South coast R&B band The Noblemen are notable for containing musicians who went on to success with a number of mid-late 1960s rock bands, notably Audience, The Manchester Playboys and The Sorrows.
Helmed by longstanding bass player Bryan Stevens (b. 13 November 1941, Lha Datu, North Borneo) and keyboard player/singer Mick Ketley (b. 1 October 1947, Balham, south London), The Noblemen changed name to Motivation in November 1966.
Then, in August 1967, the musicians reinvented themselves as The Penny Peep Show (aka Penny Peeps) and recorded two rare 45s for Liberty Records during 1968.
Later that year, they changed name and style again to Gethsemane before splitting in December 1968 whereupon their guitarist Martin Barre (b. 17 November 1946, King’s Heath, Birmingham) joined Jethro Tull.
The Noblemen’s roots can be traced back to Bognor Regis group Johnny Devlin & The Detours, who also featured longstanding guitarist Alan Paul “Chuck” Fryers (b. 24 May 1945, Bognor Regis, West Sussex) and drummer Bernie Smith.
Stevens’ first recording was with a skiffle group The Shootin’ Stars that he’d formed while at King’s School in Chester during 1956/1957.
“We took part in a Skiffle contest at the Gaumont Cinema in Chester – it was my first taste of playing to an audience,” remembers the bass player.
“The Shootin’ Stars also recorded an EP at a small terraced house in Liverpool, same place as The Beatles recorded their first record – the sleeve shows PF Philips, 38 Kensington, Liverpool 7.
“We recorded in the front room, the windows had heavy drapes against them to deaden sounds. We recorded around a central mic, ran through the four numbers we were to record once, then Mr Philips peered through a small serving hatch from where he was in the rear room with his recording machine. He said: ‘OK boys are you ready to record?’ Once we recorded the numbers he played them back to us and asked if that was OK, and asked how many copies we wanted. Within half an hour we were out clutching our very first record!”
Moving south to Bognor Regis, Stevens formed The Detours in February 1960, who were joined by singer Johnny Devlin in early 1962, prompting a name change to Johnny Devlin & The Detours.
Shortly afterwards, Stevens recruited Ketley from another local group, The Soundtracks. Before the year was out Fryers had been added from The Cruisers plus sax player Bob Pettit. Finally Smith, who’d worked in The Soundtracks alongside Ketley, came on-board in early 1963.
With the line-up settled, Johnny Devlin & The Detours recorded a one-off single, “Sometimes” c/w “If You Want Someone”, for Pye Records, which was released in January 1964.
To promote the single, the band appeared as newcomers on Granada TV’s Thank Your Lucky Stars alongside Adam Faith, Manfred Man, Dickie Valentine and Jackie Trent that February. However, when “Sometimes” flopped, Johnny Devlin departed and John Read briefly took over the lead vocals.
Around this time, a west London group called The Detours spotted them performing on TV and decided to change their name to The High Numbers (and subsequently The Who!).
The Detours meanwhile soon went through their own transformation after Bob Gaitley, who ran Littlehampton’s Top Hat and Worthing’s Mexican Hat where they regularly played, invited the musicians to link up with South African singer Mike Bush (aka Beau Brummell).
Brummell, who went on to own a naturist valley in Northern Transvaal, had arrived in England in 1961 and worked under various pseudonyms before adopting the title, “Beau Brummell”, named after the British dandy of the 19th century, in late 1963.
Recruiting The Detours (now renamed The Noblemen) as his support group, Brummell and the musicians got the opportunity to record two tracks at Abbey Road in December 1964 with EMI producer Bob Barratt – “I Know, Know, Know” and “Shopping Around”.
By the time the pairing was released as a single on Columbia Records in January 1965, Mike Turnill had briefly taken over from Pettit.
However, the new sax player was only passing through. Within a matter of weeks, the band had placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 13 February issue, looking for a replacement. Bob Lomas answered and took the job but the changes didn’t end there.
In the last week of February the group expanded the horn section by bringing in tenor sax player – Malcolm Randall, who had placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 27 February issue looking for a group.
Hailing from west London, Randall had joined his first group, Twickenham R&B band Jeff Curtis & The Flames, in spring 1963.
Regulars at the Ealing Jazz Club, the sax player would remain with Jeff Curtis & The Flames until early February 1965. Interestingly, he would not be the only ex-Flame to join The Noblemen.
