A Nottingham, brass led, rock band 1973 – 1980.
Later known as Pancho and later still as Cosmo.

Formed in October 1973, the seven sometimes eight or nine piece Nottingham group Cisco played horn driven rock reminiscent of American group Chicago and were able to incorporate jazz elements into their big band sound. They were a brilliant live act, attracting packed crowds with bookings months in advance. All of the musicians had previous experience in the sixties and early seventies and Cisco were an instant hit with Nottingham music lovers when they launched in January 1974. Tony Sherwood worked as their agent getting them gigs around the country and they held a residency at the Imperial on St. James Street, Nottingham for nigh on seven years. They took part in a Melody Maker national rock contest in 1974 winning the first round, the semi-finals at Birmingham University and coming 3rd in the Final at the legendary “Roundhouse” in London taking 300 fans with them from Nottingham. Their line up changed in 1977 and they changed their name to “Pancho” and later in 1979 to “Cosmo” but it always felt like the same band. They performed mainly the music of others but would write a few of their own that didn’t sound out of place. They weren’t a group looking to break new musical boundaries but it was always fun at a Cisco gig and I was one of those enthusiastic followers who enjoyed their brand of exciting music.

Musicians

Dave Sharp (Guitar, Vocals)
Steve Saxon (Vocals) 1974 and occasional guest spots in later years.
John Shane / John McShane (Keyboards) 1974 – 1975
Ray Marshall (Drums)
Graham “Fred” Smith (Percussion, Congas)
Dave Leithead (Trumpet)
Ray Northfield (Tenor saxophone, Flute)
Mick Mellor (Bass Guitar)

Colin Robinson (Drums) (Jan to Feb 1974)
Pete “Chuck” Berry (Vocals) for a gig or two in 1974
Geoff Cook (Keyboards) April 1975 to 1976
Terry Vickerstaff (Keyboards, Guitar) 1976 –
Vaughan George (bass) 1977 –

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Cisco – Repertoire / Set list
From newspaper clips and very hazy memories

Hawkeye Harry (Band written)
A Hunk a Funky Monkey (Ray Marshall)
This Heavy Load (Dave Sharp)

Stevie Wonder – Living in the City
Stevie Wonder – You Are the Sunshine of my Life
Stevie Wonder – Just Enough
Stevie Wonder – Sir Duke

Steely Dan – Reelin in the Years
Steely Dan – Bodhisattva

Osibisa – Music for Gong Gong
Osibissa – Who’s Got the Paper Who’s Got the Match

Supertramp – Hide in Your Shell
Supertramp – Bloody Well Right

Van Morrison – Jackie Wilson Said
Van Morrison – I’ll be There
Van Morrison – Ain’t Nothing You Can Do

Allman Brothers – Statesboro Blues
Rufus Thomas – Walking the Dog
Jr. Walker & The All-Stars – Shotgun
Doobie Brothers – Long Train Running
Tower of Power – Don’t change Horses
War – Cisco Kid
Santana – Evil Ways
Elton John – Border Song
Deodato – 2001 (Instrumental)
Benny Bell – Shaving Cream
The Climax Blues Band – Amarita
Average White Band – Pick up the Pieces
Kool & The Gang – Can’t Get Enough of that Funky Stuff

Joe Cocker – Space Captain (Learning To Live Together) “Cisco have got it together” “Cisco have got an umbrella!”
The Box Tops (the Joe Cocker interpretation) – The Letter (“Cisco have got it together” “Cisco have got an umbrella!”).

The crowd chant of “Cisco have got it together” “Cisco have got an umbrella!” might have been sung to either or both of “The Letter” or “Space Captain”

Medley April 1974 – Cisco Kid, Border Song, Space Captain, This Heavy Load
Medley June 1974 – Border Song, 2001, Funky Monkey, Space Captain

some other faint memories

Doobie Brothers maybe “Listen to the music”
Blood Sweat and Tears maybe “Spinning Wheel”
Focus maybe “Sylvia”
Buddy Miles maybe “Them Changes”
Ray Charles maybe “What’d I Say” or “Hit the road jack”
Babe Ruth maybe “The Mexican”
Chicago maybe “25 or 6 to 4”
James Gang maybe Rocky Mountain Way
Sergio Mendes – ?
Paul Simon – ?

