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Christmas 2008

Well, another year is coming to an end so I guess it's time to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a recession free New Year! As I promised last time, the two vinyl Lieutenant Pigeon albums sent in to us, (Pigeon Pie and Pigeon Party), & both signed by Nigel and Rob, are now up for grabs. Rather than give them to the first person to email us as we did with the drum covers, this time we've decided to do a simple competition. We will send both the LPs to the first person to tell us the matrix number of the single "Mouldy Old Dough". (Decca F13278 vinyl 45rpm single). You'll find the matrix number scratched onto the vinyl near the scroll out. Simple eh?

On October 9th Steve Tayton, (formerly with Stavely Makepeace), performed in Lutterworth Leicestershire with a modern jazz quartet. Steve now lives in France but he does pop back from time to time to do these 'one off' gigs. So popular are they proving that he's arranged to do another, again at The Fox in Lutterworth, on December 18th 2008. Tickets are £5, pay on the door.

These photos are a couple I took on the Oct 9th gig.

Does anyone know details of a racehorse called Lieutenant Pigeon? A number of reports have reached our office that such a horse exists. In the mid seventies there was a horse called Mouldy Old Dough which won many races. The group went to see it in its Hampshire stables and had a series of publicity photographs taken with it. One of these was used on the picture sleeve of the single "Bye Bye Blackbird". I expect poor old 'Mouldy' the horse is pushing up daisies now but we'd love to hear more about the new horse named after the group.

Did anyone from the Oxford area hear Nige on BBC Radio Oxford on Oct 21st by the way? He was guest on the morning show.

Well that's about it for this year. I will continue to report any 'actions' I hear of concerning any former band members throughout the new year, and I will try to report them before they happen rather than after as was the case with recent the Steve T gig.

Bye for now, Bill Boswell
PS New for next year. Over one hundred Stavely Makepeace tracks will be available on iTunes! Watch this space.

Autunm 2008
At last I've managed to get the promised batch of downloads on to the site. My apologies for the delay but I think you'll agree they were well worth waiting for. I confess to a personal belly laugh at what they did to "The Sound of Music" some 24 years ago. Apparently no one has ever heard this track before! And what about the classic "Ain't no music like Rock 'n Roll music" !! They even surprise me from time to time with these old tapes!

Talking of old tapes, whilst the boys were looking for this latest batch of old recordings, they discovered some early demos from the Woodward/Fletcher/Tayton writing days. They're far too basic to include as downloads, but one track caught their ears all these years on. It's called, "This is what we want" and has a very catchy hook. With this in mind, Rob and Nigel have re arranged it and modified the lyrics. Hopefully it will be recorded before Christmas.

Terrific response to the offer of the paper drum covers by the way and many apologies to all of you who asked for them but were not successful. Sadly they were a 'one off' and it really was a case of 'first come first served'. They've gone to an avid collector who has promised faithfully he will never sell them for commercial gain. He also wishes to remain anonymous. I hope Colin Burkitt of York doesn't mind me mentioning his name. He sent us a monitary offer we wouldn't have been able to refuse for them had we been doing an auction...pity we'd just given them away!

On the subject of memorabilia, two Lieutenant Pigeon LPs have recently been sent into the office so we'll soon be finding them a new home..but more about that next time.

Bye for now, Bill Boswell.

Summer 2008

Firstly an apology. A hectic start to the summer months means I've yet to put all the latest batch of downloads on to the site the boys have sorted out for me. However I hope to put this right very soon. They've unearthed some gems too! Lots of tracks I personally had never heard before. A real treat is in store.

One thing that has come to light.. well two things actually, the paper bass drum covers used of TV shows for both Stavely Makepeace and Lieutenant Pigeon have been found by Nige when he was having a clear out. They are weather worn but are unique and whoever wants them is welcome to them. First email we receive can have them free of charge.

Some sad news. On April 10th Nige's father Reg Fletcher died. He wasn't quite 90. He will be remembered by all those of you who owned the Lieutenant Pigeon record "I'll sail my ship alone". Had it not been for Reg this track would not have been released. He pestered the boys so much to use it as a 'B' side that they even included his name on the credits! It was his favourite Lieutenant Pigeon track and was even played at his funeral. R.I.P Reg. (1/7/18-10/4/08)

More soon. BB.

