white TV. Him and Cliff Richard, they
were the pioneers of pop and rock in
this country. I always had high regard for
him and I was shocked when I saw he
wasn’t very tall. Most of them are not,
you always perceive these people as
being tall but Daltrey’s not, Leo’s not, you
know? None of them are really.
Anyway, we did the audition and we got
the gig and then I was out on the road
with him and the band. Our first tour was
in Germany, we had to play to all the
American GI camps. Sometimes we’d
have to do three a day, up and down
the autobahns. You know, they were like
over 100/200 miles apart these places.
Playing to these American GIs wasn’t my
idea of rock and roll, I’ve got to tell you
but it was a great experience.
Then when we came back and Adam
was then offered a tour of what we
used to call ‘the chicken in the basket
circuit’, which was all those northern
clubs. We were the second act in when
they opened the Batley Variety Club. I
think Shirley Bassey was there the week
before us. I’m still only about 17, and
we were doing all these clubs up north
10
in Sheffield and Castleford and all these
places. It made me appreciate coming
from Brighton, I’ve got to say, because,
you know, especially the likes of Batley
and that, they were all coal slags.They
were not the most attractive places but
they gave me a great grounding.
This was a fantastic grounding for me in
my life. I did that for a couple of years
and eventually I started to get itchy feet
and I didn’t really want to do it much
anymore. So, we disbanded and I came
back to what I’ve always referred to as
‘civvy street’. You know, people from
the army say, “Well, I’m going back into
‘civvy street’, which has got more life.”
Well, that’s what it was like for me
because my lifestyle had been so
different than the average 14 year old kid
growing up. When I was about 18 I got
married, the first time round. I married
a local girl, who was a hairdresser and
we had a child together, Kim, who’s a
beautiful daughter. She’s ended up with
her own estate agency down here now.
What did you do or want to do next?
I then decided I wanted to venture into
the other side of the business and I
thought I don’t want to be a drummer
anymore, I want to go onto the other side
and look for talent. The only other desire
I had was I really wanted to write songs,
but, of course, you don’t write many
songs on a drum kit. So, I had to start
to teach myself piano. I had this little
upright piano and started to mess around
with it. And that’s when I started to write
songs. I was with my father and we
formed the company DAC Enterprises
and we promoted all these cabaret
shows. One was called the Top Rank,
which is now where the Odeon is.
We promoted all these cabarets and we
had Bruce Forsyth, Freddie Starr, Jimmy
Tarbuck and Mike Yarwood - all these
different acts who were dinner dance,
cabaret artists. A completely different
experience again, promoting that.
When did you move onto scouting for
talent?
Well, after that I then went on to say,
“Right, okay, I’m going now… I want to
go and find talent.” And it was at that
point that I put an ad in the local paper,
The Argus, and advertised, in the same