A Secret

known as Wild Willy Barrett and played music with John Otway.

Wild Willy Barrett

Wild Willy Barrett

A Secret

Willy Barrett’s dad was a brilliant man, a musician and a craftsman, he made an excellent bass guitar for either Willy or his friend. He wanted an amplifier for Willie’s electric guitar and the bass player friend said he had a 30 Watt Linear Concord amplifier for sale, for a small amount of money and I jumped in quickly before they made their mind up and bought it from this man. This is the one in my picture.

How ever I then agreed to sell my 15 Watt linear Concord amplifier that I had stolen from the Catholic Church, in North Watford to his dad for a little bit less money and they bought it of me. I was very pleased but felt a bit guilty because they got a rough deal and really they should have had the 30 Watt amplifier which was much better than mine. Little did they know I had stolen the amplifier.

Wild Willy Barrett and John Otway

My Vox AC 30 (Cost Second hand £60)

I had a new amplifier that was a Vox AC 3.0. and replaced the amplifier that I had stolen from the Catholic Church. One of our regular spots, on a Saturday night, was Courts Dance School, just off Kingsbury Square. Here is our music play set:

The Fowler Mean (Play Set) Click to view and listen

After leaving school we reformed the group and began to play music at various dance halls and I named the group “The Fowler Mean”.

We often played at Courts School of dancing in George Street in Aylesbury and other venues in Aylesbury. In Tring and the Bulls Head and the Anthony Hall in Aston Clinton. One of the other bands we played with was The Must Be Blue with the organist Pat Archer.

We would play all cover music by groups such as, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Small Faces, The Kinks, Otis Reading and John Lee Hooker. We played, “My Generation”, but I knew it was not quite right and I never did find out how to play the right cords to this day. The opening chords we played were four down strokes on G followed by four downward strokes on F but that is not right. I always thought if ever I met Pete I would ask him to show me how to play those opening chords. I really enjoyed playing with the band but was eventually sacked and it was then that Malcolm Kirkham and I began to knock around with each other.

Dave Clarke (left) with Robby Woods (top) Ian Myers

Our Favorite Band The Who

John Entwhistle, Pete Townsend, Keith Moon, Roger Daultary My favourite band was The Who. This group introduced something to

68 music that was new. It was volume. My Generation was the real hit that made the Who. I can remember hearing them, at the Grosvenor Dance Hall, in Aylesbury. Pete Townsend was the lead guitar, John Entwhistle on bass, Keith Moon on drums and Roger Daultary lead singer. There was not a band to touch them they were brilliant. We saw them on a number of occasions including places like Borehamwood and the Bedford Corn Exchange.

I remember their amplifier line up (being interest in amplifiers) Pet Townsend had:

Pete Townshend Amplifier line Up

Two A.C. 100 Amplifiers in Parallel

John Entwhistle Amplifier line up

4 X A.C. 60 watt Vox Bass Amplifiers and their PA system was Vox columns and Shure microphones. The volume added another dimension to the experience. I call it Rock