John has had a long career in music ranging from The Strangers, The Beacons and The Beaconsville RnB Allstars in the early sixties, playing with John Morgan’s Blues Band in mid sixties Manchester, working with Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker at Pathway studios in early seventies London before joining Nottingham group “Gaffa” in the mid seventies. After Gaffa John played with “Harry and the Atoms” in the 80’s and later in the 1990’s he led “Nth Degree” amongst many other sessions and recordings. A guitarist and song writer, John is still playing today with Gaffa and recently contributed to Bill Fay’s latest album.

I first remember seeing John when he was playing with Gaffa in the mid seventies. In fact, we were at the same Trent Embankment bandstand gig when John watched the then Gaffa line up before he joined. In recent years I’ve chatted to John about his life in music and here is a small plotted history.

Photographs courtesy of John Maslen.

John was born in 1945 and grew up in Aspley, Nottingham with two brothers and a sister, Richard, Barbara and Dave. His brother Dave went on to play and record with Robert Hirst and the Big Taste. John’s parents were musical, singing, playing records and a connection to the church. While still children they moved to West Bridgford.

“My father was originally living in the Meadows and was training to be a slaughter man and butcher and was manager for the Co-op, working at various shops, one in West Bridgford, where he lived for a time. He went to manage a shop in Aspley, which was a brand new supermarket. He was manager of the butchery department but he was still cycling from West Bridgford to Aspley and with a growing family they moved to Aspley. In the mid fifties he took a job at a shop in West Bridgford and we moved there”.

In the 1956 John’s older brother Dave bought him an acoustic guitar “which probably only cost something in the region of 17/6” and by 1958 he was in a Skiffle group. Also living in West Bridgford at the time and a friend to the Maslen brothers was Rock Wheatley. Rock would go on to have his own groups, first Tony and the Echoes and then Tony and the Varitones who were a leading Nottingham group in the early sixties. Skiffle get togethers were a common thing in the late fifties and one such gig was at a girls party in a house in West Bridgford.

SKIFFLE GROUP (Late Fifties)

John Maslen wrote these notes about the above photo circa 2012.

“Party Jam Session – Early years!
I think about 1960 ? this relates to my brother David [playing guitar on the left under the Chinese picture] in his role as inducting me into the local house party scene as barely a teenager. I was far too young to be out on my own with people three years older than me ! The players, left to right, are David Maslen, Rock Wheatley [lead guitar with leading Nottingham band of the time , Tony and the Varitones – Rock was a very advanced player and had the brilliant English-made Grimshaw guitar which rock star joe brown used ], John Maslen playing my brother’s Hofner senator? bass upside down. David is playing the early Hofner solid which he later sold to Ed Metheringham (in picture below, The Strangers – Venue at Market St.), and moved onto bass. at this time he had both guitars. note my brush cut influenced by Canadians at school, offspring of Canadian service men from RCAF Langar and living in the Radcliffe on Trent ‘Canadian village’. Note the more teddy boy/ rockabilly style haircut of the ‘guy’ in left foreground – this was a time when the Elvis/ Gene Vincent / Eddie Cochrane era was just moving into the early Beatles scene. gear aficionados might see the top of a Selmer ? amp standing on floor in front of Rock Wheatley. we were probably all playing through it”.

David was working at Griffin and Spalding in Nottingham and it was there that he met Ed Metheringham. The mother of the window dresser at Griffin’s ran the West Bridgford social club which was just off Stratford Road, West Bridgford. Dave and his mates would play at a social club on Thursday evenings. This group eventually became “The Strangers”.

THE STRANGERS (1957/60)

The Strangers were originally a four piece with Ed Metheringham (Rhythm Guitar), Dave Maslen (Lead Guitar), Lenny Graham (Vocals) and hiring a drummer to make up the main four. They didn’t have a permanent drummer and would hire one for the gig. The Strangers repertoire was almost completely Cliff Richard and the Shadows alternating between a Cliff song and then a Shadows instrumental. “David invited me to join the Strangers because as original lead guitarist he couldn’t always remember the Shadows tunes on stage. I could , so he moved to bass and I became the lead guitarist“. Len Graham was the son of Tommy Graham who was then the Nottingham Forest football trainer. Tommy Graham had signed for Nottingham Forest FC in 1927, remaining at City Ground, becoming club captain, making a couple of appearances for England before retiring in 1944 and then taking up the role as trainer.

