Nottingham/Tuxford Power Pop group 1978 – 1980

Line up 1 (As Eyewitness)
Kevin Thorpe (Vocals, Guitar)
Steve Webster (Guitar, Vocals)
Julian Schwartz (Bass Guitar)
Pete Pearson (Drums)

Line up 2
Alan Fearn (Guitar, Vocals)
Kevin Thorpe (Vocals, Guitar)
Paul Sneap (Bass, Vocals)
Pete Pearson (Drums)

Line up 3
Alan Fearn (Guitar)
Kevin Thorpe (Vocals)

Line up 4 (Recording sessions)
Alan Fearn (Guitar)
Kevin Thorpe (Vocals)
Session men

Zoot Alors were preceded by “Eyewitness” in 1977 with a four piece line up. When Steve Webster left he was replaced by Alan Fearn and Paul Sneap replaced Julian Schwartz. With this new four piece line up they changed their name to Zoot Alors.

Steve Webster remembers:
“In 1977 I had been learning to play for about 4 years. I was into general rock stuff such as Rush Wishbone Ash, Be Bop Deluxe, Rory Gallagher etc etc and I saw an advert for second guitar, went for an audition at Carlton Forum where a band called Shadowfax awaited. A guy named Andy Toone I think came in, he plugged in and was brilliant, the rest of us might as well have gone home. He got the gig but the band never got off the ground. A month later Drummer Pete Pearson from Nottingham phoned me and said was I still available as the band had finished and he had joined another band from Tuxford, North Notts. This was Kevin Thorpe’s outfit and I got the gig, we rehearsed mostly Kevin’s songs, but I remember a Tom Petty number called “Fooled Again” and I contributed a Thin Lizzy type number, otherwise it was a bit hippy songs, all very nice but a bit west coast. We gigged for about 9 months and then I left”.

note: Andy Toone had been in Odysseus who featured on the Nottingham Castle Rock album on 1974.

Steve continues:
“So, Zoot Alors emerged from Nottingham/Tuxford in 1978.We had been playing for about 9 months as EyeWitness, a sort of Tom Petty/Thin Lizzy sound and had some good gigs including the Boat club (Sunday 5th February 1978) and a social club near Retford where we went down as if they had never heard of rock music before !!! I left and a new guitarist/singer called Alan Fearn joined Kevin Thorpe, Pete Pearson, and another new recruit Paul Sneap. The band started to play Power Pop and straight away caught the attention of Tom Mcguiness who got them signed to Decca records no less. They released one single and then disappeared, very sad I thought that they were not allowed to develop”.

Steve Webster would later form the Nottingham 80’s group It’s Viable.

Zoot Alors biography.

Formed in Nottingham in the spring of 1978, Alan Fearn (Guitar) and Kevin Thorpe (Vocals) were the driving force of Zoot Alors and not long later they became a duo when Paul Sneap and Pete Pearson left. Alan Fearn, born in Chester, went to Helsby Grammar School near Frodsham in Cheshire before going to Hull University. After graduating, Alan worked as a research psychologist at Nottingham University where he met Kevin Thorpe, of Ash Vale, Tuxford, who had been a former Lincoln Cathedral soloist and scholarship choirboy.

They set about recording a demo tape and played on the Nottingham pub and club circuit. The five song demo tape was recorded at Rainbow Studios on St James Street, Nottingham and consisted of “Inside out, Judy, We’re all alone, Be the one, Is it true”.

They were spotted by two talent scouts, Ray Williams of Gas Songs, who had managed Elton John in his formative years and later Stealers Wheel, and Peter Meisel who were both on a nationwide search and picked the demo tape from a 1,000 others. They sent a tape to the Decca record company who decided to record a single. Tom McGuiness and Lou Stonebridge, formerly of Manfred Mann and McGuiness Flint decided to produce them.

With their influences being governed by the sixties pop of The Who, Small Faces and Kinks the record, Send Me A Postcard / It’s A Crime, released on 9th November 1979, was a very credible power pop single in keeping with many of the new wave groups of the late 1970’s. During the studio recordings they were supported with session men.

On November 28th 1979 Zoot Alors were in Granada Studios in Manchester to record a session for the TV pop show “Get It Together”. It was aired on December 18th. They appeared on the programme another two times.

A North West tour was organised to take in Runcorn, Warrington and Manchester. Plans were made for a second single and an album in 1980, and up to 30 recordings had been made, but these failed to materialise when the record label was taken over by a German company and a number of acts were dropped including Zoot Alors.

Rainbow Records Demo Tape
1 Inside out
2 Judy
3 We’re all alone
4 Be the one
5 Is it true

Single
Send Me A Postcard / It’s A Crime – Decca 1979

Promo Disc

By 1982 Alan Fearn was partner at a four track recording studio based in the Lace Market, Nottingham. He would later play in English Electric and Blue Train.

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS