The Jimmy Taylor Story

THE JIMMY TAYLOR STORY
Jimmy was born in Paddington in Sydney in June 1942. In 1950 the family moved to Mascot and Jimmy started learning to play the piano at age 9. His mother was a fan of the black Jamaican piano player Winifred Atwell who was enormously popular at the time in Australia.

At the age of 13, Jimmy wagged school and went to George Street in the city to see the film Rock Around the Clock and was totally mesmerised by Bill Haley and the Comets, Freddie Bell and the Bellboys and the Platters. Other films such as Don't knock the Rock and Rock Rock Rock followed and opened his ears to black R and B, notably Little Richard Chuck Berry and Fats Domino which utilised piano rather than Haley's rockabilly swing formula.

In the latter part of 1957 Jimmy joined his first band with Warren Williams on guitar & vocals and another local Mascot lad, Bert Gobbe on drums. Soon after Ron Patton joined on flute which was rapidly swapped for a C melody sax to go with a new humorous name The Squares. Their first gig was for the Mascot Football Club at the Mascot Scout Hall. This Friday rock'n'roll night packed the scout hall so Promoter Harold Hagerty moved the show to the larger Masonic Temple Hall on Botany Road.

Through the first half of 1958 the band continued to play and evolve. Ron Patton left (going to join Dig Richards and the R'Jays) to be replaced by Errol France and his B flat sax. The the band added Des Ebenjana on Electric Guitar and a little later Al Schwer on acoustic bass.(pictured)However "attitude" differences between Jimmy and several of the other 5 Squares caused him to leave.

Jimmy had met Leon Isackson,an aspiring drummer at the Squares' dance. Leon told Jimmy that he played great but the other squares were bullshit, and that they should start a new band together, .(Jim & Leon pictured at Maroubra in 1958 plotting to form a new band). which they did, roping in a bouncer from the Masonic Squares dance called Clive Glover. Calling themselves the Thunderbirds they did a few gigs. This project was only shortlived because Jimmy recived a phonecall from a guy called Laurie Rix who had a band called the Beatnix. Laurie was a Jerry Lee Lewis fan and the addition of Jimmy on Piano let him add Lewis songs such as Great Balls of Fire, Breathless etc to the repertoire. Laurie also now called himself "Laurie R Lee" (after Jerry Lee) and the band was renamed the Leemen. When the band came to the notice of Johnny O'Keefe and Laurie was booked on Six O'Clock Rock TV show, O'Keefe thought that Laurie R Lee sounded Chinese and shortened it to Lonnie Lee.

In September 1958 Jimmy and Leon went to the Leichhardt Police Boys Club to see Johnny O'Keefe and the Dee Jays. Johnny was staging one of his talent quests that night and a guy by the name of Ray Hough got up and sang 20 Flight Rock. Jimmy and Leon were impressed thinking that Ray sounded and looked as good as Eddie Cochrane, and invited him to form a band. This new trio began to rehearse under the name Ray Hoff and the Off Beats. (Pictured: Ray Hoff waiting in the wings for his spot on Six O'Clock Rock 1959)

They soon added Laurie Skews who had an electric bass he had built himself (it was referred to as "the paddle" because of its shape). The band did some gigs but Laurie was unreliable. Jimmy and Leon bought the paddle bass and taught Johnny Ryan (Ryanny) who was Leon's best friend and always hanging around anyway, to play some basic riffs. Ryanny being a violin player, picked up boogie and blues bass quickly. The band had no regular guitarist, but one night they invited Sonny Neville (Johnny Rebb's guitar player) for a jam. Sonny bought along Darby Wilson, fresh down from Queensland, who joined to complete the lineup. Darby later caused some friction in the band because he had aspirations to be a star in his own right.

One of the most popular venues at this time was the Surryville dance where Johnny Devlin and the (NZ) Devils had a residency. A talent quest was held there to give the winning band a recording contract with Teen Records and support act to Johnny Devlin and his other shows. In August 1959 the Off Beats won the Surryville talent quest. No contract with Teen Records eventuated, but the band(with the addition of NZ alto sax player, Dave Cross) did get to play behind Devlin at venues where he was advertised as doing a guest spot, including the Sydney Town Hall where Ray Hoff stole the show from Devlin. These events caused Devlin's band to fall out with John Collins, Devlin's Manager and owner of Teen Records, and the band quit. Collins assembled a new Devils really fast by asking Taylor and Isackson from the Off Beats to be part of the new band. Jimmy said "yes.", Leon said "No Thanks!" as he had just got an offer for more money to join Dig Richards and the R'Jays. So the Off Beats bit the dust. Darby Wilson and Ryanny joined Lonnie Lee's new Leemen with ex Devil's guitarist, Peter Baisley. Hoff did some appearances backed by the new Devils before forming a new Offbeats who included Barry (the beast) Lewis on Drums from the R'Jays! Of the previous Devils only drummer Tony Hopkins returned to the fold, with the lineup completed by Fred "Flooby" Lawrence on electric bass, Neville Chamerlain on guitar and Warren T Smith on Sax.

