The Producers make Tivoli debut

Here, bassist Dave Saunders, recalls his childhood memories of the Tiv and a lifetime in music.

“My first experiences of the Tivoli were the Saturday matinees where black and white cowboy films were the main draw for us Wimborne kids.

“They used to take you to a wide-eyed fantasy world of stagecoaches, open plains, cattle drives and the ever-present Monument Valley, plus of course there was Tarzan with the elephants, gorillas, man-eating crocs and jungle drums. We would dream that one day we could travel and have adventures too.

“Well, many years later I have realised that dream, including many drums and drummers. My grandfather was a drummer and bugler during the First World War and played The Last Post at many local remembrance services, including at the Minster.

“His talent for rhythm passed to my father who played drums in jazz and country bands. My earliest memories are of waking up with his kit between my bed and my brother’s, the only space there was in the house – they were big old kits in those days.

“He started to teach me but the enthusiasm vanished completely when he persuaded me to play with the band at a club somewhere. I was 11 years old, it was a Jim Reeves song – I hated it, I felt like a animal in a trap and the memory still sends a chill down my spine. I’ve never touched a drumstick since!

“A band used to practice in a house opposite me, I used to hear the drums clattering and couldn’t resist going over there to watch the rehearsal process. This was the formation of a band called The Shame which featured Greg Lake, later of Emerson Lake and Palmer.

“In my teenage tears I strummed guitar (a Watkins Rapier) in a local band called Black Light playing Deep Purple stuff and the hits of the time at Colehill youth club. I worked as a delivery boy with Cowdreys the Wimborne baker and one of my customers was a Mrs Kerslake who had a big-built son called Lee who frightened me to death. He found fame in Uriah Heap.

“Another famous Wimborne musician is Robert Fripp who I went to school with for a time. He claimed Wimborne was the centre of the universe and formed King Crimson – but in which order I don’t know.

“I’d learned the value of promotion through association with these people and later started putting on gigs at the Bricklayers Arms and the Brittania, both at Ashley Cross, Poole. Later I was asked to run the entertainment at Mr C’s, a large music venue/club in Poole now known as Chords.

“I did what every promoter does and featured all my musical heroes – Steve Marriott, Steve Gibbons, Girlschool, Pink Fairies, Geno Washington, the original Dr Feelgood. Some went on to make it big – Deacon Blue and Terence Trent D’Arby for example.

“During this time one of the support bands wanted a bass player so my time as a Rolling Drunk began. It was great fun playing punk blues, we got to tour Germany and built up a following. We often played with another local band, Manitou, a prog rock outfit. As I had an abiding interest in blues since seeing Peter Green playing with Fleetwood Mac I paid special attention to guitarist Harry Skinner as I could hear blues in his style of playing.

“I had this crazy idea of forming my own band and needed a good frontman so talked to Harry about it. He was keen and bought Pete Hibbitt and Dave Thomas in, also from Manitou and with Carl Wilson and Simon Clay from the Drunks we played our first gig in London as the Diamond Geezers.

“From that came The Producers, named after the film that we had drunkenly watched the night before. Personnel were Harry and I, Pete and Dave.

The band made a big impression on the blues scene at the time, winning Album of the Year and Best British Blues Band award four times in succession.

“Festivals came and went – Ireland, Belgium, Holland, France, New Zealand as well as theatre and club dates. On New Year’s Eve 2001 after a fantastic farewell tour of the UK and seven albums, The Producers folded. Harry had been offered a proper job and had a new baby on the way, I was tired from almost 10 years of arranging and publicising the gigs, being promoter, financier, travel arranger, driver and general dogsbody, plus both of us felt we had reached our musical peak so why not finish at the top?

“We played our last gig at a packed house at The Central in Ashley Cross.

“Two years ago Harry and I were asked to play with Muddy Waters’ harmonica player, Mojo Buford, as his regular band couldn’t play the southern dates of his UK tour. This was the first time we’d played electric guitars together since The Producers, that was when the idea came for a new band. After months of indecision our saviour came in the form of Stompin’ Dave Allen (an ex-Producer) who told us as we already had recordings in the name of The Producers plus the two main members who formed and named the band in the first place we’d earned that name so The Producers it was, once again!

“These days I have my own promotions company and still play with other acts, as well as The Producers. Harry [Skinner, Producers singer and guitarist] and I have an acoustic blues duo, I have played in the Ben Waters Band, am playing Glastonbury Festival with Stompin’ Dave Allen – I’m also playing tea chest bass and guitar with him at the Tivoli so I’ll be wearing two hats that night – played bass with Chicago Red on his UK tour, played in country bands, even an Abba tribute band, but I’m still am a bluesman at heart and love what The Producers are doing now and wherever I go in the world I never get tired of coming home to Dorset.

“The Producers try and play one Dorset gig a month so our appearance at the Tivoli tomorrow will enable me to revisit all those happy childhood memories in my home town theatre – look close and you may see a tear in my eye.