In 1983 I recorded a version of The Beatles song "You Won't See Me" with a view to releasing it as a solo record. I had recently bourght a synthesizer and recorded the whole thing myself with synthesizer and drum machine, which was still quite a new technology at the time. This was done at Don Larking's Studio in Luton, (I didn't realise at the time that I would be joining Don's Company when Guys n' Dolls Split). When it was finished I went to Ludo who was completely un-enthusiastic and unhelpful, which brought our relationship to it's lowest ebb. Ludo was supposed to be our manager and a manager's job is to guide the career of a group or artist. This Ludo never did, he was a very good booking agent and kept us going with good quality work during our time in Holland but as a manager he was sadly lacking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took the record around myself and negotiated a good deal with an advance from "Dureco" (Dutch Record Company) who released the record a few weeks later. Meanwhile Guys n' Dolls recording situation had changed yet again as we had now been put with yet another production team Pete Souer and Martin Douser to record a song called "Glory To The Beautiful People" which was a latin american type song a bit like Kid Creole and the Coconuts. This was another song which I am afraid I did not like and which was not a hit.

In November I received a call from Chai the promoter who had taken us to Thailand in the late seventies. He had been trying to track us down for months and eventually managed to get hold of my number in Holland. He wanted us to go out to Thailand for some more shows.

In February 1984 we set off for our third trip to Thailand with a new band of Dutch musicians led by Rosie's dutch boyfriend at the time Albert Boekholt.I was able to take Lynne and Wayne and it was a great trip and once again Chai gave us a few days Holiday in Pattaya when we had finished our shows.

In march our turbulent recording situation took another turn when we were teamed up with Richard de Bois and Peter Van Asten and recorded a song called "I feel like Crying" and in May we travelled to Seoul in Korea to sing this song in a Festival, in place of the Dutch all girl group "The Dollydots" who had to pull out of the event. We travelled out from Paris on an on Air France flight and after we had been airborne a short while noticed there were photographers taking pictures of a Japanese man sitting across the aisle from me. It turned out he was Issei Sagawa, known as "The Japanese Cannibal" who in 1981 had murdered his Dutch Girlfriend in Paris and eaten her. He was being repatriated to Japan, why I never did find out, and was accompanied on the flight by two French Detectives. He had the most evil looking eyes I had ever seen and when we discovered who he was felt quite uneasy for the rest of the flight. There were crowds of photographers and reporters at Tokyo, not for us, but for him. He was featured some time ago in a TV programme about cannabalism and today he is a free man and quite a celebrity in Japan.

Richard de Bois and Peter Van Asten came with us on the trip and as each act had to supply a judge, Peter was chosen. There was much corruption, among the judges (you vote for me and I'll vote for you) but Peter must have been better than the others because in the end we came away with the Gold Prize. When we returned home we had a letter thanking us for taking part and saying we would be welcome back in Korea anytime as long as we didn't bring Peter van Asten with us next time.

In september 1984 Richard de Bois and Peter van Asten came up with a song that was quite a departure for Guys n' Dolls. I thought it was great and wrote the lyrics making it quite biographical about Guys n' Dolls first ten years. We recorded the song "Phoney People" in October and it was to be the last single Guys n' Dolls ever released.

I spent the rest of 1984 commuting between England and Holland performing between two to three shows a week.

Click on photo to enlarge, plus more photos.

1983