And welcome back to the Chatterbox Redux podcast
with Sue and Nick. Our guest on this edition
is Rod Davis of The Quarrymen. you And now on
Chatterbox UK, we're just lucky enough to have
Rod Davis of The Quarrymen as our guest. Rod,
welcome. How are you? Hello, Rod. Oh, pretty
good. Thank you. Nice to be here. Thanks for
coming on. Thanks for coming on. Right. The Quarrymen.
Quite a history. Quite a history. And I see that
you, if this is right, correct me if I'm wrong.
but uh according to my research you joined in
they were formed in 56 you joined in 57 is that
right uh well um not not my it's not my version
of history let's hear yours how did it start
well i'm i'm pretty sure i started sometime in
56 um we we got various bits of information which
You see Lonnie Donegan recorded Rock Island Line
and it was put out as a single in November 55.
It hit the charts, I think it was probably the
top 20 or something like that, in January 56.
Now if you're going to be inspired by Lonnie
Donegan and go out and get a banjo like I did,
you're not going to wait until 1957, are you?
I guess, I guess. Well, I was inspired by Rock
Island Line and so were so many other people.
So my contention is, and I've still not been
able to produce any concrete proof of this, that
we started sometime, that the Quarrymen started
sometime probably between Easter and summer in
56 because at Easter 56 there was a Quarry Bank
school of his, called Mike Hill, was on this
trip, and he bought in Amsterdam a copy of Long
Tall Sally, which he brought back and played
to John. And in the book he wrote, Mike Hill's
book, he said that not long after that, John
started the group. And that tallies with my logic.
And there's another chap called Bill Smith, who
was the bass player, a THS bass player, right
at the beginning. and Bill was a bit older than
us and his dad said to him look if you want to
stay on it for another year at school you got
to stop playing skiffle with that Lenin so that
conversation must have taken place before the
end of July 56 now I was playing with Bill Smith
so I'm pretty sure it started in 56 I know Mark
Lewis thinks I didn't join till 57 but Mark and
I have disagree on that point. As you're our
guest we go along with your with your with your
history. I'd like to find some concrete proof
of it. My dad used to write down all his milages
in a black book and calculate the fuel consumption
and stuff basically because the fuel gauge on
the car wasn't working and he used to use a piece
of dowel rod north wales to buy this banjo for
me we went in his car and i'm sure there must
be a record of it somewhere if only we could
find this black book so okay so that's uh we're
i'm understanding it that you therefore are an
original member of the quarry men then not quite
because it was already going before i joined
there was john lennon pete shotton eric griffiths
and bill smith who were the the banks there was
the teacher space one Monday morning and told
my friend Eric Griffiths, I got a banjo yesterday,
Eric. Oh, he said, would you like to be in a
group? I said, who's in this group? So he told
me they were all kids from my year at school.
So I said, oh yeah, that sounds great. So I was
in. So they were already in existence when I
joined. So I can't claim to be an absolute original,
original, original member. But you were there
in the year it started. That's cool. So this
is the same group that the Skiffle group that
John Lennon started as the Black Jacks and then
changed the name. Is that right? Am I wrong?
I'm the only person that seems to remember it
being called the Black Jacks. quite some time
after me by which time it was most definitely
the Quarrymen so the Black Jack's name in my
view only only existed for a few weeks you know
got you okay that's fine that's good now okay
so working our way through let's have a look
at the timeline John Lennon you've mentioned
Eric Griffiths just look at the timelines here
um now how long were you with the Quarrymen first
time around? I think from July, from sometime
mid -56 to the end of July 57. I know the end
time rather than the beginning. And what did
you do when you left The Quarrymen? Where did
you go on to, gig -wise? Well, as you can see,
as you know, I was a banjo player and I really,
I very quickly realised that banjos had their
limitations and so I needed to... guitar. So
my brother and I sold our electric train set,
bought a Spanish guitar, stuck an earphone on
it and tried to play it through an old wireless
set. So that's how I got into guitar playing.
A list of former members here and I'm not necessarily
just looking at the names. But I'm quite inspired
by, I know we're talking about Skiffle here,
Pete Shotton played the washboard, Bill Smith
and Nigel Wally is it? T -Chest bass, yeah? That's
right, yeah. Nobody could afford a proper stand
-up bass. In fact we could hardly, I mean the
guitars and stuff, the instruments we played
by and large were the cheapest available. Sure.