Although Randall missed out on Jeff Curtis & The Flames’ first recording session at Lansdowne Road Studios in Holland Park in October 1963 (see later), he did participate in their second visit, around the same time the following year, to record two tracks – Solomon Burke and Bert Berns’ “Down in the Valley” and a cover of The Showman’s “Rock ‘N’ Roll Will Stand”, both of which remained in the can.
Just before Randall’s arrival, the Evening Standard reports that the group appears on ITV’s Ollie & Fred’s Five O’ clock Club TV show with The Barron Knights and The Dougie Squires Three on 26 February.
A photo session to capture the revamped Noblemen decked out in its regency clothes was held in Brighton in early March before the band set off for some gigs in West Germany.
Back in England, the band embarked on a nationwide tour which took them as far north as Carlisle in Cumbria and a gig at the Market Assembly Hall on Thursday, 15 April.
A few weeks later Beau Brummell & The Noblemen appeared at the California Ballroom in Dunstable on Saturday, 1 May.
Just over a week later, on Sunday, 9 May, the group shared the bill with Randall’s former group Jeff Curtis & The Flames at the Majestic Ballroom in Luton.
The following week (14 May), Beau Brummell was listed appearing at the Carlton Ballroom in Erdington, West Midlands with The Chucks. Two days later, and billed as the Exclusive Noblemen Orchestra, the group plays at the Cubiklub in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
The group continued to gig around England in May, playing frequently at the Top Hat in Littlehampton and the Mexican Hat in Worthing. They also played at Malborough Hall, Halifax, West Yorkshire on 22 May.
Later that month, the band headed up to Scotland for a short tour, which included Dumfries Drill Hall on Saturday, 5 June.
On Sunday, 13 June 1965, the band performed at the Downs, Hassocks, West Sussex
From there, the band headed to West Germany to perform at the Storyville Jazz Clubs in Duisberg, Frankfurt and Cologne. At the latter, the musicians met Folkestone band Neil Landon & The Burnettes whose lead guitarist Noel Redding later became bass player for Jimi Hendrix while Neil Landon went on to form The Flower Pot Men, authors of the hit “Let’s go to San Francisco”.
Returning home, the group played at Torquay Town Hall on Saturday, 3 July, before heading back to West Germany to perform for three nights at the legendary Star Club in Hamburg from Friday, 9 July through to Sunday, 11 July. The group was widely photographed inside both and outside the club as well as in a park with a new sax player called John replacing Bob Lomas.
Next up, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen returned to the Storyville Jazz Club in Duisberg where they shared the bill with The Manchester Playboys (most likely from Monday, 12 July to Thursday, 15 July).
Randall was so impressed with the Mod/soul band that he handed in his notice, moving up to Manchester to join them soon after. The sax player would later work with Red Express, who morphed into Shakatak, and Sindy & The Action Men among others.
Beau Brummell & The Noblemen returned to England and performed at double-night show in Greater Manchester on Friday, 16 July. The first show was at the Domino Club in Openshaw with Lulu & The Luvvers, which was followed by a second at the Princess club, Chorlton with Julie Grant.
They then appeared at the Manor Lounge, Stockport, Greater Manchester on Monday, 19 July, which may have been Randall’s final gig as The Manchester Playboys’ home base was nearby.
The band also played at the Mid-Beds Conservative Association in Shefford Hardwicke on Saturday, 24 July. The following weekend, on Friday, 30 July, the band, billed as Beau Brummell & his exclusive Noblemen Orchestra performed at the New Embassy Club at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
A few weeks later, they advertised for a replacement tenor sax player in Melody Maker’s 14 August issue. Jeremy “Jem” Field, who’d previously been a member of Gene Vincent’s backing group, The Shouts answered and was taken on.
On the same day, the band were billed to play at the New Cornish Riviera Lido, St Austell, Cornwall with The Road Runners.
Not long after, Keith Gemmell (b. 15 February 1948, Hackney, north London) took over from the sax player known as John.
Billed as Beau Brummell & His Noblemen Orchestra, one of the new line-up’s first gigs was Cheltenham Town Hall on Friday, 20 August, followed by a show at the Galaxy Club in Basingstoke the next day.
Then on Sunday, 22 August, the group shared the bill with The Beat Merchants at the Mexican Hat in Worthing.
During September, the musicians travelled to Scandinavia to play dates in Norway and Sweden before heading back to Britain briefly.
