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Steve
Benbow |
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********** My memories of Steve go back to the start of skiffle. I remember going to Potter's Music Shop in south Croydon to purchase my first "quality" guitar and there was Steve sitting by the counter playing his guitar. This was my first meeting with him and I was enthralled. Just before leaving the shop I asked him to play my new guitar, so that I could say I had heard it played decently at least once. Months later, I formed my own skilffle group, The Vandalis, and took additional lessons from Steve. Whilst doing a gig at the Park Lane Jazz Club, Steve tuned up and we were honoured to have him sit in with us. I have many happy memories of those days in Croydon and was so sad to hear of the passing of this great and generous man. David Hunt ********** I am terribly
sad to learn of Steve's passing. He gave me my first gigs, at the Skiffle
Cellar, when I arrived in London. Without his encouragement and pushing
I would never have made it in the business. Even today I include his
version of 'Misirlou' in many of my shows. The standard of guitar playing
up in Heaven is surely enriched by his arrival. John Pearse. ********** I have very fond memories of Steve Benbow, and was most sad to hear he had passed away. In the late sixties I was a very young girl singer/guitarist and floor singing at the local clubs. It was here that I met Steve, and without his encouragement I may never have continued. He took me 'under
his wing' and gave up much of his spare time teaching me to perfect
my guitar work. We discovered that despite the age gap our voices blended
well and we began to sing in two part harmony. ********** I first met Steve in a tin shed euphemistically called the billet as a farrier in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps on October 10th 1950. The shed was where we going to live of and on for the next three years and was in a place called Moascar in the Canal Zone of Egypt, This was next to a town called Ismalia by lake Timsa on the Suez canal. I was allocated (if you can call it that) a bed space next to Steve. Over the years we got to know each other very well, in fact our friendship lasted up until the day he died and beyond I think. A couple of months after I arrived Steve saw a man called Rolland Acarris playing a guitar in Ismalia, and was really taken with it, he immediately negotiated some lessons with the Rolland, and so it started. Of course he had to get a guitar, which he did for the princely sum of 6 Egyptian Pounds. At his first lesson he found out that it was not a very good one so sold it and got a better one recommended by the teacher, a “Catania”.. In the mean time I was taken with the bug and bought a similar instrument, and so away we went into the local music world. Our Army pay at that time was 28 shillings (1.40p) per week reduced after stoppages to 25 shillings (1.25p), so in order to pay 50 Egyptian piasters for a 1 hour lesson we decided to have a lesson between us, each of us kicking in 5/- or 25 pence. We worked at our jobs from 6 am to 1 p.m. and after lunch (Tiffin) had the rest of the day except for an hour in the evening to ourselves, so after a time well over 6 hours practice was the norm. How the others in the unit, all 11 of them put up with it I don’t know, but they did, perhaps they thought we were tougher than we in fact were and left us alone. So Steve and I were on our way, in Steve’s case it was to take over the rest of his life, while I though intensely interested in Latin style music, really used it to pass the time and lean while I had the chance. After a couple of weeks of intensive practice we started playing simple tunes, mostly Italian or Greek folk music, which I and Steve liked. In fact these suited Steve with his flair for languages, so much so that by the end of three years he was fluent in French, Maritian Creole, Greek, Italian and especially so in Arabic. When we had a couple of months of intensive practise we seemed to be good enough to perform in public, we were rubbish really looking back on it, but good enough for in Sgt’s mess it seems, but then they had very few other options. After about a year we were asked to perform with a concert party, very much like “It Aint Half Hot Mum” and there are so many similarities that I wouldn’t be at all surprise if that isn’t where the ideas for it came from. At this time we were in a place called Geniefa near the Great Bitter Lake, only now we lived in a tent. I think at this time is when Steve got the urge to be an artist, though he may not have realised it at the time, and so his life followed that rout until he died. From there we graduated to Radio, this was BFN or British Forces Network which entertained the troupes for few hours per day mostly in the evening, no TV or much else then. The Royal Army veterinary Corps was there to supply Mules to the transport unit and War Dogs to the guard units and Steve was in his element with the animals. But unusual for the Army they recognised his use of languages and so he was loaned to the Garrison works department to use his Arabic on the Arab labourers. Later when Nasser caused trouble and we lost them he was used with the Greek Cypriots with his Greek, closely followed by Creole with the Pioneer troupes from the Seyshel Islands. Steve finished his tour a few months before me, and so returned to the UK complete with his guitar. After a couple of months he returned to the canal Zone having signed on for another tour, I on the other hand left a few weeks later never to return except in passing through the Suez Canal on route to other places. We never lost touch, and kept in contact through various means right up until a few days before he died, now that is a real pal and friend. There is so much more to write about Steve’s younger life when the urge to play a guitar first can over him, a lot of it very funny, perhaps one day I will set it down. Giles “Jolly”