This new lineup backed Devlin on the Lee Gordon Stadium big shows. The band also provided backup for some of the visiting stars. The first Stadium show they did was the Fabian show on which the Devils backed Lonnie Lee as well as Devlin.(pictured at Stadium with Lonnie Lee and Neville Chamberlain gtr.) Next was the Crash Craddock/ Johnny Restivo/ Floyd Robinson/ Santo and Johnny/ Duane Eddy show. The Devils backed Robinson as well as Devlin on this time. Jimmy remembers that on this show, towards the end of their bracket, Devlin leapt off the piano, and on landing sent the Johnny and Santo's steel guitar flying off the stage, causing quite a riot when they ran on stage to commence their spot to find no guitar! Jimmy also recalls that when Duane Eddy was playing his bracket, the bassist AL Casey, who had borrowed Flooby Fred's instrument, snapped the neck off. Fortunately Duane was making so much noise from his guitar that hardly anyone in the audience seemed to notice Al's predicament until another bass was produced a couple of numbers later!

The 'new' Devils did get to record for Teen which was owned by John Collins. (pictured) Koala Bear/Turn the Lights Out Johnny was the first effort but it did not feature Hopkins who could not get on with Smith and left the band. Catfish Purser of the Dee Jays did the session for this single. Devy Grace (ex Teddy Lee and the Stoneagers) replaced Hopkins for subsequent recordings and live work. Perhaps the most interesting record cut at this time was Wicked Wicked Woman/I'm Gonna Love You credited to Jonny Devlin and the Devils . The session took place at Festival's Pyrmont Studios and the players were actually Jimmy and Fred Lawrence with internationally famous musos Hal Blaine on Drums and Scotty Turnbull on guitar, who were in town as members of Tommy Sand's backing band The Sharks for a Stadium Show. Note that earlier Devlin/Devils Teen issues were not by this new "Aussie" Devils. As Lee Gordon's Stadium shows tapered off, Devlin became more involved in the industry rather than performance (songwriting/management) and the band was told by Collins in late 1960 that they were no longer needed.

Jimmy joined a new band formed by Johnny Burns the drummer from Johnny Rebb's Rebels, who had split. After a short spell with this combo with a forgotten name at the Bognor Hotel in the city, Jimmy joined another group called George Karren and the Countdowns. Karren was a Crash Craddock soundalike who was making some appearances on TV including Ken Sparkes'Show and Johnny O'Keefe's show. Jimmy also guested at the Belmore Police Boys Club with Booka Hyland whose band also included Devy Grace from the Devils.

In late 1961 Jimmy got a call to rejoin Devlin in a new band called Johnny Devlin's Twisters, which was an attempt to cash in on the twist craze which was then sweeping the country (Chubby Checker toured Australia in early January 1962). The band was Taylor on bass, Mick Jurd on guitar(ex Trevor Ford and the Thunderbirds), Freddy Kritz on sax, Warren T Smith on Sax and Gary xx on drums. This group played a variety of venues owned by Lee Gordon in Sydney such as The Peppermint Lounge and The Twisitin' Coffee Shop, often as support to Di and the Peppermints. Diane and her band were a bunch of competent but unkown yanks brought out by Gordon. Di would get down into the audience to teach them to twist, and proved very popular, particularly at lunchtime shows at Grace Bros stores. The Devlin Twisters were featured live on the Live at the Peppermint Lounge EP released in March 1962. When the twist craze died away, almost as rapidly as it had sprung up, the band (minus Jurd who was replaced by Allan Ingham) went north to provide backing for Slim Dusty and Johnny Chester at the Brisbane Showgrounds.(pictured) Chester was having some success outside of Melbourne despite radio airplay difficulties, but did not actually get on stage to sing live because of laryngitis. The band did back up Slim, but the accomodation they were placed in was so filthy that they all returned to Sydney as soon as possible.

On his return to Sydney Jimmy joined Trevor Ford and the Staccatos who had a residency at the Rockdale Grand Hotel, once again sharing a stage with Fred Lawrence.When Fred left Trevor took up the bass with Ross Evans still on the drums, they moved to the Enfield Boulevard Hotel at Strathfield (pictured)and continued playing as Trevor Ford and the Falcons for several years.