Bob Dawbarn, Max Jones, Ray Smith and Robin Rathborne. Snatched from HERE
From the mid-1950s until 1970, Bob Dawbarn [obituary here] was a key figure in Melody Maker’s editorial talent pool. A tireless advocate for jazz, he, like many of his peers, had to adapt his taste (and swallow bile) to incorporate the cuckoo in Trad’s nest, R&B.
In May 1964 he gave his personal response to the Rolling Stones, arguing with his colleague Ray Coleman, who liked the band, that it was ‘farcical to hear the accents, sentiments and experiences of an American Negro coming out of a white-faced London lad’. But more than their inauthenticity or long unkempt hair, the biggest crime the Stones committed, as far as Dawbarn was concerned, was that they didn’t swing.
In the face of rock’s eventual dominance of Melody Maker’s coverage of new musical trends, all to the detriment of jazz, it is quite a feat of perseverance by Dawbarn to have stayed the course and stuck with his job throughout the 1960s. But it is even more surprising to discover that before retiring from the game altogether he did a short stint at Sounds in its inaugural year. Mostly he wrote about his first love, jazz, career overviews of Jelly Roll Morton and Lester Young and the like, but he also returned to those far-off R&B days with a look back at The Yardbirds.
It is a wholly work-a-day account ,which does little more than reinforce the clichés that had grown up around the band subsequent to its demise, though his first impression of the ‘Birds as the ‘loudest R&B group the world had ever known’ is well worth the price of entry and is undoubtedly true . . .
The motivation for Dawbarn’s blast of nostalgia was no doubt due to Sounds having published a rather splendid interview with Jeff Beck two weeks previously. Asked about his time in the Yardbirds, Beck was candid, thoughtful and, I think, honest in his response, which was certainly not his usual way of weighing up his experience of being the ‘sound of 1975 in 1965’
Looking back, how do you view your time with the Yardbirds now? What was it like?
Great. I was flying all the time in that group, everything was happening. Crawling out from underneath a car and playing in a group was great but on top of that it was such a great group. It was a progressive group at a time when everyone else had stopped, everyone else was just playing stock things but that group was the only one of its kind. It was probably the happiest time in my life.
What do you think would have happened if you could have stayed together?
Could have got worse, could have got better but at the time we broke up there was so much tension in the group that we couldn't have stayed together even if the music was good. And when Samwell-Smith left the group the Yardbirds seemed to lose their goal, he was such a strong influence.
What was it like with Jimmy Page in the group, was it better then?
It was over in a flash, a storm in a teacup, it never had a chance to get off the ground. When Jimmy Page was in, Samwell - Smith was out of the picture altogether, and Page played bass in the beginning. When he started playing guitar, it was about six months after Samwell-Smith had left and not long after that I left. It was a very short space of time when we played together. I repaid a favour, he got me a job with the Yardbirds originally and then he came into the same group and I left him the job of lead guitarist. I got sacked really ... I made it impossible for them to keep me on, I kept blowing dates.
Yes, you had a reputation for not turning up?
Yes.
A fair reputation?
Well, there was always a good reason. Something good on television or something ...
Mary Hughes even . . .