One of the band’s first gigs back home was at the Mexican Hat in Worthing on Sunday, 26 September with The Beat Merchants. The advert in the Worthing Gazette notes that the gig was The Noblemen’s final appearance in Britain for six weeks.
With a string of dates lined up in Italy, the band headed back to the continent, travelling in a converted London St John’s ambulance, equipped with a wardrobe for stage clothes, a cocktail cabinet and other accessories.
While in Rome, the group performed at the famous Piper Club on Friday, 1 October 1965 playing in front of film stars and even the Aga Khan, as well as playing Jane Fonda’s 18th birthday party in a sumptuous villa just outside the capital – no wonder Brummell’s exploits gained him front-page headlines where ever he went!
“The club owner had converted what was an abandoned cinema into a high-vaulted, large auditorium,” remembers Stevens.
“The two stages were set high up at one end, the under-floor lit dance floor was surrounded by tables with a full a width bar at the other end.
“We arrived in two open coaches – Beau, Miss Italy, the club’s owner and one Nobleman in one coach and the rest of the band in the other coach – all of us wearing our stage gear, including scarlet lined capes. There was a lot of press and TV cameras and, apparently, invited celebrities from Rome’s Cincinatti Film Studios.”
Brummell, however, saw many opportunities opening up for him while in Italy’s capital and, although the singer would continue to perform with The Noblemen intermittently up to spring 1966, he gradually backed out.
During November 1965, for instance, Brummell joined the group for a ten-day stand at a club in Milan. While there, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen recorded four tracks in a studio that was a former church, including the powerful sax-driven “Jezebel” and the Brummell composition, “I’m In Love”, both of which were shelved.
The Noblemen sans Brummell then headed south to Naples to play further dates before returning to Rome where the musicians recorded the tracks “Jump Back Baby” and “Ecstasy” with Chuck Fryers providing the lead vocals.
While in Italy, Columbia released Beau Brummell’s third UK single (and second featuring The Noblemen) – the spoken number, “A Better Man than I” backed by “Teardrops”. Credited to Brummell’s Noblemen Orchestra, the single failed to chart.
During December 1965, Beau Brummell & The Noblemen performed in Ostend in Belgium before returning to Britain briefly to fit in a show at the Mexican Hat in Worthing on Sunday, 12 December with The Look before returning to the continent and travelling to Turin where the band performed at a club in the run up to the new year.
With Brummell remaining in Italy, The Noblemen returned home to Britain and undertook a mini tour of Scotland in early January 1966.
They also played at the Top Hat in Littlehampton on Friday, 7 January and the Shoreline in Bognor Regis on Saturday, 8 January, both in West Sussex.
Significantly, they were a late addition to an all-nighter show held at the original Cavern club in Liverpool on Sunday, 27 February, the final show at the legendary venue before it was temporarily closed (reopening on 23 July). Also on the bill were Rory Storm & The Hurricanes and The Big Three, among others.
Heading back to West Germany, The Noblemen reunited with Beau Brummell at the Storyville Jazz Club in Frankfurt where the band shared the billing with Liverpool-based group The Clayton Squares from 7-10 March. Their singer Denny Alexander would join forces with Stevens and Ketley in June 1967.
Returning to Italy in April, The Noblemen finally parted with Beau Brummell, who would later return to his native South Africa and passed away in June 2020. The musicians held down a short residency at the Livorno Club in Pisa before heading back home via West Germany.
Thanks to a contact they had made while at the Piper Club in Rome during October 1965, The Noblemen landed an opening gig for The Spencer Davis Group on Friday, 20 May 1966, with Fryers having to borrow Davis’ guitar as his own had been stolen while in Pisa. The next day Jem Field handed in his notice and head back home by train.
Stripped down to a quintet, The Noblemen next played some US air bases with The New Faces but within a matter of weeks Keith Gemmell had also departed, heading home with this group.
Back in Hackney, he joined The Lloyd Alexander Blues Band (later Lloyd Alexander Real Estate), who released a rare 45 before several members, including Gemmell, formed the highly respected rock band, Audience. In later years, the sax player worked with the group Sammy and died on 24 July 2016.
For a short while, the remaining Noblemen hooked up with country and western singer/comedian Don Bowman but after performing at the Star Club in Hamburg under their own name, the quartet returned home in mid-June.
Arriving back in Bognor Regis towards the end of June, Bernie Smith decided to hang up his drum sticks, leaving Fryers, Ketley and Stevens with the name.