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“I was 16 in November 1973 and how I got into the Imperial so young I’ll never know, the Boat club too but times were different and somehow you just found yourself there. Memories are very hazy but I was amazed to hear the music of Santana being played. I had seen Santana on the Woodstock film a couple of years before and was taken by the Latin rock sound. You could never have heard a live band playing that sort of music in Nottingham before. The afro percussion of Osibisa songs was another highlight and the cool songs of Steely Dan and Stevie Wonder were just magic. They were truly a great band”.

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Steve, Dave and Tim were also Cisco fans. Steve remembers:
“Another comic item that I witnessed, perhaps only a couple of times, involved the drummer singing a song whilst providing percussion by banging a drinks tray over his head. In my mind I’m thinking ‘Mule Train’, but it could have been ‘Rawhide’, certainly something along those lines. As well as the usual songs, there were a few oddities that appeared once in a blue moon, on nights where they weren’t taking themselves especially seriously. Shaving Cream by Benny Bell was one”

“Also interested that you put the ‘Cisco have got it together’ thing by ‘Space Captain’. That’s certainly the recollection of David and Tim, but I suggest it happened in more than one song. I have clear memories of it appearing in ‘The Letter’. They did the ‘Joe Cocker live version’ of this and if you listen to that on YT around 3 mins in you’ll hear his backing singers repeating, over and over, ‘my baby she wrote me a letter’, over which I’m sure we sang ‘Cisco have got it together/Cisco have got an umbrella.’  David does not share my confidence in this memory!”

“In a book I wrote in 2021, (still available on Amazon!) ‘Episodes from Life: a tale of a music loving bookseller’. Below is an extract from the third chapter, dealing with my memories of Nottingham’s music scene in my teenage years”.

I was now at the age where it was possible to go out and find live music in the evenings in Nottingham. And here, it must be said, I am extremely grateful to have had my teenage years in Nottingham rather than my hometown, Scunthorpe! Weekends were the mainstay, of course. Saturday nights at The Boat Club on the banks of the Trent just by Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, were probably the most common source of entertainment, although if something big was on at The University that night, (Andy Fairweather Low, Sensational Alex Harvey Band etc.) we’d probably go.

Sunday night was really something special. On St. James’ Street, a side street somewhere off Old Market Square, there was a pub called The Imperial Hotel. (Note: I’ve just looked it up on the internet, found a very sad photo from 2006 of the place, renamed West Side Bar, boarded up and empty – oh those ghosts!) It was a Mecca for music. Behind the main building there was a separate bar, with a small stage and on every night of the week there was live music of one sort or another. One night you’d be able to find local Prog Rock bands, (‘Wheels’, ‘Mensch’ and others now forgotten!) Other genres on other nights.

It was Sunday, though, that you just HAD to be there! A local Funk/Rock band called Cisco had a residency. They were there every Sunday and built up a massive and very enthusiastic following. It was quite a large band. The usual drums, guitar, bass, keyboard and vocals, but also an extra percussion player and a brass section! They mainly played covers, but to an extremely high standard. Often not the covers you’d expect to hear or done in the way you might expect them to be done. The quality of musicianship was very high, and the sound set up was really good. This was top quality stuff and all you had to do was turn up and buy a few drinks!

It would be no exaggeration to say the nights at The Imperial are amongst my favourite musical memories of all time. Had I a time machine I would, without doubt, return to the Imperial for a Sunday night in the early/mid 1970s to witness Cisco one last time. I do recall, one night, TV cameras at the event. It was rumoured they were going to be shown on Old Grey Whistle Test….. I don’t think it ever happened, but I’d love to know what happened to that film! 

The history of Cisco.

1973 and the formation of Cisco.

Cisco were the brainchild of guitarist Dave Sharp who, in no way was a domineering force but, could be considered to be their leader and spokesman. He took the name of the group from the song by American funk rock band “War” called “Cisco Kid”.

Dave who lived in Radcliffe-on-Trent had been in the influential Nottingham rhythm and blues group “Blues and Roots” from 1964 until their demise at the end of 1967. He then played in local pickup groups until settling into the line up of “Pendulum” who played on the local “chicken in a basket” clubland circuit between 1969 and 1973. This is where he met Graham “Fred” Smith who was also in the band. Fred Smith had roots as far back as 1962 when he was the drummer in a Nottingham based group called “Tony and the Countdowns” and later with the “Harvey Sturt Blues Band”.

