Heavy rock band from Nottingham and roundabouts 1974 -1976.
(Including the story of Four Point Five & Hippo)

Steve Musgrove: Drums
Malcom Pepper: Guitar
Colin Ellington: Bass
Edd Dowling: Vocals

Hear them “Live at the Boat Club” here

I asked Malcolm Pepper about the beginnings of Zacariah:

I’m from Cropwell Bishop Nottingham. My parents were not really into much music, I was born in 1956 and had a 5 year older sister so I was brought up on 60s pop so from age 5 I was mad on Lonnie Donegan!! then The Beatles, Stones, Small Faces etc then whilst at Toothill School in Bingham 1967 to 1971 I got into Black Sabbath, Cream, Free etc. I guess it was Lonnie Donegan that led me to the guitar.
My first group was “Four point Five” formed at school. We played at school discos and we played Shadows instrumentals, three of us were having guitar lessons in West Bridgford with Vic Kay on George Road ( £1 an hour each)!! the line up was:

Four Point Five line up:
Malcolm Pepper on guitar
Colin Slaney on drums (great drummer)
David Cook on bass,
Steve Westmorland on rhythm guitar.

When I left school at 15 in 1971 I started as an apprentice electrician and at college I met some guys from Radcliffe on Trent and started going to see bands with them at Trent Poly, Nott’m Uni and the Boat Club. One of the guys was Graham Evans and also a guy from East Bridgford Simon Lester. Me, Graham and Simon formed “Hippo” with a singer by the name of Matt Whitworth.

Hippo line up:
Graham Evans – Bass (later formed Wheels)
Simon Lester – Drums (later joined Matarka)
Malcolm Pepper – Guitar (later formed Zacariah)
Matt Whitworth – Vocals

Hippo had previously been called “The Granite”.

“We played covers like, Roxy Music Virginia Plain, David Bowie Starman, Stones Jumpin Jack Flash, Cream Sunshine of Your Love etc. We played local parties, village halls, Scout Halls etc When Hippo split up I formed Zac, Simon joined Matarka and Graham formed Wheels with Martin Skinner a great Hammond player (sadly Martin is no longer with us, I’m still in touch with Graham).

Zacariah line up:
Steve Musgrove: Drums
Malcom Pepper: Guitar
Colin Ellington: Bass
Edd Dowling: Vocals

To begin with we rehearsed in a House Room at Bingham Toothill school and various village halls whilst we were writing together. We came up with this name whilst we were on a night out not sure who came out with it, before this name we were called Shaowfax, Granit and Guts. We had an agent from Mansfield who found us a few gigs not really the wright gigs for us I remember playing the Grey Topper at Jacksdale. We then played Toothill after I had left I think Ed was still at the school. The promotor from the Boat Club took us on after we played the first at the Boat. We had an ex red cross van which I bought from the hospital I worked at we fitted bus seats in it and did gigs in Stoke on Trent, Leeds, Sheffield, Rotherham Lincoln where we supported Wheels. The gear sharing was usually lending each other things like PA monitors. We were quite well organised we had three mates as roadies who drove the van and the band travelled in one of their cars to the gigs it worked well we had some great times! We wrote collaboratively. I would come with a riff or idea and Col and Sam would put their parts to it then Ed would write the lyrics and melody (we jammed and improvised a lot !

So the three bands tended to follow each other round we all got on well sharing gear and time together especially Zac and Wheels.. Zac was managed by Stuart Knowles the Boat Club promotor after he saw us support Wheels at a Toothill school gig in 1974?

Our last gig was at the Boat Club our van had failed its plating (MOT) we were struggling for money to pay for our gear and Ed was still at school and he offered to stand down as he couldn’t contribute financially. We brought in a new vocalist but the gig didn’t go well so we decided to disband after that gig.

Zac split in 1976 and then me and Susan my wife (who I met at the Boat) worked at the Boat on the door for about 3 years where we met loads of the great bands that played there, so there is another chapter!! We must have met you on the door on some Saturday or Sunday nights when bands like Nutz and UFO were on great bands great nights.

I went on to play with other mates and tried to form another band which didn’t come to much. Sam went to play in a pub lounge for a few tears with an organist, Col played with some other mates. By this time I was working on the door at the Boat Club with my wife. We met some great bands and musicians. of the 70s who played there”.

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Dave Muncaster of Nottingham band “Strauss” remembers Edd Dowling, the singer with Zacariah.

“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.

Another friend Stephen Cook remembered Edd helping him learn guitar.

“The first thing was to find a guitar. There was an advert in the evening paper, and I set off to make my
purchase. Of course, I had no idea if it was a good instrument or not. In hindsight, it was a disaster. It
was probably little better than the toy I’d had as a child. The strings hurt my fingers, the action was
very high, and it proved virtually impossible to learn anything on it. But there was Ed, playing in the
sixth form room at lunchtimes to adoring followers. I recall one lunchtime very fondly. Ed was
challenged to play the theme tunes to various TV adverts. His rendition of the Cadbury’s Flake advert
had us all singing along (Only the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate, tastes like chocolate never tasted
before….). God, I wanted some of that! The music, that is, not the chocolate! But that disaster of a
guitar I’d bought was close to putting me off. Ed showed me how to make sense of chord charts and
how people wrote down songs with chords written over the words”. You can read Stephen Cooks musical journey here.

Some gigs that can be dated are recorded in the “Down at the Boat” book. All at the Boat Club.
Sunday 19th October 1975
Sunday 30th November 1975
Sunday 18th January 1976
Sunday 21st March 1976 (Recorded by Radio Trent)
Sunday 2nd May 1976

All the following images are from Pete Bradley’s Roll Back The Years website.

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I spotted this from a Gary Moore page

Malc Pepper
Hi Griff
Thanks for explaining about speed of playing being easy when its your own riff. I had the pleasure of meeting Gary in 1974 when he played at The Nottingham Boat Club England where I worked. He gave me a go on his Les Paul after a gig which was given to him by Peter Green. He told me not to keep pulling off for speed but use my pick more. Still trying to master the art after all this time but you help loads!!

Reply

• Tosha Cliffordwow!!first hand knowledge ! from the man himself ! boy were you working at the right place at the right time !
  priceless ! and thank you for sharing the tip !!cheerio !