Spring 2008

A quieter start to 2008 than last year. 2007 started with a bang when "Hot Fuzz", the blockbuster British film, decided to use 'SLIPPERY ROCK' in its sound track. No such surprises this year I'm afraid. Incidentally, the film was a huge succes and has resulted in a great deal of renewed interest in Stavely Makepeace.

Chris Hayle of Salisbury got in touch recently and asked about Rob Woodward's spell as lead singer with the Flamingos. This was a short lived episode in Rob's life and took place in 1966. Although hugely successful on stage it was a less than happy period of Rob's career and he was keen to cut it short. Fate lent a hand when, quite unexpectedly, the group's van full of all the stage equipment, was stolen. Gigs had to be cancelled and by the time the equipment was replaced, Rob had moved on.

Regular visitors to this site will have noticed that I've added some more archive tracks to the DOWNLOADS page. This I will continue doing until all the tracks the boys have ever recorded have been included. A mammoth task!

Nige was the special guest on BBC Cumbria's TONY JAMES show recently. To hear highlights of this broadcast click HERE.

Do keep your e.mails and letters coming in, they are always welcome and I promise I will answer each and every one in due course.

Bye for now. Bill B.
PS Why not visit our 'old news' pages

Christmas 2007
A merry Christmas and a joyous festive season to you all. I hope you all have a wonderful time. Don't forget, if there's anyone you've yet to find a stocking filler for, there's still a few "When Showbusiness is No Business" books left on our shelf. In addition to this all the CD catalogue is still available. What could be a better present for someone who has yet to discover the 'Pigeon/Makepeace' sound?

Many thanks to all of you who spotted that the album "Mouldy Old Music" made it into the Guardian's list of '1,000 albums to hear before you die'. In case you haven't seen the comments, log on to http://music.guardian.co.uk/1000albums/story/0..2213499.00.html . Does anyone know what, "Psychedelic in a rather brown way" is supposed to mean though??

Regular correspondent Dave Ashby of Bury St Edmunds has unearthed a gem. A copy of "The World of Lieutenant Pigeon" has turned up after all these years. He's managed to purchase said rare item and has been good enough to scan and send us pictures of the sleeve. The boys say they only received a test pressing of the album off Decca back in the mid 1970s, and were not even aware that front and back sleeve designs had been completed. They were given the catalogue number SKA 5226 at the time but then the record was deleted, before even the release date. Dave's copy of the back sleeve clearly shows the catalogue number SPA 414. This confirms that the number the boys were given by Decca all those years ago was false. Has anyone else got a copy of this very rare LP? The emergence of this copy is akin to someone finding a 1933 penny as far as we're concerned!

Finally, congratulations to all the many people who emailed us with the answer to the teaser in my last Newsletter. Yes, of course it was Gilbert O'Sullivan who knocked Lt Pigeon off the top spot all those years ago with his song "Clair". Here's a much harder one this time. Which Stavely Makepeace track was released as the B side of two different singles?

All the best Bill B.

November 2007

Another milestone was passed in October. It’s now 35 years since those heady days when the boys spent 4 weeks at the top of the music charts with “Mouldy Old Dough”. Speaking to Rob the other day he said it certainly didn’t seem that long! Something else I learned that day. Apparently it was always customary in those days, (perhaps it still is now?), to send a congratulatory telegram to the artist or band who replaced you at No.1. Certainly the boys did receive theirs off a gracious David Cassidy who’s record, “How Can I be Sure” was toppled by Lieutenant Pigeon. Four weeks later it was Rob, Nigel, Steve and Hilda’s turn to do the honours. Hands up all of you who remember who knocked Lt Pigeon off the top spot, and what was the record?

Back to the reality of today. So far reaction to the new Stavely Makepeace single has been excellent. Many local radio stations up and down the country are playing it and sales & downloads via the web site have exceeded all expectations. If there is a down side it’s that BBC Radio 2 have failed as yet to pick up on it. (So what’s new!) Lots of staunch fans have commented on Lauren Woodward’s fine duet with her dad Rob. If you haven’t heard it yet, click on the downloads button, you’ll see what you’ve been missing!

