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1975 - 1981 THE BABYS
A young man named Gordon Hawtin
set the final course, when John Waite (left) returns back to London in 1975. Already part of a project with no name, Gordon had become aquainted
with the homecomer in a London pub before his relocation to America. Now, two
years later, he arranges a meeting with a Celtic rooted similarly disillusioned
guitarist (later also keyboards)
and his manager -
Michael Corby (right) and Adrian Millar.
At the
Sir Richard Steele's Pub
in London that nameless project takes shape slowly. Adrian has big plans,
like
„... the second Beatles or so...“ „Actually we had decided for Tony already but we were still looking for another drummer“, John remembers. „We talked and talked till we convinced him finally. We promised a lot of money and golden records if he´d join us. This was, of course, just a lot of talk.“ John gives up the bass for a short time but „... it didn´t work.“ It takes the band eighteen months of struggle before they finally get a contract. „We felt like underdogs for a long time but we were desperate to make it. For one and a half years we lived on cheese sandwiches and Brown ale.“ With guitarist Walter „Wally“ Stocker (below right) they´re finally complete.
Worth listening to - THE BABYS. „Actually we didn´t want to keep this name because at that time the record companies focused on teeniebopper bands like the Bay City Rollers“, John explains the origin of their band name. „We couldn´t make the people listen to us so we decided for a name that fit into this scheme. But somehow it got around that there was a band that played Rock´n Roll and called themselves THE BABYS and people seemed to like that. And then it was too late to change the name, so we thought, okay then, let´s try it.“ Adrian Millar asks Mike Mansfield to produce a 3-song video tape to feature THE BABYS on the Supersonic television show and it works. (Later on Chrysalis takes this video to support the band in America during their promotion tour in February 1977.)
Sir
Richard Steeles Pub in London.
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