Tex Makins

Tex Makins

Tex Makins, born July 1940. Given names Anthony Paul. Had piano lessons as a child of 9 yrs. for about 1 yr. Learnt to read music but I would not say I can play piano. Left school at 15 and started work signwriting. In 1956 formed skiffle group with some mates from school, myself playing tub bass. Later in that year my parents bought me a double bass for my birthday.

We called ourselves 'The Johnny Makins Skiffle Group' - my mates first name and my surname.We used to go busking in the West End of London,playing to quite large crowds under the Charring Cross arches, cinema queues, street corners, the odd pub. Started to get some proper gigs offered to us at not bad money at the time.We did one gig I remember well where we earned £13-10s-6d each, a lot of bread for 1 1/2 hrs work then.

Johnny d'Avensac and myself started playing in a traditional jazz band as well as the skiffle group called 'The Zodiac Jazz Band'. Sometime in 1957 Johnny got drafted into the army ( he is a bit older than me -I missed it ) and the group folded. I still see a lot of Johnny today -
two old men leaning on a bar chatting about the 'good ole days'.

That same year, '57 I, along with a lot of guys started going down to the 2'Is' coffee bar on Old Compton Street, Soho. Pretty soon I started playing there, earning the fabled 18shillings a nite. It should have been a pound but Tom Littlewood said 2bob was for tax - I think the odd 2 bobs used to go in Tom's pocket. He used to live a few doors away from me in Oakington Avenue, Wembley. One nite Vince Eager came and asked me if I would go to Blackpool with him as he needed a bass player. So I went. After I worked with Vince at Winstons and Churchills Nite Clubs.Around about this time Vince had a pantomime to do in Southport and Vince, Joe Moretti and myself headed for Southport, we didn't have a drummer. I seem to remember Vince asking the audience at a matinee if any one new of a drummer, somebody did and we got this local guy to play drums with us - can't remember the guys name. I'd bought a bass guitar just before we left for Southport and Joe gave me a few lessons in the dressing-room of the theatre. Larry Parnes got Vince a gig at Streatham Locarno and we needed a drummer. Said to Vince, there is a very loud drummer playing at the 'Is' at the moment, come and listen to him - he did and Bobby Woodman (Clarke) got the gig. We then found Big Jim Sullivan playing in a ballroom in Putney or somewhere and together with Alan le Claire (Cocks) and Tony Belcher formed Vince's new band. Vince's work dried up for a bit after that so Larry made us Marty Wylde's Wildcats.We all bleached our hair and Bobby and myself wore stage makeup in the street quite often.

This was 1958 so you can imagine the things we had shouted at us by workmen and cab drivers and the like. During this period I was also playing down the 'Is' with Tony Meehan on drums, Tony Harvey on rhythm guitar and Tony Sheridan on lead and vocals. We were all called Tony something or other so Tom Littlewood said 'Listen shower from now on you are Tex' and the name stuck. He also called Tony Harvey something - can't remember.

One afternoon Vince Taylor came in looking for a band to back him on a few shows. We said ok we will do them. One show in particular I remember was at the Shepards Bush Gaumont after the Saturday morning picture show. Vince slayed them. When we left the theatre we were chased by a couple of hundred screaming teenage girls - frightening.

We eventually escaped through an electrical shop and out through the back. Larry Parnes split the Wildcats up. Bobby, Alan and Myself were considered a bit extrovert for the more conservative Marty. So he formed The Beatboys and he put the young Colin Green on guitar and Billy McVey on tenor sax. The personnel of the Beatboys varied considerably.

We backed everybody , Dickie Pride, Billy Fury, Johnny Gentle, Duffy Power,Sally Kelly, Eden Kane, Tommy Bruce, The Viscounts, Davy Jones( not he of the Monkeys) Georgie Fame who became the piano player of the band after Alan. We forced him into bleaching his hair. I worked for a while with Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys ( Red Reece, Kenny Packwood, and Myself )Around this time Vince Eager formed The Quiet Three, the personnel being, me on bass and at different times, Colin Green and Kenny Packwood on guitar and Jimmy Nicol on drums.
[ The drummer who depped for Ringo Starr when the Beatles went to Japan and Australia]

I did another stint with Vince Taylor in Brighton and Wales. The Playboys consisted of Myself on bass Bobby Woodman(Clarke) on drums and Kenny Fillingham on guitar. We travelled around in an old Buick hearse.

