Gary Thain's Early Years by Dave Chapman

Gary Thain
His Early Years
By Former lead guitarist Dave Chapman
It was about 1961, I was in a Christchurch music store Sedley Wells, buying my first electric guitar a commodore. I saw there a matching commodore bass guitar which I commented on and the salesman "Jack" said to me that it was already sold to a guy by the name of Thain. Although I'd heard of him we'd never met. I was 16 at the time and Gary who was born in Christchurch in 1948 was 13, and going to Xavier College in Christchurch.where he and his brother Conrad , were both pupils there ,they won a talent quest, by singing, "where have all the flowers gone". Gary was working after school delivering telegrams around the city on his bicycle, he wore a grey uniform with red piping around the collar. I had left school and was working in the city as an office boy, and practicing with my first group Mustangs' Our Drummer was Wayne Allen, who in later years was to work with Gary ,who by this time had left school and was working as a lineman. About two years later I started to go to a popular christchurch dance club called the Caledonian on Kilmore St.
The musicians were Gary Thain on bass, his brother Arthur Thain lead, Graeme Ching on rhythm, and Dave Beattie Drums. They were doing everything popular for the time, Beatles to Rock n Roll plus some instrumentals. "The Strangers" were very polished had a great sound and a big following. I remember the compare of the club referring to Gary as the swinging Bass player. Yes he was good, in fact very good. They were later joined by another Drummer Peter Dawkins and later did some recording work with the release of a single 45. After a very successful 2-3 years , The Strangers disbanded and Gary teamed up with Derek Wright lead and vocals, Paul Muggleston rhythm and vocals, and Wayne Allen drums and vocals. They were The Secrets and in 1964 -1965 were the resident group for a top Christchurch club, The Plainsman which was upstairs on Lichfield St. They played everything popular at the time from Beatles to P.J. Proby. They were also support artists for Gene Pitney and The Searchers who toured New Zealand. After some months at the Plainsman, The Secrets went to the North Island of New Zealand and toured around playing mainly in Auckland, Wellington and Whangarei.

During this time, early 1965 I had started as lead guitarist for a new group The Others. It was started by former Strangers Drummer Peter Dawkins, and we became resident group along with Les Street and The Alleys at Christchurch's now number one night spot "The Pride of Place." We were support group for Tom Jones and Hermans Hermits when they toured New Zealand in 1965.
Two to three months later " Les Street and The Alleys" disbanded so "The Secrets" just arriving back on the scene in Christchurch started with us at the "Pride of Place" as the replacement group. This is when I really got to know Gary, at the time I was working for a Freight company in Carlyle Street and Gary was now working for an Engineers Merchants H.W. Smith & Co also in Carlyle Street. He drove a yellow Morris Minor delivery van and I'd see him most lunch hours while buying my lunch from a close by takeaway shop. Gary was always full of life and laughing he had a great sense of humour and a passion for music. During our time playing at "The Pride of Place" Gary and Paul from "The Secrets" decided that they wanted to go to England . Peter and I from "The Others" also decided we wanted to go, we had the perfect line up, Bass, Drums, Rhythm and Lead, so a new group was born "Me and The Others". This was a key group to Garys future success. Previously during the Tom Jones show, Peter and I were talking with Mike Gee lead guitarist from "The Squires" who were Tom Jones' show band.
We told him we were heading for the UK and he gave us a note of introduction to Tom Jones agency in London. This would hopefully give us some sort of start. About February 1966 Gary and Paul left New Zealand two to three months ahead of Peter and I on a cruise liner "The Australis" bound for South Hampton via Suez Canel a four week trip. They called at India and Egypt and visited the Pyramids and even went Camel riding I have included copies of these photos but they are not very clear now.

