PAUL
VERNON CHESTER
Manouche Maestro
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Manouche Maestro |
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Curly Clayton (Harvey Ormerod)
Curly
Clayton with Grimshaw SS Guitar
II have been trying to trace / track down
Curly Clayton without any success except for a report of a communication
that Curly had had with someone re Eric Spencer (Piano & Arranger) joining
the Edmundo Ros Orchestra.
Eric Spencer used to be the Pianist in the BBC Scottish Variety
Orchestra with Curly.
Curly came South after a while and about the time Curly left Edmundo Ros
he introduced Eric Spencer. Eric Spencer stayed long term with Edmundo
Ros and did much arranging for the Band. I think Eric stayed until
Ros retired the Band.
I thus knew that Curly was still alive up
until about 3 - 4 years ago. Reading about Curly on this site takes me well
back to my youth. I first met Curly when I was about 12 to 13 and I wanted
to learn to play guitar. Lessons were arranged at Pleyton's School
of Music, which was also a music shop in Camden Passage,
The Angel, Islington. Curly taught guitar there part time.
Incidentally Pleyton was the publisher of his book. I went there every
Saturday for about two years until Curly decided to stop teaching at
Pleyton's because he had set up his recording studio. However there
were a couple of us students who he said he would continue to teach / coach
providing were prepared to go to his studio and if necessary wait until a
break occurred in his work schedule. It was by no means a hardship to
be in that environment for a few hours on a Saturday with some really top
musicians calling in and usually playing. I stopped going to Curly's
studio when I had to concentrate on 'A' Levels. Then of course higher
education, work, marriage etc. took over. I met Curly's wife on
several occasions and his daughter also helped in the studio, both were two
very charming ladies. I can concur that Curly was indeed a very intelligent
individual and also very generous with his time. David White.
Biography Curly was an exceptional guitarist, by all accounts, but was much more than this – he was an extremely intelligent man who had a variety of interests – musician, producer, record company owner, author, motorcyclist and photographer. Curly was born in 1919 and grew up in the Highbury area of London. He started playing the guitar when he was 16 and practised day and night. His musical influences were Eddie Lang, Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, from which he said “all others sprang”. One night, his friends egged him on to get on stage when a local big band was playing and that was his first break into music. An early news clipping from the Melody Maker, with Curly appearing under his real surname (Ormerod) – he told me that he started using Clayton (another family name) because he got fed up of having to spell out his real name to everyone. He worked in Glasgow for 2 years during the Second World War for the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra as the featured soloist. Curly also worked for a variety of big bands, including Sid Millward, Edmundo Ros, Eddie Calvert, Frank Weir, Stanley Black and Felix Mendelssohn’s Hawaiians. Whilst working for Eddie Calvert, he appeared in a small musical film in 1939, listed as Curly Ormerod called Eddie Carroll and his Boys (the others being Gavin Owen and Billy Day)
Throughout the 1940s through to the 1970s, Curly worked as a session musician and sound engineer, in clubs around London and also worked as a private guitar tutor. Around this time, he also started opened a small recording studio in Highbury Place, which I believe was called Curly Clayton’s Sound Studio. This was where he recorded the famous first session with the Rolling Stones in 1962 (for which Curly says he was paid the grand sum of £3!). Although this is what Curly seems to be remembered for above all else, he did not regard this as anything more than a simple recording job. The three tracks, produced as a demo for EMI.
The recording studio was located in a large house that
recently was featured in the Sunday Telegraph, where it was
intact as one house. Curly described it to me “When we were there, we took over
the first floor flat as well eventually because the studio sounds came up there
and the owner couldn't stand it. He sportingly decided to move into the coach
house he had designed alongside, and let us have the extra. We had the main
drawing room and veranda of the original house and the basement studio beneath
all for £7 a week. We had to leave in 1963 because the owner
wanted to sell the lot with the garages etc for £19,000”. Curly
then moved his studio to Swan Yard, just around the corner.
During this time Curly recorded hundreds of young bands - The Caravelles
- "You Don't Have To Be A Baby To Cry",
The Pathfinders (1964) “I’m Ashamed”, tracks with
The Monotones, Dave Cooke, Dave Stopp, The Dave Clark
Five and Rod Stewart, to name a few. He also recorded a song called
“Space Walk” by the Vikings, but this was
eventually released under the name of Gemini, with a different
producer listed but it was the same recording. Bob Jackson
recorded several times at Curly’s studio and remembers Curly well - “I recorded
many song demos and theme music in his studio. Curly had a great understanding
of musicians and how they reacted under recording conditions. This coupled with
his fantastic sense of humour meant that he was simply a pleasure to work with.
Curly was very kind to me giving me many hours of free recording time and lots
of encouragement.”
Curly and moved with his wife to Ponte Delgado in the Azores Islands in the 1980s. Curly taught some guitar lessons there but was largely retired and lived there until his death in 2009, at the age of 90. - Acknowledgements to Cathy D for Curly's Biography.
Back on stage
sometime later Reinhardt suddenly strolls up and points to Curly's guitar (A
Gibson L5).Curly
hands it to him and the band leader (Edmundo Ros - Coconut Grove in Regents
Street) asks him what he want's to play.. Reinhardt shrugs his shoulders, so
eager to get things going the band leader suggests 'Sweet Georgia Brown'.
Reinhardt nods an approval and they ask
him what key he wants to do it in.. Again Reinhardt just shrugs.
Anyway they kick off in the written key and Reinhardt just comes in.
Curly said he just sat there watching as Reinhardt played 24 choruses
of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' and not one the same as the last.
Then suddenly half way through a chorus he just gets up smiles and hands
Curly back his guitar and walks off back to his table, his women and the gin.
He
didn't even wait for the band to finish or for anyone to applaud.
Curly observed him all evening and said that he was an amazing person.
In fact extremely childish in his behaviour and he sat there with these women
and his drink, giggling and laughing like a little kid in a sweet shop.
- PhilX
Reinhardt...knew what worked and what did not...he just did not have the
words of theory to say it...he probably thought instinctively
what was precisely correct.
October 1962: London, We went to see a Record Producer called Curly Clayton. he had a studio in Highbury London, and was a great rival of Joe Meek – who had a studio just up the road. We met a musician called Curly Clayton, an old school session guitarist who owned a small 3-track studio in Highbury. He listened to our material and promised that he would secure a record contract for us within six months. This he did, and we signed to EMI.
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As
well as standard rock and pop music, in the late 1960s / early 1970s, Curly
moved in a different direction when he started up Coimbra Recordings
which specialised in Catholic Music. It was in 1975 that Curly
recorded The Mass at Downham Market, which was surprisingly topical. At the
time, there was controversy in the Catholic Church regarding the abandonment of
the Latin Mass as a result of the Vatican II reforms by Pope Paul. One
traditionalist in Downham Market, Fr Oswald Baker, continued with the Latin Mass
and drew Catholics from around the country. Many other recordings were completed
such as the Faith of Our Fathers and The Mass at Lille.
