Why did I leave the Richard Kent Style (a well known band), a beautiful girlfriend and head out to Beirut with a bunch of under-rehearsed misfits? Because I was dumb, that's why!

I guess there WAS a little more to it . I was fed up with the cabaret and more cabaret, chicken-in a basket scene that the o'l Kent Style were doing and needed to just do ANYTHING.

I had known Kirk for some time and kind of knew that it would all end in disaster. Nevertheless, I went ahead into one of the most amazing adventures of my life, some of it good, most of it really bad.

After a little rehearsal the "band" got into pretty good shape, we started well, morale was high and there were quite a few girls. But a 3 month trip turned into a 6 month nightmare.

The Israelis decided to lay a commando raid on the airport , and blew up 6 Middle East Airline jets. Things started to deteriorate somewhat after that, especially the money . On our arrival we naively surrendered our passports and it was decided that our option of going home after 3 months was not an option after all, so it turned into a mandatory 6 month gig! We were trapped!

Eventually we left literally with our tails between our legs via a 3 day hellish layover in Sofia Bulgaria before we were able to board our twin-prop Bulgarian Airlines flight back to London.

Meanwhile I had been ripped off by Kirk, ripped off by the agent, ripped off by the club owner of Barbarellas, where we played as an organ trio and been arrested at gunpoint by the police, and jailed overnight in a Beirut Jail with organist Pete Marsh. A little visa expiration "problem" seemed to be the trouble!

The Lebanese police were out looking for Israeli "spies " after their beloved airport had been violated and we seemed to be the closest thing, as we were pulled from our cab on our way back to our apartment after the gig early one morning and ushered into a jeep with machine guns trained on us.

Naturally , the "fine " to get us out of jail was deducted from our pay by the clubowner! Aaahh the memories! One day I hope to tell the 'Rat -in- the-oven' story.

Club Rasputine .Beirut, Lebanon Oct 68

Christine Delap - club owner

February 1969
The flight layover from hell - Sofia, Bulgaria

Still In Sofia Bulgaria Feb 1969 .
Kirk St James, guitarist Les Crompton and drummer Ray Gibson.

1970 Kirk St James single

Kirk moved up from Birmingham to Rochdale after he appeared on Your a Star along with three female backing singers / dancers and a very talented little known to us guitarist who went by the name of Richard "Dick " Tandy.

They teamed up with the members of the Pennine Five which included myself, plus Doug Whalley on trumpet who along with Gordon Stuart formed the front line.  After rehearsing for several weeks at the school in Whitworth we reached a stage where we were ready for our opening gig.  Sadly there was a rift between the two agents who could not agree on the venue and fee and as we had to work to survive we broke away to reform with Tony "Faz " Fallows on Rhytham and Vocals, Gordon Stuart on Tenor Sax Richard Tandy on Bass and myself on Drums / Vocals.

We worked the Yorkshire scene semi pro for about twelve months during which time Kirk returned to Birmingham. Richard Tandy continued to work with the group whilst working as a salesman at Baker Motors on Oldham Road Rochdale until we disbanded and Richard returned to the Midlands to join the E.L.O. on keyboards.

Ken " Kacy " Charlesworth
27/9/10

During the late 70's-mid 80's I was the bass guitarist of Coventry based band 'Paris' (Tim Constable - keyboards, Steve Roberts - guitar, Ted Duggan - Drums, & Pat Millar - vocals. We entered a competition at Warwick University, and was eventually discovered/'found' by Kirk, who had formed his own management company, '80's promotions.

We signed a 5 year management deal with Kirk, and at that time he was living in Roehampton, London. After working with Kirk for a year or two, things didn't work out. We had recorded (independantly) a Christmas song, which Kirk hated, and we eventually parted company.

Last thing I heard of him he was working as a driving instructor in London.

Fran Pettifer
7/1/11