Nottingham Blues Man with roots in the fifties and still playing in the 2020’s.

Staple Diet, Breadline, Colin Staples Blues Band.

Colin Staples “I’ve never been to the United States. The home of the blues. The home of the blues? is Basford”

Much more to come but here is a brief timeline.

Born in Nottingham, 1940.

Polish Folk Orchestra – 1959/62

Colin Staples played Bass. Doing Polish folk, Waltz’s, Tango’s and Latin. Mr Kowalski taught Colin some guitar. Instruments were Mandolin, Cornet, Clarinet, Piano, Drums but no guitar or bass so Colin stepped in and played Bass.

Jam in Ilkeston – Early 60’s

Colin Staples – Guitar, Barry Smith – Guitar, Unknown – Drums

1960 – 63 – The Beacons.

Colin Staples formed The Beacons at the beginning of 1960. John and Dave Maslen who had previously been in The Strangers replaced two of the previous members. For a time they had an accordion player. Wooden Heart by Elvis Presley was one number that featured the accordion. They were essentially a pop group playing hits of the day ranging from Elvis, Ray Charles and Chuck Berry. They had a weekly residency at the “Meadow Inn” on the corner of Arkwright Street and Newthorpe Street and it was there that they had photographs taken using a peg board as a backdrop. They played the Fox Inn on Upper Parliament Street “which was a real spit and sawdust place“.

As The Beatles became popular during 1963 they added some of their songs too. At one gig in Newark “the crowd started throwing pennies at us when we played songs by The Beatles. I don’t know if it was because we were bad at Beatles songs or whether they were complimenting us“. By the end of 1963 The Beacons were starting to play more RnB flavoured songs and they were ready to change their name accordingly.
The line up:
Colin Staples (Vocals)
Dave Maslen (Bass)
John Maslen (Lead Guitar)
Simon Stokes (Drums)

John Maslen wrote these notes about The Beacons circa 2012.

“Colin Staples Band – The Beacons
again 1960’s. the evolving Colin Staples band of the time – the beacons taken at the Meadow Inn off Arkwright Street for one of several publicity photos. top left Colin Staples, bottom left Simon ‘sim’ Stokes – drums, top right David Maslen – bass, bottom right John Maslen – guitar. note; this was a regular gig. by this time technology had moved on. Colin had built us a PA system, David had a bass amp and 2 cube speakers built by himself, as i am clutching my firs left handed guitar, the Stratocaster inspired watkins rapier in glistening red. I also had a 2 x12 amp by this time, a Carlsboro based on the fender twin. it even had a presence control ! this band had evolved from Colin’s earliest band the beacons and was just about to turn into a full blown R&B and blues band named The Beaconsville Rhythm and Blues All Stars. at this time however we are wearing button pinned collar shirts, greyish suits and playing a variety of material from rockabilly to Beatles. notice sim stokes the drummer clinging to his rocker roots with the haircut- sim used to sing a medley of chuck berry songs from the drum chair but also loved jazz. and a feature of most pre -Beatles drumming before this picture period, was not playing a constant bass drumbeat but using the bass drum for emphasis as in jazz.it was the chuck berry material that got sim into the constant bass drum patterns”.

1963/65 – Junco Partners

Junco Partners – 1963 – 66 – Colin would occasionally deputise for Dave Turner who couldn’t always make the gig.
Their steady line up was:
Dave Turner – Guitar, Vox, Ian Taylor – Electric Piano, Vox, Rae Drewery – Bass – Father of Corinne Drewery (Swing Out Sister), Mick Dale – Lead Guitar, Richard Williams – Drums – Later Journalist.

1964-65 Beaconsville RnB Allstars

The Beacons evolved into the Beaconsville Rhythm and Blues All Stars at the end of 1963 moving away from the pop and rock and roll they had been playing to a more blues based sound that was becoming the sound of the era with Colin Staples who lived in Arnold as the front man . They had an agent, Syd Tyler and they would rehearse at Simon Stokes’s dad’s office. They would still play at the Fox Inn but got a residency at the “Brit”, one of the three Boat clubs on the banks of the River Trent.