Only the professionals ever had a proper stand
-up base. No, Ivan Vaughan as well, because you're
slightly earlier than the average guest. I suppose
Marty Wilds came along just after what we're
talking about, but usually we talk to 60s people,
so it's ever so fascinating. So T -Chest basses,
three of those I see, that's good. Now, okay,
so you've learnt, let's talk about you. Well,
only one at a time, only one at a time. Okay,
okay. Occasionally played the teacher space Nigel
and Ivan occasionally played the teacher space
I have to admit I personally don't remember either
of them playing it, but there's no no doubt about
it that they did Okay, okay. Okay. So you and
your brother you learned to play guitar and what
did you guys do? for the rest of the 50s and
into the 60s Well, I started playing bluesy stuff
with a man who played the harmonica Okay I found
myself in a bookshop in Liverpool called Phillips
and the nephew and on the bookshelf there was
a book called Burl Ives American Songbook which
I took off the shelf and flicked through and
there were quite a few of the songs in there
which had been skiffled up by the skifflers and
a lot of other songs of course and he pointed
out in the text that a lot of these songs had
come from the British Isles in the first place
so I bought this book and I started playing Burlife
stuff and of course I got interested in American
folk music then when I went to university I joined
the Folk Song Society this was in Cambridge and
I quickly realized that somebody played me a
bluegrass LP I quickly realized that bluegrass
made Skiffle look like a very pale imitation
which indeed it was and so I started playing
a lot of bluegrass and also got into English
folk music as well. So I became a folky, I didn't
become a rock and roll one. And basically you
kept doing that throughout the 60s, gigging and
so on? I started gigging in 64, at the end of
64 when I came back to Liverpool. I was three
years at university and then a year in Germany
in which I played the banjo and the jazz band
actually. from I was teaching English and I came
back to Liverpool with a couple of guys we formed
the bluegrass group from 64 to 68 and then I
went I went traveling after that for a bit so
I was really playing bluegrass okay so I mean
it made your living you were a professional music
musician I take it yeah no no no no I was a teacher
musician would have been very difficult. Though
in Germany I was teaching English and playing
on a frondy night in a jazz band and I think
it was five Deutschmarks was your salary, was
your pay, and beer was a Deutschmarker bottle
so my five Deutschmarks went in the evening while
I was drinking. So I really didn't make a living
out of it. I hope you'll be able to answer it.
Sue's got a question please, Rod. How did you
come up with the name of the quarrymen? Well,
the school was called Quarry Bank. It was on
a slight slope, therefore bank, and it was an
old merchant's house and he had called it Quarry
Bank. So, we had a school song which went, Quarry
Men, old before our birth, straining each muscle
and sinew. And we used to sort of sing this,
the very last thing on the... sort of sweaty
sweaty muscular laborers digging in quarries
you know and there was also a quarry in Walton
where we lived so that that helped a bit as well
nice that was why we were called quarry men brilliant
Rod were you were you still with the group when
Paul McCartney turned up I was with him I was
with the group that day yes but I don't remember
seeing Paul important day, it was the day you
met John. Eric Griffiths remembers seeing him
in the audience when we were on stage and we
were singing a song called Come Go With Me, which
turned out to be actually a doo -wop number,
why we were doing doo -wop, don't ask me. But
we always had difficulty getting the words. You
either had to buy every record that came out
or buy the sheet music and none of us really
and try and scribble the words down, or do the
same thing when you're listening to the radio,
you know. Because you could sit there for an
hour or two until the song you wanted came up.
So it was a bit hit and miss. In fact, it was
more hit than miss. And there were bits missing
out of the text that we got. So in come go with
me. The second line is, don't leave me baby far
beyond the sea. But if you listen to it even
now, was about a penitentiary so we always sang
that and Paul remembers John singing those words
and he thought John was actually improvising
as it turned out he wasn't improvising because
we always sang it that way but there you go so
Paul was there during the afternoon when we were
playing and then I think I went home for my tea
before we played in the evening we walked over
the road to the church hall and put our instruments
in there And that would seem to be when Paul
arrived with Ivan Vaughan. I wasn't there by
then. I'd gone home for me tea, as we say in
Liverpool. So at the greatest moment in rock
and roll history, I went home for me tea. Oh,
brilliant. Paul McCartney turned up on his bicycle
to St Peter's Rose Queen on the 6th of July 1957.
