John - bass
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I grew up in Derby where
I became fascinated by science in general and chemistry
inparticular. At secondary school I quickly met Tony who was
as interested in geology as I was in chemistry. We soon
began caving which with Derbyshire's mineralisation
satisfied both our interests. Like all teenagers we were into music and Tony started to play the guitar, eventually getting together with a few friends to form groups and even managing to get a few gigs round Derby. By then I had gained some knowledge of electronics and so often got roped in to fix and set up gear and was granted the sobriquet of 'road manager'. Despite having no musical leanings and a horror of public appearance, I was eventually persuaded to play the bass guitar to fill in for an unreliable bassist. This looked like a fair option as four strings had to be easier to play than six. Tony's musical taste also encompassed folk music which was flourishing at the time. He regularly did guest spots in the local folk clubs which where springing up like mushrooms. I occasionally performed with him attempting to play bass on a six string acoustic. After we went our various ways to university, Tony and I still played the folk clubs, often in the North Riding - we both had girlfriends there.
Eventually I
graduated in chemistry to find that so had what felt like half the
undergraduate population. A huge oversupply of chemists meant no
job, so in desperation I moved in with Tony in London and began
looking for work there. Thus began a time of incredible creativity:
tie-dying, batik, candle making, painting and, of course, playing
music. I quickly realised that I needed to record Tony's
increasingly impressive songs and so bought a Ferrograph Series 7
tape recorder. This had track bouncing facilities so we could add
one track at a time, building up the layers of songs - but sadly in
mono. And so, with the help of Caroline, we gradually recorded the
songs that were to become 'All On The First Day'. Renting studio
time to produce the final master tape and cut the master disc was a
real high and eventually we were the proud possessors of 99 records
(the 100th attracted tax on the whole lot). As ever, we hand-made
the sleeve art and distributed some to friends and family. John Clark - June 2004
Sadly, John died on October 9th after battling with oesophageal cancer for 3 1/2 years. He was a great bass player, the best recording engineer I knew, and my friend. He was the kingpin of our jams and in thirty-odd years, he never missed a single one. Our last jam was on July 23rd, 2005. John was quite a character and many stories have been told about him over the years, so I decided to invite observations, anecdotes and other memories from those who knew him, and record them for posterity. The result is a Word document, about 3mb and can be found here. Rod Jones - October 16th, 2005
On Saturday January 21st, there was a small gathering of John's friends and family at the Ealing Cricket Ground. Some three months after the funeral, we got together for the express purpose of celebrating John's life. Oh, and distributing his ashes over a large part of West London... Caro hired a service called Heavens Above Fireworks who specialise in this sort of thing. We cracked a few bottles of champagne, and on a beautiful starry night, we watched a firework show choreographed to some of John's favourite music, and drank a toast to his life. If you knew John or have read the stuff written about him (see above), you'd agree it was a send-off, both a spectacular and appropriate. We miss you man... Rod Jones - January 27th, 2006
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