The Stargazers story

Peter leaves…

The lack of success in the charts of Hey Marie was not the only problem the band had to face. Most of the recording made for the album during the March session was rejected by the label considering it as “sub-standard”. It was a big disappointment, especially for Peter who was one of the musical driving forces of the combo and had put a lot in that album in term of songwriting and production (“the recordings up to that time had all been self-produced, with Peter being quite a dominant influence” recalls Anders). In addition, in the recent months they had experienced problems with their previous manager, Bob England, which had personally affected Peter quite badly.
And as cliché as it may sound, some musical differences also appeared. As Anders puts it “Musically some of us felt we had to try a slightly new direction if the record company didn’t think what we had done so far was good enough and Peter was very reluctant to move forward in this way, which created a lot of tensions within the band.”

“Back then Peter could be described as an extreme character. I like to think that the rest of us were less constrained and musically more open minded. I guess it is inevitable that five strong characters in our situation would have different ideas musically. This was certainly the case with us! As our career progressed our influences became wider and John and Danny were writing songs with a broader appeal. Peter wasn’t happy with our modified musical direction and also with our manager Bob England who Pete didn’t like at all!” adds Ricky.
In April that year, Peter actually refused to appear with the band on a TV show on the BBC, called “Something Else”, meaning that only John, Danny, Anders and Ricky played live on national TV with no lead guitarist. Any exposure on national TV is incredibly important for any band, so to have to appear without the guitarist was quite a disaster… Peter explained that the reason he wouldn’t play with the band on the TV show, was that it was filmed on a Sunday, which he claimed conflicted with his religious beliefs.
The band carried on playing gigs, but the spirit weren't good. On June 21st they made a session for Capital Radio, recording Caldonia, Rock Lomond and possibly Teenage Party.

They dedicated the first part of the summer to rehearse new material and record demos for the album. Four of them later appeared on Rock that Boogie in 1993: Fat Man (Ricky Lee Brawn), The Gleam In Your Eyes (Anders Janes), Time Goes By (Danny Brittain), Flying High (Anders Janes).
And all of a sudden, in late July 1982, when the band was about to return in studio to redo their album, Peter announced he was leaving. It came like a shock and the rest of the band was pretty pissed off, not only because he left without notice nor replacement, but also because they had booked a Christian owned studio (ICC) especially to please him instead of the CBS studio they knew well and where they had cut their previous sessions.

After leaving the Stargazers, Davenport kept himself busy. He briefly returned in the Dynamite Band, playing steel guitar for a while and then formed Peter Davenport and the Roof Raisers. This combo allowed him to achieve his vision of a Bill Haley/Jodimars band without external influences that led him to leave the Stargazers. The first line-up included Neil Barnet (vocals), Russell Miller (double bass) John Tuck (drums) and Chris Gardner on piano and sax. They were later joined by Jacko Buddin (Dynamite, and later vocalist with the Comets). They recorded two tracks at University of East Anglia concert hall/studio in Norwich for Northwood Records that appeared on the compilation album “Big Noise from Northwood” in 1985. Both Bop A Doo A Doo Bop (“one of my silly songs” as Davenport once called it) and Let’s Lose Those Blues were Davenport originals. These two songs are the only recording legacy of this combo and they disbanded around the first half of 1985.
Around the same time he also produced some songs for the then young rockabilly/rockin’ blues combo Red Hot’n’Blue, guesting on guitar and piano too. You can find two songs on Big Noise from Northwood and a third one on their debut album “Wait’n’See” (Northwood).
He also appeared with the Rock’n’roll Prisoners and the Trailblazers but nothing materialized on wax.

In part 5, the band finds a new guitarist and finally records its debut album.

Missed an episode? Read PART 3 here.