Parnes decided Billy Fury should have his own band. Billy came to a place where we were rehearsing ( we being Georgie Fame, Red Reece, Colin Green and Myself ) with a singer called Clay Nicholls who called his band The Blueflames. Billy decided he liked the Blueflames because of the initials BF. And so Billy Fury and The Blueflames were born.

Months later Parnes sacked us, as we were becoming too jazzy for Billy. Hung around Soho for a while doing the odd gig here and there. One day we were all sitting in a friends flat in Old Compton Street [Mike O' Niel's - Nero and the Gladiators] listening to sounds and blowing dope, when Mike came in and said Al Watson has sacked his band at the Flamingo, do you want the gig, if so get round there now. We did like an audition gig, knocked them cold and moved in. So we became Georgie Fame and The Blueflames.

Later Al Watson left and formed the 'Mcgil Five' and Mick Eve joined us on tenor sax. I got offered a job via Bobby Clarke[ Woodman ] with Johnny Hallyday's Golden Stars and as I was getting itchy feet and my girlfriend [ later to become my first wife] had just moved to France, I accepted. I got married in France at the British Consul in Paris. Johnny Hallyday and Claude Djaoui the guitarist were our witnesses. The money and conditions were fantastic with Johnny but I didn't like having to back the variety acts on some of the shows and the band, dare I say it was very stiff and unswinging.

On a visit to London one time I went to the Flamingo, as the 'flames were playing - in fact they were recording 'Rhythm & Blues At The Flamingo' album. I saw Georgie in the break and he asked if fancied having my old job back, I said yeah and that was that, we moved back to Blighty. We never stopped working day after day after day. We recorded 'Yeah Yeah' which got to number 1 in the charts.

After I parted company with the Blueflames I started doing a lot of recording work. Amongst others was 'Homeward Bound' and 'Richard Cory' with Paul Simon. Colin Green and Red Reece were on these as well. Did one with Donovan 'First there was a mountain' Joined a band called the 'Sidewinders' a band similar in style to the 'flames', maybe slightly more jazz orientated, the line up was Mark Charig on cornet. Johnny Marshal [ex Blueflame] baritone, Mathew ? on piano, Malcolm Penn on drums, Ken ? on guitar, Myself on bass, Jimmy Scott on conga drums and the great Dickie Pride on vocals. We did a lot of work up and down the country. We also backed Stevie Wonder on his first solo tour over here.

Went to Germany for a while with a band called "Panorama". Boz Burrell later to become bass player with Bad Company, was the vocalist. Back in England became bass player with a band called 'Jungle Soup' later to be called 'The Last Supper.' Mike Storey- piano, Peter Goodall- guitar, Viv Prince- Drs, Me on bass and Denis Couldry- rhythm/vocals. Played with a trio 'The Sundial', Flower potmen's backing band for a while. Carlo Little Drs, Jed Peck gt, Self on bass.

Joined Thunderclap Newman, himself on piano and various wind instruments, John Rogers Drs, John Tappenden and Peter Goodall guitars an me on bass. Moved into a friends pub where Me and a few others converted the cellars into a music venue. "The Hope and Anchor" in Islington.

Went to Paris for a few days where I met Lee Hallyday who worked for Phillips records. I knew him from when I was working with Johnny.He said "Hey Tex ? do you fancy a job as part of a studio band in the country. I know this guy who has a studio in Normandy and he is looking for a bass player" I said it sounded good to me. Next day we drove to the country to a village called le Fidelaire near Conche en Ouche.

The name of the studio was 'Studio Fremontel' being run by a pianist called Jacques Denjean. I had a play with Jacques in the studio and after he said, ok you got the gig if you want it. I moved back to France. Came back to England after about a year and a half as studio was on its last legs and I was getting bored. Somebody told me the studio had been burnt down.

Been in lots of semi pro bands over the last 20 yrs. I have co-written quite a lot of songs with guitarist Peter Goodall and a CD will be released shortly with some of them on sung by Pete Brown.

anthonym@ukonline.co.uk

Photo was taken on the 18th September 2006 at the unveiling of the commemorative plaque outside of what was the 2i's coffee bar in Soho London, birthplace of British R'n'R.

Tex Makins October 2001

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