The five piece line up:
Ed Metheringham (Rhythm Guitar)
Dave Maslen (Bass)
John Maslen (Lead Guitar)
Lenny Graham (Vocals)
Various drummers

John Maslen wrote these notes about the above photo circa 2012.

“The Strangers – Venue at Market St in the early 60’s
this is a very early 60’s gig at a dance hall venue on market street Nottingham next to the overall premises of now Debenhams [then Griffin and Spalding store]. on the ground floor frontage just around or following this time the Kardomah cafe was the big venue for hanging out with your musician friends over a ‘long’ coffee. you can still get into this venue off parliament street at Norfolk place where the upstairs is or was a second hand vintage clothes store. you loaded the gear at this entrance. i think the dance hall and front part of the venue is now part of a ‘cafe’ fronting Market St. the venue was almost the social club for Griffin and Spalding. the band is called the strangers, name derived from the shadows hit tune the stranger. left to right, a ‘dep’ drummer which was common at the time, Ed Metheringham red Hofner solid [ same guitar as in pic above – Skiffle party in West Bridgford] , Dave Maslen, blonde hofner senator bass as in pic above, John Maslen [ semi acoustic Framus with added pickup] , Lenny Graham [singer and son of well known Nottingham forest trainer tommy graham] . the band totally featured Cliff Richard and the shadows songs alternating songs with instrumentals. note the 2 Selmer truevoice 8 watt amps and you can glimpse my Italian echo unit just below my guitar. believe it or not that’s the only amplification we had for all instruments with house PA for vocals”.

THE BEACONS (1960/63)

After The Strangers, John and Dave joined Colin Staples in The Beacons at the beginning of 1960. The Beacons were already in existence and John and Dave 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. The photo he is refering to is not one of the two above.

“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”.

BEACONSVILLE RHYTHM & BLUES ALL STARS (63/64)

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)

John Maslen wrote some notes about the above photo circa 2012.

“Beaconsville R & B All Stars
about 1964, the fully fledged, de-suited Beaconsville R&B All Stars publicity shot taken at the back of Sim Stokes dad/s work offices just the other side of station road road bridge, Beeston, a stones- throw from the Victoria pub. left to right, Sim Stokes- drums, Dave Maslen _ bass {now a Framus Star Bass], Colin Staples- guitar /vocals, John Maslen – lead guitar, vocals and maracas!, Thirlmere West (John Sanderson – tenor sax. we played jazz flavoured R&B, authentic blues and some chuck berry as noted above. we had a residency at the Britannia boat club, down by the Trent, one of three thriving boat club music venues of the time. this was really Colin Staples first out and out move into the blues. the band was a very stable unit over several years with an initial residency at the Fox Inn [pre makeover], parliament street Nottm. We were beginning to get pure R&B /Blues gigs which were then properly emerging all over UK. this shot the band is the last from this period as I went to study in Manchester in 1964″.

John 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

John Maslen left the Beaconsville RnB All Stars in the summer of 1964 to go to University in Manchester to study the history of art and English literature. Dave Maslen (as Dave Lea) advertised for a replacement and with John still part of the auditioning they recruited Mick Dale who had been guitarist with the recently finished Junco Partners to take John’s place and they carried on gigging.

