Monday 21 March 2022

The Others - Local 60's R'n'B Legends Celebrate the Reformed Crawdaddy Club's Tenth Anniversary - Photos & Report by Paul Slattery

The Others by Paul Slattery - Pete Hammerton & Paul Stewart

Last week the Tenth anniversary of the reformed Crawdaddy Club at Richmond Athletic Ground was celebrated in true style by R&B maestros The Others, a fitting band for such a tribute. The band who originally formed at the local Hampton Grammar School back in 1963, played a fantastic two set gig of around thirty songs laced with legendary R&B standards such as "Route 66", "Oh Yeah", "Goin’ Down" and "Can’t Judge a Book" alongside Paul Stewart’s own superb compositions "I’m Taking Her Home", "What’s Wrong With Me?", "Redwood League" and "Rockman".  I love this place as it’s so friendly and has a real authentic vibe to it, after all The Stones, The Yardbirds, The Pretty Things, The Others, and The Downliners Sect all played here back in the Sixties. Sad to note the recent passing of The Downliners Sect Don Craine who was a lovely guy and a local legend. You can see our features on the Downliners Sect live at The 100 Club and recording a BBC Session at our archive here.  

The Others by Paul Slattery - Paul Stewart

The Others by Paul Slattery - Geoff Grange from The Blue Bishops

After the Crawdaddy Club closed down, forty years passed by until it was resurrected back at The Athletic Ground by fans Mike and Sylvie Rivers just over ten years ago. They’ve tried to recapture some of the atmosphere of those times and host monthly gigs with new and established top name acts, both veteran and current bands. Unfortunately, Mike’s been ill for a while and was unable to make it to the gig, but by the wonders of technology was able to give his congratulations to the assembled crowd during the interval, receiving a great round of applause. The second set saw the band ramp up the pace and the dance floor fill up with some amazing shapes thrown by an energetic and lively crowd. Pete Hammerton on guitar & vocals, Geoff Coxon on drums and Paul Stewart on guitar and lead vocals all go right back to the beginning of The Others in 1964. Paul saw the Stones play the original Crawdaddy back in ’63 and the Others played at the Club in ’64 so you can’t get much more of a West London pedigree than that! Paul’s a mean mouth harp player too. 

The Others by Paul Slattery

The Others by Paul Slattery - Geoff Coxon

Bassist Rob Tolchard is now based in Australia so Steve King from The Great West Groove stepped up superbly to fill in on bass and Tim Staffell who plays regularly with Paul added a superb third guitar and vocals. Tim also went to Hampton Grammar School where he met Brian May and became the lead singer in the pre-Queen trio Smile. Geoff Grange from the Blue Bishops made an appreciated guest appearance on vocals for a couple of songs, accompanied by some of his excellent mouth harp playing. The Stones traditionally finished their sets at the club with "Hey Crawdaddy" and in the spirit of the night so did the Others with a few local lyrics added for the occasion! This band may be veteran but they are steeped in blues and R&B and it really shows. What a great night! They got soul! You can read our feature on the story of The Others in the archive here and there’s also a good piece in Garage Hangover here

The Others by Paul Slattery - Steve King

The Others by Paul Slattery - Tim Staffell

Just to prove it's not all about nostalgia, Tim Staffel and Paul Stewart got together in 2019 to record "How High" which also features Steve King on bass and the Great West Groove’s drummer Paul White. Incidentally, The Great West Groove have now resumed their superb blues night at The Brewery Tap in Brentford on the third Wednesday of each month and Tim and Paul often drop by to play. This is always a great night – it feels like Louisiana even though you’re in the West Thames Delta! You can find our more information on The Great West Groove at their official Facebook page here.

A big thanks to Julia Lewis at The Crawdaddy for all her help - Paul Slattery, March 2022.

Please click on the highlighted links below for further information.

The Crawdaddy Club - Official web-site and Facebook page

Tim Staffell - Official web-site and Bandcamp site

The Great West Groove - Official Facebook page

Paul Slattery on Amazon 

The Others by Paul Slattery - Paul Stewart

All photos copyright Paul Slattery.

No comments:

Post a Comment