Robin Bextor
Robin Bextor has had a hugely distinguished career as a producer/director/author. With the 50th anniversary of 'Britain's first rock concert' looming, he has put together On Track for Summer, a concert commemorating Windsor's proud rock heritage at Windsor Racecourse
Robin Bextor is a thoroughly nice man, speaking to him on the phone I felt more like I was having a conversation with a kindly uncle at a family event than an interview with a multi award winning film and TV producer. Indeed the first 5 minutes of our conversation felt like he was interviewing me about how my own life was going: What school had I gone to? What did I take at university? Oh you work by Hampton station, my aunty Joyce used to work in the charity bookshop there, is it still open?
I have to admit it made me inappropriately happy to have the father of pop star Sophie Ellis Bextor and BAFTA winner, compliment me on taking an English degree at Leeds university. Having disclosed that my mother works at Richmond Rugby Club the conversation turned to one of Robin's major life passions: music. It quickly became apparent that Robin has an encyclopaedic depth of knowledge when it comes to rock n roll.
"It’s funny actually, Richmond Rugby Club was where the music festival we're talking about started, it was where something called the Crawdaddy Club was based out of. The Crawdaddy Club used to be a music club that met once or twice a week created by a guy called Giorgio Gomelsky and was absolutely the birth place of rock music because the Crawdaddy Club moved from the rugby club to this pub that was directly opposite the station at Richmond called the Richmond Station Hotel [now One Kew Road]."
"The first house band at the Richmond Station Hotel was the Rolling Stones from 1963 to 1964 and this guy Giorgio managed them to start with. He went back to Georgia because his father was ill and whilst he was away somebody pinched them and made them famous so he replaced them with the Yardbirds which was Eric Clapton’s first band."
"That’s why Richmond is such a Mecca for musicians. It’s why so many of them still live there, you've got Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger etc. all still living around there because that’s where they started off, it’s where they got famous."
We recently did a piece on the rock history of Eel Pie Island in Twickenham and when I mention it to Robin I'm unsurprised to find he's got anecdotes and knowledge to hand.
"Eel Pie Island was a bit of a spin off from the Crawdaddy scene, Phil Collins mum and dad actually used to run the club there so it's where he got his musical education. It was also where Long John Baldry discovered Rod Stewart busking after a gig on the Island. The Mystery Jets are now living there as well so it really does have an incredibly rich rock heritage even to this day."
L to R: Long John Baldry, Rod Stewart, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll
"I produced a program that’s playing on the TV station London Live called the story of London Underground, and the first ten minutes of it are all about why the clubs and Eel Pie Island were set up around the Richmond and Twickenham area. It’s because they were at the end of the railway line and Giorgio wanted somewhere that was still part of London but right on its edge."
Having schooled me in the first origins of rock, Robin moved on to its evolution and how the 1966 festival that On Track is commemorating came about.
"Richmond was where they had the first five jazz and blues festivals but in 1966 it had gotten too big because by that point blues bands like the Rolling Stones had become more popular than the purist jazz and blues musicians, who got shunted off to the early afternoon sets and the Small Faces, the Who or Donovan etc. would headline."
"Richmond wasn’t big enough so they moved the concert to Windsor Racecourse and in 1966, if you believe Wikepdia, the first ever rock festival in Britain was held. So that’s what we discovered and thought, well that’s just too good of an anniversary to miss! Let’s hold it again and try to get as many of those people together who are still around and we’ll have a day of celebration; like a 50th birthday party for rock music."
Sounds good to me! Who do we have to look forward to?
"In 1966 the Small Faces topped the bill but not many of them are around anymore, most of them have passed away. In tribute to them though we’ve got the daughter of the lead singer, Mollie Marriott, and we’ve also got the cast of the musical All or Nothing, which tells the story of the Small Faces and they'll be playing all of the bands hits together."
The cast of All or Nothing
"We’ve got the Move playing and they played the original 1966 gig, we’ve got the Manfreds with Paul Jones, Cliff Bennet and Davy O’list who was in the Nice as well as Chris Farlowe who was number one in the charts that week with a record called Out of Time. He’s also the guy who recorded Handbags and Gladrags which you might recognise as the theme music for The Office with Ricky Gervais."
"P.P. Arnold is also playing who had huge success with 'The First Cut is the Deepest' and 'Angel of the Morning'. She’s a huge star who was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend at the time and went on to date Jimmy Hendrix. She was a real style icon of the time and we’ve managed to talk her in to coming over from America. And of course the man who tops the bill, Donovan, who had all of those incredible hits like Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow. It’s going to be a great event."
Originally the plan was to have On Track as a two day festival with the second day being a celebration of summer but that's been abandoned.
"It’s just going to be one day now, we were going to do the whole weekend for Macmillan Cancer but they found it a bit much to do two days. They asked if there was any chance if we could focus all the efforts on one day because they need to provide volunteers etc. The main aim of this is as a fund raising exercise for Macmillan Cancer Support."
"It means that some of the people that were going to be appearing on the Sunday are now going to perform on Saturday, so we’ve got The Feeling who will be playing early on the Saturday to kick the show off to a great start."
"We’ve got Ginger Baker coming as well, right at the bottom of the 1966 flyer were 3 names: Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton, it was before they’d even decided on the name Cream, it was their second ever gig and then they went on to change the history of rock music. So we’ve got him coming along to the performance for a presentation in recognition of how much they affected the landscape of rock."
Cream
"Of course the last time this festival was held England won the World Cup so we’ve managed to get one of the members of the winning team, George Cohen, to come along with one of the original shirts from 1966 that he’s kept. He’s signed it and we’re going to auction it off for the charity."
"There’s also the option of doing some volunteering to get a free ticket, if people just get in touch on info@ontrackforsummer.co.uk they’ll be able to get themselves a set up or stewarding role and of course anyone who works, goes to school or lives within a 25 mile radius gets a nice 2 for 1 ticket offer as well, they just need the discount code 50 ontrack. We want to encourage people who live near to celebrate the areas incredible music heritage."
Robin has certainly got me excited for July 23 and he's hoping this can turn in to an annual event.
"Lets face it a 1967 tribute could be cosmic, it was the year of psychedelia which we could have a lot of fun with and 1968 certainly isn’t bad either. Every year you think of for the next 5 years is really just amazing and by the time you get to 1972 you have the Floyd at their peak, you’ve got Lead Zeppelin and all of those other bands plus the dawn of prog rock, it could be fantastic."
"It’s just a great idea and I’d love to do it for the next five years at least, by the time we’ve all kicked on, people will be saying god 2016 that was a great year, although that might be scraping the barrel a little bit!"
To buy tickets visit ontrackforsummer.co.uk
Interested in volunteering for a free ticket? Get in touch: info@ontrackforsummer.co.uk
For more great articles like this click here, like our piece on the rock heritage of Eel Pie Island
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