The last line up was:
Colin Staples: Vocal
Mick Dale: Guitar
Dave Maslen: Bass
Thirlmere West (John Sanderson): Saxophone
Simon Stokes: Drums

When the Beaconsville RnB All Stars called it a day Dave Maslen would move on to “The Dickens Set”, “Embers West” and “Robert Hirst and the Big Taste”. Colin Staples carried on fronting his own blues bands. John Sanderson would join Woody Kern in the late sixties who released an album on Pye in 1969. In the immediate aftermath of the break up of the Beaconsville All Stars, Dave Maslen, John Sanderson and Simon Stokes went on a tour of France and Germany. They took a female singer with them, which they were contracted to do.

MANCHESTER (1965/68)

TRENCHARD. S. (1965)

John settled into University life in Manchester but would still visit Nottingham on a regular basis and in 1965 as a one off project, with his old band mates he recorded another acetate at Victor Buckland’s store in Derby. He came up with a name, Trenchard. S. and for the recording session John sang a version of the 1961 Ray Charles song “News For You” which was actually written by Tin Pan Alley lyricist Roy Alfred. Drummer Simon Stokes sang a version of “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone” which was originally written by Moon Mullican in 1950 but popularised by Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Jerry Lee Lewis. John, even persuaded the group to come to Manchester and play a gig but that was the only gig they played.

Line up for “News For You”
John Maslen: Guitar and Vocals (as Black Fred)
Dave Maslen: Bass
Simon Stokes: Drums

Line up for “I’ll Sail My Ship Alone”
John Maslen: Guitar
Dave Maslen: Bass
Simon Stokes: Drums and Vocals (as Texas Sim Stokes)

THE BOB DYLAN “JUDAS” GIG

On May 7th 1965 John Maslen went to see Bob Dylan at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester with a friend. John hadn’t really come across Bob Dylan’s songs before. This was the start of the era when Dylan moved away from purely acoustic sets to using an electric guitar and having a backing band. On May 17th 1966 John went with his girlfriend Barbara Manuel to see Bob Dylan again at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. This was the famous “Judas” concert when one of the fans heckled him because they felt let down by Dylan’s move to electric music. An image below shows John near the front of the stage at the 1965 concert. The “Judas” moment was caught on the film “Don’t look back” from 1967 but if you want to just hear the “Judas” moment see/hear it here. A little slice of rock and roll history!

J. M. BLUES (1965/67)

While at university John met fellow musicians John Morgan, Mike Finesilver, Peter Ker and Bill Chugg. Along with other musicians they became the first group led by John Morgan, from North Devon and studying French, who was a keyboard player of some repute, a contemporary of Graham Bond if you like. His influences can be traced back to the old barrelhouse piano players such as Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Pete Johnson, and Sonny Boy Williamson, those giants of the blues. After university John Morgan went back to Devon where he assembled his group “Spirit of John Morgan” who were perfect for the British blues boom and secured a record deal, releasing their first album in 1969 and playing in the heart of the London blues scene. Hear the first album on youtube.

Called JM Blues it is just coincidental that both John’s share the same initials. Also in the group was Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker who were destined for future success as writers, producers and studio owners. Mike Finesilver was already putting together rudimentary recording equipment while studying.

Line up:
John Morgan: Organ
John Maslen: Guitar
Bill Chugg: Slide Guitar
Mike Finesilver: Bass (sometimes)
Unknown: Bass
Peter Ker: Guitar (occasionally)
Unknown: Drums

JM Blues played gigs at “Mr Smiths” club on Samuel Ogden Street, the university and other local haunts. “Mr Smiths” was a “go to” place in sixties Manchester. Here are some memories on the Manchester Beat website.

PATHWAY STUDIOS (1969/74)

In 1968 John finished his studies in Manchester and moved to London to do a post graduate course in Teaching at the University of London. There he was reacquainted with Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker who had set up Pathway Studios in North London in 1969.

Mike and Peter had been working with Arthur Brown, Elli and Love Sculpture featuring a still little known Dave Edmunds and they released a single in 1968 on the Instant label under the band name of “The Excelsior Spring”. In a court case Mike and Peter won equal writing credits to the 1968 number one single “Fire” by the “Crazy World of Arthur Brown”.

