Young Bucks in Fancy Shirts

BIOGRAPHY AUTUMN 1975 The band is formed in Newcastle by Pat Rafferty and Tony Wadsworth. First gig is the University Fine Art Dept Xmas Party. Still without a name, inspiration comes from Bogart's “Key Largo” - “I’m looking for a couple of young bucks in fancy shirts who busted out of prison”. SUMMER 1976 Band is instantly popular. John Glynn moves to London and joins proto punks ‘X Ray Spex’. His replacement is Archie Brown, sax player and songwriter with local band ‘Pylon’. Band starts playing Monday nights at the “Cooperage” which is sold out for the next two years. Summer ’77 Tim Wilder is replaced by Seb Shelton. Band records its first single “Get your feet back on the Ground” which becomes single of the week in ‘Sounds’. Summer ’78 band moves to London and signs to Tom Watkins, later to manage ‘Pet Shop Boys’, ‘Bros’ and ‘East 17’. SPRING 1979 Steve Brooks quits Spring ’79 to become a dragonfly expert at the Natural History Museum, and is replaced by Geoff Lincoln. Seb Sheldon dons a mohair suit and joins ‘Secret Affair’ with whom he has a couple of hit singles and a hit album. He subsequently exchanges his suit for torn dungarees and joins Kevin Rowland in ‘Dexies Midnight Runners’, has a worldwide hit with ‘Come on Eileen’ and hit album ‘Too Rye Aye’. He is replaced by Geoff Rich, now with ‘Status Quo’. Archie becomes lead vocalist and another sax player is brought in, Dave Winthrop formerly of ‘Supertramp’ and ‘Chicken Shack’. By the summer of ’79 Thatcher is Prime Minister, Pat is not seeing eye to eye with Tom Watkins, Archie is “upset” and forms a new group. Tony is biding his time. The band’s latest gig is Cirencester Agricultural College in July ’79 supporting ‘Slade’. SUMMER 1985 Summer ’79 Pat returns to Newcastle to work as a musician in a theatre company. He then joins ‘Arthur 2 Stroke and the Chart Commandos’, then ‘Dust on the Needle’ and ‘The Mick Whitaker Band’. The bass in all these is provided by Ian Thompson. Tony works briefly in ‘The Savoys’ with Paul Martinez (Robert Plant Band) and Pick Withers (‘Dire Straits’) but quickly starts his meteoric rise in the music business working for ‘Logo’, ‘RCA’, and ‘EMI’, which culminates in him becoming MD for ‘Capitol’ and ‘Parlaphone’ UK. Archie forms the ‘Upset’, has one single and is approached by Kevin Rowlandless Dexies Midnight Runners. He joins the band as singer, records one album under the name ‘The Bureau’ and tours America with ‘The Pretenders’. They have two hit singles in Australia. The band split and Archie joins forces with Dave Cairns formerly of ‘Secret Affair’ and they form ‘The Flag’. They record one album for ‘Skotti Bros’ in the USA. In the summer of ’85 Pat, Archie and Tony meet at a mutual friend’s wedding and the following day meet to record on a portastudio. The sound is instant and during Autumn ’85 and spring ’86 ‘Bring me the Head of Jerry Garcia’ is recorded at Elephant Studio in London. Ian Thompson and Geoff Lincoln provide bass, and Ray Laidlaw and Tony Cook drums. AUTUMN 1987 The 'Jerry Garcia' album is released in early '87. Tony continues his ascent in the music business, Pat is working as a lawyer in Newcastle. In the summer of '87 Archie is spotted busking on the London Underground by German artist Leni Hoffmann. She loves the music and arranges a short German tour. Within a week of arriving the band is offered three separate record deals and signs to Dortmund based 'Plane'. Two albums are released 'Jerry Garcia' and 'Rafferty, Rafferty Fish' and the band tours Germany extensively. Tony can't make the tours and is replaced by Pat Cunningham, Irish guitarist/songwriter who played with Archie in the 'Bureau' and subsequently by Paul Rose, a Geordie guitar hero, later to be voted guitarist of the year in 'Guitarist' magazine. SUMMER 1990 By 1990 both Geoff Lincoln and Archie had relocated to Newcastle. Tony Cook is replaced on drums by Steve Dolder and then by Neil Ramshaw, formerly of '21 Strangers' and who played with Pat in 'The Mick Whitaker Band'. Due to difficulties in replacing Tony Wadsworth and his various successors on guitar, Archie buys a Fender Telecaster and starts playing the lead guitar. Geoff Lincoln leaves to join 'Kathryn Tickell' and is replaced by Kenny Potter and then Ian Thompson who had been playing with 'Sid Griffin and the Coal Porters' in America. To further complicate matters Jon Payne persuades Archie to form a London band. Jon Payne produced an album using people from both bands, and in summer 1993 "Young Bucks in Fancy Shirts" is released by Chris Donald of VIZ.