The Little Drum and Percussion Page

Nothing Ever Happens Arts

In the Spring of 1971, my friend, Eric Oultram, persuaded me to organise a concert in Widnes featuring progressive band Gentle Giant. We were aged eighteen and part of a prominent group of Widnes hippies. Some were committed to a psychedelic programme. I can't remember who was the first to discover the Gentle Giant album but within a short time several people I knew had a copy.

I had already organised a bizarre coach trip to Chester Zoo which even moved somebody to write to the letters column in the Daily Mirror. While returning from The Unicorn walking across the fields one night, Eric talked me into putting on a concert at The Queen's Hall in Widnes. I said "With who ?", "Why not try and get Gentle Giant".

What really made a difference was that the hippy group of which I was a member formed a loose 'arts association' to stage the event and I think the fact that so many people were involved in that led to the word going out and a big response from the local youth. We called the group "Nothing Ever Happens Arts" because, we felt, nothing ever happended in the industrial town where we lived and we wanted to do something about that.

The Queen's Hall was the biggest venue in the area with a capacity of 800 and the Beatles had played there in 1963. With it being Widnes, nothing much exciting had occured there since. As it transpired, my dad, Don Little, had organised wrestling bouts and boxing tournaments there for years and when I asked him how I could go about it he just said "Go and see George Claire (the town clerk) and say I sent you". It worked great. The Town Clerk said yes and our concert was on. But, there was no-one to run a bar and I didn't have a clue about such things so, although later on our posters advertised a bar, there wasn't, yet it was okay on the nightt. My Dad put me onto someone for tickets and posters.

I checked out The Pink Floyd first but Nems quoted me £800 for them and I couldn't see that paying for itself. I found Gentle Giant's agency in the Melody Maker and was surprised how easy it was to book them, and they only cost £65.

I was fortunate to make contact with a symathetic journalist on the local paper called Nick and we got a series of plugs in the The Widnes Weekly News running up to the gig. One night we organised three poster crews to go out fly posting the area as far as Warrington. Some were rather enthusuastic when they postered over a warning sign before an S Bend.

On the afternoon of the concert live wire Paul Lewis organised a bike with a poster strapped to the back to cycle up and down Widnes High Street to promote the gig.

Gentle Giant

On the day I can't remember much. At the gig there was so much rushing about and I was playing so I had to set up my own gear as well. I can remember myself and Les from Alcestis warming up with a bit of a drum battle before the actual gig started and this brought a trickle of applause from the auditorium which was filling up.

Alcestis played first, then Oblet, which was essentially my old band Bells, re-named for this event as I had already left the band. We ended with an original number by Maurice Banks. A long complicated (for us) piece about a " Glass House". As it was the first time we had played it I was amazed it went down so well. Next on was Schunge, accompanied by Rob Richardson. They went down very well with their home crowd.

Gentle Giant were exceptional. Widnes didn't realise it was ready for a band that could switch instantaneously from heavy rock to chamber ensemble and back again. The passages with Violin, Cello and Flute made quite a contrast. They played most of the tracks from the first album and one or two from Acquiring The Taste, which was released a couple of weeks later. The drum solo in Nothing At All was thunderous and brought the house down and I think they finished with Alucard.

They were all charming and friendly when I went to pay them in the dressing room, I invited them to a party at the house where we all lived but by the time I finally got to the party, after sorting out my own gear, they had already left - long journey.

This gig is featured in a Gentle Giant Tour History page maintained by Jack Skelly at,

http://www.ggtourhistory.50webs.com

It makes a good read if you are interested in the music of the time.

Egg, Schunge and Comus

"Sounds like a breakfast!", somebody said when they saw the posters.

Flushed with success and about seventy pounds in the bank we immediately set about planning the next gig. At a meeting in "the house" various opinions were forwarded as to what band we should book for the next gig. One or two of the panel were seriously into Egg, a three-piece keyboard band that played tunes in outrageous time signatures like 13/8 and J S Bach type fugues. Another wanted Comus, a sort of acoustic-horror band, or at least that's how they struck me.

It was a democratic ensemble and these suggestions were adopted, since others had had their turn in choosing Gentle Giant. Myself, I would have tried to get more popular or mainstream bands. In 1971 you could not have chosen two more 'on the edge' bands than Egg and Comus. To present these to the good working class folk of Widnes on a Saturday night in the Corporation Hall, pride of the Borough, was to say the least, adventurous.

Amazingly, Egg brought the house down. Although I was familiar with their album at the time I don't remember any of their tunes except, I can remember them doing "There's No Business Like Show Business" for an encore and the house lights flashing to end the evening as the crowd erupted. I was surprised that the Widnes music fans had taken the highly technical music on board so completely.

There weren't quite as many people at the second concert, maybe three hundred. But it was still a great night, although it was the last event organised by that particular local group of freedom fighters. The road to London beckoned me and although there was another gig featuring Steamhammer, members of the original Nothing Ever Happens Arts had started to move on leaving behind a healthy amount in the bank. Both bands had cost about Seventy pounds and we still made a profit.

Egg (rearstage) and Comus (forestage) setting up at the Queen's Hall, Widnes (Photo by Paul Lewis)

Schunge with Phil Little on Bongos (Photo by Paul Lewis)