Steve Rhodes – Drums, Vocals
Ken Ward – Guitar
Peter Forbes – Guitar, Vocals
John Schofield – Bass (died 2015ish)
Linda Hindmarsh – Keyboards

The Arachnids were from and were based in Ashby De La Zouch, Leicestershire with the exception of Steve Rhodes who was from Nottingham but went to boarding school in Ashby De La Zouch where he met the rest of the group. Steve was born in 1949 in Nottingham. His parents were from Nottingham too. Steve’s mum was a fan of Leslie Hutchinson, Grenada born singer and cabaret star of the 1930’s.

Steve knew Rik Kenton in Nottingham. Rik lived on Haydon Road and went to High Pavement school. Rik has forged himself a career in music since the early sixties to the present day and it was Rik that got The Arachnids their first gig in Nottingham. They played blues numbers and some motown playing the usual array of fetes, clubs and miners welfares and supported a few better known bands on their travels.

One of these groups was The Zeros who were also from Ashby De La Zouch. A typical gig for The Zeros would be at the Assembly Rooms, Tamworth – 17/04/65 – Suspects 4, The Zeros, The Spratts – 8.00pm-11.30pm, Admission: 5/-.

There was a Beat Group contest in Ashby during 1965.

The Arachnids also supported Leicester band “Wot Dat Dare” at a gig in Nailstone and they became friends with Pete Taylor of the band who died in November of 2021. Some other Leicester groups of the time who were on the circuit were Broodly Hoo, Makin Sound, Veeble Peeple, The Ten-Foot-High Things, Legay and The Farinas who eventually became Family. At one gig in Aberystwyth The Arachnids supported …………..

Their set, like many other fledgling groups of the time, consisted of mainly American blues and soul. Sure fire winners would be Going to a Go-Go by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, a pumped up Sweet Mary by Leadbelly, No Good Without You Baby a William Stevenson number made better known in Britain by the English Birds who boasted Ron Wood in their ranks. They even penned a few of their own numbers. Steve wrote a song called “Spiderman” which was basically a version of Back Door Man by Howlin Wolf with his lyrics replacing the original. “He’s got eight feet and plenty of time, he’s the biggest freak since Frankenstein”.

“I didn’t even realise Sweet Mary was a Leadbelly composition. We just knew it through The Artwoods”. They got to know London group The Artwoods who were often to be found at gigs in Nottingham and Leicester. A group of some repute they featured Leicester man Jon Lord (later of Deep Purple), Art Wood (brother of Ronnie) and Keef Hartley. All the band and Steve got to know, in particular, bass player Malcom Pool, who was also from Leicester.

Malcolm used to phone Peter Forbes if he’d got a night off and he would take them out to gigs. Steve couldn’t get to all of them because of school but did get to see Brian Auger and the Trinity one friday night at the Il Rondo. The VIP room was on the balcony bar at the Il Rondo. During the first break by which time I’d fallen in love with Julie Driscoll who was wearing a sweater, blue jeans, bare feet, necklace and no makeup, I just stood there gazing like a dog, Malcolm introduced us to Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. Rod was then a shy retiring sort of person. He was completely in awe of Brian Auger who was already a star”.

With the demands of school and University The Arachnids finally wound up at the turn of 1968. Steve left school in 1968. Linda a multi instrumentalist went on to play the Harp for the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. Ken became involved in the running of the Venture Theatre in Ashby De La Zouch. Peter Forbes went to university at Reading studying chemistry and then becoming a poet.

During 1968 Steve went to an audition for a blues band upstairs at the Midland Hotel on Ilkeston Road near the old Players warehouse. There were lots there and Steve didn’t get the gig. I remember blues sessions, a blues society if you like, being run by Geoff ? Barnes (father of Graham Barnes aka Alvin Lee) at the old Miltons Head. That’s where I met Nick Turner, Russ and Harry. Steve eventually ended up playing drums in a group fronted by Nick Turner vocals, guitarist ( ? Music shop near the Playhouse), Russ on Bass and Harry Beighton on keyboards.

One of the loudest gigs Steve ever went to was the Jeff Beck Group at the Boat Club. This is when Rod Stewart was lead vocalist. Steve went to the Nottingham Racecoarse festival on July 12th 1969 with an array of bands including The Nice, King Crimson, Status Quo, Eclection, Yes, Caravan and the Edgar Broughton Band.

