Let's rock up to talk of old times says Gerry
Ageing Shropshire rocker Gerry Ward has been talking 'bout his generation.
Not to put too fine a point on it, essentially what he's saying is (and we know this isn't quite what Roger Daltrey of The Who sang) - now we're old I hope we can get together before we die.
Expatriate Salopian Gerry, who lives in Hamburg, wants to organise a get-together for those who played in local bands in the 1960s and 1970s, a never-to-be forgotten time when there was a thriving pop music scene in Shropshire when every town in the county had its own band or bands.
"There were so many, dozens of them, and it appears that a lot of us are still alive. I've been to funerals recently. What's the point of seeing old friends at a funeral? It's better to see old friends who are still alive," said Gerry.
His idea is in its early stages and nothing firm has been agreed yet, but his vision is to have a meet-up in December, and the venue he provisionally has in mind is the Ugly Duckling at Long Lane, near Wellington.
"There's going to be no equipment, and no-one will be forced to play. There will probably be a few guitars lying about."
Already he has canvassed his idea with some of his old pals from those days and has had a positive response, and anyone else interested can get in touch through his email, gbshifting@aol.com
Guitarist Gerry has a long Shropshire pop pedigree.
"I used to play for the In-Betweens, The Greasers... We all knew each other in those days."
The Greasers - it was a contemporary surfing term - mostly comprised workers at the Ever Ready factory in Dawley.
Among other local outfits Gerry was in were the Bird 'n' B's, and then he was perhaps most famously in Fluff - which skirted on the edge of the big time but never quite made it - and Ironbridge, the name Fluff later adopted.