And we were on stage with John playing a doo
-wop number. Well, we were versatile, let's face
it. And the problem was that we had trouble getting
the words of songs, so we would sometimes pile
into the record booth, you know, in the record
shop with a piece of paper and a pencil and try
and scribble the words down, and you'd end up
with a song written in Arabic, you know. This
one was a particularly difficult one to get the
second line which I think is don't leave me baby
far beyond the sea. Still difficult when you
listen to the record today but John said okay
we'll just fill a line in there he wrote down
down down to the penitentiary and we always sang
it that way but when Paul heard it he thought
John was making up the lyrics as he went along.
How did you feel though when the Beatles hit
it big as the Beatles weren't were you cool with
it? Well I was more interested in old American
country music and English folk music, so it wasn't
my kind of music. But with us, everything in
those days was controlled from London. The whole
music scene was controlled from London. Tim Panalli
and a few record companies. It was absolutely
brilliant that a group from my hometown, Liverpool,
with one of the guys I knew in the group, had
actually gone to London and made it so big, I
was absolutely delighted. I wouldn't have wanted
to be a people, but I haven't got enough hair
for a start, but I was absolutely delighted with
it, absolutely. that's really cool that's cool
okay rod let's pick up the pieces before we get
to the modern day you took us to the late 60s
and when you were a teacher in germany and you
were uh following uh your your sort of the bluegrass
type stuff that you uh that you really like so
take us into the 70s as as you progress please
rod well um over the 68 69 70 or so and i was
working for an company a holiday company and
I was driving to Moscow and Turkey and places
like that and across the Sahara Desert I did
play some what's called old -timey music which
is so like pre bluegrass with with some friends
and then eventually I started playing more of
this by this time I've been playing the fiddle
and the mandolin for some years at a pub called
The Engineer near Regent's Park and that was
great. I learnt a whole lot there, met some great
friends, some wonderful musicians. And what about
sort of mid to late 70s? Were you still teaching
all the time, all the way through this? No, in
68 when I gave up teaching and started working
in the travel business, I then stayed in the
travel business for about the next 18 years.
company that sent people on holiday to Paris,
another one that sent away to Egypt and then
I got into computer reservation systems because
by that time holiday companies had gone from
manual booking systems on to computerized systems
and I got a bit involved in that. But then I
gave that up and eventually went back to teaching
tourism and And marketing I've done a marketing
post -cred marketing qualification by that time
But I also started playing with some old friends
from Liverpool and my sister and another friend
living in the London area we were playing in
a Tex -Mex group, okay, and Okay, so I think
we're taking ourselves into the late 80s are
we into the 90s perhaps 1990 am I right on that
sort of era? Okay, and some time in the some
time in the 80s mid 80s I was invited to the
Beatle convention in Liverpool and The first
time really anybody had bothered to find out
what had happened Before the Beatles, you know,
they obviously they didn't spring into life overnight
as people are well aware these days, but So,
I was quite amused by that and then somebody
asked us to try and put a CD together. In fact,
it was a chap called John Duff Lowe who had played
the piano for the Quarrymen after I'd left. He
played on In Spite of All the Danger and that'll
be the day the famous record myself, John himself,
and John Duffelow and Len Garry and we recorded
the CD with some musicians from Bristol that
John had been playing with in the band but the
CD never appeared and John Lowe made two more
attempts and as a result of that John and I were
invited to the Beatle Convention in the States,
one in Los Angeles oh lovely nice nice and that's
how the ball started rolling again uh -huh okay
so there you are at the caverns 40th birthday
and um i i looks like we've got your good self
uh len gary uh i just wonder if better you read
them off it looks like you've got quite a a number
of the the ones from the 50s turning up anyway
We had to drag Colin Hanton because he wasn't
actually, he took an awful lot of persuading
to get Colin to come and there's a famous photograph
there with us with Alan Williams and with Gary
Gibson who was a John Lennon look -alike. Anyway,
we had a great... So they said, ah, you can't
go now. There's a TV crew coming to interview
you guys. And they want you on stage. We said,
come on, you're joking. And they said, ah, don't
worry. The audience have all been drinking all
day. They won't notice if you make a mess of
it. So anyway, we staggered up on stage and got
through a couple of numbers. And as a result
of that, there were some people from the Beatles
fan club in Liverpool in the audience, notably
a lady called. and we appeared at St. Peter's
in July of 97 and there were an awful lot of
people there some of them even from Liverpool
surprisingly and then someone said to us have
you got a CD so we said no so we thought we'd
