whammy bar was a piece of steel out of my mother’s corsets!
I had asked Robert Reids for time off to do the Conway Twitty tour and they declined, so I declined to work there anymore and that’s the last day job I’ve ever had in my life.
A SMASH HIT FOR DIG!
A little while later on October 8, 1959, Barry and I went to see The Champs (Tequila) at the Stadium. It was an afternoon show and on the way to our dance at Chatswood that evening we were very irate that some mug had had a smash on the Harbour Bridge and was holding us up. We drove straight past the smash and on to the Chatswood dance.
By nine o’clock, Dig, Peter and Boogie still hadn’t shown up. We started to worry. Then someone came and told us that Dig had smashed his Morris Minor underneath the back of a tabletop truck on the Harbour Bridge. We had driven right past and not even recognised the car! Dig had a dislocated hip and very bad facial injuries. Peter had some lacerations and a little shock. Boogie had a broken jaw. We went to the Mater Hospital to see them but the nurses wouldn’t let us in. We stood outside the window listening to Dig, who was delirious and yelling out at the poor nuns who were trying to relocate his hip: “Go away, you fucking angels! I’m not dead yet! Leave me alone!”
As soon as Peter and Boogie had recovered enough to work, we persevered playing without Dig for a while. The band was starting to get very professional in its attitude but unfortunately Barry wasn’t. Peter had given him the name of “Limp Beat Lewis” or “The Lewisician.”
We had just been to Melbourne before Dig’s accident and Barry had done a rather naughty thing that got us into big trouble with GVT9 in Melbourne and with Ken Taylor back at Festival in Sydney. We were working for GVT9 on Bert Newton’s Swallows Juniors and staying at the George Hotel. Anyhow, Col Joye & the Joy Boys were also staying there. We were into playing tricks on other bands, so we played some harmless little tricks like setting up guitarist, Dave Bridge’s bed so that it would fall down as soon as any weight went on it, hanging their guitars from the light fittings and short sheeting Col’s bed. Then we waited for them to go into their suite. After they went inside, we stood a huge “private” sign outside the door with a bucket of water on it, leaning against the door. Then we knocked and yelled out to John Bogie, their drummer, “Come out here Bogie!” As Bogie opened the door he kicked the bucket and got a little wet, to say the least. He then chased Barry and I back to our room, where unbeknownst to me, Barry had stashed one of the fire extinguishers that he had pulled off the wall. As Bogie burst in the door, he was confronted with the sight of Barry with the fire extinguisher turned upside down, ready to go! Bogie ran, but he wasn’t quick enough. The foam caught him right up the arse before he got to his door. It also painted the rest of the hallway because we couldn’t turn it off. It eventually ate away all the carpet.
The George Hotel was at that time owned by GVT9. Need I say anymore? We were in deep shit! After GVT9 contacted Ken Taylor, he gave us a long lecture, especially “Barry the Beast”!
We were playing a show in Grafton when Peter and I decided that we would have to sack “the Beast” and get this guy that we saw playing with Ray Hoff & the Off Beats, namely LEON ISACKSON. On our arrival back in Sydney we were playing at Phyllis Bates Ballroom when Peter turned to Barry and said “Lewis, you’re sacked!” Lewis was so surprised and disbelieving he simply said “Jon, you’re sacked too!” It was a shame that this had to happen to the guy, that along with me, had started Dig & the R’Jays but the thing about this business is being the best, isn’t it? Or is it?
WHAT ABOUT THE OFF BEATS?
LEON: After Ray Hoff & the Off Beats won the band competition at Surryville, our promised recording contract with Teen records only ever resulted in a job for Ray sorting records at John Collins’ office while we waited patiently for a chance to cut our first record. As well as taking over the dance at Surryville, Devlin’s management were still booking us all over the place and the Off Beats were occasionally required to back Johnny Devlin himself. They also gave us a sax player, Dave Cross. With our new saxophone player, we finally got to play the famed Leichhardt Police Boys’ Club and the Sydney Town Hall. We were up there with the “biggies”. During the Town Hall show, Ray was dragged off the stage by screaming teenagers, much to Johnny Devlin’s disgust, and the band was mobbed at the end of the show. I remember we also backed Frank Ifield on the same night but he was just a cowboy singer at the time. He would later go on to England and cut the classic record, I Remember You. I’m sure he probably wouldn’t remember us!
Ray had been rebooked for 6 O’Clock Rock. This time he sang Fabian’s song Tiger. Fabian was about to arrive in town and Dig Richards & the R’Jays were booked to play on the show at the Stadium.
On Thursday October 8, 1959, we saw the headlines: ROCK STAR SMASHED UP ON HARBOUR BRIDGE. It was Digby!
Everybody was shocked by the news. Dig had become incredibly popular by that time with the releases of his first record I Wanna Love You. Johnny Devlin & the Devils were booked to replace Dig on the Stadium show. Trouble was, some of the original Devils had left Devlin so they pinched our piano player Jimmy Taylor — the bastards! Poaching musicians from other bands was quite commonplace at the time, due to the paucity of good rock players.
The Off beats had to quickly get a replacement. We found a piano player who called himself Jade Hurley. Jade figured that he needed a gimmick to cover up for his rude piano playing so he wore bright jade green gloves with the fingers cut out. They didn’t help much! We sacked him two weeks later. A more polished Jade reappeared about a year later as a guest artist, supporting Dig Richards & the R’Jays, only this time he was singing as well as playing piano. His enthusiasm seemed to pervade the audience at the Rockdale Town Hall and they loved him.
I first met Dig Richards at the Parramatta School of Arts where Ryanny and I used to go, back in 1957. It was on August 9, 1959, which was the week before Ray Hoff & the Off Beats won the band competition at Surryville. We were booked to do a spot at the R’Jays’ dance and we still didn’t have a bass player.
“Don’t worry,” I said, “We’ll tell them that our bass player didn’t turn up and we’ll get the R’Jays’ bass player Peter Baker to play with us. He’s probably the best electric bass player in town!”
We all drove to the Parramatta School of Arts in Ryanny’s 1934 Dodge, which he had just bought for £34. This was a pretty scary adventure in itself. Ryanny took his mother to the shop the day before and, as he pulled up, the front wheel came off and rolled into the butcher shop. Needless to say, Mrs. Ryan refused to ever get in the car again. She wasn’t as brave as we were, or as stupid. We went everywhere in that old Dodge. It was our window to the world.
Dig & the R’Jays turned out to be pretty nice guys, and they seemed to be very impressed with our band. It was a couple of months later on October 28, 1959, when I received a call from Peter Baker that would change things dramatically.
“We want you to join the R’Jays!” he said in a very official voice.
I was stunned! There were only five big rock’n’roll bands at the time and Dig Richards & the R’Jays were one of them. According to the Australian Rock & Pop magazine, the bands known as The BIG FIVE were Johnny O’Keefe & the Dee Jays, Col Joye & the Joy Boys, Dig Richards & the R’Jays, Johnny Devlin & the Devils and Johnny Rebb & the Rebels. After the initial shock, I replied, “But I can’t. Ray Hoff & the Off Beats are just starting to get off the ground.” I thought at the time that the Off Beats had the potential to be as good, or better, than all of them. We were hoping to make it The BIG SIX.
Peter