Arthur told the Guardian in 2022

“We were creative guys into the surreal, folk, jazz and some classical. Drachen Theaker, the drummer, played an African rhythm and Vince played it as chords on organ. In the building where we rehearsed, two other guys [Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker] were rehearsing with an Indian singer, Elli. They had a song that I really liked [Baby, You’re a Long Way Behind], so we blended it into Fire for the “Da da daaaa” horn riff. They’re in the songwriting credits now”.

Whenever he could find the time John would be at the studio and became part of the house band for Mike Finesilver. All sorts of musicians would pass through.

Max Middleton, still an unknown keyboard player in late ’69, early ’70 was often there. He eventually became an integral part of Jeff Beck’s jazz rock fusion band of the 70’s first appearing on the 1971 album “Rough and Ready”. By 1972 and the release of “Jeff Beck Group” Max was away in America and he had ceased to part of the studio band. Peter Brown, lyricist with Cream and his own “Battered Ornaments” would call in.

Drummer Steve Witherington was always on hand. He had been in the later line up of “Warm Dust” with Paul Carrack and they were both in the first line up of Ace. Keyboard player Alan Gowen was a mainstay in the studio. He formed Gilgamesh in 1972 and collaborated with Hatfield and the North and was part of Soft Machine offshoot Soft Heap during the 70’s.

Another visitor to Pathway was a young looking Neil Murry. He was a friend and musical colleague of Alan Gowen. Neil joined the second line up of keyboardist Alan Gowen and drummer Mike Travis’s Gilgamesh in 1973. Neil Murray went on to have a very successful career in music particularly with Colosseum II, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Brian May and ended up in the band for the Queen tribute show that played on the west end for ten years. He didn’t take part in any studio sessions at Pathway but John got to know him and would later run into him at various gigs later in the seventies. Once when John’s later band Gaffa played support to Cozy Powell’s Hammer in Newark and a couple of other gigs when Neil was playing with Japanese percussionist Stomu Yamashta and another with Jon Hiseman Colosseum.

John had been writing and during 1970 he recorded ten songs which were grouped together under the album title of “Left Handed”. John played all guitars and sang and Bill Fay who was in the studio recording his own songs played piano on one song. Peter Ker chipped in with piano on another two. John formed a friendship with Bill Fay which lasts until the present day.

The album never saw the light of day. You can hear the whole album here or here is one song from those sessions called “You Say”.

John also met Jeff Cloves, a poet and musician, and they were soon involved in art projects and workshop sessions.

Another visitor to Pathway studios was Brian Short who was working on his own album. All his songs were recorded in demo form by the studio house band of which John was part but when it came to the final recordings Brian brought in his own band from Newcastle and the subsequent album was released in 1971 as “Anything for a laugh”.

During those sessions John did manage to find time to record one of his own songs called “Dealer”. The line up for the Dealer song was:

John Maslen: Guitar, Vocal
Mike Finesilver: Bass
Max Middleton: Keyboards
Brian Short: Acoustic Guitar
Ed Spevock: Drums

The track featured a synthesizer which was possibly a “Freeman” which Mike had in the studio at the time, one of the first UK designed polyphonic synths. Mike probably used this later on his “Finale” record in 1973. Drummer Ed Spevock was working on the Brian Short album at the time. Ed had a long and impressive career which is documented here.

DEALER (John Maslen)

When I think of all the stories that I’ve told
ooh yeh
I’ve been bold
and I think of all the trinketts that I’ve sold
ooh yeh
I’ve been cold

It seems that everybody is a dealer
wheeling and dealing with my name
I wish that everybody was a healer
I’d put out feelers
I’d join in the game

People say I could walk before I could run
ooh yeh
having fun
but it isn’t very easily done
having fun
having fun

It seems that everybody is a dealer
wheeling and dealing with my time
I wish that everybody was a healer
I’d put out feelers
I’d join in the game

oooooohh
oooooohh

join in the game
join in the game

MOVIE (1972)

By 1972 John had moved to St Albans with Barbara where John worked as a teacher. It was only a twenty minute journey into London so visits to Pathway studios were easy to do. While in St Albans he formed a band with Jeff Cloves, Barbara and his brother Dave called “Movie” and they played local gigs.

