Digger: Morning Vince, how are you?
Vince: I’m fine thanks. You?
Digger: Great thanks. What have you been up to since we last spoke?
Vince: Playing a few gigs here and there.
Digger: Have you got the play lists sorted for the new band?
Vince: We’re still deep in rehearsals at the moment but
it’s going pretty well.
Digger: That’s good.
Vince: There’s a lot to do.
Digger: With any project that’s worthwhile there always is
Vince. Is it a rude question asking how old you are?
Vince: 58.
Digger: So you’ve lived
through it all.
Vince: Yes, I have.
Digger: I’ll dive into the questions.
Vince: I hope I can answer them all...
Digger: Of course you will. No difficult ones, I hope… Can
you tell us your musical background?
Vince: I started playing the drums when I was eleven.
Digger: Who were your influences?
Vince: At the time it was Free and Led Zeppelin.
Digger: Impressive stuff.
Vince: That’s what I was really into and the first band I
started playing with was around about the time Free’s Tons
of Sobs came out. That’s the time when I joined my first
band and we were playing all this stuff at the same time as
Free were.
Digger: Were you listening to all of their albums and
Whistle Test and all that stuff?
Vince: Yes, I loved Bob Harris.
Digger: And was there a big scene up there in the north east?
Vince: Yes. There was a big scene – The Animals...
Digger: Obviously Chas Chandler famously ‘discovered’
Jimi Hendrix. Hank Marvin of The Shadows was also from
Newcastle.
Vince: That’s right.
Digger: And you did a lot of practice, I suppose?
Vince: A lot. I think at that time I was going
through the stage where you think “Am I good enough to do
this?” and going through all the rejections and horrible
venues. And some good venues too, of course.
Digger: But you started young and that’s important – an
age when you were able to learn and absorb. I guess you must have put
in your 10,000 hours by now to become an expert?
Vince: Well, I’m sort of getting the hang of it now. (Both
laugh)
Digger: Are you still learning, even today?
Vince: I think you always do, yes. Even today, on every gig
you play, you still learn.
Digger: The people that are coming to these gigs – is it a
mixture of ages?
Vince: I think the people that come to the Hollies gigs –
the majority of the audience I would say is fifty plus. Or
maybe forty plus.
Digger: Does that mean that the Hollies stuff isn’t
attracting youngsters even though they are still a
contemporary touring band?
Vince: I think a lot of young people are interested in them
as well because a lot of youngsters are very much into the
sixties. It’s a big thing.
Digger: Did you see Jools Holland this week – a great mix,
as usual, including Gallagher’s new band Beady Eye and
Elbow.
Vince: He gets a lot of different stuff on and it’s either
really good or really bad. (Laughs)
Digger: That’s right. I think Whistle Test used to be a
bit like that as well.
Vince: Yes.
Digger: But we need something like that - it's a showcase
and is on national TV because music and entertainment is so
fragmented these days, isn’t it?
Vince: I think keeping music live is very important.
Digger: You’ve got The Counterfeit Sixties running
alongside The Hollies Tribute. Are they going at the same
time?
Vince: Both at the same time although The Counterfeit
Sixties is, compared to the Hollies band, more of a hobby if
you like.
Digger: It’s going to be very difficult to replicate
authentically all of the sounds from the various sixties
bands. How are you going about doing that? Some sixties bands
had
some idiosyncratic stuff going on.
Vince: We do pretty well. Gavin with the keyboards and
we’ve got a very good guitarist and everybody just seems
to have the sounds. They seem to find it from somewhere –
don’t ask me where.
Digger: Tell us more about your history.
Vince: I joined my first band when I was sixteen – it was
a Blues/Rock band but then I packed in when I got married.
Digger: Did she make you do it?
Vince: Yes.
Digger: I hear that a lot. (Both laugh)
Vince: I started up again when I was about 26.
Digger: Was it like riding a bike?
Vince: To a certain extent, yes. But I went into a
completely different area of entertainment, which was comedy.
I joined a comedy band.
Digger: Like The Wurzels or The Baron Knights?
Vince: A bit like the Black Abbots.
Digger: I see.
Vince: It was visual comedy. I was offered the job and I
went for it.
Digger: What I enjoy when I go to see the band is some funny
stories and interaction with the audience between the songs.
I do enjoy a bit of banter.
Vince: Yes. That’s the good thing about the Hollies band.
There’s a big, big percentage of audience participation.
There’s loads of jokes and laughter and we all have a good
time.
Digger: That’s important.
Vince: It’s not just a straight act.
Digger: People shouldn't take their music too seriously.
What are your specific retro passions?
Vince: I find myself watching The Saint every morning if I
can.
Digger: I have interviews with Peter Wyngarde, Shirley
Eaton, Annette Andre and Jane Merrow on this site -
they all appeared in several episodes of The Saint and other classic ITC
shows like Jason King, Randall & Hopkirk and so on. I love The Saint.
Jane is lovely.
Vince: Oh really.
Digger: Jane was in The Angels’ Eye Saint episode.
Vince: I’ve just seen that one.
Digger: And with Roger Moore pretending to spank Annette Andre
in one scene or
being found in bed with three girls in another ... it was funny that they
were a little naughty for the time.
Vince: Yes, you didn’t realise it but looking at them now
some of them were.
