Nottingham drummer 1976 to the present with groups, Ned Kelly, Hugo Delmonte and his Chirping Crickets, Some Chicken, Produkt 4, Zip Gun, TB and the Jabs, 27 Stitches Of Love, Tenament East, Red Go Red, The Fairground, C Cat Trance, The Gifthorse, Gaffa and many more.

I spoke to Pete to get an overview of his career. Aug 2025. A lot of this is just chronological notes and a first draft. Work in progress if you like.

EARLY DAYS

Born in December 1956 Pete Clarke grew up in Bakersfield with his sister. Passing his 11 plus he ended up in school in Forest Fields. As a child in the sixties the pop music of the era was always there, listening to the radio and seeing Top of the Pops but by the early seventies the music was changing.

With his mates “we would go into town on a Saturday morning and see all these records too. My mum was in this Freeman’s book club thing and she treated me and my sister to a record each. I don’t know why but I asked for Led Zep II, my sister got a James Taylor album. I had never heard of them but I loved it so I bought their first album and two Cream albums”.

In 1971 Pete wrote a page in the school magazine the “Forestian”.

A mate who was a couple of years older than me lived across the road (Steve Webster). Our tastes fell into tribal lines. I liked Led Zeppelin he had Deep Purple Wishbone ash and Jethro Tull. I liked proggy stuff which he didn’t. King Crimson, I remember listening to Larks Tongue in Aspic in Selecta-Disc on Goldsmith Street, it was fantastic. We gradually got into music. banging stuff down the bottom of the garden, iron frames and the like. I don’t know why I got into drums really. We met up with the mate who went to Mundella school when we were about 14 or 15. He had Groundhogs, Budgie and stuff like that which we hadn’t heard before. We all got instruments of some sort and pretended to be a band, a bedroom band. I played by tapping on the end of the bed and using a stapler as a bass drum. Somebody had a banjo. This went on for a few years. A lad a school had a drum kit and I had a go on his which was the first time I ever played a real kit. He was a big hippy with ginger hair looking a bit like Ginger Baker.

Steve Webster remembers those days too:
“My earliest memories of groups was learning to play with Pete Clark on the Drums, in a band we called  Infinity. Duncan Brown was on guitar and Jeremy Lewandowski on the bass. I slotted in on second guitar and vocals although Pete could sing too. We struggled to create any meaningful music,you have to remember it was at the height of rock/prog bands and a wealth of talent to compete against,or at least that is how it felt. We soldiered on rehearsing in Petes garage for a couple of years,maybe 3, but we never achieved a level where we felt able to take it further. Around 1976 it fizzled out and we all went our separate ways,the rest you already know. Pete was always the best of us as a musician,we did actually have a reunion in 1985 and it didn’t sound too bad,but once again Pete was the star of the show“.

Pete continues:
I saw Amon Duul in 1972 (a gig organised by John Holmes, Radio Nottingham broadcaster at the Albany hotel). They had the lava lamp backgrounds and the girl on the saxophone. I didn’t like it at the time but appreciate it now. My most most embarrassing moment of all though was when Captain Beefheart came to play the Nottingham University. My mates brother liked all the West Coast stuff like Jefferson Airplane and Moby Grape and he said you’ve got to see Captain Beefheart. We got tickets to see Beefheart at the Portland building. It was £1.50 which was 50p more than the usual gigs like Caravan. There was about eight guitars lined up at the back and I thought this will be great. We were sitting crossed legged on the floor and when they came on and I hated it but I would my leg off to see it now. At the time I just wanted to just hear guitar solos. It was the Clear Spot era of Beefheart and now I realise how brilliant it was.

