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

Back in the sixties, when the EBC was in its infancy (although still managing to consume a considerable amount of sherbet) the Swinging Blue Jeans set off on the first of what were to be many visits to Finland.

The tour was to last 3 weeks and had been set up by a promoter called Tapi and his partner (whose name escapes me) but we'll call him Tapoff. We arrived at Helsinki Airport to be met by the aforementioned (a gramatically correct word refering to Tapi and Tapofl gentlemen, who tended to stand out in the crowd simply because they were both over six feet tall and each weighed in at around twenty-five stone). Neither Tapi nor Tapoff spoke any english but, as we later found out, neither did 99% of the country. As luck would have it we had a Danish tour manager who spoke the local lingo, hence he had to be on standby 24 hours a day to translate every word.

We immediately took Tapi to our hearts as he was clutching a bottle of Bacardi and taking great gob-fulls while uttering the only english words he knew "Bacardi Baby, Lets Go!"

The tour extended from Helsinki in the south up to Kemijavi in the Artic Circle. Luckily it was summer so the cold wasn't a problem, but in the north it never went dark so it was difficult to sleep. Every morning at 9.00am sharp our chubby host would arrive at the hotel with the tour bus clutching his beloved bottle of Bacardi to his heart as if his hand was welded to the bottle and uttering those immortal words "Bacardi Baby, Lets Go!"

In the north west of Finland is a town called Oulu were the natives are quite wild. The reception at the show was quite amazing and a near riot erupted (no fault of ours) the consequence of which meant us being bundled out of the venue at the end of the gig and into a police van, but without our interpreter. The hotel had been a mere five minutes from the venue when we left it, but half an hour later we were still being driven around Oulu by a policeman who didn't speak english -and we couldn't remember the name of our hotel!! We tried all kinds of sign language to advise our copper pal we wanted to go to our hotel, but he simply grinned and put his foot down. We eventually pulled in to the police station,probably due to the vehicle running out of petrol. Mr Plodski went into the police station, leaving us securely locked in the van for another twenty minutes. Luckily Plod returned with a grin on his face saying "Hotel... Hotel!" as though he'd discovered the secret of eternal life. By the time we arrived at the hotel Tapi was so drunk he hadn't even missed us, and to cap it all THE BAR WAS CLOSED!!!

In those far off days there weren't any pubs in Finland, but via our Danish chum we found out you could drink in a nightclub, and there just happened to be such an establishment a few doors from our hotel. Irrespective as to the late hour, Thumper Braid and I decided to give the Oulu nightlife a whirl!

On arriving at this den of iniquity we were refused entry because we weren't wearing a jacket and
tie, or carrying any ID. This was explained to us by an elderly gentleman from the British Embassy who happened to be just leaving the joint "You'll need your passport as well" he added!

As true fully paid-up blue blooded EBC members we were hardly likely to let a small thing like a jacket and tie and a passport hinder our chances of getting our hard earned pint of nourishment. So it was back to the hotel where we found Tapoff wandering around reception, and as he and Tapi were the only people we knew in Finland with jackets and ties we had our Danish mate arrange a deal.

To gain the full picture, you must remember these guys were enormous, the prototypes of John Candy, consequently Thumper didn't look too bad from a height point of view and the bulk could've been rectified with the aid of a couple of cushions or a duvet....but what chance had Ennis got 5'6 and in those days 8st 6lbs soaking wet, and with a full intake load of 12 pints of liquid refreshment on board? As you can imagine, I was a sight to behold, I looked like the circus had arrived in town, all I needed was the red nose!

With passports firmly gripped in hand and our excessive and rather strange garb (I'd tucked the hem of the jacket into me socks to stop me tripping over) we returned to the club where the doorman was far more interested in our passports than our mode of dress, and once satisfied that we were over eighteen (over eighteen!!!) and quite oblivious as to quite how ridiculous we looked we were ushered inside. We drank our fill and even ventured onto the dance floor for a jitterbug or two (Thumper and I had to dance with each other as looking as we did we wouldn't have dared approach one of the many Finnish lovelies). Sadly there wasn't a camera on hand to record this momentous occasion, but it just goes to show what lengths a true stalwart of the EBC will go to preserve the image!

Never forget those immortal words "BACARDI BABY, LETS GO!"
P.S. Dave who? What's happened to my idol? It's gone very quiet on the Berry front, no sightings of Marti and Dave swanning it in the local Sheffield night spots. His library books are over-due, the milk's still on the step, and the whippet's in the kennels!

What can it be? Maybe it's a case of getting the old larynx back into shape (and the body) for his forthcoming concert tour and rumour has it he's started taking singing lessons from a certain T Crane (Vocal Coach)!

Main EBC Page