Another piece of ‘archive enigma’. A number of you have asked for a full list of all the Woodward/Fletcher titles which have been recorded and released by other bands and artistes. This list might be somewhat difficult to comprise. A band from South Africa released a version of “Give me that Pistol” and there was also that magnificent cover of “Coconut Shuffle” by Dennis Matumbi’s outfit. Then there was Slow Dog and Red Fox who both did versions of “Walking Through the Blue Grass”, but there must have been others that Rob and Nigel have either forgotten about or have yet to learn about. For example, Nigel tells me that the Worzells asked for clearance many years ago to put words to “Mouldy Old Dough”. Permission was granted but then nothing more was heard. In my next Newsletter I will try to throw a little more light on these little mysteries.

All for now.

Cheers BB.

PS...LATE NEWS. In time for Christmas the BBC have published a book called "Top of the Pops" by Ian Gittins. It's full of colour pictures, memories and anecdotes from the heydays of the programme. There's even a bit about Lieutenant Pigeon/Stavely Makepeace! It's published by 'BBC Books'. Details can also be found by visiting www.rbooks.co.uk

September 2007

Thirty six years ago this month Rob and Nigel tried an experiment. Together with bass guitarist Steve Johnson, they called on Rob's mum Hilda to join them in a novelty offshoot group from their main 5 piece band Stavely Makepeace. This they would call Lieutenant Pigeon. We all know what happened next!

This month sees the release, (both on CD and as a download), of a new Stavely Makepeace track. This time it features Rob playing with his daughter Lauren. Could this be an omen?

The boys have got a little political with their lyric writing this time. "We want a house" is all about the difficulties young couples experience when trying to get on to the exclusive 'housing ladder'.

Also released are two more new titles, "It's a nanny state" and "Buy one get one free". they can be downloaded individually or bought as one CD single.

Check out our "Music Download" page

Also new for the autumn is the "Lieutenant Pigeon" group on Facebook. Long time friend of the group Simon Shaw has launched this on the internet 'social networking' site to open up LIEUTENANT PIGEON to an even bigger audience. Early days yet but already lots of people have shown an interest. See "Links" or click here http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5740247620 to access this site.

More soon. Bill.

Summer 2007

(If you can call it that!)

Well, half way through another year! Is it my imagination or are the years speeding up? Anyway, as you'll see, a few more tracks have recently been added to our Downloads page. These are some of the earlier Stavely Makepeace recordings. "The Charity Show" harks back to the very early days and was one of the recordings the boys did at the Pyramid Recording Studios in Fulham way back in the late 1960s. Apologies for the rather 'demo' quality of the performance but these were the days of 'one take' backing tracks and very few over dubs. Pyramid boss Graeme Goodall engineered this session himself. He'd just had his first No.1 at the time with Desmond Dekker's "Israelites"

Great news about the film Hot Fuzz. It broke all British box office records in its first few weeks of release. An awful lot of people will be familiar with the Stavely Makepeace track "Slippery Rock" now, though we doubt it will cause a rush on old vinyl copies of the single! Having said that, the track is featured on the film's sound track CD issued by Island Records so a lot more people will discover the band. Let's hope they become curious about the boy's music and buy the Stavely CD album.

A big welcome to all our overseas 'surfers'. We can tell by the amount of emails and downloads coming in from different parts of the world that Lieutenant Pigeon and Stavely Makepeace music has become truly international. I promise I will badger them until every recording they ever did is found and given to me to issue in one form or another.

More soon. Bill B.

Spring 2007

Here's another page from the local 'Coventry Evening Telegraph' about the boys. As you'll see it alludes to the use of "Slippery Rock" in the film Hot Fuzz.

Click to enlarge

More soon. Bill.

Spring 2007

Well, the Stavely Makepeace recording "Slippery Rock" has definitely been included in the sound track of the film HOT FUZZ so that has cheered us all up at 'Fort Pigeon' Seems the film is doing very well at the box office too. Good job we had some good news because February hasn't been the best of months.

At the end of last year we discovered a bogus recording of ''Mouldy Old Dough' included in a compilation 'box set' of CDs of number one hits.It was on sale at Tesco. Our 'team' got on the case and the track will be replaced by the genuine article. However, we had to agree with Tesco that they can sell their existing stock and this includes the bogus version of 'Mouldy'. This means that there will be more people disappointed when they get home and find they haven't got the original. We're sorry but unfortunately this can't be helped. Good news is that very soon the revised CDs will be out with the genuine Lieutenant Pigeon version.

Many thanks also to all of you who pointed out another anomaly. There's another band calling themselves Lieutenant Pigeon who have a CD out called Selected Hits. This is out on Charly Records and was released in 2006. Again we have to say that this is NOT the real Lieutenant Pigeon so beware of falsifications. We hope to have this album removed from Charly's catalogue very soon.

