Confessions of a Sixties Drummer

The Early Gigs - 1961 - Dates & Payments

 

Carlo kept a detailed log of all his early gigs and how much he was paid, recorded in an invoice book from May 1961. He was paid in old English pounds and shillings. You can see from the amount of gigs and travelling that The Savages must have been one of the hardest working bands on the circuit at the time. Venue names are unknown but if anyone knows, please contact us.

 

* See notes below for further information about specific dates

Click on another year for details:  1961 -  1962 - 1963 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967 - 1968

 

* Ken Payne, bassist: "I think that the very first job we did with Andy Wren on piano and Roger Mingay on guitar as the Savages was in Harrow where the Cliff Bennet and The Rebel Rousers use to play".
** Ken Payne, bassist: "In Banbury we had the wally get up on stage and kick a hole in my amplifier".
*** Ken Payne, bassist: "The first tour that we went on was the Scotland tour and the agent had set up this "story" that Sutch was eloping to Gretna Green. Well, the girl that he "eloped" with was actually my sister! Anyway, it got the publicity that we were looking for. We started in Peterhead and the place that Sutch had booked us into was such a dive that for fun we started a pillow fight and as a result of that Sutch broke his arm (but he still did the shows). 
**** In Kirkconnel, we had the wally get up on stage and kick a hole in my amplifier again, except that we were wearing our orange shirts on Orange Day and we were in a very catholic village (we needed a police escort out of there in the end). Anyway, this bloke got up on the stage and went towards Carlo, who just picked up his ride cymbal and smacked this guy on the forehead. Naturally his head opened up and there was blood everywhere so that started a riot and we had to get out of there". 
***** Ken Payne, bassist: "I remember in Manchester where we played at the Southern Sporting Club and the Yew Tree Inn (Wythenshawe), the most memorable things for me were some of the conversations that I had with Carlo (it was here that he told me that when you are using somebody else's toilet you need to put paper down on the seat to protect your bum)."