The line up:
Colin Staples (Vocals)
Dave Maslen (Bass)
John Maslen (Lead Guitar)
Simon Stokes (Drums)
John Sanderson (Saxophone)

They cut an acetate record. John Maslen started to write his own songs. One was called “A Little Way Out”. They entered a competition in 1964 and a stipulation of the competition was for self penned songs so John wrote a song specially for them called “Hold on Tight. It was based round a drum kick. They recorded a version at Victor Buckland’s store in Derby, cut straight from lathe to disc.
The line up was on the recording was:
Colin Blackwell (Colin Staples): Vocal
John Maslen: Guitar
Dave Maslen: Bass
Thirlmere West (John Sanderson): Saxophone
Simon Stokes: Drums

1967 – Harvey Stuart Blues Band

This period is best described in this article from “Way Ahead” magazine No.6 c1976 below.

Read about the “Harvey Stuart Group“.

Milton’s Cellar 1968 to 1969

Take this link to read some context of “Milton’s Cellar“. Colin Staples was playing in the Harvey Stuart Blues Band from 1967 to the end of 1968. They would sometimes play at “Milton’s Cellar” in the Milton’s Head Hotel. By the beginning of 1969 Colin was jamming with Al Gascoigne who was playing in “Life without Mother” and Colin put together his first “Colin Staples Blues Band”. Sometimes he would go out as “Lord Colin Staples”.

1970

After Milton’s Head Hotel was demolished to make way for the new Victoria Centre Colin, among other venues, found a new blues home in the Cricketers Rest on Kirkewhite Street in the Meadows, Nottingham. It was here you could find other blues freaks trying out their songs. A young Nick Turner had a group called High Bread Mishap and he persuaded Wayne Evans to join him.

1971

July 1971

It was around this time that Colin Staples Blues Band were getting some support slots at Henry’s Blues House, a well known and respected venue in Birmingham. Said to be the first progressive club outside London it was run by Jim Simpson. Once having played in Birmingham group “Locomotive” he gave the first gig to “Earth” who would later become “Black Sabbath”. He gave them their first gig too and became their manager. Blues acts from America were to be found playing there and Colin Staples Blues Band played as support and as a backing band and a friendship was developed with Champion Jack Dupree.

October 1971

Colin advertised for a roadie with his own van but whether that was followed up or not didn’t matter for their next venture. Champion Jack Dupree was now, friends with, and using the Colin Staples Blues Band as his backing group and he wanted them for a TV appearance in Germany.

The band lasted for a couple of years after meeting Champion Jack Dupree at a gig at Henry’s Blues House in Birmingham . He used them as his backing band in Nottingham, around the country and in Germany where they appeared on radio and TV particularly “Beat Club” at Bremen TV studios on 27th October 1971. A highly regarded show then and now it showcased some of the great rock names of the day. Colin and the group flew to Bremen in Germany to record the sessions. They recorded two songs “I’m Going To Bremen To Get On The Radio” and “Try to make it alright”.

“We had a gig in Bicester in Oxfordshire. We went straight from there, overnight to Heathrow, and dossed there until we got a flight to Bremen. We had a bit of a run through. They recorded us for an hour and a half. It was so they could get the camera angles sorted out”.

Champion Jack’s backing group were:

Colin Staples: vocals, guitar, harp
Mick Dale: lead guitar
Paul “Beano” Summers: piano, slide guitar
Steve Hurd: bass
Paul “Jamso” James: drums.

Here are some stills from the TV footage.

Colin was also manager at Jack Brentnalls music shop and the shop featured on the front page of the Post when a burglary took place. Also working at the shop was Paul Cronk who was about to join local group Gaffa and drummer Steve Otter who among others drummed for Tim Disney’s Desperate Dann.

1973 – Duo with Steve Hurd

1974 – Duo with Steve Hurd

1975 – Staple Diet

These times I remember. The Running Horse was a venue where you could always find Colin playing and I sank many an ale when passing through (or should that be out).

1982 – Breadline – Recorded an LP with a great cover photo at Dave Mann’s on Mansfield Road

and Colin has carried on playing to the present day.

More coming later……….