Gary and Paul arrived in South Hampton one month later and found their way to London and rented an old bedsitter in Bayswater. Being short of cash they had to find work to keep them going until Peter and I arrived in the UK. So Paul and Gary went off to New Zealand House in London, that was where kiwi's could go to find Jobs that were advertised there. They were lucky enough to land their first UK employment, driving an electric milk cart delivering milk. This was very unbecoming of them both, and after a few hours of this Gary and Paul both looked at each other and said "Fuck this!" and left the milk cart on the side of the road somewhere in London. They went back to the notice board at New Zealand House to see what else was advertised. There was an add for horse riders at a place called Cowboy city in the North of England in a small town called Kirby Misperton. Off they went to become members of the notorious Dalton Brothers. Cowboy City was a local attraction, there was a Shanty Town like a western movie set , where there was a daily show which drew a crowd of paying spectators. The Dalton Brothers were USA villains from the 1800's, during the show the gang would ride into town and rob the bank and there would be a shoot out. It was then decided for only Paul to become a part of this, as this wasn't for Gary.
So a short while later Gary left Paul and went to a close by town "Scarborough" and found his way into a local band "Just Gigging Around" , I do not know who they were or where they played. In May 1966 Peter and I, after spending four weeks on an Italian cruise liner, "The Fairsky" arrived in South Hampton. Paul came down from Kirby Misperton to pick us up in his Triumph Herald . With our suitcases inside and Peters' Drums packed in a big cardboard box tied on the roof rack , we set off for the North of England to a small town , Ferry bridge in Yorkshire. Peters' Grandmother lived there in Houghton Avenue, although being a New Zealander Peter hadn't seen his Grandmother since he was a small boy.
We all stayed there a night before setting off for Cowboy city the following morning, so Paul could finish off his cowboy stint there, he was on contract. Peter and I were there for one show which I must say was very authentic. That night we stayed in the bunk house and soon headed off for London where we found a house at "Clapham Common". Gary arrived two weeks later from the North of England to join us, now we were ready to work on a repertoire. The original plan was for us to play surf music which was very popular in the USA. The scene in the UK was not for that sort of music, so we went to a record shop on Portabello Road and bought a pile of newly released 45'single records. The music on these records was becoming very popular and was about to dominate the music scene in the UK and USA. Some songs included "You don't know like I know" by Sam and Dave , "My Girl", "Hold on I'm coming" etc.
We then spent the next few weeks developing a repertoire of R&B plus Rock n Roll, the group was starting to get tighter. We contacted Tom Jones' agency as planned but didn't get any real reception as hoped. One night Peter and I were walking around Soho and Peter, who was a real "Viv Prince" fan, spied a newspaper cutting stuck to the window of a Greek restaurant, the headline was "What's Viv up to?" Peter stopped to read this, the paper said that quote "Since Viv Prince the former Drummer of the famous 60's group "The Pretty Things" has disbanded, Viv is now hosting a Soho night club called "Knuckles". The club just happened to be in the basement of the Greek restaurant. The ironical thing about this is that prior to coming to the UK our group "The Others" had been on a tour of New Zealands' South Island as a showband. The top of the bill was a top New Zealand artist Tommy Adderley and Tommy had been on the same show as "The Pretty Things" when they toured NZ in 1965. Tommy knowing that we were going to the UK, said " If ever you bump into any of "The Pretty Things" give them Tommy's regards. So this is all we needed. Peter and I went down the stairs and Viv just happened to be at the door talking to the doorman.
Peter asked "are you Viv Prince?" and Viv replied "Yes" Peter introduced us both and told him were a group from New Zealand and Tommy Adderley sends his regards. Viv looked quite blank until Tommys' name was mentioned, he shook both our hands and invited us in.
We told him we had come as a group and were looking for work, Viv immediately asked if we wanted a job playing here for two weeks. Peter and I took up the offer. That night we stayed at the club until late and met the "Easybeats" form Australia who had also just arriived in the UK.

