Len Ford

Lead, Rhythm, Bass Guitar & Vocals 1957 to Sep 29th 1963 (founder member)

Looking back through the first memories of my youth, the most vivid are those of places visited, people I met and presents received. For me at 12 years old 1956, I got a guitar for Christmas, it cost my mum and dad the princely sum of £7.00. (I got £4 a week when I first started work in1959 aged15). At the time this was my best present ever, so after a lot of effort and pain in the fingers, (which all budding guitarists know about), it brought about my greatest gift of all – the ability to play music and ultimately what this profile is about; I joined a group of like minded musos called – The Hi-Fi’s

The original groups name was “The Hi-Fi’s Rock and Roll Band” line up; Ian Duncombe (lead guitar); Malcolm Wright (drums); Len Ford (rhythm guitar/bass); Brian Bennett (piano); Allan Stainer (rhythm guitar/bass); Roger Newell (vocals/rhythm guitar).

I was born 11th March 1944 in Croydon and lived in Upper Norwood, but my parents told me I was conceived in Liverpool. Dad was a Scouser and met mum in Croydon whilst serving in the army at the beginning of the war. They were both very good ballroom dancers, mum also played the piano, but only from music, I was the busking type and wished I had learnt to sight read. I had an older brother Allan by 5 years and Stan who is 2 years younger than me.

First school was Beulah Road Junior, where I met Malcolm Wright, (The Hi-Fi’s drummer) at that time we had no musical interests, but became lifelong buddies. Both of us failed the 11 plus and ended up at Ingram Road Secondary, where we later on connected with Ian (Jim) Duncombe (founding member of the Hi-Fi’s), who was also at Beulah Road.

Guitar Lessons

Around 1956/7, Ian and Malcolm started playing skiffle at school with Keith Bennett (no relation to Hi-Fi Brian Bennett). He played guitar and sang, it fizzled out when Keith left to further education, and was never seen or heard of again. I got involved with a Terry Waggart (his dad played double bass in a jazz band), so he was the tea chest chappie, classmate Eddie Edwards also had a guitar like me and we thrashed out (without chords, what were they) along with Lonnie Donegan’s record “Rock Island Line”, like many other lads did in their front rooms all over the UK. It sounded great to us, but I remember my dad howling like a dog, trying to tell us something.

This had to change, so I went around to Ian Duncombe’s house and got me some lessons, he showed me some chords and solos and I gawped. Being a streetwise lad I progressed quickly, with his help and Bert Weedon’s “Play in a Day” book, every lad with a guitar must have owned a copy. So it came to pass, Ian and Malcolm asked me to join The Hi-Fi’s Rock and Roll Band. Cor blimey talk about being in the right place at the right time. Our earliest gigs were local cinemas on Sundays about 7 pm between films.

The Park Lane Ballroom

Luckily we passed an audition to play a regular gig in The Park Lane Ballroom, owned and run by Ed Waller and his wife. This had us playing 2 or 3 nights a week there as the main act, for 2 or 3 years. We got supported by local Croydon bands; Martin Jae & The Hi-Five; Johnny Del & The Deltones; The Strangers; come to mind. Ed also hired the passenger boat, MV Royal Daffodil for a rock-n-roll cruise which was headlined by The Johnny Dankworth Big Band and some other big names.

We managed to slot in other gigs around these and got involved with dance hall promoters Ron King and his brother Fred, they held dances mainly in North London, but had weekly gigs at the Putney Ballroom and Ebbisham Hall in Epsom. We ended up on a continuous rotation of the dance halls run by Ron and Fred, (check out the gig list).Ron King became our manager later on.

The Hi-Fi's Look

Roger Newell’s mum was handy with a sewing machine, it could have been her idea for the band to wear uniforms, anyway it certainly made people aware of us, as we always had black trews, jackets of bright pink with black velvet lapels and pocket tops. The new replacements were bright orange with purple velvet lapels and then we tried lime green ones, urgh! They didn’t last. The local paper even noted it in an article about the group, appearing at the Park Lane Ballroom for another season.

Ian Duncombe Leaves The Band

Sadly around late 1958 Ian Duncombe decided to leave the band, detailed within his profile. So by default I got to be the new lead guitarist. This entailed me frantically trying to learn enough solos etc for the 1 hour set at the Old Greyhound Hotel. I think it was for Sainsbury’s staff dance. Well I did manage to carry it off without too many bum notes, but had another kind of tragedy – a few Dutch courage drinks helped me get through it and halfway through the set, you guessed it, a warm liquid ran down my leg and across the stage, this was caught on camera as you can see Alan Stainer (bass) and me having a laugh during the song.