On nottstalgia.com in 2010 “firbeck” remembered:
“At the height of his career, during the mid 70’s, Beefheart and his Magic Band were booked to perform a gig at Nottingham Uni (Monday April 30th 1973). I was already a fan, but I couldn’t think he was ever going to appear in Nottingham, it was unbelievable! I was lucky enough to get a ticket and, as usual, managed to talk my way on to the mixing desk. The lights went down, the Captain appeared on stage, alone, wearing his trademark cloak and hat. It was a hot summer night, he stood on the edge of the stage, looked around and said the immortal words, ‘Too many fans, and not enough fans’. what a start, then Zoot Horn Rollo launched himself into his stuff followed by Rocket Morton, what a concert, ‘Mirror Man’ just blew us away, one of the greatest performances I ever went to, all in the Portland Building.“

Pete continues:
On the local scene in 1974/75 I started going to the Town Arms on Trent Bridge. I saw Colin Staples one week then Gaffa another week. One week I saw this band who all had white T-shirts on. It was Desperate Dann and they were amazing. For me, growing up, the drummers for me were Mick and Steve, Mick and Steve. Mick Barratt of Gaffa and Steve Otter of Desperate Dann. Mick could play everything, rock, reggae, funk. When Mick finally left Gaffa Wayne Evans reckoned Mick left because he felt at this point in his career he should have a enough money for someone to set the drum kit up for him and be able to get a new shirt each week. Steve was just rock solid and I nicked lots of Mick’s idea’s. The showman stuff. Wearing his Hawaiian shirts, pretending to head butt the tom tom but hitting the bass drum at the same time, biting the cymbal.

I bought a Gretsch Drum Kit, an early seventies kit. It wasn’t that prestigious at the time but it is now. In 1977 I saw The Clash at the Palais, the next night watching Rush in Sheffield which was fantastic.

By 1976-77 I wanted to play in a band so I answered an ad in the Evening Post for a drummer. They were called Ned Kelly and they were all from Aspley and the bass player, Alec Bradford, was a DJ at the Boat, a big lad with glasses. They were a covers band playing club gigs and for me it was great because I had to learn all these songs, the Stones, Thin Lizzy, Bad Company and Free Bird etc, classic rock stuff. All the duel guitar stuff. They changed their name to Kyro in 1977 but by 1978 I had left. Punk was in and I liked it but they didn’t really like the punk thing.

NED KELLY – 1976-77
Alec Bradford: Bass
Dave Smith: Vocals
Paul Smith: Guitar
Rob: Guitar
Pete Clarke: Drums

KYRO – 1977-79. Kyro carried on after Pete left.

They had a rehearsal place on Mansfield Road. After they stopped using it I took it on. Some Chicken rehearsed there, Zip Gun etc. It was a couple of buildings down from the wholefood shop next to an alley. I had a key and inside there was a café thing, a pool table room and other rooms.

HUGO DELMONTE AND HIS CHIRPING CRICKETS – 1978
Don Johnson: (from the Drains)
Rob Pollard (Wally) (also in covers band called Storm)
Pete Hall: Bass
Pete Clarke: Drums

A short lived band, Don had been in The Drains and went back to The Drains when they reformed. One of our first gigs was at the Gregory on Ilkeston Road. We played the Imperial and supported Gaffa and Some Chicken at the Imperial on their Wednesday night residency. In the summer of 1978 Some Chicken drummer Bob Fawcett was going to be away on holiday for two weeks and they asked me to step in while he was away. After the two weeks was up they said do you want to join. I said what about Bob but they said Bob was more interested in his business.

SOME CHICKEN – 1978-79

Line up #2 1978-79
Jethro Adlington (Jess Chicken): Guitar
Mark Askwith (Ivor Badcock): Vocals
Mike Nowicki (Terry Bull): Bass
Pete Clark: Drums

Line up #3 1978-79
Jethro Adlington (Jess Chicken): Guitar
Mark Askwith: Vocals
Pete Taylor: Bass
Pete Clark: Drums

I replaced original drummer Bob Fawcett around July 1978 and although I wasn’t really part of their crowd I took the job. They thought Bob wasn’t that interested.

