Showaddywaddy – currently on their 50th anniversary tour. I was prompted to check out their website (which has fascinating bios of all the members old and new) after seeing them on one of those recent BBC4 TOTP re-runs.
SWW had a bit of a schism in 1985 but by and large the core SWW stayed together until 2008. Dave Bartram (lead vocals) left in 2011. A couple of originals have passed on and others simply retired. The last original is drummer Romeo Challenger. He’s been drumming since 1962 and you might be surprised, as I was, to find that he made three albums with occult rockers Black Widow 1970-72 and performed at the 1970 Isle of Wight festival.
Here’s a very recent interview with Romeo by 1980s Radio 1 personality Jackie Brambles. I’m probably more surprised that Brambles is still on the go than SWW. Anyway, hats off to anyone who has clocked up so many decades in music.
The current act:
I have a soft spot for the Waddy as I had one of their greatest hits in my parents record collection so listened to it a fair lot back then. Haven’t listened to it in 35 years probably though
It fascinates me that bands like this will reach a point fairly soon when their music will never be listened to by anyone anymore. Like a lot of the 50’s hit makers now, they are just off the radar forever
Very true.
Will anyone love 10cc in 30 years time?
Probably…
Chose drumming over football – played in the same boys team as Peter Shilton and was offered a deal to join Leicester City at the same time as Shilts.
Now that’s interesting. I could Google this but I swear I spent the 90s under the impression that Romeo Challenger is Dion Dublin’s dad. Wherever did that rumour stem from, or could it be …. true? Speaking of the ‘Waddywaddy, they are one of the very few bands I’ve seen grace the turf at the DW Stadium, miming, not even plugged in, before an end-of-season encounter between Wigan Athletic and Barnsley (possibly Reading).
@Rigid-Digit
Probably just as well given the way he let a promising career between the post for the Foxes slip through his hands
Still the only band I’ve seen live while they had a single at no1. I’d be amazed if that changes.
I never heard Jackie Brambles on Radio 1. I think the last time I heard her on the radio was when she was known as Brambles the Brickie on Capital Radio’s lunchtime quiz in the early 80’s.
I remember Jackie when she was Jakki.
I used to love Showaddywaddy. And then I found out that they weren’t cool. I spent my teenage years with the nickname ‘Showaddy’ and trying to pretend I had no idea why. I still think Hey Rock ‘n’ Roll is standout seventies fun, up there with Tiger Feet.
On the school bus, we stamped along with such enthusiasm to Hey Rock ‘n’ Roll that the driver stopped the bus, switched the radio off, and warned that if it happened again the radio would stay off. Depriving us of Diddy David Hamilton on our 40 minute bus journey was a very effective deterrent.
That’s a wonderful post @kalamo! That quote about “finding out they’re not cool” is surely true for a lot of us here, if not all in relation to Showaddywaddy!
And you’re right about “Hey rock n roll,” though I hadn’t thought about that song in a long long time.
It’s quite funny sometimes Freddy when we have those ‘first record you ever bought’ threads and no one ever mentions Chirpy Chirpy Cheap Cheap or Grandma We Love You.
Showaddywaddy cool now, are they, god help us? Musical muck of the worst sort. Middle of the Road were aimed at, well the middle of the road, and Clive Dunn at the senile and simple. Showaddywaddy just seemed to be there and of no appeal whatsoever. Teddy boys? Teddy arses!
Point of order Grandma We Love You.was by the St Winifred’s School Choir.
Grandad was written by Herbie Flowers
True @kalamo. Mine of course was Life begins at the Hop by XTC. Clear vinyl natch.
Liar!
Admit it was Terry Wogan and Floral Dance. You know you’ll feel much better.
My best man is from P’boro and one of his uncles was in T’ ‘Waddy. I met him once, at a BBQ.
I don’t know much about Jakki Brambles, but Sybil Ruscoe is now farming and countryside advisor to The Archers.
You’d have thought, nominative determinism and all that, Jakki Brambles would have got that gig.
When I lived in Bahrain in the mid-80s we were frequently visited by the faded gods of glam rock – Got to see Mud and Gary Glitter for free as I reviewed films (actually pirate videos) on the radio. Around the time the Mighty Waddy (who I had no desire to see) hit town I was in a boozer when several guys walked in one lunchtime – one of them rather flamboyantly twirling a drumstick.
“Scuse me mate, but you’ve got a drumstick sticking out of the are pocket of your jeans” said one of my mates when he bumped into the sticksman in the bogs. “That’s no ordinary drumstick, pal, that’s a SHOWWADDYWADDY drumstick”, he replied rather smugly.
The rest of the afternoon consisted of us singing the A-RA-BAP-BAP beginning to Under the Moon of Love every time one of them got up to go to the bar. Not sure if it had any appreciable affect on their ticket sales, but it had certainly started to piss them off by the end of the afternoon.