Mike Mellor, a bass guitarist, was in the Harvey Stuart Blues Band, a mid sixties blues rock outfit, based in Nottingham although with connections to Derby and Leicester, along with future Cisco members saxophonist and flutist Ray Northfield, drummer and percussionist Fred Smith and for a short time Nottingham blues legend Colin Staples. The Harvey Stuart Band relocated to London in 1969 with a new line up and Mike and the others stayed local. Mike was from Derby and was also active on the underground folk and poetry happenings around Derby experimenting with sound and words, using prose over backing tapes. As the seventies dawned he found himself in Pendulum with Dave Sharp and Fred Smith.

By the autumn of 1973 the musical landscape was much more developed, those fifties and sixties seedlings now grown into wonderous blossoms, and post Woodstock, heavy rock and progressive sounds were the order of the day. The rock gods and soul giants were born and the worlds of jazz and rock also collided in a new way bringing forth jazz-rock. It was that blend of jazz and rock that Dave Sharp wanted to pursue. Not so much the complexity’s of Jeff Beck, Chic Corea, Frank Zappa or the Soft Machine but the happy sound of the American groups like the Doobie Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Santana and War and their British counterparts Joe Cocker, Van Morrison and the Average White Band with a leaning towards brass led funky rock. With that in mind he looked to recruiting Dave Leithead, a trumpet player of great renown.

Dave Leithead was strictly from the world of jazz. He first came to the attention of the Nottingham public in 1963 as an eighteen year old who had formed his own group, seven piece, “The Imperial Jazz Band” in 1962 from earlier beginnings in school bands before that. Not to be confused with Nottingham pioneers “Mick Gills Imperial Jazz band” they also played New Orleans style trad jazz.

By the summer of 1966 Dave broke up his group to join the “Johnny Johnstone All Stars“. They were a popular and long lasting group who kept the trad jazz flag flying in the sixties when it was starting to wane as rock and pop took over as the dominant musical force. The Nottingham jazz scene faired better than other parts of the country as it had been at the forefront during the war years and the fifties.

By the beginning of the seventies Dave Leithead was also dedicated to helping and reconstructing the “Arnold and Carlton College of Further Education Jazz Band“. At the same time The Johnny Johnstone All Stars had splintered and Dave formed highly regarded “Jazz Spectrum“.

Dave Sharp persuaded Dave Leithead to leave Jazz Spectrum and join his new venture. The keyboard position was taken by John Shane who had previously worked in Ireland, live and as a session player, allegedly with Van Morrison. With Fred Smith taking up the Congas and percussion role the drum spot was filled by Colin Armstrong who was known from the local circuit. This seven piece group took the name Cisco from the song “Cisco Kid” by American funk group “War”, practiced and and walked straight into a residency at the Imperial Hotel on St James Street in Nottingham which was still predominantly but not exclusively a jazz venue. They played their first gig there on Sunday January 6th 1974 with the line up of:

Cisco *1 January – March 1974

Dave Sharp (Guitar, Vocals)
Mick Mellor (Bass Guitar)
Graham “Fred” Smith (Percussion, Congas)
Ray Northfield (Tenor saxophone, Flute)
Dave Leithead (Trumpet)
John Shane (Keyboards)
Colin Robinson (Drums)

Unlike a lot of jazz traditionalists Cliff Lee who wrote the jazz column for the Nottingham Evening Post was no snob when it came to jazz and was willing to give column space to any new exponents of jazz forms.

Alongside Cisco another new group starting out were “Moonlight Drive” who featured free jazz player Jan Kopinski. The rest of Moonlight Drive would surprisingly become the pub rock band Plummet Airlines in 1975 with the edition of Harry Stephenson.
Cisco were an immediate hit. Their brand of warm, fun and groovy numbers made them approachable for fans of danceable but musically adept songs.

On Sunday 27th January Cisco shared the bill with a two artists who had been booked in advance for that night. Such was Cisco’s popularity they couldn’t be moved and they played to a blues audience, there to see American one man band blues artist Dr Ross with the Colin Staples Duo in support. It had been local promoter George Toone’s wish to get Dr Ross to play Nottingham.

Dr Ross released an album in 1974 called The Harmonica Boss. You can hear it here.

February 1974

February continued with Cisco picking up their audience. Also in town that month were Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers who had in their ranks one Philip Lithman who would become better known as “The Residents” sideman “Snakefinger”. After only a month of playing the word was out about Cisco and in February there was an addition to the group.