Posters around Croydon advertised a new season of Saturday night dances at the Park Lane Ballroom, beginning in July with "Pop music's Brightest band" - The Hi-Fi's. With over 30 appearances at Park Lane, the group had built up a solid reputation as Croydon's best rock 'n' roll band, but the 'bright' tag probably came from their penchant for wearing tangerine and purple jackets on stage. The group comprised guitarist Len 'Sandstorm' Ford, Al Stainer on bass, pianist Brian Bennett, Mel Wright on drums and 19 year old vocalist Vern Rogers. The Croydon Advertiser noted that the dancers applauded the group for the quality of their dance music

The Croyden Advertiser

Roger Becomes Vern & Goes Solo

The other change that happened when Ian left, Roger Newell decided to adopt a stage name and we became Vern Rogers & The Hi-Fi’s. We worked steadily through 1959/1960/1961/1962. Then in April 1963 Vern Rogers went solo. This came about because we had auditioned for a recording contract for Oriole Records (we had already tried a few without success, even EMI Records at Abbey Road Studios).Their A&R manager John Schroeder decided that he did not want anymore groups, but liked Vern Rogers and offered him a contract.

As a group we had recently turned professional (early 1963), Vern Rogers did not want to do the same, as he had a very good daytime job and wanted to keep it if things went wrong. So we left him to it and became Brian Bennett & The Hi-Fi’s. Brian had written some songs and Ron King our agent (who had joined forces with Barry Clayman Entertainments/Don Arden), became our manager when we went pro. He arranged for a recording session at IBC Studios in Portland Place, London. The engineer/producer assigned to us was Glynn Johns who later became legendary.

This recording session, April 1963 resulted in “Take Me or Leave Me/I’m Struck” being released on the Pye-Picadilly label 18th June 1963. Unfortunately for us it was released the same month as “Sweets for Sweet” by The Searchers.

Roger Becomes Vern & Goes Solo

The Artistes We Backed

Artistes we backed were – Grazina Frame-Billy Boyle-Duffy Power-Don Spencer-Bick Ford-The Four Seasons. The tour was headlined by:-John Leyton-Mike Sarne-Mike Berry-Jet Harris and Tony Meehan and Billie Davis. In mid June 1963 we backed Billie on 3 gigs in Scotland and a few other venues. Then in mid July 1963 we did a 10 day tour of Sweden as John Leyton’s backing band, John’s then manager Robert Stigwood also toured with us on the last part of the tour.

These gigs all came through the Robert Stigwood Organisation (later to become legendary as a record label RSO Records and manager to the Bee Gees and Eric Clapton plus others. They were also responsible for the show Hair, Saturday Night Fever, Grease and many more) obviously we were held in high regard and further tours were being planned involving The Hi-Fi’s, sad to say that I threw a large spanner into the works, due to the fact that on the 29th September 1963, I collapsed on stage at the prestigious Pigalle Club, Piccadilly London.

The Pigalle Club

The Pigalle Club was my last gig with The Hi-Fi’s. I collapsed on stage during the gig. Diagnosed with a Plural Effusion (a wet pleurisy of the left lung which had a germ like TB) I subsequently spent 6 months in the Hermitage Cottage Hospital, Upper Norwood. Malcolm Wright and Brian Bennett visited to confirm the inevitable, that I would not be returning to the band. Where-on I was told that they had found a replacement lead guitarist; he went by the name of Duane Eddy.

As luck would have it, his group The Rebels could not come to the UK, due to musician union exchange rules, and so Duane needed a backing band, The Hi-Fi’s got the gig. Liquorice Locking the Shadows & Marty Wilde’s ex bass guitarist, also visited me, as it turned out to try and convert me to a Jehovah’s Witness, after he was informed that it was the wrong time and place, he was never seen again.

It took a further 6 months convalescing at home before I was declared fit and recommended not to follow the musicians lifestyle and so joined the everyday work place. The Hi-Fi’s regrouped and in early November 1963 were engaged to back Duane Eddy on the tour with Little Richard. So you could say that Duane Eddy replaced Len Ford as lead guitarist in The Hi-Fi’s.

