“(after) Anders and John had joined we had our first full rehearsal this time in my bedroom at my parens’t pub – I still have a cassette tape of this session and it sounds pretty damn good” recalls Ricky. The half Swedish giant, a friend of Davenport since school, was already a trained double bass player as well as a good piano and trumpet player too. The next one to join in was ex-Rhythm Cats Anders Janes. “(they turned) into Madness a year after I had left! Could have all been so different”. He used to play sax and sing in his school band and in 1977 joined a band called The Crouch End Invaders. In the late 70’s he used to go to Rock’n’Roll clubs (The Royalty, Southgate, London & Hampstead/Camden Town Halls), where he saw popular bands of the day like Flying Saucers, Crazy Cavan, Shakin Stevens & the Sunsets, & Darts. He was listening to “old” jazz (Lester Young and so on…) and 50’s Rock’n’Roll since the age of 13. Wallace had received his first saxophone when he was 15.
The legend says that Pete went directly to him and asked if he could play the saxophone, and as incredible as it may seem the answer was a massive “Yes!” The reality is more down to earth: “ On my third visit to the Royalty I met a guy called Tim (Hellzapoppin), he told me there was a guy called Pete who was building a band to play Haley based stuff. Peter met him on August Bank Holiday at an all-dayer in North London headlined by Buzz & the Flyers. With that in mind the duo started to look for the missing pieces to their Rock’n’roll puzzle. – They needed to have a strong visual impact and therefore opted for tuxedos and bow-ties. – The band had to sound as much as possible as if they came straight from the fifties Each brought his influences (Bill Haley and the Jodimars for Davenport, Western Swing and British rock’n’roll for Brawn) and both agreed on two points: They got along fine and the decision to form a band was self evident. Even with that small configuration they sounded great. One can say that the first seeds of the Stargazers were planted that afternoon of August 1980 when the two young rockers jammed together with just a guitar and a snare. A rehearsal was quickly arranged for the following week at Davenport’s parents’ house in London. Clive Osborne was playing after the gig I asked him if he knew of any band that was looking for a drummer.”Ī few weeks later Osborne called Brawn and gave him Peter’s phone number. The Kingsway Tavern hosted the Dynamite band on one Saturday night. “ I used to go to a Rockin’ club in my home town of Luton, Beds. (…) I got more and more involved with the Rockin’ scene, went to loads of gigs and eventually longed to play this music and started to play the drums at 13.” I became obsessed with this era and learned as much as I could about this. I remember very clearly playing their records on our radiogram player in the 1960s, I was around 6 years old. They collected many Rock’n’Roll records – Bill Haley, Link Wray, the Jodimars, Tommy Steele and Elvis. He had a solid rock’n’roll background and, like Pete, he wanted to start a real Rock’n’Roll band. But none of these experiences were very satisfying for the young rocker who wanted to have a band of his own modelled on his idol: Bill Haley.Īt the same time, a young Ricky Lee Brawn was getting fed up with playing country and M.O.R for the circuit of working men clubs. After the Rhythm Cats folded, Davenport made a brief stint with Dynamite. They released one EP out on Tyger records ( Rock with the Rhythm Cats) and also recorded some songs for Alligator that later appeared on the Home Grown Rockabilly compilation (reissued on Nervous in the late 90’s).
The other members were Anders Janes, Neil Rooney (who later joined the Polecats) and Graham Heath. The Rhythm Cats debut Ep on TygerĪfter that he joined the Rhythm Cats, a rockabilly band with hillbilly and rock’n’roll influences. He then played bass and lead guitar on Mad Man Mark’s Rockin’ the Bop and bass on John Boy’s Hey Little Honey, both on Mr C too. Peter Davenport, from North London, made his debut on wax in 1978 playing piano for Shreveport Sam & the Hi-Tones’ Rock’n’Roll Daddy-O on Mr C records. More than thirty years after the release of their debut album, here’s the story of the Stargazers. They had everything: the look, the songs, the sound and more… The Stargazers were, and remain, one of the most influential rock’n’roll band of the early 80’s.
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