Some Chicken weren’t everything that people thought really. I never saw them in the early days but Jess was the song writer. Mark was the singer. Jess wanted to be more adventurous. He didn’t want to be just three chords. When I joined they had got a deal for an album and three singles. Number Seven and Arabian Daze had just come out (a 12″ single) when I joined. we were kind of promoting that. We were recording an album but it never saw the light of day because the record label went bust. There was a cassette with the unmixed songs but I don’t know where they are. The stuff they were doing had moved on, a bit Avant Garde, Jess wasn’t the greatest musician but liked Can, Crimson and that sort of bleak sound.

In only Pete’s second gig with Some Chicken a recording was made at the Imperial on St James’s Street from the desk by Brian, Some Chicken’s sound guy.

I had to get my hair cut and put some different trousers on but was the most working class punky type in a strange way. Mark was a sales rep, Jess had a job at Home Brewery as a senior lab technician or something and Mick ran his dad’s business as Bob had, but I was working at my dads factory. After a couple of months Mick left to concentrate on his business and we got this guy called Pete who came from the band Berlin. Bob had himself joined to Berlin.

I remember Berlin and Spasm with Tony Tylines (Tony Thomas – Guitar and vocals) who eventually became a drummer. They gave me a Spasm badge. “We’re the new band” they said. They were about 16 and I was the youngest in Some Chicken and they took to me. They supported Some Chicken a couple of times.

We played the Sandpiper on a Friday night once and the manager, Peter Groves, said the band billed for tomorrow aren’t turning up so if you want to play again I’ll pay you, you can leave your gear set up. We came back the next day about 4 in the afternoon and there was all these people there with face paint on. It was supposed to be an Adam and the Ants gig and they hated us.

Mick Nowicki would come to rehearsals with a tie on. He actually liked things like Status Quo, he wasn’t really a punk guy. He booked a gig in Matlock which was heavy rock territory and the crowd were going to lynch us. They were an old fashioned rock crowd. We played for about 30 minutes and we got off the stage. Luckily Mick had a cassette with him that had some rock standards on it like “Born to be Wild”. He put it on and it pacified the crowd.

I had a girlfriend in Kirkby in Ashfield 1979. Going up there it was like travelling back in time. They were all wearing Oxford bags and so on. If you went there with drainpipe trousers on you would get beat up. Also, at the Hearty Goodfellow, I saw Mark Gott of the Test Tube Babies climb out the window and then fall to the ground, braking his arm, but clambered back up the stairs to carry on the gig. I was also at he Skin Patrol gig when the guy went crazy and smashed his guitar over someone’s head. I was standing behind Johnny Maz. I’ve never seen John Maslen so angry.

Some Chicken came to an end around spring 1979.

PRODUKT 4 – 1980
Rob Hodgkinson & Pete Clarke, New Wave ish. Rob was running a little studio called “Fruit Quiz”.
Short lived group with a couple of gigs at the Hearty. Somebody left and it fell through.

ZIP GUN 1981
Tim Disney: Vocals
Pete Clarke: Drums
Rob Pollard (from Hugo): Guitar
Martin Heath: Bass

We did a few gigs but it never really came to anything but we shared a rehearsal space with TB and the Jabs.

TB AND THE JABS – 1982

Nigel Hathaway: Guitar
Tim Boynton: Bass, Vocals
Pete Clarke: Drums

Nigel left and we got Toddy

John Thompson (Toddy): Guitar
Tim Boynton: Bass, Vocals
Pete Clarke: Drums

Jez Hill who had been in Loose House was their roadie. Jez was doing the gear for them. He had a van.

They didn’t have a drummer but a lot of gigs so I joined. I filled in for a while. When I left they got Russ Jalland on drums and a new bass player. They did some recording at Fruit Quiz in Sherwood (Rob Hodgkinson).

TENAMENT EAST – 1982
Jes Hill: Guitar
Edward Shillingford: sax
Pete Clarke: Drums
Vaughn Wilkinson: Bass (ex Drug Squad)
Simon Smeeton: Vocals (from Loose House)

I met up with Jez Hill from Loose House and then Struggle Sound (a 3 piece) who were touring France etc. Went to France for the summer. It was great but we split after that.

