THE TROUBADORS
THE STORY SO FAR

Introduced by a mutual friend Andy & Steve first got together in the late seventies. Both sharing the love of playing guitar and singing in Andy’s back bedroom it wasn’t to long before the pair had written a handful of “powerpop” (all the rage at the time!) treasures. Suitably chuffed with their creations they swiftly recruited Bassist Paul Green and drummer Dean Fearnsides and “JUST FRANK” were born!

JUST FRANK (can’t remember who came up with that little gem!) With about a dozen songs and some well picked covers set about rocking whichever venue would have them. Encouraged by their “live” success it was decided a trip to the local recording studio in “ Heckmondwike! Was in order.
Box studios was run by Bill Clark who was a well known character on the C & W scene he played geetar with Louden Wainwright the third and was suitably unimpressed when four scruffy louts entered his hallowed abode and made a almighty racket! The almighty racket was swiftly transferred to cassette and sent out to everyone and his dog.

They couldn’t believe their luck when a letter (remember them?) popped through the post and Dave Goodman from “Rok Records” in LONDON! offered them a single deal! (Well half a single deal it was only one side of a single with another band on the other side!)

Rok released 11 singles (22 bands) simultaneously and they all went down to Trafalgar square to have their picture taken for the music press. The police weren’t very happy about this and tried to arrest them , but gave up because there were far too many bands! An illegal gig under some railway arches in Charing cross followed; again spoilt by the presence of PC Plod and his mates who pulled the plug after a couple of songs!

An elated foursome made their way back to Yorkshire to wait for the interstellar success of their single……………………

They are still waiting…………………....


One moment the band will remember for ever was the honor of meeting John Peel!
He was presenting his revered show from The Queens hotel in Leeds so the band duly trekked over to Leeds to see if he would see them. And he did! They nervously shook his hand in the bar and nearly fell over when he announced he was going to play the single that night. Flushed with excitement the sound of JUST FRANK blasted from the radio in Andys Triumph 2000 a moment never to be forgotten!

Undaunted by the fickle record buying public’s refusal to buy their single in bucketloads the band carried on gigging as much as they could. One gig of note was at Wakefields “Unity Hall” the largest venue in the area. JUST FRANK were invited to Support “STRANGEWAYS” Wakefield’s local heroes who had just released their first single (they got to do two sides! Bastards!) There was also another band on the bill going under the name of “ Chrissy and the cissy bars! They were fronted by a loud mouthed American chick who asked Ada Wilson mainman from “STRANGEWAYS” “who’s are these trousers?” mine if there’s any brass in’t pocket came the reply!

Two months later the loud mouthed American had changed her band name to “THE PRETENDERS” and the rest is history!!!!!

Another gig of note at the same venue was supporting “DOLL BY DOLL” with whom the band had got friendly with. DOLL BY DOLL fronted by Jackie Leven were magnificent and even lent JUST FRANK their van when JF’s blew up on route to the gig. For those of you that never got to see d by d they were SCARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Intense, noisy, but beautiful at the same time!

The band then decided to head South and take up residency in London (because you had to live there if you wanted to be a star!) Initially dossing down on the floor of  Doll by Doll’s house in Maida Vale and mixing with like of Glen Matlock of SEX PISTOLS fame they eventually found a home in Shepherds Bush and settled down to rehearsing with another drummer, ex Leeds lad Rob Grehie.
This line up did one gig only but it was quite an auspicious one!

It was billed as an “Intergalactic ball” and was held in a huge barn on an enormous farm near Bath. The owner of the farm was somebody very high up at Island records and there were a lot of well known names there, Mike Oldfield, Simon Kirke from Bad Company, Peter Gabriel etc,etc You get the picture! The band were met at the gates by two girls who were completely naked but with full body paint carrying silver plates with various foods on. Being from Yorkshire and on the dole they helped themselves to as much as they could and tucked in heartily!

Apparently the gig went great! Not that the band would have known; as the effects of the exotic herbs hidden within the food started to take effect after the first song!

This sadly was the last gig for the boys as Paul and Steve headed back to Yorkshire leaving Andy In London until THE TROUBADORS.

20 years later……………………………………. Andy and Steve kept in touch and after many years in London Andy too returned to his roots in Yorkshire. The idea of the TROUBADORS came about through there being  not enough “live” music being performed locally. They wanted to bring it right back to basics and perform songs as they were probably written; on an acoustic guitar!
So; for “fun” the duo set out in 2002 with around 40 covers of “classic” material (see song list) and started to tread the boards as “THE TROUBADORS”

Just two guitars, two voices in harmony, the occasional harmonica from Andy and a spattering of mandolin from Steve.

The plan worked and the duo are regulars on the music scene in Yorkshire and are enjoying every minute of it!

But……………………………………………………………………………

The old writing music bug has bitten hard and the duo are working on a mini CD release for the new year 2005

Provisionally entitled “ Stolen Time” it will be a six track CD somewhere in the Vein of roots, alt country, psychedelic, protest hippy shit! Be prepared!

Watch this space for downloads of “ taster tracks” and how to purchase the CD