Jeff Cloves: Acoustic guitar
John Maslen: Acoustic guitar
Dave Maslen: Bass
Barbara Maslen (nee Manuel): Clarinet

FINESILVER (1973)

In 1973 Mike Finesilver had time to record some of his own songs. He had a pool of work dating back to the late sixties with numbers like “In the land of the few” and “Why” which he had co written with Peter Ker and Dave Edmunds released on the 1969 Love Sculpture album “Forms and Feelings”. Other songs included “Another time, another place”, “All the Ashes” and “Twilight farewells”. To hear this session go here.

The line up for these sessions was:

Mike Finesilver: Vocals, Bass
John Maslen: Guitar, Slide
Alan Gowen: Piano
Steve Witherington: Drums

They eventually arranged an audition with a record company at a rehearsal studio but it wasn’t successful in securing any backing.

Mike did manage to release a single under his own name in 1973, “Finale / Punishment Park”. Max Middleton was on keyboards for both tracks and John was involved in these recordings too.

The Finesilver project didn’t catch fire and by the end of 1973 people were moving on. Alan Gowen was prospering with his own endeavours and Steve Witherington had joined Ace with Paul Carrack. Mike Finesilver carried on at the studio and would find his greatest achievements as one of the first engineers and producers of punk and new wave in 1976/77.

Steve Witherington was interviewed by Sounds in 1973 and gave a glowing mention of John the guitarist.

In 1973 John decided to move back to Nottingham with Barbara and look for new pastures green.

RETURN TO NOTTINGHAM (1973/4)

and JOINING GAFFA

We will look into the story of John Maslen joining Gaffa in greater detail later but for now here is a basic timeline of 1974.

Nottingham group Gaffa were formed in 1971 by Wayne Evans and Mick Barratt who first worked together in the dying days of Nick Turners band “High Bread Mishap“. They found their feet by 1972 with ex members of Wayne’s first group “Tadpole Lane and district county council charity band” and played the local and wider national circuit whenever they could. There will be a lot more about Gaffa on their own page but here we pick up the story in 1974.

January 1974

February 1974

A newspaper article in the Nottingham Evening Post shows a picture of Gaffa playing on Pelham Street in Nottingham. The group line up is:

Wayne Evans: Bass guitar
Mick Barratt: Drums
John Herod: Guitar
Paul Cronk: Guitar

May 1974

Gaffa play on the bill of the “Long Eaton Rock Festival“.

Gaffa went down well.

June 1974

In June of 1974 Gaffa featured on the various artists compilation album “Nottingham Castle Rock” with a song called “Playing at Love”. The line up was:

Wayne Evans: Bass guitar
Mick Barratt: Drums
John Herod: Guitar
Paul Cronk: Guitar

Also in June, Gaffa played in an open air concert on the Victoria Embankment by the River Trent. Also on the bill were Autumn Design, Down to Earth and Centauris.

August 1974

Gaffa played at the, now famous, Windsor Free Festival during the bank holiday weekend. This was the festival that was broken up by hundreds of police. The Gaffa line up was a 3 piece of:

Wayne Evans: Bass Guitar
Mick Barratt: Drums
Stan Marshall (Kevin Unwin): Guitar

October 1974

Gaffa recruited another guitarist, John Maslen, to make them a four piece. The new line up was:

Wayne Evans: Bass Guitar
Mick Barratt: Drums
Stan Marshall (Kevin Unwin): Guitar
John Maslen: Guitar

Gaffa support Cozy Powell’s Hammer at the Newark Palace.

November 1974

Gaffa take up a residency at the Town Arms on Trent Bridge. Blues man Colin Staples was also running a Tuesday night jam.

Gaffa are also playing the Imperial on St Kames Street, Nottingham.

December 1974

Gaffa play the Boat club.

1975

More coming later …………….