THE ROLLING STONES - James Patrick Page - Sessionman

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How It All Started...

Red-E-Lewis And The Redcaps were a semi-professional rock 'n' roll band from North London, moulded on American Gene Vincent And The Blue Caps. Fronted by singer William Stubbs aka “Reddy Lewis”, they were formed in mid 1958 and their first line-up consisted of Johnny Patto on guitar, Johnny Spence on bass, Frank Farley on drums. Spence and Farley were previously with the Wayfaring Strangers and The Ramrods alongside guitarist Mick Green, 2 skiffle groups from Wimbledon. The Redcaps were "discovered" at the same Wandsworth Town Hall once frequented by Frederick Heath & his Combo who later emerged as Johnny Kidd & The Pirates. In late 1958, the Redcaps eventually parted company with Reddy Lewis who recruited a new backing group called the Red “Cats” comprising guitarist Bobby Oats and drummer Jim “Tornado” Evans. They had played a few gigs at the Ebisham Hall in Epsom and Jimmy Page would chat to the musicians and using Bobby’s guitar played a few licks and riffs and some Chuck Berry solos. In early 1959, John “Jumbo” Spicer joined the band on rhythm guitar.When Oates announced that he was going to leave them to go to drama school in Easter 1959,The Redcats’ manager, Chris Tidmarsh, contacted Jimmy Page and invited him down to Shoreditch, where the band rehearsed in a room above a pub with a view to auditioning for the vacancy.Jimmy Page became their new lead guitarist and Jumbo Spicer switched to bass. In spring 1960, Chris Tidmarsh replaced Lewis on vocals and the band took part of the coffee morning parties in London given by Ray Mackender, who was an advisor to Cliff Richard's father and eventually discovered and became the manager of Mark Wynter. Mackender introduced them to the Beat poet Royston Ellis who was searching for a band to back him on his poetry readings called “rocketry”, as a replacement for The Shadows who became so much in demand after the success of their single “Apache”. Royston Ellis eventually did performances of rocketry just with Jimmy Page on guitar, from Late 1960 to July 1961, giving Page his first stage and TV shows. It was around this time that Royston Ellis learned about the benzedrine nose inhaler trick from Don Wood, the road manager of the Red Cats. It was a useful aid to staying awake in their all-night lives as musicians. He eventually showed (not fab’) four young lads from Liverpool how to use the nasal inhaler. They were musicians in an unknown outfit that backed Ellis when he performed his rock and roll poetry in Liverpool and finally took his advice on modifying the spelling of their band name… Now with Chris Tidmarsh as new vocalist, they reinvented themselve as “Neil Christian And The Crusaders”.

(forgottenbands.blogspot.it) Musicstoryteller#15.Aline

THE ROLLING STONES

There seems to be many references to the Stones than any other artist which is not surprising when Page had such close ties with Andrew Oldham, Decca and Immediate.

The first session with Page was in 1964 at the Kingsway Studios in London where he worked on an old Oldham track produced by a young John Paul Jones.

Later he worked on three demos: "Blue Turns To Gray", "Some Thing's Just Stick In Your Mind" and "Heart Of Stone".

The first remain unreleased while the second was later used by Vashti and like the third appeared on the 1975 album Metamorphosis.

In 1966 Page returned to the studio and with Art Greenslade worked on two backing tracks. "Out Of Time" which the Stones overdubbed but rejected until it reappeared on Metamorphosis and released as a single and an early version of "Paint It Black".

In 1972 Led Zeppelin's album "Houses Of The Holy" was completed and Page with Keith Harwood flew to Jamaica to help the Stones as glyn Jones was ill, Jagger and Richards decided to work on demos and with Page and Harwood they worked on four tracks: "Jamaica", "Criss Cross", "Through The Lonely Nights" and "Tops".

The acoustic ballade "Through The Lonely Nights" was released on the B side of "It's Only Rock & Roll".

"Tops" was remixed in 1973 and eight years later appeared on the "Tattoo You" album.

In 1985 the Stones were in Paris working on the album "Dirty Work", Page joined them and played on two songs: "One Hit To The Body" and "Back To Zero".

Due to contractual reasons he was not credited for playing but received thanks in the sleeve notes.

Page's guitar on "One Hit.." remained intact.

the-rolling-stones-heart-of-stone-1964- London 45 LON 9725 1964 A

the-rolling-stones-heart-of-stone-1964- London 45 LON 9725 1964 B

the-rolling-stones-heart-of-stone-1964- London 45 LON 9725 1964

Out Of Our Heads Decca LK 4733 1965 fr

Out Of Our Heads Decca LK 4733 1965 bk

the-rolling-stones-its-only-rock-n-roll-1974-RS 19114 side A

the-rolling-stones-its-only-rock-n-roll-1974-RS 19114 side B

the-rolling-stones-out-of-time-1975-Decca F 13597 side A

the-rolling-stones-out-of-time-1975-Decca F 13597 side B

Metamorphosis DECCA SKL 5212 1975

the-rolling-stones-one-hit-to-the-body-cbs A 7160 A

the-rolling-stones-one-hit-to-the-body-cbs A 7160 bk

the-rolling-stones-one-hit-to-the-body-cbs A 7160