Instro Trivia

THE RHET STOLLER GROUP by Russ Sainty
Instro Review question to Russ Sainty:
After reading the Pipeline interview and various articles I'm unsure whether the Nu-Notes actually played on Rhet Stoller's records; Walk Don't Run, Chariot etc. Can you help, please? Or did Rhet have a contract that didn't involve the Nu-Notes?
Let me tell you how the Rhet Stoller thing was. When The Nu-notes recorded Walk Don't Run, and Chariot, purely as a marketing ploy by DECCA RECORDS, it was decided to put the instrumentals out under the name of The Rhet Stoller Group, giving Russ Sainty and The Nu-Notes two bites at the cherry, so to say !! So yes, you can take my word for it, The Rhet Stoller group, is and was Russ Sainty and The Nu-Notes, even I play tambourine on Chariot.
However after a while, Barry (Rhet) Stoller left the group, to play with Eden Kane and Terry Dean etc.
That's when Big Jim Sullivan joined us, for around 7 / 8 months, he then left to go with TOM JONES, and that's when I got Roger Dean to join.

And more from Russ's book . . .

Do you remember The Spotnicks? No, they're not from outer space, they were in fact a top Swedish Group who had a few hits. One of them being an instrumental called Orange Blossom Special, a real exciting and pulsating up tempo number.
When speaking to Roger Dean, Nu-Notes lead guitarist, we discussed the Saturday night when we played with them at the 'Cali'; both of us recall what happened that night, but neither of us can recall the date.
We can only work out that it would have been late1962, the year The Spotnicks had that particular hit, or possibly 1963.
OK Russ, what did happen on whatever date it might have been? I hear you saying. Alright, I'm now going to explain.
I remember it well, myself and The Nu-Notes standing over by the dressing room/kitchen) door listening
to the group, and we all made comments about what we thought of them, which I have to tell you was pretty average.
However, things were about to become very embarrassing. One of the group introduced their big hit number Orange Blossom Special and away they went, with ourselves and a very big audience all watching and listening on.
Well, I have to tell you the truth, it was a joke. The lead guitarist was not able to actually play the number properly, it was all over the place, and as I have already mentioned, a little embarrassing all round.
This being the last number of their performance meant that we followed them on stage to do the last session of the evening. After doing a few numbers ourselves, Roger Dean shouted to the rest of us, "What about we do our version of Orange Blossom Special?" A few of the audience heard this and started to shout, "Yeah, do it Rog, come on show them how to play the number." Then, before I could say hold on a minute, The Nu-Notes were into it and there was no stopping them.
Well, I have to say, Roger, our lead guitarist, did a fantastic job, and as the number came to an end the audience went mad, whistling and shouting for more, which was all very nice at the time, but on reflection, at the end of the evening, we all felt it was the wrong thing to have done, even though the 'Cali' audience loved us for doing it. Oh well, happy days!

MORE FROM THE NU-NOTES by Roger Dean (sadly now deceased)
Instro Review question to Roger Dean:
I have no details of a track called Mien Liebling (German for My Darling) so was it a
group original? It somehow sounds familiar, though.
We remember doing Hall of Mirrors, (written by me), Cathy (written by Mel and Sunset (not sure who wrote that one), but I don't remember Mein Leibling. We did record an album for Deutsche Gramaphon when we were at the 'Crazy Horse Club' in Hamburg, but none of us can remember individual tracks - and we don't have a copy. I suppose 'Leibling' could have been on that, but I can't remember what happened forty years ago !!!
Instro Review question to Roger Dean:
What was your main guitar in those days?
My main guitar then was a Gretsch 6120, it was previously owned by Bruce Welch, and is the same one that can be seen in 'Summer Holiday'.
Instro Review question to Roger Dean:
Hall Of Mirrors - some phrases sound similar to The Champs' Go Champs Go' track, was that intentional?
You are right, I was a raving 'Champs' fan, and to my shame I ripped 'Hall' from the track you mention - oh well !!
It was a pity that Wally Ridley mixed the laughter louder than the track !!

More Nu-notes info courtesy of John Warburg
Bob Xavier and the Jury (1961 - Mid 1962): Albert Lee guitar (born 21.12.1943, in Blackheath, South-east London); Pat Donaldson bass; Roy Mills drums; Bob Xavier sax, vocals; Roger Dean lead guitar.

The Buddy Monroe 5: Buddy Monroe (to Nero and the Gladiators, Sep 1961 - Oct 1962); Russ Sainty.

The 4 Teens: Laurie Jay drums; Rhet Stoller lead guitar; Roy Taft guitar, vocals; Mel Miller bass, vocals.

