Mick Holland | Garage Hangover

Dave Whittaker (aka Chet Mason) (lead vocals/congas)

Del Grace (lead guitar)

Bruce Duckworth (rhythm guitar)

Mick Kinzett (bass/manager) replaced by Mick Holland (bass)

Mick Fletcher (keyboards)

Dave Rolfick (baritone sax)

Mick Lye (tenor sax)

Rodney Peters (aka Karl Lee) (drums)

Formed as Karl Lee & The Epitaphs in Welling, southeast London in January 1963, they changed name to The Epitaphs in 1964 and then The Epitaph Soul Band in 1965.

Most of the group’s members were from the Sidcup/Bexley area although Lye came from Battersea and Rolfick was from Streatham.

The group often played at the Black Prince Hotel in Bexley. Len Fletcher who ran the club was their manager.

Del Grace says the band’s line-up was fluid with musicians coming and going. The spelling may not be correct for some of the players listed above.

Bruce Duckworth didn’t stay long and they stuck with only one guitarist after he departed.

Mick Holland joined on bass in 1964 so that Mick Kinzett could assume road management duties.

The band’s van was involved in a horrific crash on Rochester Way in October 1964 (see newspaper clipping below) and two of the members were hospitalised. Mick Holland was so badly injured that he couldn’t continue with the group.

Bexley Heath & Welling Observer and Kentish Times, 26 February 1965, page 12

The group was put on hold until early February 1965 when it was reformed with the following musicians:

Dave Whitaker (aka Chet Mason) (lead vocals/congas)

Del Grace (lead guitar)

Mick Fletcher (keyboards)

John James (bass) (possibly also known as John Porter)

Dave Rolfick (baritone sax)

Mick Lye (tenor sax)

Rodney Peters (aka Karl Lee) (drums)

The new formation played at the Black Prince Hotel in Bexley on Sunday, 21 February and began working as the resident band at the Last Chance Club in Oxford Street, central London.

Towards the end of 1965 Del Grace’s friend Andy Clark came in on baritone sax.

Soon after Mick Fletcher joined The Sound System who backed Jimmy Cliff before working with Hamilton & The Hamilton Movement, The Rifle (reuniting with Del Grace) and The Amboy Dukes.

Around the same time Del Grace joined The Big Wheel, who later recruited Andy Clark and Mick Holland.

Grace joined Carl Douglas & The Big Stampede in 1966 while Andy Clark later worked with The Fenmen, Sam Gopal Dream, VAMP, Clark-Hutchinson and Jeff Beck among many others.

Notable gigs:

2 May 1964 – Beat Group Contest, Wickham Hall, West Wickham, Kent with The Blackhawks, Chris Finn & The Solents, The Sonics, The Melvin Toole Combo, The Original Deltones, The Electrons, The Copains, The Consorts and Paul & The Playboys (Beckenham & Penge Advertiser) Billed as The Epitaphs

February 1965 – Last Chance Club, Oxford Street, central London (Bexley Heath & Welling Observer and Kentish Times)

21 February 1965 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, southeast London with The Graham Bond Organisation (Bexley Heath & Welling Observer and Kentish Times)

1 June 1965 – 100 Club, Oxford Street, central London with The Bo Street Runners (Melody Maker)

5 June 1965 – Wimbledon Odeon, Wimbledon, southwest London with Beat Unlimited (Kingston & Malden Borough News) Advert says The Epitaphs are from Streatham so may be another band

17 June 1965 – Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley, southeast London (Melody Maker)

19 June 1965 – Jazz & Blues Festival, Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, southeast London with The Dutch Swing College, Solomon Burke, Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band, Unit 4 Plus 2, The Spencer Davis Group, The Downliners Sect, Alan Elsdon’s Jazzband, Brian Green New-O-Stompers and The Loose Ends (Bexley Heath & Welling Observer and Kentish Times)

