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John Maslen Gallery
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Party Jam Session - Early years!
I think about 1960 ? this relates to my brother david [playing guitar on the left under the chinese picture] in his role as inducting me into the local house party scene as barely a teenager. I was far too young to be out on my own with people three years older than me ! The players, left to right, are david maslen, rock wheatley [lead guitar with leading nottingham band of the time , tony and the varitones - rock was a very advanced player and had the brilliant english-made grimshaw guitar which rock star joe brown used ], john maslen playing my brother's hofner senator? bass upside down. david is playing the early hofner solid which he later sold to ed metheringham in picture 2 below, and moved onto bass. at this time he had both guitars. note my brush cut influenced by canadians at school, offspring of canadian service men from RCAF Langar and living in the radcliffe on trent 'canadian village'. Note the more teddy boy/ rockabilly style haircut of the 'guy' in left foreground - this was a time when the elvis/ gene vincent / eddie cochrane era was just moving into the early beatles scene. gear afficianodos might see the top of a selmer ? amp standing on floor in front of rock wheatley. we were probably all playing through it.
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The Strangers - Venue at Market St in the early 60's
this is a very early 60's gig at a dance hall venue on market street nottingham next to the overall premises of now debenhams [then griffin and spalding store]. on the ground floor frontage just around or following this time the kardomah cafe was the big venue for hanging out with your muscian friends over a 'long' coffee. you can still get into this venue off parliament street at norfolk place where the upstairs is or was a second hand vintage clothes store. you loaded the gear at this entrance. i think the dance hall and front part of the venue is now part of a 'cafe' fronting market st. the venue was almost the social club for griffin and spalding. the band is called the strangers, name derived from the shadows hit tune the stranger. left to right, a 'dep' drummer which was common at the time, ed metheringham red hofner solid [ same guitar as in pic above] , dave maslen, blonde hofner senator bass as in pic above, john maslen [ semi acoustic framus with added pickup] , lenny graham [singer and son of well known nottingham forest trainer tommy graham] . the band totally featured cliff richard and the shadows songs alternating songs with instrumentals. note the 2 selmer truevoice 8 watt amps and you can glimpse my italian echo unit just below my guitar. believe it or not thats the only amplication we had for all instruments with house PA for vocals.
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Colin Staples Band - The Beacons
again 1960's. the evolving colin staples band of the time - the beacons taken at the Meadow Inn off Arkwright Street for one of several publicity photos. top left colin staples, bottom left simon 'sim' stokes - drums, top right david maslen - bass, bottom right john maslen - guitar. note; this was a regular gig. by this time technoligy hd moved on. colin had built us a PA system, david had a bass amp and 2 cube speakers built by himself, as i am clutching my firs left handed guitar, the stratocaster inspired watkins rapier in glistening red. i also had a 2 x12 amp by this time, a carlsboro based on the fender twin. it even had a presence control ! this band had evolved from colin's earliest band the beacons and was just about to turn into a full blown R&B and blues band named The Beaconsville Rythmn and Blues All Stars. at this time however we are wearing button pinned collar shirts, greyish suits and playing a variety of material from rockabilly to beatles. notice sim stokes the drummer clinging to his rocker roots with the haircut- sim used to sing a medley of chuck berry songs from the drum chair but also loved jazz. and a feature of most pre -beatles drumming brfore this picture period, was not playing a constant bass drumbeat but using the bass drum for emphasis as in jazz.it was the chuck berry material that got sim into the constant bass drum patterns.
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Beaconsville R & B All Stars
about 1964, the fully fledged, de-suited Beaconsville R&B All Stars publicity shot taken at the backof sim stokes dad/s work offices just the other side of station road road bridge, beeston, a stones- throw from the victoria pub. left to right, sim stokes- drums, dave maslen _ bass {now a Framus Star Bass], colin staples- guitar /vocals, john maslen - lead guitar, vocals and marracas!, thirlmere west - tenor sax. we played jazz flavoured R&B, authentic blues and some chuck berry as noted above. we had a residency at the britannia boat club, down by the trent, one of three thriving boat club music venues of the time. this was really colin staples first out and out move into the blues. the band was a very stable unit over several years with an intial residency at the Fox Inn [pre makeover], parliament street nottm. we were beginning to get pure R&B /Blues gigs which were then properly emerging all over uk. this shot the band is the last from this period as i went to study in manchester in 1964.
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Beaconsville R and B Allstars
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John
London 1969
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Movie - with Dave Maslen on bass in St Albans, 1970's
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St Albans in the 70's
John Maslen
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Finesilver - with the late Allan Gowen
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Finesilver - with the late Allan Gowen
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John
Harry and The Atoms in the 70's
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John
With Harry and The Atoms in the 70's
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Harry and The Atoms
John Maslen and Harry Stephenson
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Hollow City Review
Harry Stephenson and John
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Nth Degree 1990's
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Nth Degree
John Maslen and Russell Jalland
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2008 Blues Man
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John at Gaffa Practice
Rubber Biscuit 2012
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