RED GO RED – 1983
Ross Birch: Guitar
Jez Hill: Second Guitar
Adie: Bass
Pete Clark: Drums

Ross was a really interesting guy, interesting songs and into a real Hendrix sort of vibe. I don’t think he liked my style and I got sacked, don’t know why.

Martin (Tuckwood I think) and Krew (Skin Patrol bass) replaced me and Adie. Replaced by Jon Riley – Drums probably at some point.

27 STITCHES OF LOVE – 1984
Dave Mitchel: Bass
Simon Smeeton: Vocals, Guitar (Loose house & Tenement East)
Pete Clarke: Drums
John Thompson (Toddy): Guitar

Dave left and was replaced by Gary Watt brother of Lee.

We got some gigs at the Old Malt Cross and we played their for at least a year.

No matter what I did we always went to France and did bar gigs, campside gigs, we would play for 3 hours, we honed our songs in front of people who weren’t to critical. I love playing outside, no reverborating off glass etc. In those holiday towns there wasn’t much going on so we would have an audience.

I always made sure I went to Europe with some line up or other. We were all on the dole, but there was money to be made and a holiday too. Overall I went abroad for about ten years. Jez Hill went every year too.

THE FAIRGROUND – 1985-87
Dave Mitchel: Vox (Loose House)
Gary (27 stitches)
Jez Hill: Guitar
Pete Clark: Drums

1985 was a crucial year. We formed The Fairground and played a year in Nottingham and two years in France as a proper band. Later Dave wanted to do stuff on his own and the band fell to pieces. We would still get other bands together to go to France.

ZOOT SURFERS 1989

Another group who recorded were the Zoot Surfers.

Micky O’Reilly: Guitar, Vox – had band called The Big Event with Kev Bailes
Tim Boynton: Guitar, Vox
Jez Hill: Guitar, Vox
Peter Clark: Drums, Percussion
John Thompson: Bass
Wayne Hallam: Guitar, Vox

C CAT TRANCE – 1989-91

John Thompson (not Toddy) got in touch with me. Do you want to play with C Cat Trance because they needed a performing band. There had been many line up changes. They also got Trev Naylor – Perc, Kevin Sanderson – Perc and Steve Mitchell – Guitar from Visible Targets. They had done lots of tours of Europe and released lots of records.

It was unwieldy group, different guitar tunings. John Lewis and his wife, Dave Walker (Fieldwork). they all played sasses. Rob Hodgkinson was the sound man. We fell out a bit. He made a Phil Collins sound where I preferred a natural sound. John said we’ve got a rehearsal (at the works). The drums are pretty basic and all the fancy stuff is done by a percussionist.

We had 14 nights playing places like Hanover and Berlin. The first night was at a massive club. I went on first, wearing a yashmag, wrapped around my head. I started a basic beat, but the wrap was coming off. I was looking over thinking where are they, but they were skinning up. John Thompson wanders on stage and joins in. We two were playing for another 5 minutes when John Lewis came on and played sax for five minutes before the song even started. This song went on for 20 minutes or more. It worked, even though I was used to regular structured songs, and the crowd loved it. I became good mates with Kev.

The clubs were big. We went somewhere in Berlin. It was really posh. It was like a hippy commune thing, big PA, David Bowie had played there before. In the record shop we had our own section dedicated to C Cat Trance.

We all have a shared experience, a brush with death. We had two gigs coming up in Switzerland and after playing a gig in Brighton where John now lived we caught the ferry to France during a storm in January 1990.

On the ferry were Rob Hodgkinson (sound guy), John Lewis, Hillary, Isabel, John Thompson, Pete Clark, Dave Walker and son, Kevin Sanderson

Full story later…………

The GIFTHORSE – 1991-92
Dave Longdon
Isabelle
Pete Clarke: Drums
Jenny Hinson: Bass
Simon Withers (occasionally)

GAFFA

and more