Festival review in the same newspaper, 25 June 1965, page 12

30 June 1965 – Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley, southeast London (Melody Maker)

25 July 1965 – Black Prince Hotel, Bexley, southeast London with The Spencer Davis Group (Melody Maker)

The Big Wheel Eurex PS back — Big Wheel, Switzerland, late 1966, left to right: Paul Stroud, Del Coverley (front), Andy Clark (wearing glasses), Mick Holland and Ron Bryer (aka Ron Spence)

Paul Stroud – lead vocals

Del Grace – lead guitar (replaced by Ron Bryer)

Mike Manners – organ (replaced by Andy Clark)

Barry Nicholls – bass (replaced by Mick Holland)

Del Coverley – drums

Formed in southeast London in late 1965, the original line-up included former Epitaphs Soul Band guitarist Del Grace, who joined forces with longstanding lead singer Paul Stroud, bass player Barry Nicholls and organist Mike Manners after meeting at Music Land in Bexley Heath, a shop owned by Tom Jennings, founder of Jennings Musical Instruments Ltd.

Before the turn of the year, former Scimitars sticks man Del Coverley replaced the original drummer, Rick Dyett.

Photo: Del Grace. Left to right: Del Coverley, Barry Nicholls, Paul Stroud, Del Grace and Mike Manners, 1966

Big Wheel gigged incessantly around the London area and played regularly at the Black Prince Hotel in Bexley, working with notable acts like John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and The Graham Bond Organisation. In February 1966, the musicians played at Berlin Jazz Festival (see below).

Around April 1966, Mike Manners dropped out and Andy Clark from The Epitaph Soul Band took his place.

Photo: Del Grace. Left to right: Del Coverley, Andy Clark, Del Grace, Barry Nicholls and Paul Stroud, circa April 1966.

On 6 June, the new formation left England to tour Germany and Switzerland. On the band’s return, both Del Grace and Barry Nicholls both departed.

Photo: Del Grace. Left to right: Mike Manners, Mick Holland, Barry Nicholls, Del Coverley (car roof), Paul Stroud and Del Grace, spring 1966

Del Grace joined The Carl Douglas Set in July 1966, which morphed into Carl Douglas & The Big Stampede. Barry ‘Baz’ Nicholls, years later, joined heavy metal band, More, with whom he continues to gig.

With further gigs lined up in Switzerland, Andy Clark recommended former Carl Douglas Set guitarist Ron Bryer (aka Ron Spence), who’d previously worked with The Loose Ends and bass player Mick Holland from The Epitaph Soul Band.

The new configuration developed quite a following in Switzerland, playing at the Tanzrad in Basel before moving on to Zurich. Big Wheel even issued a hopelessly rare (Swiss-only) mod single, Andy Clark’s “Don’t Give Up That Easy” c/w “You’re Only Hurting Yourself”, released on the Eurex label in February 1967.

However, in early November 1966, Del Coverley left to join Del Grace and original Big Wheel organist Mike Manners in Carl Douglas & The Big Stampede.

It’s likely that the remaining Big Wheel members stayed in Switzerland until at least spring 1967 whereupon all of the musicians except Ron Bryer returned to the UK.

Bryer joined Berry Window & The Movements before forming Brainticket in 1968. The band cut a lone album “Cottonwoodhill” in 1971. Bryer later returned to the UK and briefly worked with One (led by his old Loose Ends singer Alan Marshall) but died of a drug overdose around 1973.

Back in the UK, Andy Clark reunited with Del Coverley in The Fenmen (aka Kindness). This proved to be short-lived and after working with Sam Gopal’s Dream and Vamp, he formed Dogs Blues (with Coverley) and then Clark-Hutchinson, which brought Coverley in for its 1970 and 1971 albums, “Retribution” and “Gestalt”. In the interim, Coverley had played with Fat Daughter during 1969.

Original member, Mike Manners would record two singles with Johnny Young in 1967 after leaving Carl Douglas in July 1967. Del Grace, meanwhile, would record solo material for United Artists and Liberty before moving to Spain and cutting solo CDs.

Many thanks to Del Coverley, Del Grace and Mike Manners for helping to piece this story together. Thanks also to Rolf at Feathered Apple Records in Switzerland for the use of the Eurex single scans

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