Starry times for The Midnighters
As he rode in the van on his way to a booking in Stoke, rhythm guitarist Roy Bickley noticed that his guitar hadn't been loaded, and that the drummer was missing.
And he knew what it meant - he was now the drummer in Market Drayton group The Midnighters.
"You didn't have to be over-bright to work it out," said Roy.
"I was stuck on drums until the end of the 1960s."
Although he had no experience on drums, he clearly picked it up quickly.
The Midnighters were a busy and successful pop group from Market Drayton during this golden decade of pop, playing as a hobby and without overblown ambitions of stardom.
"We all had fairly good jobs," said Roy, of Cemetery Road in the town, a signwriter who is now in his 70s.
A little while ago we published a colour picture of a publicity photo session for the band. It was, says Roy, one of a series.
"It was taken by the tea rooms of Hodnet Hall Gardens. The photographer was Derek Tomkiss, a retired plumber, who lives in Marchamley."
He remembers that lead singer Malcolm Davison, who went as Screaming Lord Strongbow, was asked to move backwards during the session, with classic comic results.
"He stepped in the lake."
Davison was a tall, eye-catching character, dressed in his Beau Brummell outfit, with top hat and gloves and carrying a walking cane, while the others had smart blue suits.
The group had started in 1959, meeting originally at the Beacon Youth Club, with a line-up comprising Ted Orwell, Johnny Edwards and Gerald Lewis on guitars, and Roger Fennell on drums.
Davison came afterwards and Roy must have come a little later.
As for why Malcolm Davison was known as Screaming Lord Strongbow, he said: "He was usually legless on cider. He was totally eccentric, a blues musician and highly intelligent. He lived around the corner in Alexandra Road. As far as I know, he was a pattern maker for the Corset Silhouette factory. He's dead now."
The group's name derived from their evenings talking and playing, and visits to the Red Lion, rarely getting home before midnight.
It was an enjoyable time, and the group won a countywide battle-of-the-bands contest in 1965, but all good things come to an end.
"As it petered out at the end of the decade I got collared by various am-drams and people like that to go and play in orchestras.
"The lads were getting married. Strongbow by this time had gone to Liverpool to work for Vauxhalls. I was busy - and still am in my retirement - as a signwriter."