Charismatic vocalist and front man Steve Saxon took over the lead singers role and they became an eight piece group. Steve Saxon whose real name was Steve Harrison had a career that started of with Nottingham group “The Carpet Baggers” from 1964 to 1967. Steve Saxon then joined the local soul group “Robert Hirst and the Big Taste”. They cut a single for Polydor in the summer of 1967 but only released in Europe.

After the demise of The Big Taste, Steve worked for the “Tiny Davis Soul A Gogo” where he would sing backing and play trombone. Later he sang for a changed line up of “The Clockwork Toys”. Cisco was a perfect fit for Steve whose energy and dynamism only added to the frenetic entertainment served up to an expectant audience.

As Steve joined, the drummer Colin Armstrong announced he was leaving, planning to emigrate, so the feelers were put out for a replacement.

The replacement was found in Derby drummer Ray Marshall. Ray also had a back career that had seen him play for Derby show group “Six Across”, “Kip”, the perennial “Eric Pembleton Band” in 1970 and the Nottingham jazz-rock outfit called “Jubilation” in 1973. This new eight piece line up became established for the rest of 1974 with the revised line up of:

Cisco *2. March 1974 to January 1975

Dave Sharp (Guitar, Vocals)
Mick Mellor (Bass Guitar)
Graham “Fred” Smith (Percussion, Congas)
Ray Northfield (Tenor saxophone, Flute)
Dave Leithead (Trumpet)
Steve Saxon (Lead Vocals and Trombone)
John Shane (Keyboards)
Ray Marshall (Drums)

March – April 1974 and the classic line up

With the new line up nicely gelled and a growing fan base Cisco starting gigging four or five nights a week.

As they had two Derby musicians now in their ranks Cisco were also adopted by Derby as one of their groups such was their reputation and they soon found themselves playing in Derbyshire as well. Agent Tony Sherwood also got them bookings further afield in Stoke and Coventry.

May – June 1975 and the Melody Maker National Folk and Rock Contest

Tony Sherwood got Cisco entered into the Melody Maker National Folk and Rock Contest. At the beginning of May they had won their section of the East Midland heats at Nottingham University beating forty other groups and were now ready to compete in the Midlands final at the end of May in Birmingham. Both Nottingham and Derby journalists were very supportive of Cisco and their brand of music but the band found it hard to attract more fans in Derby as Mike Mellor made apparent. The vast majority of fans were from the Imperial residency nights in Nottingham.

Cisco won the Midlands heat of the rock contest at Aston University to get through to the final. John Keetley writing for the Birmingham Daily Post was not so impressed by them saying “another band from Nottingham, Cisco, who had two coach loads of young fanatics to recommend them rather than any special musical achievement” but their travelling fans were in no doubt as to their potential. Both The Nottingham Evening Post and the Derby Telegraph gave them glowing reviews.

In an era when an unsigned group could command many fans there was talk of Cisco taking six coach loads of supporters with them to the finals at the famous “Roundhouse” in London.

At the finals of the National Folk / Rock contest Cisco were in top form “with a vigour and life that shocked even immovable Londoners” but to many watching on, including their many fans, the judges only placed them third. Richard Cox writing in the Derby Daily Telegraph on Saturday 22 June 1974 describes the events that day.

Back in Nottingham Cisco shared the bill with local pop stars Paper Lace and Sheffield club band “Bitter Suite” at the Albany.

Bass guitarist Mike Mellor still spent time in his native Derby catching up with old friends and colleagues. Watching a group called “Metropolis” he saw Geoff Cook who had once played with the first line up of Nottingham Soul group Robert Hirst and the Big Taste in early 1967. Geoff would play a part in Cisco’s history at a later date.

Recording for the “Nottingham Castle Rock” album

On Monday June 24th the compilation album of Nottingham groups and artists was released. It featured Cisco with a Dave Sharp written song called “This Heavy Load”. It was recorded at Bob Rowe’s studio and he produced the album also as part of the Nottingham Festival celebrations.

To hear the rest of the album go here.

July / Aug 1974

Cisco’s manager Tony Sherwood got them work at Coventry’s “Mr. George” club. Also playing there were another Nottingham group “Highley Likely” who had recorded the theme tune to “Whatever happened to the likely lads” TV series.

Nottingham Evening Post Jazz reviewer Cliff Lee writes about Cisco’s success only six months into their career.

With Tony Sherwood getting them bookings they inevitably played the club cabaret circuit like the Blue Orchid in Draycott, “Squires” in Balsall Common and “The Place” in Hanley.

Sept 1974

Much more coming later ………