"I've got it!" he exclaimed, as if he'd been given the holy grail itself, and the pair of them ran back to Chaplin Road so Keith could show Gerry everything he'd learned before he might forget it. The Savages 'uniform' was orange shirt, black trousers and white boots >Įventually Keith emerged from Carlo's house ecstatic. " 'I'll go in and have the lesson, then I'll come out and tell you all about it and you give me half a crown.' That way I was getting the lesson, second hand, for half a crown, and Keith actually got the lesson for seven and six." "He said, 'Tell you what,' " recalled Gerry. Keith, who had such a terrible problem holding on to the £4 wages he was earning at Ultra Electronics every week that the 10 shillings for the lesson had started to look expensive, then had another idea. Who knew what he was going to do once he got him in his lair? And besides, Gerry could already play the drums. And that's why, as Wednesday approached and Keith suggested that Evans come along with him, Gerry balked. He could never have dared ask the great Carlo Little for lessons, even though he dealt with so many famous drummers at Paramount on a daily basis. Gerry Evans never ceased to be amazed at his friend's audacity. "I can only teach you what I know," he said by way of agreeing. Every penny came in handy when you were devoting yourself to something as unstable as rock'n'roll. He wouldn't have minded having someone teach him when he was the boy's age. "Chaplin Road." That wasn't far from his own place at Sudbury at the end of the Harrow Road. The way you hit the bass drum." Carlo thought about it for a minute. Me and my friend come and see you all the time. I could probably do with some lessons meself." "No," said the boy, "You're fantastic. "I'm not a teacher, mate," he said eventually. The kid didn't look strong enough to hold a pair of drum sticks. Carlo looked down on this kid with the 'bumfreezer' brown jacket and greasy hair that sat incongruously atop such a cherubic face. And then he asked Carlo Little for drum lessons. But that night Keith Moon walked backstage with his friend, waited for the right moment, and then approached Carlo Little, eight years his senior, twice his size, and the best drummer he had ever seen in the flesh. As always seemed to be the case, they were surrounded by potential apostles, those budding musicians who had been down the front and were desperate for pearls of wisdom to fall from their spiritual leaders' lips that they could take back to their own cover bands (these included from time to time various members of bands who later became The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Led Zepplin, etc.) Most of these hopefuls, however, would never successfully emulate their heroes because they didn't have the guts, as the Savages did, to turn their backs on the Shadows' instrumentals, the neatly tailored suits and carefully choreographed stage moves of the day and let rip into real rock 'n' roll, with all the blood, sweat and tears demanded of it. Somehow, despite his own lack of any real musical talent, Sutch always managed to surround himself with the best musicians.Īfter the show, the Savages were to be found holding court in the changing room, trying to get their breath back. All the budding musicians were down the front at a show like this, monitoring the movements, studying for tips. Keith Moon thought he could hear his life ticking away above the noise. No, what really got his back up was that the new guitarist was even younger that Watson, a Middlesex boy by the name of Ritchie Blackmore whose devastating runs up and down the guitar were leaving people gasping for breath (he was eventually asked to join the Savages from May to October 1962 whilst Watson and Hopkins were in Germany, and Andy Wren was back too). ![]() ![]() Local resident Keith Moon was a little disappointed that night to find that Nicky Hopkins and Bernie Watson, as rumoured, had left the Savages to take up a residency with Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers in Hamburg, although Keith couldn't blame them: he would have jumped at the chance himself to get out of London and play in a foreign country. The Savages are booked to play at Wembley Town Hall.
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