Determined to press on with new members, Stevens quickly recruited London singer Jimmy Marsh (b. 9 April 1941, Salem, Carmarthenshire, Wales) who in turn recommended a new drummer Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016) to replace outgoing Bernie Smith.
“We had met both Jim and Malcolm when we were still Johnny Devlin & The Detours preparing to become The Noblemen,” remembers Ketley.
“They played at a local gig in Littlehampton called the Top Hat club, which was owned by Bob Gaitley who managed Brummell and us and ran the Beat Ballard and Blues Agency, which was famous in the south in those days.”
Bryan Stevens continues the story: “Bob Gaitley gave me Jimmy’s number when we needed a singer after we left Beau Brummell. Jimmy came down to Bognor and we got working with him shortly afterwards as he was a good ‘soul’ singer doing cover versions of Otis Redding hits.”
The singer had a long musical pedigree. His first band, The Fairlanes, formed in 1961, gigged largely on American airbases but also got the opportunity to back cabaret acts Kathy Kirby and Vince Hill. The Fairlanes’ bass player Terry Gore and drummer John Warwick both went on to play with The Trekkers, The Cast and finally Tangerine Peel.
Towards the end of 1962, Marsh formed the original Del Mar Trio, and on 1 June 1963 they participated in the “Rock across the Channel ferry” gig on the MV Royal Daffodil from Southend to Boulogne and back with numerous artists and headlined by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Sometime in 1963, Marsh also played an impromptu jam session at Sound City on Shaftsbury Avenue, the top music store in the country, backed by none other than Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. The Del Mar Trio’s guitarist Allen Bevan worked at the music shop and later that same year introduced Malcolm Tomlinson, who worked at nearby Drum City.
Tomlinson was a talented musician, who, while primarily a drummer, was also a decent guitar player (and later mastered the flute). Attending Spring Grove Grammar School where drummer Mick Underwood was a class mate, his first musical outing had been the west London band The Panthers. However, this was short-lived, and in early 1963 he joined Jeff Curtis & The Flames alongside former Noblemen sax player Malcolm Randall.
While playing with The Flames, Tomlinson participated in the Jerry Lee Lewis ferry gig in June 1963, which is probably where he became friends with Jimmy Marsh.
On 4 October 1963, Jeff Curtis & The Flames recorded a four track demo at Landsdowne Studios in Holland Park comprising “Bye Bye Johnny”, “Everybody Needs a Lover”, “Route 66” and “It Don’t Take But a Few Minutes” (the latter with Lenny Hastings behind the kit), but Tomlinson moved on in June 1964 to join the second version of The Del Mar Trio.
The new line up decided to try its luck on the south coast that summer and thanks to Bob Gaitley got the opportunity to play at his venues, the Top Hat and the Mexican Hat in nearby Worthing. They also undertook a short tour of Cornwall in January 1965. It was Gaitley who arranged an audition for EMI at Abbey Road under the direction of Bob Barratt that February.
Four tracks have been logged under the name “James Deene & The Del Mar Trio” – “You Know How”, “Pocket Full of Rainbows”, “Like a Baby” and “Haunting Me”.
The group then changed its name to James Deane & The London Cats and around May 1965 headed for Bavaria, West Germany to play the club scene around Furth, Munich and Nuremburg.
Over the next 12 months or so, the group members drifted back home. When Tomlinson split to work with a German group for about three months in early 1966, Marsh found himself on his own.
“Bryan found out where I was [in West Germany] through the consulate and would I be interested in fronting the band,” explains Marsh. “I got a plane home and I went straight to the south coast and the Shoreline club.”
Being away so long, Marsh didn’t know “the scene” or the “mode of dress” required for the new group.
“There’s me, I turned up at the Shoreline, my hair’s all swept back, American button down shirt, Levis and a pair of boots. I remember Bryan saying something to me, ‘It’s not your singing Jimmy; it’s your clothes and your hair’.” Stevens took Marsh to Carnaby Street and kitted him out in the latest attire.
With Marsh and Tomlinson onboard, The Noblemen were billed to play at the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe, Dorset on Sunday, 3 July 1966 with Karl & The Rapiers (although this might have been one of Bernie Smith’s final shows).
Shortly after Marsh and Tomlinson had joined forces with Fryers, Ketley and Stevens, the bass player placed an advert in Melody Maker’s 23 July issue asking for a trumpeter or sax player (tenor or baritone) (Ed: the issue hit newsstands on 16 July).