Let's hope that's our run of bad luck done for the rest of the year. We're still smiling anyway!

All for now, Bill

New Year 2007

A very happy new year to you all! Our aim this year will be to dust down as many of the old unreleased Lieutenant Pigeon and Stavely Makepeace tapes as possible and put them on the site for download. Eventually we hope to have every piece of music ever recorded by the boys available. This will not be easy however as some of the recordings have either been lost or tapes have deteriorated in quality over the years. Keep your eye on the 'Downloads' page for further information.

A new film to be released in February has used one of the Stavely Makepeace recordings in its sound track. It's called "Hot Fuzz" and is supposed to be released on February 16th. The Stavely Makepeace track is "Slippery Rock" but before we get too excited, it could still end up on the cutting room floor--even at this late stage.

Now, here's a novelty. Starting on Jan 30th Rob and Nigel will be presenting 3 hours of original music on CD every Tuesday from 7pm at the Old Fire Station building in the centre of Coventry. The Old Fire Station has been converted into a plush bar/club and is now known as The ESCAPE Bar. Rob and Nigel have offered to present this night of music 'still waiting to be discovered'. There's a plethora of undiscovered talent in Britain and this showcase will offer some hope for all those who have recorded tracks which have not yet been picked up by record labels. Come along and judge for yourselves whether or not they are 'hits' or 'misses', and if you have something you have recorded yourself, bring that along too. The lads can't promise to play everything but if the time allows it they will try.

Cheers Bill

Winter 2006

We've received several e.mails during the past few weeks enquiring about the Strapping Jocks CD "We Love the English". Well it's pretty much a one-off thing the boys have put together, mainly for the Scots who have a sense of humour. It's a very tongue-in-cheek recording and would best be described as a chant rather than a song. Apparently doing well north of the border we hear!

Whilst on the subject of Scotland and e.mails, many thanks to Callum in Glasgow and Bruce in Stirling who both told us the article we printed was a feature in the Sunday Post

The downloads page is proving much more popular than we'd ever imagined and consequently we'll be digging up more and more old tracks from the archives. These are obviously the ones in greatest demand. The boys have even found a Christmas song to issue this year. It's called "Christmas Party Time" and is a rocking good song! Don't miss this one.

A very happy 65th birthday to Don Ker who reached this milestone in October. "Seems only yesterday", Nigel said to me recently, "That we thought he might be a bit too old for Stavely Makepeace". He was 27 at the time!!

Many thanks to all those of you who have informed us of the Lieutenant Pigeon videos which have appeared on www.youtube.com The second one, an appearance on 'The Arrows' TV show in 1976, featured the song "Goodbye" and ironically marked the last time the band would play together on British TV. Just for the anoraks, it was recorded in Manchester on May 25th 1976 and was transmitted on ITV in all regions of the country on June 8th 1976. None of the boys saw the transmission as they were away working at the time so this 'youtube' broadcast was very welcome and brought back lots of memories.

Have a very happy Christmas.

Bill.

Autumn 2006

Those of you who regularly visit the downloads page will be well aware of the steady increase in available tracks. Sales have exceeded all our expectations so we will do as a lot of you have suggested, put some of the early Stavely and Pigeon tracks on. If any of you have queries about any of these recordings, please do not hesitate to click the CONTACT button on the web site and drop us a note. for those of you who still prefer the 'hard' copy, (ie CD), we will endeavour to provide this service for as long as possible.

No doubt all of you will now know of the sad demise of the BBC TV programme Top of the Pops. Newspapers from far and wide have been phoning the boys for their reactions. Lots has already been said and written about the end of this 'institution', but both Rob and Nigel privately confided in me that they're surprised the show lasted as long as it did! Coincidentally the very last broadcast was July 30th 2006--exactly 36 years to the day since the show they performed on with Stavely Makepeace was transmitted, 30/7/1970!

News soon about a controversial new recording with a distinct Scottish flavour from the boys very soon. Keep logging on!!

Bill.

PS... This cutting arrived at our office in August. Can anyone throw any light on what publication it appeared in please?

Summer 2006

It's now 5 years since the boys released OPUS 400. Only two out of the thousands of you who bought the CD correctly worked out that it is a musical representation of a dream. I can now reveal that Ted Kosys and Graeme Vine were the only ones who solved this enigma! Congratulations to you both.