Unwritten & Yet To Come

Part 2 of my story, still unwritten will detail my time with;-

Oban FM Radio
The Blacksmiths
The Chess Set
Pye Records
My retail record shops
Moving to Scotland and the Scottish groups;
Take Three
The Misfits.
Flyin’ Visit
Caledonia Express
The Sundowners
Take A Break
and playing solo gigs.

HI-Fi's Gigs memories

Len's memories of gigs & events

From the many gigs had with The Hi-Fi’s, I have listed some of them with the stories that made them memorable. Including other happenings.

1957

Aged 13. A vivid memory I have at a rehearsal, involved an amplifier that Ian Duncombe had made, he was like that, very handy, he had to make his own guitar because he was a left hander, electric guitars were rare, expensive and getting hold of a lefty was unheard of back then. Anyhow the amp blew up and filled the room with thousands of waxy snow-like flakes and a bad smell-rehearsal cancelled!

The first gig I remember was at London University near Kings Cross station. Crammed onto a small stage Ian Duncombe accidently hit me on the forehead with his guitars machine heads, I had a very spotty face at the time and blood was all over the place, luckily a plaster sorted it.

Remembering one of the early gigs at Roger Newell’s sisters school in Wallington, a young Jeff Beck gazed at us all night, he had started learning to play the guitar and was fascinated with the home made, left handed guitar of Ian Duncombe’s and the Cliff Gallup styled solos of Ian’s, Jeff we found out later, was also a Gene Vincent fan as he still is today.

Ian and I used to get together a lot, in his front room learning Gene Vincent songs amongst others, Cliff Gallup ruled as far as we were concerned. We perfected a slow song, “Up a Lazy River” and persuaded singer Roger Newell to learn it also and then performed it at The Putney Ballroom (St Margaret’s Church Hall). Well that was a big mistake as the crowd started throwing money at us, they did not like it, but Ian saw it through to the end. When we finished he picked up all the monies and it paid for fish-n-chips on the way home, oh happy days!

1959

1960

1961 -1962

1961-October - Len Ford (lead guitar) and Alan Reynolds (bass) toured 4 TV stations backing Jackie Atom (aka Trevor Peacock songwriter/actor) and Jack Good (producer of Oh Boy TV show). One of these was “Thank Your Lucky Stars” introduced by Brian Mathew. The record being promoted was "Hot Hiss Of Steam" (is mentioned on Jack Good's Wikipedia page, without label details). The single was on Decca F 11387, issued 8th September 1961, as by Big Jim Sullivan Combo, with Jim on vocal as the A-side, "You Don't Know What You've Got (Until You Lose It)", and Jackie Atom on the B-side, "Hot Hiss Of Steam". I remember gaining some Chet Atkins licks from Jim as we jammed off stage, he also had some good stuff he’d picked up from Eddie Cochrane, it is a great memory for me, funny thing is I don’t remember getting paid, ce’st la vie.

1961/2. The Hi-Fi’s made 24 plus appearances in Bletchley (I think it was The Blair Hall). This was an excellent venue and always well attended and it was here that we were engaged as the backing band for some famous artists, such as; Mike & Bernie Winters; Ronnie Carroll; Ricky Valance; Rolf Harris, as well as Vern Rogers;

1962-17th June - The Hi-Fi’s were booked to appear on the MV Royal Daffodil. This went from Gravesend to Calais in France. The Hi-Fi’s were mainly engaged to back Gene Vincent on the journey out, the boat would then collect Sounds Incorporated at Calais on return from a European tour, where-on they backed Gene Vincent on the return journey. Prior to this gig we had rehearsals with Gene, held at The Granada Cinema at the Kennington Oval. Other attendees for this were Don Arden, Barry Clayman and Ron King, Gene Vincent’s sole UK manager and agent etc. The time spent in 1957, learning those Cliff Gallop guitar solos with Ian Duncombe, certainly paid dividends. This to the band was a great honour and a never to be forgotten gig. This picture shows Gene with Sounds Incorporated’s lead guitarist John St-John performing on the return trip from Calais, the man sitting at the rear of the picture, with sunglasses on wearing a dark blue suit is Brian Bennett The Hi-Fi’s pianist, and headless behind him is Len Ford, oh well ce’st la vie. We cannot find any other pictures of the whole event.

1962-17th October - Vern Rogers & The Hi-Fi’s auditioned for the BBC for appearances on BBC TV, sadly we were not offered any gigs. Around the same period, auditions for Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks took place, this also resulted in rejection, a familiar situation most musicians have encountered.

