Personnel on Marvin, Welch & Farrar BBC radio sessions

[iefje]

I just came across the Wikipedia page about Marvin, Welch & Farrar and was surprised to learn that Geoff Atherton was mentioned in the line-up for the BBC radio sessions. I always thought it was Dave Richmond on bass guitar. Does anyone know if the information on Wikipedia is correct?

[George Geddes]

As far as I know, Geoff Atherton only appeared on one tv show with the Shadows, in the 80s.

That list of session musician omits Mo Foster who played on club dates, and doesn't mention that Trevor Spencer and Alan Tarney played 'live' with both MWF and Marvin and Farrar.

George

[Iain Purdon]

I don’t know. The thing to bear in mind that only the principals “were” the group. Additional musicians would be booked for the occasion, paid a session fee and that would be the end of it. There’s no reason necessarily to know who they were. We don’t know who Norrie Paramor booked for orchestral bits either. The Norrie Paramor Strings would have been whoever he knew who was available that day to come and play from the dots he had prepared.
Wikipedia should never be treated as true. The whole “wiki” idea is that anybody can write what they like there!

[iefje]

I find the names of all the individual musicians who are part of an orchestra less interesting to know about (no offense to any one of them of course), but I do like to know about musicians who have contributed to recordings like those of Marvin, Welch & Farrar, whether they are officially part of the group or session musicians. I just like those details.

[Iain Purdon]

George Martin’s book Making Music: The Guide to Writing, Performing & Recording is a very interesting read. Amongst many other things, it goes into contributions to recordings and when credits are given. That’s not to say that other players must not be identified but there’s no requirement to do so. If you happen to know, that’s great.

[StuartD]

Hi

They used a few players on stage with both MWF and M &F. The first were drummer Craig Collinge and Bass Player Jamie Byrne. I had been to Abbey Road to see them recording Second Opinion. They had toured with Cliff as a trio. They asked my and my friend if we thought they should use a Bass Player and Drummer for a week at Batley Variety Club. We both said, being from the area and knowing the club, that they should and they did. They used those two. Later Alan Tarney over on Bass and Trevor Spencer joined on Drums and that was the line up for most of the MWF live shows. For a week at Stockton Fiesta Club, that was the week they had the cover pics taken for Second Opinion, Lem Lubin was on Bass. When Bruce walked out, at Batley, they carried on the gigs they had booked with Alan and Trevor. Later, when M &F did their first Cabaret week at Wakefield Theatre Club, Alan Jones made his first appearance with them. The Drummer was Bobby Worth and Pat Farrar was on Keyboards. They did quite a few live shows and both Mo Foster and Dave Olney played Bass and Andrew Steele, formerly of the Herd played Drums. I saw them with all those line ups.

Hope this helps

Regards

Stuart

[JimN]

Stuart: I saw the M&F duo at the old Bailey's Nightclub in Liverpool, autumn-ish 1974.

Mo Foster was on bass and Pat Carroll was on keys and vocals. Any idea who might have been on drums? The name was announced but I have long forgotten it!

[Iain Purdon]

To go back to the original question, I suppose the line-up for a BBC Radio session could be deduced from the contract because everyone who took part would have been paid a fee. The info is probably in a dusty file somewhere? Or on a microfiche copy?

[alewis41]

Hi

They used a few players on stage with both MWF and M &F. The first were drummer Craig Collinge and Bass Player Jamie Byrne. I had been to Abbey Road to see them recording Second Opinion. They had toured with Cliff as a trio. They asked my and my friend if we thought they should use a Bass Player and Drummer for a week at Batley Variety Club. We both said, being from the area and knowing the club, that they should and they did. They used those two. Later Alan Tarney over on Bass and Trevor Spencer joined on Drums and that was the line up for most of the MWF live shows. For a week at Stockton Fiesta Club, that was the week they had the cover pics taken for Second Opinion, Lem Lubin was on Bass. When Bruce walked out, at Batley, they carried on the gigs they had booked with Alan and Trevor. Later, when M &F did their first Cabaret week at Wakefield Theatre Club, Alan Jones made his first appearance with them. The Drummer was Bobby Worth and Pat Farrar was on Keyboards. They did quite a few live shows and both Mo Foster and Dave Olney played Bass and Andrew Steele, formerly of the Herd played Drums. I saw them with all those line ups.

Hope this helps

Regards

Stuart

Thanks Stuart! Pat Farrar told me that she was bought in to the M&F shows at short notice and was "asked to sing Bruce's parts".

And Mo Foster told me he was with Hank & John when Olivia hit number one in the U.S. - I thought it was for John's "Have You Never Been Mellow" but it could have been "I Honestly Love You".

Mo also writes in his book about being ill during those dates but having to do the steps and high kicks during the Shads numbers!

Andrew

[StuartD]

Thanks Andrew