THE
ROUGH DIAMONDS
Warning
It'll be here that the pages really do start getting blacker than black!
I will guide you through the darkness and prepare you to meet some of the music under-world's most sinister looking gang members!
In this elite gathering they are known as 'The Rough Diamonds'.
Here, you will learn of their trade and how they have become good, decent law abiding men who have exchanged their Colts and Winchesters for ...... accordions, fiddles and something resembling a drum kit amongst other things.
Yes, I agree .... even practise of such instruments is a crime in itself.
But I beg you to give these former desperado's a chance to bring a little light into your life, if not these pages!
THE ROUGH DIAMONDS - read more
A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE BRIAN SMITH .....
BRIAN SMITH - A PERSONAL APPRECIATION
BY KEVIN (OR HOOKNOSE, AS HE CALLED
ME)
When Steve first invited me up to Whitby in 1993 to meet the band
that was to record "Been a Long Time Gone", and to have a run
through of a few songs at the home of Charles O'Connor, the fiddle player,
I was immediately welcomed by a gruff west Yorkshireman with a fine
sense of humour who laid down a lovely shuffle beat with nothing more than
a snare drum and a pair of brushes. Later, on asking Steve why Brian
didn't play the whole kit, he replied, "Have you heard him on a full
kit? Trust me!" Over the next 4 years Brian expanded his basic set-up
to include a pair of congas,a hi-hat, and a plank of wood, the piece
of pine becoming a feature of the band's live set. Brian's shuffle rhythmn
set the foundation for the group's feel, and we quickly
found that his style complemented Steve's awesome guitar playing
perfectly. Steve was right. Brian, sadly, liked a drop of beer too much
for his own good and, after 4 years, and many warnings, Steve had to
"retire" him, at a gig in Lincoln.
A large part of Brian's character was his astounding collection of
witticisms, most of which live on in the band to this day, and can be used
on any occasion that warrants a leavening of the situation. "I've got
'ands like a midwife", "me 'ands never left me wrists",
"like a startled gazelle", and his most memorable, "Be
honest" are, with dozens of others, repeated ad nauseum by all
of us. I remember particularly, on coming off the stage at the Trowbridge
Village Pump Festival (pictures of which are elsewhere on the site), and
being applauded by a couple of thousand people, Brian saying, pithily I
thought, "Got away with the fucker again".
Brian's groundwork lives on too in Jack, our drummer today, who lays down
the beat with a pair of brushes, although he draws the line at the plank
of wood!
Brian suffered a stroke last year, sadly, from which he never really
recovered, but we like to remember him when he was fit, and cuttingly
funny. In his own words, "There'll never be another".