO 4 is losing its UK Theme, Echo Memories is losing its marbles. There are some who say that the series on local pop groups of the 1960s should have no place in this column; others are lapping it up.

Is pop music now local history?

"I am 60 and I remember those days as if they were yesterday," says Wilf Dobinson, from Crook. "Very exciting times. Although I never played an instrument, it never stopped me doing a Hank Marvin fresh air imitation."

In the early 1960s, Wilf used to go to the Elite Hall, in Crook, on a Saturday night to hear Russell Holiday and his band, featuring Eddy Barrie on vocals.

"One Saturday during the interval, a trio was introduced called the Black Diamonds," says Wilf. "They came from Brandon and I believe they were the first rock and roll group to play at the Elite."

Other pioneering performers were the Rock and Rhythm Boys - from Tow Law, who featured here in October - who took over as resident band from Russell Holiday. The Crossfires came next.

"When you turned 18, you became a member of a working men's club," says Wilf. "You got your club cards and you were set.

"A quick look in the evening paper to check the club's entertainment column and choose which group we fancied, into the car and off we would go.

"I am sure that is how many lads, like me, would meet their future wives.

"Wonderful days - memories that will last forever."

More Beat era history in the weeks to come

Published: ??/??/2004

Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk or telephone (01325) 505062.