better go and make a CD Nottingham and then the
USA, Cuba and the ball started rolling and the
world was all lobster after that. Brilliant,
brilliant, brilliant. I think we've covered the
Quarrymen getting back together, and you sent
me some music from that time. I've also, you
sent me something by the Quarrymen. Penny Lane,
is that literally, is that a CD, greatest hits,
or is there some original stuff on there? Well,
we don't do original stuff, basically. There
was one original style there that wasn't written
by us. Well, we do most of our appearances at
Beatle -related events and people want to hear
the kind of music which inspired John, Paul,
George and Ringo, because of course they were
all in their skiffle groups. They want to hear
that kind of music because of course there's
inevitably a number of extremely talented, totally
competent, fantastic Beatles look -alike, sound
-alike bands and there's no point in our competing
with them. So we do our When we're speaking to
English audiences, obviously they have a better
idea of our sense of humour. three times over
you can tell them well look you never paid to
get in so that's what the cd is and the lane
cd is it's an attempt to capture the the feel
of a live a live quarry men gig to an english
audience that's what the idea of that was it
was recorded in penny lane fantastic Absolutely
brilliant. Okay Rod I'm looking at the Lineup,
I'm getting my stuff from Wikipedia. So if it's
wrong, please please correct me now the current
lineup According to this it looks like there's
five of you and four of you Actually go back
to the 1950s to the very early days the quarrymen
you you obviously included So we got Colin Hanton
yourself then Gary and John Dufflow all date
back to the 50s and they're still in the lineup
today with Chas Newby is that right? Well actually
John Dufflow has retired from performance now
sadly because he's a keyboard player and he's
been having problems with his fingers so John
has decided to hang up his keyboard I'm afraid
which is a great loss but there we go and of
course it would look great on their CV. You know,
I played bass for the Quarry then. So we had
various people, even in Britain, which we borrowed
a friend from Scotland, a friend in Merseyside,
another guy down south. But someone told us that
Chas Newby was a really nice guy, a lovely bass
player, and of course he played, Chas played
with the Beatles, I think three or four occasions
in 1960. and we originally thought of him as
a guitar player because he also plays guitar
but anyway he's such a good bass player and a
lovely guy so it's Glenn, Colin, myself and Chaz
Newby now because we lost Eric Griffiths in 2005
and Pete Shorten in 2017, Duff Lowe's got problems
with his fingers poor guy so that's what you've
got left it's the rest Well, three is still pretty
good out of four. Something to be proud of, you
know, to be associated with a band going back
to 1956 as it was. So yeah, there's something
to be proud of and to still have three members
from then on, I think, is incredible. Really
is. Rod's right. Lockdown, I mean... it's obviously
stopped uh no one's been touring or being active
or anything else i mean we hope we pray that
it is all over and uh you guys can get out and
do some gigs is there anything is there a tour
lined up or any gigs booked in the jet well the
problem is there's still big question marks over
things i mean We went and we had a great time
in Mexico. And then in March, we recorded the
CD. In October, again, Colin and Len were able
to come, but Chas and I went and did a gig in
Germany. But after that, everything just closed
down. Strawberry Fields also wants us to play
there. We should have played in Spain. They'd
like us to go back to Spain. We should have played
on a Mediterranean cruise. That is still up in
the air, so there are quite a few things that
are still very much up in the air at the moment.
but it does sound like the second it is okay
there is finally a permanent green light we hope
it sounds like that the quarry men are eager
to be uh uh you know doing doing that cruise
going to strawberry fields going to the casbah
it sounds like you know he's literally just waiting
for the green light you you guys uh uh well ready
rearing to go aren't you really well we're all
on the wrong side of 80 but we're almost on the
wrong side of 80 Well, I think Len and I, Len's
18 in January and I'm 18 in November, so this
green light had better hurry up, that's all I
can say. Oh dear. Well, I hope that you're in
good enough health to continue for some years
yet, Rod. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Lonnie Donegan. Now... Did you at any point ever
meet him I have a word in his shell like that
about him inspiring you You're here because of
him. Did you ever do that? I've actually met
him twice in 1957 John Lennon sold me his copy
of Rock Island line for half a crown but I always
wanted Lonnie to sign it and a friend of mine
managed to arrange that. In fact it's also been
signed by Beryl Brydon and by Chris Barber, the
other people who were on it. So I did get to
meet Lonnie briefly then and I discovered from
him... I had some big celebration for something
or other. I can't remember what it was now. So
I met him twice, which is fantastic because he
was a seminal character. Without him, the music
scene in Britain would have been totally different.
