EXCLUSIVE  INTERVIEW with BRIAN 'Licorice' LOCKING  

It is common knowledge that bass-player Brian ‘Licorice’ Locking [22 December 1938 - 8 October 2020] was a member of Vince Taylor’s Playboys, Marty Wilde’s Wildcats, The Krew Kats and Tommy Steele’s band and, of course, The Shadows. It is, however, a well-kept secret that he also backed Adam Faith on a few occasions shortly before joining The Shadows in April 1962. Some questions remain to be solved, though. The first is: which gigs did he do exactly? The second: was he in Faith’s backing-group The Roulettes? If so, which line-up ? Or was he part of an ad hoc backing-band?

Some data

Let us consider some facts and figures first.
By the end of January 1962, bass-player Brian ‘Licorice’ Locking is out of a job.
Between 4th In February and 4th March 1962, Adam Faith & The Roulettes tour Ireland and England, adding a one-off at the Empire Pool in Wembley, London, on 25th March, when the group was disbanded (Peter Thorp, Martin Blackwell and Jeff Morley).
Jet Harris quits The Shadows after the NME Concert of 15th April. He is replaced  by Brian Locking, whose first gig with them is on 22nd April.
Locking’s performances as a Roulette must, therefore, fit the time-slot March 25th – April 22nd.   

Blackwell in or out?

Roulettes lead-guitarist Peter Thorp claimed that bass-player Martin Blackwell left The Roulettes at some point during the Anglo-Irish tour and was replaced by Brian ‘Licorice’ Locking for a handful of engagements. Thorp clearly remembers Locking wearing the typical Roulettes stage outfit: a grey ‘Tonik’ suit. But: Martin Blackwell himself is adamant he did each and every gig up, including the one-off at Wembley, showing the diary he meticuklously kept at the time as evidence. 

A bit of a puzzle. When I heard that Brian Locking was to appear at a convention in Paris, some 250 miles south from where I am, I thought ‘Why not ask the man himself?’. After some arrangements (thank you, Ricky Norton), I was fortunate to meet up with a friendly and most helpful Brian Locking at his Paris hotel lobby on Saturday 1st February 2020. My questions were simple: 1) Did he play bass in The Roulettes? 2) If so, did he replace Martin Blackwell during the tour which ended on 25th March? 3) Or did he play with The Roulettes after 25th March and before his first public performance with The Shads on  22nd April?  4) Or?

EXCLUSIVE NTERVIEW

Brian ‘Licorice’ Locking
‘I remember doing a couple of things with Adam Faith and I thought it was with The Roulettes. Yeah, I’m sure it was with his band. It must have been his band. I did two little things with Faith and one was a skiffle thing at the London Palladium in aid of something [on 20th April - EB]. We didn’t do any of the hits, as Faith wanted mainly to do skiffle and things like that you know, like in the old days. I can’t remember how he got hold of me for The Roulettes, maybe through one of his band members. I don’t know, but he knew me and I knew him from his skiffle days at the 2Is club in London. He was there in his original band The Worried Men and I was playing there too with my band, The Vagabonds.’   

Q:
It is said that Adam Faith was unhappy with bass-player Martin Blackwell and looked for a replacement. Blackwell is not aware of this, nor does he recall you. Do you remember him?

Brian Locking
‘Martin Blackwell… [hesitatingly] I know the name. I wish I could remember, but I don’t want to invent stores, I like to be accurate’.

Q:  
Lead-guitarist Peter Thorp remembers you very well. He can still picture you in the grey ‘Tonik’ suit The Roulettes wore on stage.  

Brian Locking 
‘A Tonik suit? Maybe. I vaguely remember the guitar-player, a tall sort of chap. A very nice man and he was very interested in the early skiffle days. Maybe there were a couple more gigs, but I can’t think of anything and I don’t want to invent stories. There’s a lot of history that’s got upside down you know. People claim this, people claim that, and they weren’t there at all!’ 

NO QUESTION OF JOINING 

Q:
Are you sure Adam Faith wasn’t testing you? Adam Faith was sometimes backed by different people.

Brian Locking
‘At any rate, there was no question of joining. It was just a couple of gigs, not a series, that’s all it was. Faith said ‘Would you do this, bla bla bla?’. The thing is, he knew I was in the skiffle era, down at the 2Is coffee bar you see and he said he wanted a skiffle band and do something of that era. I said ‘Yeah, I’ll do it’, Lonnie Donegan and all that [imitates skiffle bass]. He was a big name at the time, Adam Faith. He wanted to do something like that with a guy like me, who was there right from the start down at the 2Is. I can’t remember the circumstances, but I’m sure it was with his band’.

And that leaves the question: when did these ‘couple of things’ actually take  place? I show Locking the gig list of the Anglo-Irish tour (Feb.-March 1962), courtesy of Peter Thorp’s notes and Martin Blackwell’s diary. His reply is immediate and straightforward.

