ROLL BACK THE YEARS PRESENTS
Origators Creed
for
what Ray wrote scroll down
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Rolling
Back The Origators Creed
With Al Smith
The
Origators Creed
1965-1966
Glen Brookes - Lead Guitar
Brian Fuller
- Drums
Albert Smith - Bass Guitar/vocals
Alan Trueman - Rhythm Guitar/Harmonica/vocals
Michael Winch - Vocals/Tambourine/Foghorn
The
Origators Creed formed in early 1965 in the Yorkshire village of Maltby, near
Rotherham. Mick Winch lived at Thrybergh, but the others were close neighbours
in Maltby. Glen, Albert, Alan and Mick all went to Maltby Grammar School. They
can be seen scattered about the Maltby Grammar School photo for 1962 on the MGS
website. Brian went to Maltby Hall Secondary School. Glen was 15, the others were
16.
Glenn Brookes and Albert Smith had spent a year together in a four piece
group also formed in Maltby: The Outsiders. Brian Fuller, Alan Trueman and Mick
Winch had attempted, without success, to form a line-up from the same music pool.
Dave Crabtree (rhythm guitar) and Alan Bews (drums) were the the other half of
The Outsiders.
Partly because Glenn and Albert had spent a year playing together
in The Outsiders, but mostly likely because Brian was a brilliant drummer, the
rhythm section was solid from the start.
The repertoire included material
from The Who, The Birds, The Yardbirds, The Action, The Pretty Things, Downliner
Sect, Chuck Berry, and a fair slice of R&B standards. Anything we liked, really.
All of it was mangled to produce what the local music press (what there was of
it) frequently referred to as pop-art, art-music.
By the standards of the
day, The Creed were VERY loud and did feature one of the early fuzz-box distortion
units. Brian had two bass drums, a novelty at the time.
Largely a covers band,
but with a couple of original songs from Alan Trueman and two originals from John
Williamson, one of the founder/owners of Unit 19, Sheffield's first independent
recording studio. The Unit 19 connection led to a (failed) EMI audition and a
short-lived clothing account at a Sheffield boutique-Mod ST. One reason it was
short-lived was the fact that Creed refused to change their name to Mod St.
Bob Davis of the Bob Davis Set or Bob Davis Mood or Bob Davis 4 met up with Creed
at EMI. Unit 19 had some idea of sponsoring Bob as a solo vocalist. He was better
than good. He showed his talents then caught the train home. The Creed stayed
in London and among other things, visited the Marquee Club, the 100 Club and Wallace
Amplifiers in Soho. The Action and The Bo Street Runners were on stage at the
Marquee and The Five Proud Walkers were at the Club 100, using Wallace amps.
A vinyl 45 demo-disc of the John Williamson tracks came out of the Unit 19 sessions,
featuring Mick on vocals (of course) and Alan and Albert on backing vocals. But
the disc disappeared and no further copies were produced. The studio suffered
damage when a water main burst a few months after opening and the Creed's tape
was among the lost.
The intended (A) side of the disc was "We've Got
Long Way To Go". Prophetic really. The title of the (B) side escapes me,
though I think it was called "The Image."
John Firminger in his
generally excellent book, "Not Like A Proper Job," somehow fails to
record the fact that the Creed were present-and actually recording-at Unit 19
on the day the studio opened. He also gets the Creed's timeline wrong. And although
Unit 19 got under way in April 1966, the official opening took place on Tuesday
29th March 1966.
For reasons now lost to posterity, the group never had any
publicity photographs. The only known photograph of the group appeared in the
"Top Stars Special" for January 1966, playing a gig (one of many) at
Terry Thornton's Esquire Club on Leadmill Road. Two books have appeared in recent
years, one each on the Mojo and the Esquire, but both are largely neglectful of
the local scene. The Creed photo and otherwise are absent.