Russ Sainty and the Nu-Notes (Aug 1958 - Mar 1964): Laurie Jay drums (Aug 1958 - Nov 1959); Rhet Stoller lead guitar (Aug 1958 - Nov 1959, Dec 1959 - Jan 1962) (born Barry Stuart Stoller, in 1943, in Stamford Hill, North London); Roy Taft guitar, vocals (Aug 1958 - Nov 1959, Dec 1959 - Dec 1962, Jan 1963 - Mar 1964) (born in 1943); Mel Miller bass, vocals (Aug 1958 - Nov 1959, Dec 1959 - Dec 1962, Jan 1963 - Mar 1964) (born Melvin Miller, in 1942); Russ Sainty lead vocals (Aug 1958 - Nov 1959, Dec 1959 - Dec 1962, Jan 1963 - Mar 1964) (born Alfred Sainty, 4.1936, in Leyton, East London); Bernie Martin drums (Dec 1959 - Dec 1962, Jan 1963 - Mar 1964) (born Bernard Martin, in 1943); Big Jim Sullivan lead guitar (Jan - Jun 1962) (born James George Tomkins, 14.2.1941, at Uxbridge Hospital, Uxbridge, Middlesex); Roger Dean lead guitar (Jun - Dec 1962) (born 16.3.1943, in Hendon, North-West London) (to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Apr 1964 - Apr 1965); Nigel Menday drums (Jan - Dec 1962, Jan 1963 - Mar 1964) (ex Chris Trent and the Whispering Four, Nov 1960 - Jan 1962, to Pam Cordell and the Whispering 4, Aug 1963 - Feb 1964, Tony Colton and the Crawdaddies, Aug 1964 - Feb 1965).

COUGARS MEMORIES by Keith Owen (Cougars' lead guitarist)
Instro Review question to Keith Owen:
I've seen reference to a track called Sausage Roll but nothing shows up at EMI archives. Can you enlighten me on this please?
The track called Sausage Roll was a 4/4 version of Offenbach's Barcarolle (which was originally in 3/4) we recorded that if my memory serves me correctly at the same session as we recorded Our Man in Siberia. It's great to know there is still some interest in The Cougars after all this time
Norrie Paramor played the piano intro on Red Square... Bob Barrett was in charge of the session. Norrie just walked in said hello, sat down and played it once and walked out! (I'm pretty sure this recording was done on a Sunday and we left Dave Hack's drums on the pavement back in Bristol).
We didn't realise we had left them (drums) at home until we arrived at EMI - and being a Sunday in the 60s we could not find a shop open to hire / borrow / steal a kit so had to look through EMI's lost property to find a "piecemeal" kit for Dave to play - It was a remarkable drum track considering the kit he had to play.......
The middle 8 solo in Red Square was not overdubbed but done as one take - simply switching from bridge pickup to the pickup no 1 at the end of the fingerboard and picking halfway up the fingerboard. -- I still believe that Red Square was the best track we recorded.
Crying For The Carolines was an idea I had for a new track which we rehearsed but I can't remember if we recorded it or not, it is an old 1930s show tune written by Harry Warren.
When I received you letter it revived my interest and I searched the internet to refresh my memory - if you're interested you can find a version of it at the following address. --http://harrywarren.org/songs/0080.htm - we picked it up at the chorus and played it with a "Ventures" feel. Having refreshed my memory I still think it would have been stronger than Caviare & Chips.
Incidentally the intro we used for this song was borrowed for Our Man In Siberia.
Well I've bored you enough - Great to hear from you.

WRITING FOR THE SHADOWS by former EMI Recording Engineer Peter Vince
Chelsea Boot was a novelty number I'd written akin to Kaiser Bill's Batman, and I played my demo to Norrie Paramor (as was the normal route) and he played it (anonymously) to the chaps, along with other demos, and fortunately they liked it - so no favouritism.
As far as Alentejo was concerned, I actually mentioned my idea to Hank beforehand and he loaned me his Spanish guitar to make the demo, fortunately they liked it enough to record it on their next album - the title was the idea of Peter Gormley who said the tune reminded him of Portugal. I don't think Brian (Bennett) was too happy at the time because he had written a tune for the album - Maggie's Samba, an excellent composition which was later recorded for 'Established 58'.

AFTER THE OUTLAWS by former Outlaw Ken Lundgren
Greetings Tony.
Ken Lundgren here and glad to discover another person who sees the Outlaws legacy in the development of British popular music. I would love to find out more about your project (Instro Beat) and help in way I can. A couple of years ago I spent several entertaining hours talking to Jerry Bloom who was working on the Ritchie Blackmore bio at the time. I also been given a bootleg vinyl LP called Rockin' Guitar which is all Outlaws tracks that I had thought had simply disappeared. The fact that some of the members of the group, Mick, Chas and Ritchie went on to such fame is testament to the validity of the band and Joe Meek's vision. It might interest you that after leaving the Outlaws I pursued a career in broadcasting and record production in Canada, the UK and Hong Kong. I'll be happy to share information with you on anything that might dovetail with your endeavours.
I'm certainly not retired. I work full time and teach creative writing at Langara college in Vancouver. I still play with my son and nephew both of whom are touring professionals. My nephew, Lee Worden, actually has most of my guitars as he has a studio and keeps them limbered up. Our son, Dave Lundgren is a drummer (and guitarist) and has toured the Far East, Canada and the US with various groups including the Power Onions which were quite big in India for a time.