1962/3-31st December/1st January - The Hi-Fi’s, with Vern Rogers made an appearance promoting the releases of their single “Be Everything To Anyone” on Oriole Records, on Five to Six Special, BBC TV show (I think that was the title) out of the Bristol studios. This took place over 2 days New Years Eve and New Years Day. It was a particularly bad winter, vivid is the memory of the journey from Croydon to Bristol, taking something like 6 hours using shovels and a lot of help with pushing up snowy hills, but we made it just, a case of the show must go on. Top of the bill for this show was The Bachelors.

1963

1963-12th January - A prestige gig, on the Isle of Wight at the aptly named Ventnor Winter Gardens. Departure of the ferry from Southampton was delayed, as the sea had a thick layer of ice from the bad winter weather, which had to be broken up before the ferry could dock. This should have prepared us for the fact that hardly anybody turned up. We only got paid expenses and had to spend a night in a cold B&B in Ryde.

1963-27th April-18th May - The Hi-Fi’s the day before had parted company from they’re long time vocalist Vern Rogers. Due to the fact that he was semi-pro and we had gone professional ages ago he could not commit the time to the Robert Stigwood’s “1963 All Star Tour”. We had at the last minute been engaged to provide the backing for some of the artists on the bill. Initially the Innocents, (Mike Berry’s backing band) had been booked, but as they were backing all the headline acts, it proved too much for them. We had the pleasure of providing instrumental and vocal backing for; Billy Boyle; Grazina Frame; Bick Ford; Don Spencer; Duffy Power and also the other last minute act added to the tour, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. Near the end of the tour we all ended up being invited to a night club in West Derby, a great night I think, trouble was I got completely legless (in the back of the coach where I threw up), drinking a whole bottle of Johnnie Walker whisky with the Four Seasons, the main culprit being Bob Gaudio.

1963-7th June - The Hi-Fi’s appeared at The Floral Hall, Morcombe, supporting Freddie & The Dreamers. Well you may recall a detail from the Cliff Richard & The Drifters gig in 1958. We liked to perform a version of the headline acts hit, which turned out not to be a popular thing, as when we returned to our dressing room, our spare suits all had the pockets ripped off, we never did that again after that and of course they denied all knowledge of it.

1963-5th to 14th July - Because of the Hi-Fi’s account of themselves on the “All Stars 63 Tour” John Leyton’s manager at that time, Robert Stigwood engaged them to accompany John Leyton on a 10 day tour in Sweden.

This was a hard tour as it covered 21 venues, which involved 2 venues per night and a TV show in Stockholm. Most of the gigs, if not all were performed in the open air. Sweden had a large amount of parks with bandstands or auditorium type venues. This was possible due to the fact that the summer days are very long and it hardly gets dark. We started each show covering The Beatles songs, “Please, Please me” and “From Me To You”. This went down well with the crowds as I’m sure some of them thought we were The Beatles (if only).

1963-27th September - An unforgettable night as far as Len Ford was concerned, as it must have been for the other lads. This was the 8th and last appearance at The Pigalle Club Restaurant, where we had previously backed Rolf Harris. The Hi-Fi’s covered Rolf’s “Tie me Kangaroo Down” and were masters at the art of wobble board playing.

The Pigalle Club was Len Fords' last gig with The Hi-Fi's. He collapsed on stage during the gig. Diagnosed with a Plural Effusion (a wet pleurisy of the left lung which had a germ like TB)

He subsequently spent 6 months in the Hermitage Cottage Hospital, Upper Norwood. The Hi-Fi’s, Malcolm Wright and Brian Bennett visited to confirm the inevitable, that he could not return to the band. Where-on they told him that they had found a replacement lead guitarist; he went by the name of Duane Eddy. As luck would have it, his group The Rebels could not come to the UK, due to musician union exchange rules, and so Duane needed a backing band, The Hi-Fi’s got the gig. Liquorice Locking the Shadows & Marty Wilde's bass guitarist, also visited Len, as it turned out to try and convert him to become a Jehovah’s Witness, after he was informed that it was the wrong time and place, he was never seen again.

It took a further 6 months convalescing at home before Len was declared fit and recommended not to follow the musicians lifestyle and so joined the everyday work place.

The Hi-Fi's regrouped and in early November 1963 were engaged to back Duane Eddy on the tour with Little Richard. So you could say that Duane Eddy replaced Len Ford as lead guitarist in The Hi-Fi's.

Len Ford did return to a work environment, he took up a position as a receptionist/tester with Frank Watson BMC franchise garage in Thornton Heath in late 1964.