In 1970 Steve moved to London to work as a copywriter for an advertising company and then with a company in the PR department. He lived in Maida Vale. Not becoming involved in a regular band Steve was immersed in the “sex, drugs and rock and roll” lifestyle of early seventies London. In 1971, with friends, Steve arranged a gig at Imperial College, London. “One of the girls I was going out with called Fiona was a social worker, very posh, she had been to the University of Durham. She was a lovely girl. Fiona got involved in a organisation called RATP (Radical Alternatives To Prison). They wanted to put some concerts on. They were all fairly intellectual folk and she asked me whether I knew any good bands. Well, I had already met a few good musicians, where I was, in Maida Vale. So I asked some friends and they said they were putting a band together. There was also a very good guitarist and singer called Julian who had band called “Sharks”. I was looking somebody else and somebody suggested talking to left wing hippie radicals the Edgar Broughton Band. They lived up in north London somewhere so I found his telephone number and I phoned him up and he said fine, come on over. After cups of coffee and a smoke they said yeh, no problem, just give us the petrol money. I got on with his brother Stevie Broughton really well. He said the band was going down to Glastonbury next weekend and would I like to come along. I had somebody’s wedding I had to go to and said no”. This was the now legendary Glastonbury Fayre of 1971 which spawned a triple album and a film. It featured a line up that included Hawkwind, Arthur Browns Kingdom Come, David Bowie, Traffic and a host of now revered British underground bands.
Another name added to the bill of the Imperial College gig was free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill. “I saw him being picked up by The Rolling Stones on the way to Hyde Park”.
The name “Sharks” was eventually bought by Andy Fraser the bass player from the highly successful band Free. When Free where coming to the end of their time Andy Fraser formed Sharks alongside Chris Spedding and they bought the band name. In payment the old band got a brand new Mercedes touring truck and 24 hours free studio time.

John Gourd who later played guitar with Max Merritt and the Meteors 1974-77 (A New Zealand group) lived in the house. He was a teacher.

He said come down and have a jam in Soho. So I did. I was a bit nervous but we started with Summertime Blues just to get started. Then this guy said do you know “Knock Three Times” So, in 1971 in the Kings Head in Soho Steve found himself jamming with John Gourd, Fuzzy Samuels reputed bass guitar session player who worked with CSNY and was in London to record on Stephen Stills second solo album. The vocalist was none other than Tony Orlando of Dawn who had just had a No.1 hit both sides of the Atlantic with “Knock Three Times”. Another famous number of theirs was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon”.

In 1974/75 Steve moved back to Nottingham. My dad had a second stroke and although I was about to sign up for another job in London I returned to Notingham. I used to cycle to a job at Experian. I previously worked at the Inland Revenue.

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Peter Forbes

https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/forbes-peter-1947
Forbes, Peter 1947– PERSONAL: Born January 11, 1947, in Burton, England; son of Leonard and Winifred Forbes; divorced; children: Neil, Ian. Ethnicity: “English.” Education: University of Bristol, graduated, 1967. Politics: “Left of center.” Hobbies and other interests: Guitar music.

http://www.pforbes.org/
Peter Forbes is a science writer with a special interest in the relationship between art and science. He initially trained as a chemist and worked in pharmaceutical and popular natural history publishing, whilst writing poems, and articles for magazines such as New Scientist and World Medicine. He has written numerous articles and reviews, many specializing in the relation between the arts and science, for the Guardian, Independent, The Times, Daily Mail, Financial Times, Scientific American, New Scientist, World Medicine, Modern Painters, New Statesman, and other magazines.

He was editor of the Poetry Society’s Poetry Review from 1986-2002 and played a major role in the rise of the New Generation Poets. He has edited three anthologies: Scanning the Century: The Penguin Book of the Twentieth Century in Poetry (Viking, 1999), We Have Come Through (Bloodaxe, 2003) and All the Poems You Need to Say I Do (Picador, 2004). In 2001 he published a translation of Primo Levi’s The Search for Roots (Penguin Press). The Gecko’s Foot, a book on the new science of bio-inspired materials, was published by Fourth Estate in 2005 and was long-listed for the Aventis Prize. Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and camouflage (Yale University Press) won the 2011 Warwick Prize for Writing. His new book, Nanoscience: Giants of the Infinitesimal, co-authored with Tom Grimsey, will be published by Papadakis in April 2014. He is currently teaches the Narrative Non-fiction short course at City University, London, and is RLF Writing Fellow at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

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Ken Ward
https://www.ashbyventuretheatre.org.uk/about-us#CouncilofManagement

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http://www.tamworthbands.com/1965/apr-jun.htm
17/04/65
Suspects 4, The Zeros, The Spratts
Assembly Rooms, 8.00pm-11.30pm, Admission: 5/-

http://www.tamworthbands.com/index.htm

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notes to myself.

Questions to Steve

school

music in the home?
music influences

22nd Oct Ashby Beat contest
winners were from Derby area – Inventix, Centors, Farrans Five Degrees

max merritt – picture – which is john gourd
Howard “Fuzz” Deniz bass (was it this bloke and not fuzzy samuels)