In the early sixties pop bands were starting up everywhere in Britain and playing in every pub and club across the country All copying their idiols like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, myself included, I was obsessed by this new beat music and started my own band playing drums

It was 1963 and my first band struggled alongside some of the older boys from Birmingham and we split up after just short time together

Then I met up with lead guitarist Bruno Stapenhill who lived just around the corner from me and things started to feel more confident We teamed up with a little 'mod' guitarist called Albert Hinton, also from West Bromwich and called ourselves THE REACTION

Bruno changed over to bass guitar and I took over the vocals We played as a three piece at a couple of pubs and small clubs and get ourselves a manager with the name Ken Ford

After a while we recruited Brian Fieldhouse to strengthen the sound and he suggested that to calling ourselves THE BITTA SWEET

We were gigging quite a lot by now and I was finding it different singing and playing drums and everyone said I was a better vocalist than a drummer so I switched to being a front man

We bought in Lawrence 'Lossa' Farley on drums and now the band was complete our manager started putting us in bigger clubs like the 'Plaza Ballrooms' 'Old Hill' Birmingham, 'Rialto' Birmingham , 'Adelphi' and 'Gala Hall' West Bromwich and we opened for acts like Cat Stevens, 'Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Titch', 'DAVID BOWIE' and long 'John Baldry and the Steampacket' which featured 'Rod Stewart' on backing vocals and 'Elton John' on piano

We also played alongside another young West Bromwich band called 'Robert Plant and The Band Of Joy'

We never secured a record deal but this band was a first big stepping stone in my career and we split up when Albert got married and moved to Australia