Nottingham Acoustic duo 1972-75

Dave Proctor: Guitar, Vocals
Adrian Armstrong: Guitar, Vocals

BIOGRAPHY

Adrian Armstrong (Lebbo) and Dave Proctor met at local watering hole The Grosvenor pub during 1972.

Adrian had been working with heavy rockers BOMB (Band Of Mental Breakdown) and then Barracuda . Dave had been performing occasional solo acoustic gigs of his own songs around Nottingham. They decided to get together to jam a bit. Thus started a long run of post pub jams at Adrian’s – they shared a wide range of influences from blues to Django Rheinhardt, prog. band Yes, and the Bonzo Dog Band.

One of their first joint compositions was a 12 bar song ‘Eileen’, and a jazzy instrumental ‘The Theme’. They also adapted some of Dave’s existing songs and experimented with ‘progressive’ acoustic instrumentals.

They found they could compose ‘on the fly’ when jamming; chord progressions and melodies were combined instinctively. Out of this came the early instrumental ‘Always’, and later on, ‘Autumn Design’ which featured on the Nottingham Castle Rock album .

Adrian already had contacts at BBC Radio Nottingham via Ashley Franklin, and ‘Eileen’ was their first song broadcast as part of an interview between Adrian and Dennis McCarthy. At this time the duo were known as ‘Dave and Lebbo’. (Armstrong – Legweak – Leggo – Lebbo via a school nickname). More recordings were done at Radio Nottingham, broadcast by John Holmes, Ashley Franklin and Gina Madgett, and in due course they took on the duo name Autumn Design, and featured regularly on the music programmes Singabout and Extravaganza.

They also regularly appeared live on Dennis McCarthy’s Radio Nottingham ‘Saturday Morning Show’ – featuring a new composition each week. Part of the fun here was Dennis trying to coax out light hearted banter from the duo – who took their music quite seriously. Adrian played along with Dennis better than Dave, whose rather deadpan responses challenged to Dennis to distraction! They eventually came up with the comedy song ‘Adjustable Man’, which tickled Dennis no end.

Along with the broadcasts, Autumn Design started picking up a few bookings at local folk clubs, and the occasional private function – some of live recordings here were done by Andy Terry (later of Nottingham’s Rainbow Sound Studios) at Ripley Folk Club, on his trusty Revox.

As a result of the Radio Nottingham connection, Autumn Design were invited to appear on the Nottingham Castle Rock album, which featured one of Dave’s songs ‘Loving’, and their instrumental ‘Autumn Design’.

By 1975 Adrian had decided he wanted to go back to electric guitar, forming the band ‘Eventually’. Dave went on to form Six Hands in Tempo. They kept in touch via the local music scene and Adrian and Andy Terry played a part in sound mixing Six Hand’s live gigs and recording their later albums.

In 2024 they are still in regular contact, and 50 years on there are hints at an anniversary re-recording of one or two of their classic tracks….watch this space….

They had two songs featured on the Nottingham Castle Rock album from 1974. Adrian had started his career in music with B.O.M.B. and then Baracuda.

Adrian’s band history is plotted here.

Here is a song and interview with Adrian Armstrong from a Radio Nottingham session sometime around 1973.

You can hear lots of Autumn Design at the Music menu above.

Much more coming later ………