Nottingham band circa 1978.

Strauss were a short lived five piece blues/boogie band from Nottingham who played the Imperial and the Hearty Goodfellow in 1978 playing support to Gaffa, Medium Medium, The Press and Last Call before breaking up and moving on to other endeavours.

Line up:
Jeff: Vocals
Paul Bowley: Rhythm Guitar
David Muncaster: Bass
Don : Drums
Martyn West: Guitar

David Muncaster told me a little of his and their story in January 2023.

“There was often music playing in the house. My parents only listened to classical music which I think helped give me an appreciation of all types of music. My sister is six years older than me and was into The Beatles and The Troggs. When I started getting into music myself it was the usual early 70s suspects, Slade, T-Rex, Bowie, etc.  The Dutch band, Focus, were probably responsible for me diversifying and listening into more album-based bands. Hocus Pocus and Sylvia were in the singles charts at the same time which stirred me to buy my first LP – Moving Waves. After that I broadened my taste to include bands like Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, ELP, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath etc etc. I have always had a passion for discovering new artists”.

“I was in a band myself (Strauss) that played half a dozen gigs or so at the Hearty Goodfellow and the Imperial in the late seventies. The band came out of a bunch of lads who used to assemble in a classroom after hours at Toothill Comp in Bingham. Friends Steve Cook, Tim Spiller, Paul Bowley who later joined me in Strauss, Nick Carter who was the singer in the very first incarnations of Strauss, and Edd Dowling who was later a member of Zacariah were occasional participants and the first thing I recall us playing was Alex Harvey’s “Framed”. It wasn’t really a band, just a collection of kids who would gather together to jam.

Later I moved to Radcliffe on Trent and started to take things a bit more seriously when I found that one of the guys I was sharing a house with, Don, was a drummer. Together with Paul Bowley from Toothill, we recruited a guitarist, Martyn West, and played our first gig at an end of term party at Radcliffe comp.

We then recruited a singer, Jeff, and rehearsed a couple of times a week in a barn in Radcliffe until we felt we were gig ready. One of our songs, Minus Five Degrees, is a memory of one of those rehearsals! We started off doing covers but by the time we were playing The Hearty Goodfellow and The Imperial we had developed a set of our own material.

The band name was my idea. I thought that people would naturally associate it with the classical composers of that name but was going to write a song about Levi Strauss jeans to explain the relevance. The song never appeared but the name stuck.

I had a Fender Precision bass and Martyn played a Fender Stratocaster. Paul played a Gibson SG. I don’t know anything about drums, but I think Don had a Premiere kit. The amps and speakers were mostly Peavey, but I think our PA amp was a HH.

The attached photo was taken at the Hearty Goodfellow. Left to right it is Jeff (surname escapes me) on Vocals, Paul Bowley – Rhythm Guitar, and myself, David Muncaster, on Bass. Not in the photo are Don on drums and Martyn West on guitar.

This is a list of the songs that we played at an early gig:

Gimme Three Steps (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Let’s Work Together (Canned Heat)
Jet Airliner (Steve Miller Band)
Back in the USSR (The Beatles)
Doomed (Strauss)
Light My Fire (The Doors)
Part Time Lover (Strauss)
It’s All Over Now (The Rolling Stones)
Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran)
Minus Five Degrees (Strauss)
Caroline (Status Quo)
Quark Strangeness and Charm (Hawkwind)
Phoney Heaven (The Motors)
Brown Sugar (The Rolling Stones)
Get Back (The Beatles)
Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry)

This is the set list from a gig at The Hearty Goodfellow:

The I Can’t Get to Sleep Blues
Sheila
Medley – Prostitute/Gotta Gettaway From Boogie/Minus Five Degrees
Double Life Sally
Rock n Roll Band
Rock n Roll Lady
Spend It
Let’s Keep it Going
Intergalactic Warrior

Spend It and Let’s Keep it Going were written by Jef. The rest were mostly collaborations between myself and Martyn.

Our music style started as a kind of blues/boogie mix but started being influenced by punk before it was all over before it really began. Don moved back down south to be with his girlfriend. Jeff and Martyn decided they wanted to collaborate on a more intricate music style. We did support The Press and Paul Bowley must have impressed them enough to invite him to join them after Strauss split up. Paul later re-located to London. Meanwhile I was skint and disillusioned. I sold my P Bass and didn’t pick up a guitar again for 30 years. Incidentally, Martyn is still on the Nottingham music scene, playing occasional gigs with an Americana Country band, Magic Car.

The recording of “I Can’t Get to Sleep Blues”, something I wrote, is preceded by an announcement taped off Radio Nottingham regarding an upcoming gig at the Hearty Goodfellow. It was recorded on a cheap cassette recorder in the barn so is not great quality ,but it gives you an idea of how we sounded. Sheila is an example of how I was starting to be influenced by punk. The lyrics to Double Life Sally are quite cringeworthy but I still think it is a pretty neat bass line. To be honest, I think our best songs were written by Jeff”.

After a short career in the hard rock business in the south of France, on my return to England I went on to play guitar with Martyn West and Graham Evans, in The Paraffin Men. This was around 1987/88. 

Jeff, lead singer, remembers:

“The photo of us performing at the Hearty Goodfellow, well we may have been supporting Medium Medium that evening. Dave used to sometimes have a laugh by calling me ‘Freddie Mercury’, due to my idolising of the original Freddie at the time, plus my antics throwing myself around the stage during performances. Dave’s Fender Precision was chocolate brown. I’m proud to be able to say we played the Imperial, even if it was as supporting act, to Gaffa. Gaffa are arguably the best pop band Nottingham ever produced, but that’s another topic”.

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I’ve chatted to Martyn West at occasional Magic Car gigs and he remembers Strauss playing support to Gaffa at the Imperial and Medium Medium at the Heart Goodfellow.

Martyn went on to:
Noize Boyz – 1982 (With some ex members of Wheels. Graham Evans, Martin Skinner, Paul Richards)
Paraffin Men – 1980’s – A duo with Graham Evans.

He currently plays with Magic Car who formed in 1992 with Martyn joining in 2014.

Hazel Atkinson: Vocals, Mandolin, Ukelele, Stick Dulcimer
Phil Smeeton: Guitar
Martin West: Bass