Two musicians who responded were Chris Rodger (b. 16 October 1946, Solihull, Warwickshire) and his mate Martin Barre, who had recently split from their former band, Midlands outfit, The Moonrakers.
According to Barre, both musicians had been promised work with Screaming Lord Sutch’s Savages but on their arrival in London found the guitar and horn positions had already been taken up by other musicians.
“The Moonrakers stopped when Chris and I went to London to join Screaming Lord Sutch on a promise from Tony Dangerfield,” remembers Barre. “He nearly dropped dead when we turned up! No gig there.”
Rodger, however, has a different recollection. He remembers attending an audition in Harrow without Barre and would have joined The Savages (who no longer featured Dangerfield) for a trip to the Piper Club in Rome but the offer was withdrawn when the Italian gig was moved forward and he and Barre had commitments with The Moonrakers.
Although the guitar was always his preferred choice of instrument, Barre had also learnt saxophone and flute at an early age and around 1963 joined his first serious group, the Midlands beat combo, The Dwellers, who, according to author Greg Russo, recorded a demo that year, Barre’s “I Can’t Get over You”.
Living in Solihull, Barre’s next group was The Moonrakers, who were led by former Dwellers’ singer John Carter and also featured rhythm guitarist Tony Painter, a bass player called Alan and drummer Paul Willets who subsequently went on to The Applejacks.
While playing with band, Barre also studied architecture at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University).
Rodger, who was educated at Herne Court School in Bournemouth, had first played with keyboard player Bramwell Beer in Syndicate 1 after leaving boarding school in 1963. In January 1965, both musicians joined The Moonrakers where they met Barre.
“We became a very popular Midlands band working every weekend over a period of 18 months and winning Brumbeat top band for 1965,” he recalls.
“In the summer of 1965, the band did a short tour of the south coast, including the Bure Country Club, supporting Unit 4 Plus 2, the Boscombe Beat Ballroom and the White Hart, Burley. In October we recorded a demo at a studio in Nottingham but no copies exist to my knowledge.”
After The Savages’ gig had fallen through, Rodger spotted Stevens’ advert and applied for the spot and, although only one horn player was required, Barre accompanied his friend to the initial meeting to chance his luck, hoping he might be taken on as second sax player while angling for the guitar position.
“I remember we met outside Sound City in Shaftesbury Avenue and it was touch and go whether or not I took him on,” remembers Stevens.
The date in question was most likely Friday, 22 July as that was the day Barre purchased a saxophone from Sound City, so he could practise incessantly in preparation for the audition three days later on Monday, 25 July at the Red Lion pub in Battersea. (Ed. Rodger says this never happened as they debuted on Sunday, 24 July without an audition).
According to Ketley, Barre’s sound and technique was not particularly good at this point and from the outset Rodger assumed the more prominent role, playing solos and supporting Barre until he got up to speed.
“It wasn’t until months and months later that we would go to bed after a gig to the sound of Martin practising on his 335, and wake up in the late afternoon and Martin was still playing that we realised that he was a much better guitarist than he was a sax player,” says Ketley.
In fact, Barre later admitted to taking the job, so that he could get into the band and play guitar.
“It wasn’t until we had formed The Penny Peeps and especially Gethsemane that Martin owned up to getting the sax job under false pretences,” says Ketley. “Clever really and by then we had other plans so it was fine.”
The same day that Stevens met with Barre and Rodger outside Sound City , The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Cricketers Inn in Southend-on-Sea in Essex. However, it’s not clear if the current five-piece (with Fryers) honoured this gig later that evening.
On the following day, Saturday, 23 July, the band were also billed to play at the Le Disque A Go Go in Bournemouth with a midnight performance into Sunday morning. The fact that they were based in Bognor Regis at the time suggests this second gig did take place.
As noted above, Rodger recalls that Barre and his debut took place on Sunday, 24 July with a gig at a US service club in Lancaster Gate at 4pm.
“At the end of the gig, we were asked to follow the band back to Bognor Regis to rehearse at the Shoreline Club,” he says.
“Chuck left that week and Martin, to his delight, was asked to double on sax and guitar.”
With Fryers gone, the revamped Noblemen formation didn’t waste any time and soon hit the road. On Saturday, 30 July, they were billed to perform at the Lion Hotel in Warrington, Cheshire with The Atlantics and The Atlanta Roots. Whether this gig took place is not clear.