Digger: All filmed on the same small back lot at Elstree.
Vince: I spent some time there actually, I used to do a lot
of production work for big bands and I went in and out of
Elstree a few times.
Digger: Sid Lawrence, Jack Parnell?
Vince: Yes, great. I loved Jack Parnell.
Digger: He was the main man as a bandleader at ATV for a
long time. What would be a typical play list for The
Hollywood Bees?
Vince: Just One Look, Here I go Again, We’re
Through, Yes I will.
Digger: Do you do their big seventies hits as well?
Vince: We tend to concentrate on the older stuff, more so.
I’m Alive, I Can’t Let Go, Bus Stop.
Digger: The Graham Nash period?
Vince: Yes. We do a bit of Crosby, Stills and Nash in the
show.
Digger: I’d love to hear your take on Marrakesh Express.
Have you heard the unplugged demo of that?
Vince: No I haven’t.
Digger: I’ll send you a link. It’s always good to hear
the evolution of a song. What’s going to be the play list
for the Counterfeit Sixties shows?
Vince: I think it’s right across the board – The Who,
The Kinks, The Stones, The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five.
Digger: You shouldn’t have too much trouble with the DC5
drum beat – that was quite straightforward.
Vince: No problem. Kelvin our keyboard player was in an
offshoot of the DC5.
Digger: They were bigger than The Beatles for a while,
especially in the States.
Vince: I’m just trying to remember the name of the guy that died...
Digger: Mike Smith.
Vince: Yes, that’s who I was thinking of.
Digger: Why is the sixties such a big thing in people’s
minds Vince?
Vince: I think if you’ve lived through the sixties then
you know what it was it like – it wasn't just the
music, it was the clothes and the cars. I was a mod with a
bit of rocker in me.
Digger: What was your first car?
Vince: My first car was a Morris 1000 and then Marinas.
Digger: That was a bad period for British cars, the
seventies.
Vince: I had the one that had the same engine as the MGB GT.
Digger: The Capri was good looking.
Vince: Yes,
but generally that was sort of a dodgy period for car
designs.
Digger: We'd had some classics in the sixties.
Vince: I then had an
Alfasud.
Digger: So you were a bit of a petrol head?
Vince: Definitely. Then a BMW 320. I’ve been through quite a few.
Digger: What do you enjoy most about playing in a Retro tribute
band?
Vince: The thing is – I’ve always like The Hollies and
it’s the songs, they're just so nice.
Digger: And the material’s diverse as well. Most groups
you listen to their stuff is similar but The Hollies always
released very different songs. They went through lots of different
phases.
Vince: When you speak to people about The Hollies it’s
funny – when they find out I’m in a Hollies tribute. And
when they eventually realise how many hits they've actually had.
They say “God I didn't’ realise.”
Digger: They were there all the time in the sixties and
seventies. And Bobby was, and is, a
great drummer, recognised by his peers. He doesn’t get mentioned
in that many lists apart from by those in the
know.
Vince: Yes. I just read a little thing by Gilson Lavis out
of the Jools Holland Band and he said in Rhythm mag that Bobby
Elliott was one of the very best British drummers
ever.
Digger: When I spoke to him he was very humble and
down-to-earth and said “I don’t think I did that quite
right” or “maybe I was a bit too busy on that track.”
I think he was great and understated when playing and
underrated as a player.
Vince: I think every drummer is like that and when you come
off you will say “I wasn’t quite happy with that little
bit. “(Laughs)
Digger: He has no ego.
Vince: I’d love to meet him.
Digger: Are there any other Hollies tributes?
Vince: No, I think we’re the only one.
Digger: Well, you should meet him. I’m sure he’d welcome
you at a gig if you come round and introduce yourself. You
can see how much time he has for the fans on Youtube. He’d be
delighted.
Vince: I don’t think the Hollies management indulge
tributes, which is a sad thing for us.
Digger: The management are near to where I live here and Allan
Clarke lives around here too in Northamptonshire. He said he’d
retire and he certainly did.
Vince: He has, he’s just disappeared and retired. It’s
sad.
Digger: What about future plans? What do you want to see yourself doing in a
couple of years time with both these tribute bands?
Vince: A lot more gigs.
Digger: I'm sure that’s going to come. Hopefully we’ll get a good
summer and people will be going to more shows.
Vince: The Hollywood Bees gigs are going very well and the
theatres that we’ve got in at the moment are selling out.
The band is going down fantastic – we just did Alnwick
Playhouse and got a standing ovation at the end.
Digger: That's marvellous. How far do you travel?
Vince: All over the country. As far as you like –
abroad. I travelled all over the world with the last band
– Estonia, Spain, India lat year where we played in
Mumbai. I’ve only been playing live with The Hollywood
Bees for around a year on the road, but it’s
taken the best part of five years to get the right personnel
and to do all the rehearsals. The hardest bit is getting
the personnel for the Hollies. I think if you’ve got a
Hollies tribute it has to be as close as possible to The
Hollies’ harmonies and I think we’ve done it.
Digger: Yes. That was one of their main fortes.
Vince: That IS The Hollies.
Digger: So many brilliant songs. And they wrote some good
ones too.
Vince: They did.
Digger: Thanks Vince. I wish you all the best and hope to
see you at one of your gigs in the midlands.
Vince: Thanks David.