At closing time Peter and I took Viv and Johnny Banks the Drummer from the "Mersybeats" home in our van. We arrived at 31a Oakley St, Chelsea, just off Kings Road and Viv took us down to the basement flat to meet some friends of his that lived next door to him. These guys were "Roy" and "Roland" also present was "Jet Harris" ex bassist for the UK group "The Shadows" who were Cliff Richards former backing group. Also was Jets lady friend "Billy Davis" who was also a well known 60's pop artist.and TV presenter. Jet was living in the room next to Viv Prince and he was moving out to live with Billy, his room was to be vacant. The four of us vacated our Clapham Common address and Gary and Peter moved into Jets' room. Roy got Paul and I a room directly across the road. We were now all living in Chelsea, which was where all the 60's action was in London.
We played at "Knuckles" for the next two weeks and now Paul was doubling on Vox continental key board this gave us an even bigger sound. During this time at "Knuckles", Vivs' patrons were anyone from Pete Townsend from "The Who" to Mick Wiltshire from the "New Vaudeville Band".and ex Shadows drummer Tony Meehan, who we spent some time with, plus many more well known pop artists. We were received very well and got invited back for another two weeks playing a short while later.
While at "Knuckles"we were asked if we would be interesed in being a backing group for a new guy,Englebert Humperdink, who at that time was unheard of, and Peter said, no thanks ,not anyone with a name like that. That's one guy that made it big, True story. One night in the Marqee club We were introduced, by "Gary Farr and the T Bones" drummer, to a promoter Jack Fallon of Cana Variety Agency, in London who got us gigs on a consistent basis which covered the whole of the UK. We were on the road most of the time over the following months and covered many different clubs and dances. For instance two weeks at the Blue Lagoon at Newquay, Cornwall, Mr Smiths club in Manchester, and The Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen where we played to a crowd of hundreds. As we progressed the group got better and we were getting more gigs and met many artists. Gary was using a Gibson semi acoustic bass through a Vox amp with a 15 inchVox speaker cabinet either side of the stage. This gave the group a big driving sound. One night we did a gig in South Hampton,along with The Graham Bond Organisation, that was a very memorable night as Grahams bassist and drummer were Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker who eventually teemed up with Eric Clapton and formed "Cream" .These names meant nothing to us at the time ,but Gary even with his own style of slap picking was always taking Notice of other bassists. Im sure that night Gary would have got some pointers from Jack. Gary was only 18 years old at this stage and we all smoked cigarettes and had the odd drink,Gary had a passion for brandy mixed with Rose's lime on ice . One night we did a gig , a social night, on an airforce base ,somewhere in the north and as the drinks were free we drank our fill of brandy and lime and when it came time to start playing we were all drunk and Gary completely disappeared . We went out to look for him ,he was gone.we were looking for so long ,that the airmen , hungry for some music picked up our instruments and started playing themselves. We later found Gary collapsed and asleep in a garden flower bed and almost completely out of sight. We didn't get paid that night and no wonder .We toured Scotland and were constantly up and down the country playing more clubs than I could ever remember and Gary was taking quite a liking to smoking pot ,and was not eating very well, which was a concern ,as I knew from Mum the importance of nutrician I always tried to encourage him to eat better meals ,but his reply in general was always ' I'd rather have a ciggy and some soup. Gary soon became noticably very thin .We decided that we would look for work in Germany, so we did auditions in the Marqee club and The whisky a gogo club.in London. We were contracted by Philip Neuman of the PN HIT HOUSE,on Leopold strauser, in Schwarbing, Munich, for one month . Prior to setting off for Germany ,we did a recording at Regent sound studio in London ,the song was 'love is not a game' the B side was to be recorded on our return. So off to Germany we went, in our van , via Dover and Belgium. We lived in a luxury appartment, which was owned by Neuman, across the road the from the club. We Played 7 nights a week and Pot and stimulants were readily available but although we all tried these a few times Gary ,became quite attatched. Gary's bass playing just got better and better and he became a driving force behind the band. We had a very successful month, and had a strong following, that apparently changed when we left.
The following month we secured another contract for 4 weeks in Stuttgart , playing on an American military base in a night club at Robinson Barracks.After another month I decided that I wanted to return to New Zealand and Paul wanted to go back to London .This was about febuary _ march 1967 , so Gary and Peter went back to Munich and Paul and I went back to London. Eventually I arrived back in New Zealand and received letters from both Peter and Gary , they had started another group in Munich with Ed Carter ,a session Guitarist with the Beach boys, they called themselves "THE NEW NADIR" Gary sent me a photo but I do not know what ever happened to it ,the rest is history. Later Gary joined Keef Hartley's band and then on to Uriah Heep. About 1973 Gary returned to New Zealand to see his family . He was interviewed on T.V.,and on the programe went back to his school Xavier college,to visit his teacher Brother Damien .Gary also went up to a Christchurch night club called Mojo's and spent time with Dick Whatson the bass player of "Chapta" who were playing there that night, and went through the bass lines from the "Demonds and Wizards" L.P. Gary returned to the U.K. and at the peak of his profession and, sadly passed away due to a drug overdose, I was very shocked and sad to read this in a Chrstchurch news paper of his passing, I've kept the article all these years that I've included with all the band photos . but ,what happened to the rest of the band ?.Well Peter eventually went back to London and sat in with Jimmy Hendrix on a gig at "Blaze'es" ,a London night club ,before returning to New Zealand about 1970 to became an award winning record producer , then later to Australia, where he produced "Air Supply's early recordings, Paul came back to New Zealand in 1972 to become a well known radio D. J.he has now lived in Los Angeles for years, where he runs a very successful advertising agency from his yatch in Marina Del Rey, Paul came back to New Zealand in 1992 for a reunion where he and I played with ,with Wayne Allen on drums and another old friend of Gary's on bass, Pete Hansen, almost "The Secrets" once more. We played to a capacity audience of 60's and 70's musicians , that all knew Gary very well,and Paul paid tribute to Gary ,and the gig made the news paper and national television . Please let this article be a monument , and a memory to our dear friend Gary Thain, from, myself, Paul Muggleston, and Peter Dawkins and all his fellow musician friends that were there, at the Christchurch musicians club that night,
We will never forget him.

Dave Chapman

The Gary Thain 60s' Photobook