A very early publicity photo taken on Bognor Regis beach that summer depicts a six-piece (with Barre holding the guitar) confirming that Fryers had moved on in late July 1966.
On departing The Noblemen, Fryers joined Bognor Regis band The Warren J Five who travelled to Hamburg in late 1966/early 1967 and performed at the Top Ten Club with singer Tony Sheridan.
The Warren J Five subsequently moved on to Italy where they recorded an LP for the Vedette label.
After a brief spell performing as The Reflections, Fryers returned to the UK with bass player Geoff Prior and joined Coventry band, The Sorrows who also recorded an LP in Italy.
Later on he worked with Thane Russal in The Electric Heart and has gone on to record solo material, including a CD called That’s It?. His departure freed up the lead guitar spot for Martin Barre.
The Noblemen spent the August month fulfilling bookings along the length of the south coast of England. They also made several trips down to the far reaches of the south west, judging by adverts in local newspapers.
On Saturday, 6 August, the group was billed to play Budleigh Salterton Public Hall in Devon before returning to the Bournemouth area the next day to appear at the Royal Ballrooms in Boscombe.
The band would play regularly at this venue (and in the Bournemouth area) over the next two years.
On Saturday, 13 August, The Noblemen started a week-long residency at the 400 Ballroom in Torquay, Devon, which ran until Friday, 19 August (with the exception of playing the Sunday).
A few weeks later, on Saturday, 20 August, The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Flamingo Ballroom in Redruth, Cornwall followed by a show the next day at the Park Ballroom in Plymouth, Devon. The following Thursday, 25 August, they were advertised participating in the Big Beat Boat, held in Bournemouth.
Then it was back down to Cornwall for the weekend for a show at the Blue Lagoon in Newquay on 27 August with The Nite People.
The following day, The Noblemen were billed to play at the Stoke Hotel in Guildford, Surrey, which may have been a gig they played on the way up to London to audition for the Roy Tempest Agency, a notorious British agent who brought US soul acts over and was always on the lookout for local bands to support these artists on the road.
The group appears to have seen out the month playing at the 2 ‘B’s’ Club in Ashford, Kent with The End.
The Noblemen were billed to perform at the Fiesta Hall in Andover, Hampshire on Friday, 2 September and, the following day, an appearance at the Steering Wheel in Weymouth, Dorset. This latter venue would become another regular on the group’s club circuit.
Successfully landing work with Roy Tempest, the infamous promoter arranged for the band to stay in a flat on the Kings Road above The Chelsea Cobblers, and the sextet moved in early that month.
Judging by newspaper advertisements and weekly adverts in Melody Maker the first US soul act The Noblemen supported was The Vibrations, who arrived in England in mid-September. Ketley thinks the musicians may have used Rik and Johnny Gunnell’s club, the famous Flamingo in Wardour Street to rehearse with the American group.
Judging by Rodger’s poster of The Vibrations’ tour (see above), The Noblemen were the backing band for the entire tour, although there may have been the odd show when another group stepped in.
Often The Noblemen weren’t listed on the billing. However, they are definitely named as one of the acts, along with Jimmy James & The Vagabonds, to appear with The Vibrations at the recently re-opened Cavern in Liverpool on 17 September.
It was around this time that Malcolm Tomlinson recalls meeting his idol Otis Redding, who was on his debut UK tour, at London club the Scotch of St James and shaking his hand.
On Friday, 23 September, The Noblemen did back The Vibrations at Toft’s in Folkestone, where Ketley and Stevens reunited with bass player Noel Redding, who only a few weeks later would be playing with Jimi Hendrix (Ed: They had also appeared at this venue with The Vibrations on 11 September).
Then, sometime in early October, The Noblemen provided backing for one of the countless versions of The Original Drifters that Roy Tempest imported. It sounds like the musicians only played one show with the soul singers and the most likely date is at Tiles on Oxford Street on 7 October.
Interestingly, on Saturday, 15 October, the band was billed to play one of its first gigs under a new name – [The] Motivation – at the Orford Cellar in Norwich, Norfolk, although the musicians would continue to use The Noblemen name for another month. Intriguingly, the advert notes that they had recently backed The Drifters. However, this gig probably didn’t take place because the musicians were most likely in West Germany at the time.