Brian Locking
‘I don’t remember any of these. I did not tour on all these dates. It was March-April when I received a call to audition for The Shadows, so we can rule out all the other dates you see. After Marty Wilde’s Wildcats I was in The Krew Katz for a short while and that sort of fizzled out [their second and last single came out in July ‘61 - Ed.). We disbanded and Brian Bennett and me joined Tommy Steele. We were just beginning a tour with Steele when Brian Bennett left to replace Tony Meehan in The Shadows [drummer Tony Meehan left on 6th October and was replaced by Bennett within days - Ed.]. I carried on with Tommy, doing a season you know, and then it all finished in January 1962. I remember we finished in Liverpool and I thought ‘Where do I go now?’. I was hardly doing a thing, so maybe that’s why I did a couple of things with Adam Faith while I was free. I joined The Shadows in April, so maybe these things with Adam Faith was in that little break’.

HIM OR ME: JOHN ROGERS 

Brian Locking
‘It was a very critical time in my musical career. I had been with Eddie Cochran, Vince Taylor, Marty Wilde, Gene Vincent, Tommy Steele. We were touring all the time and were topping the bill wherever we went. I remember specifically I was really doing nothing. I was living in South London and I was thinking of packing the business in ‘cause I was doing nothing. Then I got a phone call from Brian Bennett and he says ‘Jet Harris is leaving The Shadows, would you be interested in having an audition?’. It was around that time that John Rogers of The Hunters was working with Tony Meehan [the drummer who had left The Shadows in October 1961 – ed.]. They were doing some recordings and Rogers was also a candidate to replace Jet Harris in The Shadows. John Rogers was young, looked like Jet Harris, had blondish hair and he was a good player. Nice guy, nice player. I remember going to this recording session where Tony Meehan was and I say ‘I’m going for the audition, and I don’t know whether I’ll get it or not, but I’ll let you know how I got on’. I said to Rogers:  ‘Unfortunately, I’m gonna take it, John’, and he wished me all the best. So John Rogers was in line. I want to be accurate. John Rogers was a lovely guy, a lovely man, and a good player; really, I think should he have got The Shadows job. He looked like Jet Harris, he would have done perfect, but I didn’t let him in, because I said I would do it, see’.

Q:
You were aware that John Rogers was a contender too?

Brian Locking
‘Definitely.’  

Q:
But you got first choice? 

Brian Locking
No, first refusal. I didn’t expect to get it, really. I went for the audition and it was in Brian Bennett’s home where he lived - and Hank and Bruce were there. We went through some numbers, I think I played ‘Apache’ rather badly you know. I think maybe I got the job was because I was back with Brian. We were a team. [Between 1958 and  1961, drummer Brian Bennett and bassist Brian Locking played together in Vince Taylor’s Playboys, Marty Wilde’s Wildcats, The Krew Kats and Tommy Steele’s band- EB]

Q:  
A team: you and Brian formed a rhythm section.

Brian Locking
‘Yeah, a rhythm section, we could drive, you know what I mean. I don’t know, but anyway I got the job.’

 

CHRONOLOGY:  A Conclusion

As The Roulettes’ Anglo-Irish tour ended on 25th March and Brian Locking played his first Shadows gig at the Queen’s Theatre in Blackpool on 22nd April, TWO Adam Faith & The Roulettes gigs fit the time slot ‘after 25th March / before 22nd April’: the NME Poll-winners’ All-Star Concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley on Sunday 15th April and an appearance at the London Palladium on Friday 20th April. These then must be ‘the couple of gigs’ Locking refers to.

© Eddy Bonte (redactie 08MAY2021)

1961Autumn
Start of Tommy Steele tour with  Brian Bennett (drums) and Brian Locking (bass) in backing-band. October: Brian Bennett leaves to replace Tony Meehan in The Shads, Locking continues with Steele

1962 
January
Tommy Steele tour with Brian Locking ends in Liverpool. Locking out of a job

Feb 04 – March 04
Anglo-Irish tour of Faith & The Roulettes as a trio (Peter Thorp, lead-guitar; Jeff Morley, drums; Martin Blackwell, bass).

March, 25
Faith & Roulettes: one-off, Empire Pool, Wembley. Group disbanded. Bassist Blackwell  quits pop music.

April
Saxophonist Alan Jones joins

April 15, Sun.
Cliff and Shadows, NME Poll-winners’ Concert, Wembley: Jet Harris’ last gig with The Shads.
John Rogers and Brian Locking potential replacements.   

April 15, Sun.
Adam Faith & Roulettes, NME Poll-winners’ Concert, Wembley. 
Roulettes: Peter Thorp, Jeff Morley, Alan Jones (sax), Brian Locking (bass)

April 20 Fri.
Adam Faith & Roulettes, London Palladium. 
Roulettes: Peter Thorp, Jeff Morley, Alan Jones (sax), Brian Locking (bass)

April 21 Sat.
Adam Faith & Roulettes, Manchester Odeon. 
Roulettes: Peter Thorp, Jeff Morley, Alan  Jones, John Rogers (bass) OR Brian Locking (bass).

April 22 Sun.
Adam Faith & Roulettes,  Liverpool Empire.
Roulettes: Peter Thorp, Jeff Morley, Alan Jones, John Rogers

April 22 Sun.
The Shadows, Queen’s Theatre,  Blackpool.
Brian Locking’s first appearance  with  The Shadows (2 shows)

May, 12 onwards
Tour and variety.
Rulettes: Peter Thorp, Alan Jones, John Rogers, Bob Henrit (drums).

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