Just about everybody who came to prominence in
the late 50s was inspired by London. There was
a concert at the Albert Hall. was there you know
it's perfectly true you cannot overestimate the
importance of Lonnie Donaghan getting people
playing guitars that's the point you see and
when Rock and Roll came along the same three
chords that we used for Skiffle worked for Rock
and Roll so we were away you know brilliant I'm
just so glad that you had the opportunity to
meet and chat with him and let him know how important
he was Yeah, no illusions by then. I mean, you
know, what with Van Morrison doing the skiffle
sessions and so on, there was no equivocation
as to how important Lonnie's contribution was
to the music. No question. That's brilliant.
Sue, do you have any questions for us? I've got
one question. You've played some fantastic musical
instruments. Is there a musical instrument you
would have loved to try to play? but we could
never afford a clarinet. So maybe a clarinet
might have been fun. And then when my daughter
got, who was 21, I said to her, well, what do
you want? Expecting she'd say, jewelry. So she
said, no, a saxophone. So I said, oh, well, as
long as I can have a go at it for a little bit
before you get it. Anyway, at the end of the
week, I could play Chattanooga choo -choo. So
maybe I should have had a car. Nice nice boys.
Okay rods being fantastic talking to you Yeah,
absolutely brilliant and you know the history
all the way through but it's been fantastic and
What a history the quarry men had which I knew
I knew it went further than than John and Paul
So thank you for sharing that with us and thank
you for letting us know what? Well, you're waiting
for that green light as we said Rod tell us Tell
the listeners about how they can find your website
and any other social media, please. Well, if
you Google, we've got quite an extensive website,
a couple of hundred pages actually. It's so big
I can't move it anywhere else. If you Google
original Quarrymen, our website will come up.
There's loads of photographs, sound clips, all
kinds of stuff on there. Should keep you amused
for a few days. and live performance on it. Yeah
we do our best. Our drummer Colin Hantons recently,
well a year or so ago wrote his autobiography
so you can buy that on the website. So you know
we have a little bit of retail therapy for people
there if they're interested. Brilliant, absolutely
great Rod. Rod, if you keep in touch and just
let us know when you are doing some sort of a
gig or you are actually starting again we can
get you back on for what we call a 10 minute
update and then we can play one of your songs
and you can tell us about how you're getting
moving with this green light. So let's hope it's
not too long. And Rod, it's been absolutely brilliant
and thank you for coming on Chatterbooks UK.
Thank you very much. Take care, bye -bye. Cheers,
Rod. Okay, we'd like to thank everybody for coming
here. Hope you've had a very pleasant afternoon.
We'd like to thank Julie and all her staff from
Penny Lane for welcoming us here. Thank you for
coming. Nothing like a trip down Amnesia Lane
with The Q uarryman, is there? Ches Newby died in
2023 and John Duff Lowe passed away in 2024 John
Duff Lowe was replaced in the Quarrymen by Henry
Duff Lowe, who is his son The current members
of the Quarrymen in 2026 are Colin Hanton, Rod
Davis, both who originate from the 1956 line
-up from 70 years ago David Bedford and Henry
Duff Lowe This edition of the Chatterbox Redux
podcast was presented by Nick and Sue. We thank
our special guest who was Rod Davis of The Quarrymen.
Inquiries please to nickelbum at myyahoo .com
Alternatively, you could write to us or send
your CDs, vinyls, press releases, merch, whatever
you like to P .O. Box 26, The Old Observer Building,
Telford Road, St. Leonard's On Sea, East Sussex,
England, TN38, 9LZ. We thank you very much for
your company and look forward to welcoming you
again next time on the Chatterbox Redux podcast
when our special guest will be Billy J Kramer.
Catch you then, bye bye.