The next soul act that the group supported was Edwin Starr, kicking off with a series of dates in mid-October. The Noblemen are listed as Starr’s backing band at the Beachcomber Club in Nottingham on Sunday, 16 October. The bill also featured John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Peter Green on lead guitar.
However, singer Alan Chamberlain from The Guests insists that it was his group that backed Starr as he recalls getting into a fight with Mayall at the venue and Green had to break it up!
It’s worth pointing out that Roy Tempest had multiple bands on his books to provide support for visiting US acts, so it’s quite possible he chopped and changed the backing groups at short notice (Ed. The Senate also backed Starr on this tour.)
Whatever the truth, The Noblemen were certainly on hand to back Edwin Starr at Granby Hall in Leicester on Friday, 21 October for a stellar show headlined by Ike & Tina Turner and also featuring soul singer Alvin Robinson, who the band would also back shortly afterwards.
During this hazy period, The Noblemen also worked very briefly with Lee Dorsey and, according to Martin Barre, Ben E King. By now, they had a new rehearsal room to work through material with the US acts.
“Roy Tempest booked the soul artists to come over,” recalls Stevens. “We met them at a first floor practice room (possibly the Roebuck) in Tottenham Court Road and had about three hours with them before going out on the road. Usually, we started at the US base in Bayswater Road (7pm) then onto [Starlight Ballroom at the] Boston Gliderdrome in Lincolnshire by midnight and sometimes then to a place in Leicester for a 6am show!”
Next up in the revolving roster of artists that The Noblemen backed was Alvin Robinson, possibly kicking off with a show at the Dungeon Club in Nottingham on Friday, 28 October.
Over the next week, the singer performed at the Starlight Ballroom at the Boston Gliderdrome in Lincolnshire, the Burlesque in Leicester, the Jigsaw in Manchester and the Whisky A Go Go in Wardour Street, but the support bands are not named in the advertisements.
“Alvin Robinson stayed at our [second] flat in Gloucester Road,” remembers Stevens.
“Roy Tempest had just given us that flat when Alvin stayed. He stayed with us for quite some time, so I think the gigs dates [were us]. He always made a stew of meat and veg and would leave it simmering on the cooker for hours and tuck into it when he returned from a gig.”
What is clear is that on Tuesday, 1 November and Wednesday, 2 November, The Motivations (as they were billed for these dates) did support Robinson at the Club Cedar in Birmingham for two nights. Tomlinson also remembers the group backing the singer at Newcastle University and briefly losing him at the venue!
Then, on Friday, 4 November, the musicians (billed as The Noblemen) starting working with another soul legend, The Coasters, backing the group at the King Mojo Club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire on a bill that also featured Sonny Childe & The TNT.
Marsh remembers Rod Stewart & The Steampacket – it would have been The Shotgun Express by this point – and Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band also performing that night but this was most likely a different occasion.
Still using The Noblemen name, the band joined The Coasters for a show at the Mecca Ballroom on the Royal Pier in Southampton, Hampshire on Wednesday, 9 November.
Interestingly, promoters continued to use The Noblemen name to advertise the group during November. This included a return to Liverpool’s Cavern on Saturday, 19 November, on a bill that also featured local band, The Escorts. [Ed. Former sax player Malcolm Randall, who’d played with Tomlinson in The Flames remembers seeing the group at the Cavern when he was gigging with his next group, The Manchester Playboys, but it’s not clear when this was.]
One of the final ones gigs as The Noblemen, again backing The Coasters, took place at the New Yorker Discotheque in Swindon, Wiltshire on Friday, 25 November.
As November closed, the band stopped using The Noblemen as a name, adopted the more Mod sounding Motivation (sometimes billed as The Motivation by promoters).
A Norbury, south London group called The Motivation had been active throughout 1965 and 1966 but it appears that by November of that year, the group was on its last legs and split around this time.
Unaware that a Cheshire band was also using The Motivation name, the musicians embraced Motivation and moved into a new chapter of their career.
To be continued…
Thanks to Bryan Stevens, Mike Ketley, Martin Barre, Jimmy Marsh, Denny Alexander, Chris Rodger, Malcolm Randall, Chuck Fryers, Malcolm Tomlinson, Mike Paxman, Vernon Joynson, Hugh MacLean, Pete Frame and Greg Russo.
Thank you to Bryan Stevens and Mike Ketley for the photos of The Noblemen.
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior permission from the author.