The record begins with our 'dreamer' drifting in and out of consciousness and remembering an old dog he once owned called Grey Chops. The mixture of nonsense thoughts and lucid memories continue until slumber arrives and 'Hill Rain' takes over. This is interrupted briefly when he wakes up realising he 'Don't wanna be a wannabe'!

Soon he's deep in sleep again and there's more 'Hill Rain'. From now on it's a succession of short and long dreams, sometimes merging into each other and often repeating a theme. Gradually the night wears on and bit by bit the dreams take on a more logical pattern, all having some link to recent events in the dreamers life.

The longest dream is the last of the night. Suddenly the waking hours approach and the mind is awash with snippets of the night's experiences in a cacophony of sonic mayhem. Now comes the biggest clue of all to those of you who have been left wondering for up to 5 years what it's all meant. The alarm clock goes off.

He's awake.

The silly bit right at the end is the mind clearing all memories of the night's experiences in preparation for the new day. Within seconds logical thought is back.

We still have a few copies of OPUS 400 left should any of you who missed it want a copy.

Other News

The 35 track double CD "THE TRIP" (Universal Music 9832862) compilation by Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey, is on sale now and apparantly doing very well. On it is the Lieutenant Pigeon track "The Villain". It also contains some excellent tracks from over the years, all favourites of Jarvis and Steve.
Bill B

May 2006

Here's a first for us! This is a copy of the article which recently appeared in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. The newspaper have been kind enough to allow us to reprint it.

Click to enlarge

Music editor Pete Chambers, who regularly writes for the newspaper, produced this fine article about the band.

Other news, on May 7th, (ironically Nige's birthday!), Channel 4 TV transmitted their "50 Greatest" show which featured Lieutenant Pigeon. "Mouldy Old Dough" was voted in at No 25 in the all time greats. Another ironic coincidence, it was in No 25 Kingsway where all the great Stavely and Pigeon tracks were made!

The Jarvis Cocker compilation CD is now in the shops, and by all accounts is doing very well. It's called 'The Trip' and features the Lt Pigeon track "The Villain". All in all not a bad start to 2006!

Thanks to all of you who have commented on the "Binj'd Rinkas" CD. Yes it's weird, but many of you have recognised that it's an innovative step towards the future of music. Next release will probably take a step back towards a more conventional approach however.

My apologies to those of you who have inquired about the "Download" facility, this will be available as soon as I possibly can implement it.

More soon. Happy Spring! (albeit a rather wet one where we are!) Bill B.

March 2006

A BRAND NEW SOUND AND A BRAND NEW NAME!

At last we can announce the launch of the first three tracks using the boy's revolutionary new sound!

"INDIGO AND BLACK CIGARETTE LIGHTER" c/w "The Ghost Express" & "Big Boat Confidential", (SMA 1701), heralds the arrival of a controversial and spectacular new method of record production Rob and Nigel have been experimenting with for some time.

As it represents a totally original concept in sound recording they've decided on a totally new name to front it, The BINJ'D RINKAS.

Don't worry, this does not spell the end for all you diehard Lieutenant Pigeon fans. More Pigeon tracks will be issued later in the year.

Details of how to obtain the three new tracks on CD will appear as per usual on the sales page, but here's another surprise. Details of how to download these tracks direct from the web site will also be announced soon--- well everyone else is doing it so why don't we!

BB.

New Year 2006

Once again a very happy new year to you all from myself, Rob & Nigel, Richard our distributor, secretary Zoe and the entire washing up staff. Seems only 5 minutes since I was doing all this 12 months ago! Great news. The boys have put together a brand new CD for the brand new year--and it's under a brand new name! Keep an eye on these pages around Easter. Talking of Easter, look out for a Channel 4 TV programme called "50 Greatest One Hit Wonders". Although Pigeon were not one hit wonders they have been included in the show and Nigel has already recorded a piece for it. Let's hope they use it now! Jarvis Cocker's compilation CD also comes out around that time and guess what, he's been as good as his word and included on it a Lieutenant Pigeon track. The Villain.

Christmas saw a visit from the urbane Mr Steve Tayton who now resides in France. He's ageing like a good French wine and continues to produce fine jazz music. Visit his site at www.sibeliusmusic.com

Speak to you in the Spring.
Bill B