Holtom ********** I can remember as a teenager in the sixties seeing Steve at the Bromley Folk Club on numerous occasions while he was trekking the folk club circuit. You always knew to expect a high standard of musicianship, that we aspiring folkies studied and cribbed, plus a hilarious evening of jokes and humerous songs. I was lucky enough to catch Steve playing at the Brewery Tap some forty years later, still managing to zip through chord changes with his arthritic hands, cracking jokes and coaxing the locals to get up and do a number. The variety and standard of the floor singers & players stands as a credit to Steve's generous encouragement and commitment to acoustic music and song. Rick Bowden ********** When I was 17 years old and trying to get to grips with the acoustic guitar Steve Benbow was the man I first drew inspiration from. I had seen him on TV, heard him on the radio and watched him play at The Skiffle Cellar in Soho. An extremely versatile guitarist being equally adept at fingerstyle folk and plectrum style jazz he was a consummate “all rounder” and it was from Steve that I unashamedly stole many guitar licks and songs (especially the humorous ones like “The Hermit”). He had a wonderful soft smooth voice and like many of his contemporaries from the Jazz scene a great sense of humour. I remember seeing him on stage with the likes of Denny Wright and the great Diz Disley - the comedy banter flying back and forth between them as only those 1950’s jazzmen could do (Humph’s still at it!). It was to my mind a sense of humour that only that generation of well travelled musicians who had seen National Service had. A sort of anarchic and forgivably chauvinistic humour that fuelled radio shows like “The Goons” during the fifties. To finish this short appreciation here is an extract from an interview with Chris Groom about my early years in Croydon which I think captures the spirit of the man. “Also on the scene was Steve Benbow, who must have been living in Croydon at the time, he was quite a well known performer working in the blues jazz and cabaret clubs. He worked with Denny Wright and drummer Lennie Hastings in some jazz things but he also went out as a soloist and I followed him around quite a bit and learned a few of his songs. I didn't really know him to speak to at the time, but I remember one sunny afternoon in about 1958, Mike and I were sitting in the town hall gardens, strumming away in the little sun house when who should come strolling past with a lady friend but Steve Benbow! He saw us playing and stopped to talk to us, which was an honour in itself, but then he took out his guitar - he had this great old Gibson Kalamazoo - and actually started playing with us, we were knocked out by that! Its strange how things like that stay with you for years - a great memory”. It was a joy in recent years to meet Steve again at the pub in Brentford where he was playing right up to the end and to remind him of that occasion in Croydon. When I told him how I had stolen songs from him he graciously replied in that fifties jazz vernacular “That’s OK Dad, I stole from you too!” Not true but how kind of him to say it. Wizz Jones ********** I first met Steve on my honeymoon. My husband Bob & I were spending two weeks on our boat and we were moored up at the bottom of the Hanwell flight. Bob had seen Steve play at the Fox pub and we went in for a drink. Steve and Denny Wright were indeed playing and after they had played Nuages for us, my husband said ‘My wife sings’. Before I knew it I was up there and performing with two of the most talented and generous musicians I have ever met. On and off I sang with them and later with Steve and Rob Seaman at the Brewery Tap, the Viaduct and all sorts of places. Although I had sung professionally some years ago, I had largely abandoned that part of my life but Steve encouraged me, giving me back my confidence and faith in myself. He made me work and stretch myself as a singer, but we also had a lot of fun and I have very many happy memories of Friday nights at the Tap. I lost touch with him and Sandy in the last couple of years, something I regret now. I miss him already. Lesley Bossine ********** For the last few
years, Steve befriended our son Peter. He taught him not only music
skills but life skills as well. This took a lot of kindness, generosity
and patience on Steve's part. It is something that as parents, we will
always be grateful to Steve for. We will remember Steve with great affection. Maurice and Rosina Oliver ********** About 9
years ago, I sang at the Brewery Tap for about 6 weeks to cover my sister
Ann's Sunday night with Steve. What a pleasure to know him and Sandy
and all of their circle of friends and musicians. ********** Hi Allan, ********** Hi Steve, I'm in my middle sixties and after a long part time association with the guitar and folk country, and standards I gave up playing publicly about 5 years ago. I was very much inspired by yourself and all the other good guitarists who appeared on the BBC Tonight programme. Thank you for that Steve. I was also fascinated by that guitar you used to play, the one with the carved top and the round soundhole. Perhaps you could enlighten me! A great admirer of yours Russ Paterson
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