Watermelon Man MP3, thanks to Tertius Louw for sharing the recording.
John E Sharpe (guitar/vocals)
Les Goode (bass)
Nic Martens (Hammond organ)
John Elliott (sax)
Albert Rossi (drums)
This fascinating, yet short-lived, South African group recorded a hopelessly rare 45 for the US Scepter label in 1968, which was produced by Billy Forrest and distributed in South Africa by Troubadour Records.
The musicians collectively had an impressive history.
Guitarist John E Sharpe had previously played with The Deans (where he met Les Goode) and then worked with The G-Men before fronting his own group, John E Sharpe & The Squires (who also included Goode at one point).
Goode meanwhile had started out with Les Beats and then The Nitwits before joining forces with Sharpe in The Deans and subsequently John E Sharpe & The Squires. After working with The A-Cads during late 1965-mid 1966, including a short spell in the UK, Goode returned to South Africa in September that year and reunited with Sharpe in a new formation.
Scotsmen John Elliott and Albert Rossi met in South Africa when they were both employed as session players at Troubadour Records. Rossi appeared on Quentin E Klopjaeger’s LP Sad Simon Lives Again.
The drummer had worked with Chris Lamb & The Universals in the UK before emigrating to South Africa in 1964/1965.
Elliott meanwhile had worked in John E Sharpe’s short-lived group, New Order during 1967.
Nic Martens had worked with Durban groups The Navarones and The Lehman Limited alongside future Freedom Children’s drummer Colin Pratley before later working with The Noel McDermott Group.
The five musicians came together around September 1967 and worked under producer Billy Forrest, who landed the recording deal for a lone 45 which coupled covers of Booker T & The MGs “Green Onions” with Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man”.
Green Onions MP3, thanks to Tertius Louw for sharing the recording.
The single is extremely rare and I am very grateful to South African music writer and collector Tertius Louw for sharing scans of both sides of the record.
Around August 1968, the group broke up and while Martens later worked with Freedom’s Children, Sharpe and Goode formed another band called John E Sharpe & His Board of Directors who issued another rare 45 on Parlophone which coupled “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” with “Legend of a Big Toe”.
Both musicians then hooked up with former Freedom’s Children guitarist Julian Laxton in the short-lived Crystal Drive.
I’d be interested to hear from anyone who can add more information.
Huge thanks to Albert Rossi and Tertius Louw for background info. Thanks to Tertius also for providing the MP3 recordings.
Albert Rossi got in touch with the following message which I’d like to share:
I left Scotland in 1962 with the Ray McVay Orchestra with whom I played with for three years prior to joining The Universal Allstars in 1964.As a matter of interest the Ray McVay Orchestra is still touring and performing under the name Glen Miller Orchestra UK. I don’t remember if I mentioned that the Universal Allstars backed many of the UK’s then pop stars including the famous American country singer Jim Reeves. Interestingly, the drummer that replaced me in the Universals, went on to play with Elton John for 12 years, others got together and joined the then very popular Screaming Lord Sutch band and Procol Harum. I was also offered the chance to play with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames towards the end of 1964 but couldn’t as I had already booked my ticket for South Africa. Even the pianist with Ray McVay, Clifford Hall went on to be the musical director of the Shadows, a position he held for 12 years. I often wonder where I would have finished up if I hadn’t met my lovely South African wife.
When I left Johannesburg and Johnny Sharpe’s Impulse in 1968 I moved to Cape Town but never joined any of the local bands except for an occasional jam session or guest appearance. I returned to Johannesburg to take up a position of Group Production Manager at two engineering companies in 1970 and once again teamed up with John Elliot when we formed a group to play at the old Skyline Hotel in Hillbrow in the evenings. I can’t remember its name but it was short lived as having a fulltime day job, and performing music 6 nights a week, became too stressful to handle so I packed it all up and in 1972 once again returned to Cape Town where I put away my sticks for many years to follow (19 to be exact). It was in 1991, while living in Switzerland where I spent 20 years, I started to play again but this time it was good old Traditional Jazz. I played with quite a few bands over the years and performed in other countries like England, Germany, France and Hungary. It was only after we left Switzerland to retire back in South Africa in 2001 that I again gave up the music business but this time I got myself an electronic drum kit which allows me to play with many of the big names in most genres of music including The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson, various big bands and famous rock stars including the Beatles but heh! Not for real. I downloaded their music with ‘drumless’ tracks so that I am their drummer. My main fan is my wife who enjoys being entertained while doing the ironing. Ha Ha modern technology at its best.
However, since retiring I have played in the UK with the Lazy River Jazzmen from Switzerland in 2002 when the drummer that had replaced me was scared of flying and opted out of their two gigs there. The band paid all my expenses and it gave me one more chance to visit my dear old Mom who passed away two months later. In 2004 I brought the same band to Cape Town for a short tour where we played at Cape Town’s famous Waterfront Amphitheatre and the local Swiss Club. That was it, till this year, when I decided to get a bunch of Swiss jazz musician friends to form a group and come to Cape Town for a musical tour of our beautiful city and surrounds. It happened in March and was an amazing experience for us all…especially me. I managed to organise six gigs in the space of eight days as they wanted to spend as much time as they could to explore our beautiful country with their wives and partners. Included in these gigs was one at the Quay Four Restaurant at Cape Town’s Waterfront. Each of the venues we played at wanted us to come back again but, as it wasn’t possible this time, I’m hoping to do the same again next year. Never thought I would be doing this at my age as I celebrate my 80th birthday on the 25th of this month