Months of work went up in smoke when fire ripped through Majestic Studios in Clapham, South London in 1981 as T Ford & The Boneshakers were recording their third album.   The band later broke up, unable to meet the costs of touring full time.

Now, 27 years later, their 'lost' tracks have been resurrected by a new band.   T Ford & The SunKings are belatedly picking up where the Boneshakers left off.

It was bass guitarist Pete Manzini, from the Midlands classic rock band, The Fabulous Manzini Brothers, who had the idea to form the SunKings.

"We were getting pretty good, playing around 300 gigs a year," he remembers.   "And I recognised that what made people enjoy themselves was dancing.   At the end of the night, the Fabulous Manzini Brothers usually managed to get a few people up jigging around, and I started to miss it on the occasions when it didn't happen.

"After much discussion, I managed to introduce some rock'n'roll into the set - Great Balls of Fire, Roll Over Beethoven, Johnny B Goode, which I just about got away with in the context of classic rock because we rocked them up.   People knew the words and liked to sing along, and I thought it was great.   I pushed for more rock'n'roll, as we were starting to pick up bookings from other places - weddings, corporate functions, office parties etc, but the rest of the band didn't want to know.

Sunrise for the SunKings

Through the internet Pete found guitarist Tez Clark and drummer Ed Taylor, who said he knew a good singer....   It turned out to be the Boneshakers' original front man John T Ford.

Sunkings on stage

"John came along and did what he does - sang like a bird," recalls Pete.   "I didn't realise he'd retired almost twenty years previously; his voice really was that good.   He was way better than I could ever be, had a natural clarity on his singing and was a true tenor - which meant he could sing almost everything in the original key which helped a lot with learning tracks.

"I thought it would be interesting to take a bare bones approach to the tracks - guitar, bass, drums as a contrast to the wall of noise FMB had been making.   I'd been playing my beautiful handmade five string status bass, but a semi acoustic bass or a Fender precision was 'the look' we were after.   I bought a Fender Precision in traditional colours, but in an act of defiance I also had lights inset into the neck at the fret markers that shine out on stage.

"The sound was getting really good.   But Ed wasn't happy.   'We need a piano', he said. &nbps; So I found one.   Graham Toone came along and had enough ability to sit in without much rehearsal.   But it quickly became apparent that his heart wasn't in it.   He wanted to put a band together with his wife, so he's been helping us out on a time limited basis and we've been looking for a piano player since."

Pitstop Boogie Boys

Rockin' at the racetrack: Pitstop Boogie Boys

Ed says: "The Pitstop Boogie Boys started when I took my drum kit along for the traditional F1 truckies party in Estoril, Portugal.   A few guys around the paddock could play a bit of this and that, so we set up a jam session.   This party on the Wednesday night carried on to the main square in Cascais on Thursday, when over 3000 people turned up to see these idiots!

"The band consisted of Ed Taylor, Eddie Jordan, James Allen, Louise Goodman, Leo Sayer and many others who just got up and jammed.   One of the other truckies, playing blues harp, was a guy called Denny Baker.   His cousin was Ginger Baker! Our conga player was an American journalist called George Goad, who used to play percussion with Frank Zappa!

"We went on to Japan and Australia, where we played a lot of gigs, and had guys like Brian Johnson and Malcolm Young from AC/DC jamming with us in a pub in Adelaide, and we went on to play the Marlboro McLaren party after the race.   The big act on at that Grand Prix weekend was Paul Simon, who had just played to a million people in Central Park in New York.   Harvey Goldsmith was there, and introduced the Boogie Boys to the great man, and I cheekily asked him to join the band for the McLaren party.   He said yes, he would!

"But on the night he didn't show up, and the band went off to the next day to catch the flight home.   At the airport, though, one of the journalists said that Paul Simon HAD turned up, along with Mark Knopfler and Michael Hutchence from INXS, only to be refused entry to the party because they didn't have the correct tickets!

"The Pitstop Boogie Boys then sort of transformed into Eddie Jordan's Buzzin' Hornets, the V10 band with Damon Hill, and many other incarnations, but from the start on the back of a truck, to the Royal Albert Hall, it was an adventure to say the least."

With their line-up of battle-hardened musoes, the SunKings are looking forward to rocking the Midlands.

There's more info on the band at www.sunkings.co.uk.

From Accrington to America

The Lancashire six-piece went down a storm at the Continental Club in Austin and earned a standing ovation at the Legends of Western Swing festival in Wichita Falls.   They also caused a sensation playing live on local TV show Good Day San Antonio with Manchester's GI Jive dancers.

The band's Peter Reilly said: "We're indebted to GI Jive for starting the ball rolling on our tour of Texas.   They were at the Legends of Western Swing festival last year and suggested we send them a CD.   We finished recording Fiddlers On The Hoof in September, sent a copy over to Wichita Falls and were immediately offered a place on the bill.   The rest of the tour was organised by some jiving friends of ours, Andres and Babette, who live in San Antonio.

"Our intention was to go over once, have some fun and use the experience to improve our Western Swing playing, but we had such a good reception everywhere we played that it looks like we'll have to do the same again next year, but on a bigger scale.   The Continental want us for two days next time.   The 'Legends' festival have already asked us to appear again next year, and we even had enquiries about some dates in Las Vegas and Nashville.

Energetic

"We had the impression that people couldn't understand how we could come over from England and play all these songs by Bob Wills, Peewee King and the rest of them.   One compere, at the beginning of a show, was asking about the North of England, and if we have many ranches round our way!   Our energetic approach to playing took them by surprise as well, although I guess we'd take things easier if we were playing all our gigs in such hot weather!

"All in all, the Texan people have a reputation for friendliness, and they really took us to their hearts, and made us feel part of the Western Swing tradition.   We rode the same roads that Milton Brown and Bob Wills travelled, and played the same venues as Asleep At The Wheel and Hot Club of Cowtown.   It was a thrill to play Across The Alley From The Alamo in San Antonio, and Big Balls In Cowtown in Fort Worth.   We're now looking foward to bringing a bit of Texas to our shows in the UK."

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