The
E.B.C. Archives -
Original articles written by Ray Ennis
and first published in The Beat Goes On magazine
For over six
years, Ray Ennis of The Swinging Blue Jeans enthralled sixties music fans with
his monthly article published in The Beat Goes On magazine about the antics
of the legendary Elbow Bending Club. Now, with Ray's permission, we are re-running
these articles on the web.
What is the Elbow Bending Club? Well, no-one really knows except for the members
themselves - and membership is restricted to 60s performers and other carefully
selected people from within the business!
You can guarantee not missing each new edition by completing the box
on the
main Swinging Blue Jeans page
THE E.B.C. BEHIND BARS
or
Give My Regards To Broadmoor
The Swinging Blue Jeans are acknowledged as being the front-runners and
backbone of the EBC (Elbow Bending Club), and many happy hours have been spent
leaning on bars throughout Great Britain, Europe and Scandanavia. During one
sultry afternoon of elbow bending, whilst leaning on the bar of the Dog &
Trumpet, it suddenly dawned on me that although we had spent many pleasant
hours leaning on bars, we had also spent a fair amount of time beind bars!
What I mean is, that the Swinging Blue Jeans have entertained inmates at
prisons both here in the UK and overseas.
· The Swinging Blue Jeans first experience behind bars was at Rarnpton Hospital,
a prison for the criminally insane (it's amazing how many agents and managers
we recognised whilst in there)!
The show was organised by the resident vicar who had structured it on the old
variety show set-up of a girl singer, a duo, a male singer and The Swinging
Blue Jeans.
Sadly there was no liquid refreshment (well not the sort we're used to), but
the hospitality was second to none. We arrived at midday and after going
through various checks were escorted in to the establishment, and promptly
lock-in!
Rampton has both male and female inmates who are not normally allowed to mix.
Even at show-time it was a case of men to the left, ladies to the right, with
officers strategically placed to avoid trouble. Mind you, the vicar did
divulge a small secret, inthat his Sunday services had been poorly attended -
until they allowed mixed congregations!
The show produced some rather unexpected happenings, like when the girl singer
who halfway through her act suddenly whipped off her skirt to reveal a pair of
fishnet tights and a body-stocking. The amazing up-surge in attention to the
show by the sex offenders on the front row was startling, it took the officers
some time to calm things down. Then the male singer, who obviously didn't
realise where he was, opened his act with 'Release Me' which went down like a
lead zeppelin. When the Swinging Blue Jeans arrived on stage it was probably
the only time in our career that the audience was more famous than the band!
The Jeans also went behind bars at two totally different prisons in Denmark.
The first prison was at Ringe on the island of Funen. It was a young offenders
prison which included murderers. Due to the gig being in Denmark, the contract
rider was honoured (thank God!) and we had a quantity of beer supplied in the
dressing room.
The venue for the performance at Ringe was in the prison gym. The dressing room
was at one end, the stage at the other, and to get to the stage we had to walk
through the audience, which is where on this occasion the beer came in handy,
maybe it was a simple case of Dutch (or Danish) courage, more than likely a
case of sheer terror. We must have played a three hour set, Phil 'The Matron'
even did his tap dancing routine (without a net). It wasn't that the inmates
liked the music, they just didn't want to go back to their cells. When you're
confronted with such a motley crew, if they say it's Saturday, it's Saturday!
The second Danish prison was mainly for drug offenders, quite a few of whom
were British. As it was sunmer, the event was staged outside in the quadrangle
at the centre of the prison. Again the rider was honoured and a crate
Carlsberg was secreted in Roger the roadie's truck at the side of the stage.
The governor (of the prison, not Dave Berry) wanted the show to go on for as
long as possible, so we agreed to do two spots. Middway through our first spot
we noticed how all the inmates were smoking, and seeing as how the breeze was
wafting towards the stage we soon realised exactly what they were smoking!
After the first spot, we retired to the van for a quick beer, then the inmates
started chanting "We know what you're doing!" , so when we returned on stage I
returned their chant "We know what you're smoking" !
Actually, I don't think we really needed the beer (excellent though it was),
as just breathing in the air must have made us as high as kites. In fact I
know we were, because when we got back to the staff-room, which just happened
to have a piano, Les 'Thumper' Braid played a rag-time selection for over
fifteen minutes before realising the lid was down!
P.S. As an early Christmas present, the family paid for me to join the Dave
Berry International Fan Club. I've received my membership card and was
pleased to note that my membership number is 6, my lucky number. Dave
is obviously No-1 and his lovely lady wife Marti is No-2, now I can't
wait for the annual beano and meet the other three!
It seems my membership application was accepted just in time as blow
me if I haven't won a weekend with my idol and the lovely Marti. I'll
tell you all about it as soon as I get over the thrill!
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