The group played
gigs all over what is now South Yorkshire (occasionally beyond) but was then the
south end of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Key venues were the Rotherham Twist
Club, run by Wilf Wake, the 21-Club (Roger Brookes), Doncaster Co-op Ballroom,
run by Doncaster Coop Ballroom(!), Rawmarsh Baths (Les Slater), Terry Thornton's
Esquire Club Sheffield, (umpteen gigs) Pete Stringfellow's Mojo Club in Sheffield-one
gig only, Saturday 13th November 1965. And the Jazz Workshop at Scunthorpe.
Following the "high" of the EMI session and the Unit 19 connection,
things crumbled a bit. Consequently, Al Smith left the group in the Summer of
1966 and was replaced briefly by Roger Allcock from Doncaster. The new line-up
folded altogether very shortly afterwards and that was that. Shame.
What happened
to Roger I don't know, but all five of the original Origators went this way and
that, largely drifting out of anything resembling organised gigging. Double shame.
High Points?
Being part of a terrific local music scene.
Backing Champion
Jack Dupree with 10 minutes notice at The Esquire when his scheduled band got
lost and didn't turn up.
Playing a couple of gigs at the Esquire with Joe
Cocker, pre-fame (Joe's not ours, of course).
On the day the Creed failed
their EMI audition, February 15th 1966, The Who played the Esquire. Reports from
some of those present were good, but really "They were just like the Origators
Creed." If only.
Playing the evening session at the Mojo, then sticking
around for the all-nighter to meet (briefly) and witness Wilson Pickett. And the
Stormsville Shakers.
Supporting more than several chart acts.
Generally
having a great time. Those were the days.
xxx
Your
Author Al Smith
©A.E. Smith April 2009
Ray Goy Wrote
Long story short, in his article Al mentioned there were no copies of the Creed’s demo disc. I don’t know if he meant this literally, but I do have a copy given to me by Brian, their drummer, a long time ago when Brian and vocalist Mick, formed another band with Rick Harrison on bass and me on lead guitar. We used to rehearse in Stainforth near Donny. It would be great if I could reunite the demo disc with one of the original members of Origators Creed. If you could put me in touch with Al that would be great. Please feel free to pass my email address to him, or his to me.
and you can hear one of those tracks
Here are a couple of Polaroids featuring Origators’ drummer, Brian Fuller. He was a thoroughly great guy: chippie by day and monster drummer when the sun went down!
He used to have a thick bundle of dowel rods for drumsticks because he broke
so many in a gig it would really have added up cost-wise if he’d only used
actual drumsticks.
The chap with red hair and the Strat is me, and the moody third guy is Rick
who went on shortly after to set up his Music Ground music gear empire. When
Origators’ Mick was with us, we were called “Annie Maude Belle”
(go figure!) After he left, we were “Intrepid Fox” (after a boozer
in Wardour Street, not far from the Marquee Club in Soho.)
I hope such ephemera are interesting to someone, however old said people will now be. (Obviously, I’m no longer a Spring Chicken!)
My apprenticeship in bands prior to Intrepid Fox was playing every Working Men’s Club within a 25-mile radius of Doncaster (including the mighty Greasborough) two to six nights a week from the age of 14 (1965) with the James Brothers, and I learned so much with these experienced musicians who were already into their mid-20s. I think I was about 17 when I joined up with Mick, Brian and Rick and got heavy (think Spirit, Blossom Toes, King Crimson etc). Anyway, apart from a trio I formed to raise funds for the miners’ strike in mid-80s, music took a back seat as children and wage-earning took precedence. What an original story ??.
I retired in 2017 and decided to (1) get a dog to make me have to exercise every day, and (2) play the guitar again. I started by trying to learn “jazz” voiced chords for Chet Baker/Billie Holliday type stuff. That took a while and lots of work, but has been immensely rewarding. Currently, I’m in 3 bands, a duo (sax, clarinet, flute - all the same guy, clever bugger), and solo stuff. I hope the people from the late sixties early seventies that I knew are still making music. It has given me so much across the years, despite the substantial hiatus, and it still does. (I only wish my dog didn’t try to hide under the dining table when she sees me piling my guitar and related gear by the door ready to go to band practice!)
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