Berry Gordy was on DID this morning, recalling when his dad would make him work on buidling sites, “plastering houses” (he didn’t mention whether it was lime or gypsum plaster, or even cement render – come on Kirsty, pull your interviewing socks up)
Wasn’t Charlie Higson (post-The Higsons, pre-Fast Show) also a plasterer? I vaguely recall one of Madness was a brickie.
Can the hive mind of the Afterword recall any other pop stars who were useful with their hands?
Rod Stewart was a gravedigger.
Richard Thompson worked in stained glass.
Rod has admitted that he never actually did dig a grave at Highgate cemetery. It was more of a summer skive job, cutting the grass etc. I did the same thing at Burngreave cemetery in Sheffield one summer in the 60s
In those days graves were dug by hand (it’s done by mini diggers these days) and it’s quite a skill. In multi-occupied plots you have to make sure you don’t dig down too deep and disturb the older (usually rotting) coffins below.
I could tell you a story about that, too
Go on then Johnny!
They are the kind of stories best kept for that dinner party we keep talking about mini
Ah yes, we still need to decide how to thwart Beany’s plan to supply the music.
A spot of Ken Dodd over the crème brulee? What’s the problem there?
I resemble that remark. I would provide a nice instrumental background to enable the stories and gossip to flow. Something like this.
I worked at Highgate Cemetery years ago – not as a gravedigger – and the story was that the chief digger sunk no less than 15 pints before getting to work. It’s a wonder he didn’t fall in.
The council workers’ union was so strong that as soon as the lightest drizzle started, it was down tools and back to the shed to read the paper and drink tea for hours.
We used to pray for rain, naturally.
Ginger Baker is “useful with his hands”, it is said. I do know that Ron Jeremy is a qualified nurse for the learning disabled, which is reassuring.
Wonderful piece of advice from Mick Farren in his autobiography, when recounting tales of a Ginger standing inside the Speakeasy growling at passers by – never pick a fight with a drummer.
Jeff Beck could re-build your car for you. Especially if it was a hot rod.
Between success as lead singer of Oz “Howzat” hitmakers Sherbet and a successful solo career, singer Daryl Braithwaite did time on building sites as a labourer.
And not quite pop star, but apparently Tom Baker was working as a hod carrier when he learned he was to be the next Doctor Who.
Joe Cocker was an apprentice gasfitter in his early days, Roger Paltry a sheetmetal worker…
Paltry? Daltrey!
Tony Iommi was also a sheet metal worker, losing the ends of a couple of fingers.
Jim Gordon of Derek fame was handy with a hammer I understand.
His mum wasn’t that keen though.
Loads of the New Orleans Creole musicians were carpenters and such. Lee Dorsey was a car mechanic all his days.
The Feelgood rhythm section were practical types, if memory serves.
And wasn’t Nick Drake an arc welder in the shipyards?
Cook & Jones of Sex Pistol fame were burglars.
Hank Wangford (Sam Hutt) is a gyneacologist, specialising in contraception.
Mark E. Smith was a shipping clerk at Salford Docks.
George Clinton was a hairdresser.
Sandy Denny was a nurse.
Point of pedantic order:
Jonesy was a profligate tea leaf. Cookie was a good boy by all accounts, and was an apprentice electrician at Fullers Brewery (other accounts state it was the Stag Brewery).
It was this job which helped secure the first rehearsal space for the The Strand (with Wally Nightingale) and the fledgling Sex Pistols.
Wasn’t the Quiet Out out of The Fabs an apprentice spark?
He was. Apparently on his first job he managed to fuse the lights. Bongo was an apprentice machinist, and Macca worked (briefly) as a coil-winder. Lennon spent two weeks as a labourer.
Buddy Holly did a bit of tiling with his brother Travis. Not sure if, being the USA that means roof tiling but I understand he did some at Norman Petty’s Clovis Recording Studio where he also recorded many of his songs.
I’m not sure how hands on it was, but the late, great Solomon Burke had a rather successful mortuary business. He was in fact, rather notorious for his entrepreneurial ways, back stage soul food, popcorn, snow clearance: he had many strings to his bow.
Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris was a draughtsman in an architect firm – he was made redundant and became a road sweeper.
He returned his broom to the stores when Iron Maiden signed to EMI in 1979
Captain Sensible and Rat Scabies were lav cleaners at Croydon Fairfield Halls.
An autobiographical detail shared in Captain’s “Croydon”
When he stopped thumping tubs for a living, Rick Buckler was an antique furniture restorer
After reputedly being forced to leave Gong because a strange force field prevented him from going onstage, Daevid Allen returned to Australia and worked as a cab driver in Melbourne for a while.
Didn’t Jah Wobble drive a tube train, post PiL?
Matt Gloss
Dulux Interior
That Petrol Emulsion
David Paint Hubbins