7 - Let’s All Rock Together… Again!

1988 found Peter Davenport with no regular band, and the idea to re-form the Stargazers was floating in the air. In November, he did what Ricky Lee Brawn had done 8 years before, and called him to talk about the possibility to gig together again. Ricky jumped at the idea and immediately agreed. Danny quickly followed the movement but neither John nor Anders was available, both being busy at the moment with their respective bands.
Clive Osborne (Clive and the Clearnotes, Clive’s Jive 5, Dynamite, the Blue Cats etc.) agreed to fill in on sax. It was, after all, a logical choice as, remember, it was Clive who gave Peter’s contact to Ricky in 1980.
For the bass, they remembered Tim Purkess, bassist for Red Hot, a popular Kentish band.

The Stargazers’ 1988 line-up
Left to right : Chris Gardner, Danny Brittain, Peter Davenport, Ricky Lee Brawn, Clive Osborne and Tim Purkess.

Purkess discovered Rock’n’Roll in the early seventies when an uncle gave him his old radiogram: “I discovered, quite accidentally (after knocking something against the side of the ‘gram) that it was full of records in these enclosed compartments at the side. I found lots of fantastic stuff in there, including several early Bill Haley 45s. I didn’t have a clue how to play, but from that moment I knew I had to learn.”

In his teens he would kick about with various friends who were also getting into the music and things progressed from there: “After a stint in a little Broadstairs based Skiffle/Rockabilly outfit called The Sonics (I was very pleased with that name - until I discovered it had already been used!), I switched to Red Hot. We had a strong local following and occasionally ventured up to London to play venues like The Old Tiger’s Head and The Duke of Clarence, etc. but we were still very much a Ted band (firmly stuck in the ‘70s cast).” Of course, being on the rockin’ scene for a while, Purkess knew well about the Stargazers and though he didn’t see them live during their first stint, they made quite an impression on the musicians of Red Hot: “Then one day The Stargazers appeared on the scene and to our amazement, they were actually doing things in very much the same way they had been done back in the ‘50s. We’d always assumed that was pretty much impossible! Needless to say, we were impressed enough with their sound (and look) to re-model our own band along similar lines - although our old style always shone through in places and we certainly had a heavier vibe than than The Stargazers.” The bassist continues “We would buy their records pretty much as soon as they were released (sometimes to plunder their arrangements for our own set!). Once we even stepped in (or so we believed) as a replacement for The Stargazers at Nero’s nightclub on Ramsgate seafront, when they failed to show up. It actually made the papers! This was in 1982 and I now strongly suspect the promoter had made the whole thing up in order to sell out the night, then “save the day” with a local band when the headliners failed to show up. Years later, when I mentioned this to Danny and Pete, they assured me that no contract to play at Nero’s had ever been written or even discussed.”

But the first real contact between Tim and the band – or at least a part of it - took place at Colin Pryce Jones’ (The Rapiers) wedding, back in the mid 1980s where Peter Davenport was also invited. Red Hot was playing at the reception and at some point Davenport came on stage to guest on Haley’s Goofin’ Around. After the gig they took some time to discuss “It was clear to me then that Pete and I were reading from the same page.”
He pursues “A couple of years later, after things had gone quite badly wrong within the ranks of my own band, Red Hot, I got together with “Big Al” Mumbray and Simon Presley (both ex Red Hot), plus Mal Gray and Steve Murray. The idea was that a new act would arise from the ashes of the old and as such, we named this line up Phoenix. The only thing we lacked was a lead guitarist and after trying out a few of Mal Gra’ys mates I suggested Pete Davenport. (…) Mal wasn’t keen because he considered Pete’s style to be too jazzy, but we invited him down anyway. Mal and Steve never showed up for that session, but Pete brought Ricky Lee Brawn with him, and we spent the best part of a day jamming. So, Pete, Ricky, Al, Simon and I along with «Little Shaun» O’Keeffe, of Keytones fame pounded through a wide variety of Haley/Jodimars/Treniers/Prima, style numbers - and loved every minute of it. To my mind, the sounds we made were far more encouraging than the over rehearsed, over produced and decidedly under-whelming results of our work with Mal. Needless to say, the Phoenix was still-born, and quickly sank back into its ashes. One thing led to another and pretty soon we were all regretting the Mal Gray misadventure on many, many levels.”
Totally disillusioned, Purkess put Rock’n’Roll behind him and moved to Wales in the autumn of 1988. It didn’t take long for Davenport to track down his new phone number and within a mere two weeks of moving, he had been hired to play with the freshly re-formed Stargazers.

Another phone call was given to Chris Gardner who, this time was free to join the band on piano.