David Chapman
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David Chapman |
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  Dave Chapman Collection |
David Chapman kicking out - complete with Fender Stratocaster |
 The Mustangs |
 David Chapman |
 The Mustangs |
David Chapman tells us in his own words ..... |
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 The Others |
 The Others |
 The Others with Paul Muggleston |
"Soon after, The Secrets (just arriving back on the scene in Christchurch) joined us at The Pride of Place each playing 30 minute spots. During our time playing at The Pride of Place Gary and Paul from The Secrets decided that they wanted to go to England. Peter and I from The Others also decided we wanted to go and we had the perfect line up, Bass, Drums, Rhythm and Lead, so a new group Me and The Others was born . This was a key group to Gary's future success. Previously during the Tom Jones show, Peter and I were talking with Mike Gee, lead guitarist from The Squires who were Tom Jones' show band. We told him we were heading for the UK and he gave us a note of introduction to Tom Jones' agency in London. We hoped this would give us some sort of start in the UK. About February 1966 Gary and Paul left New Zealand, two to three months ahead of Peter and I on a cruise liner The Australis — bound for the UK." |
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 The chase is on for Gary's pants .... |
 London - Outside the Jennings shop in Charring Cross |
 Me and The Others - in London |
"As we progressed the group got better and we were getting more gigs and met many artists. We did a gig in Southampton, along with The Graham Bond Organisation. That was a very memorable night as Graham's bassist and drummer were Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker who eventually teamed up with Eric Clapton and formed Cream. We toured Scotland and were constantly up and down the country playing more clubs than I can even remember. We then decided that we would look for work in Germany. We auditioned in the famous Marquee club where we played to Ian Smithers, who ran an agency, also present were Micky Most and Spencer Davis, and whilst there we did a couple of numbers backing Jimmy Cliff who sang, My Girl and Midnight Hour. We also played in the Whisky à Gogo Club in London. We were auditioned there, and we won a contract with the PN HIT HOUSE in Munich, which turned out to be the top club in Germany, for one month. The Kinks played there shortly before us. Prior to setting off for Germany, we did a recording at the famous Regent Sound Studio in London, this is where everyone from the Stones to Hendrix recorded. The song we did was called Love Is Not A Game. The demo disc was done for us by the Ivy League. The producer Barry Kingston wanted a special sound - a sound like nothing that we had ever heard before, very psychedelic with lots of compression, in fact when I hear it now, to me it is very John Lennon-ish. The B-side was to be recorded on our return from Germany. We then did a photo-shoot session at Hamstead Heath for The Brian Epstein Agency, before heading off to Germany, driving via Dover and Belgium, until we finally arrived in Munich." |
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 Gary Thain (Bass Guitar) |
 David Chapman (Lead) |
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 Paul Muggleston (Rhythm) |
 Peter Dawkins (Drums) |
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"In Munich we lived in a luxury apartment that was owned by the PN Hit House Club, right across the road from the Club, for the month's duration of our gig. Gary's bass playing just got better and better and with 15-inch Vox speakers either side of the stage he became a driving force behind the band. We had a very successful month, and had a strong following, and that crowd apparently disappeared when we left. Peter and Gary started another group in Munich with Ed Carter, now a session guitarist with the Beach Boys, they called themselves THE NEW NADIR and gigged around Germany France and Switzerland, where they recorded some numbers. Later Gary joined The Keef Hartley Band in London and then on to Uriah Heep. About 1973 Gary travelled to New Zealand to see his family, then returned to the UK. At the peak of his profession at the age of 27, Gary sadly passed away. Everyone was shocked at this unforgettable tragedy. What happened to the rest of the band? Well Peter eventually went back to London and sat in with Jimmy Hendrix on two gigs at London's Speakeasy before returning to New Zealand about 1970 to became an award-winning record producer, then later to Australia, where he produced Air Supply's early recordings, he also produced Dragon plus many other artists. Pete won many awards for his work in the recording industry, and hosted many artists over the years from Cliff to Diana Ross. Unfortunately Peter's health was not been good, but I hosted Peter in Christchurch in 2007 for him to receive a well deserved award from ROCKONZ. Paul came back to New Zealand in 1972 to become a well known DJ on Radio Avon, and he also played for a top Christchurch band Just Us. In later years Paul went to live in Los Angeles where he lived for a good while, running a very successful advertising agency, doing all Air NZ's stateside advertising and also working with Alice Cooper, on various projects." |
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 Me and The Others - UNCOVERED |
 Me and The Others - Recordings |
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 The New Nadir - Recordings |
 The New Nadir - UNCOVERED |
"More recently our Me and The Others' music plus New Nadir recordings were uncovered by Feathered Apple Records in Switzerland, whose producer Rolf Reiben was so enthusiastic about it all that it has now been released in many overseas countries, on vinyl (which is now apparently making a world-wide comeback), along with limited box set copies with a poster, and with a CD to follow in 2010, this album is targeted at 60's enthusiasts that buy and collect previous unreleased 60's UK produced recordings. The titles are Me and The others Uncovered and New Nadir Uncovered all on one LP — and it all happened forty-three years later." |
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"Paul Muggleston came back to New Zealand in 1993 for a reunion where he and I played with two former Secrets musicians — it was almost The Secrets once more, but with Pete Ward from Ray Columbus's Invaders on drums and Wayne Allen, plus Secrets bass man Pete Hansen and Paul Talbot from Just Us. We played to a capacity audience of 60's and 70's musicians who all knew Gary very well, and Paul paid tribute to Gary. The gig made the morning newspaper as well as national television. Paul Muggleston was living and performing in Las Vegas at that time. I have also always kept in contact with my dear friend Paul Wetterhahn in Chicago, who incidentally goes by the name of Paul Drake (his mother's maiden name). Paul and his wife Cheryl have for years had their own very well known studio in Chicago PAUL DRAKE PRODUCTIONS. Back in the late 80's when my wife and I were staying with him in Chicago, I asked Paul for another copy of our tape that he recorded in Stuttgart, but he thought that it had been lost from water damage along with some other tapes, so I took it for granted that our music had been lost forever but an amazing thing happened only just recently - and 42 years later, he discovered that he had still had the tape put away safely elsewhere and sent me a copy. More recently my wife Gwen and I spent some time in Sydney with my old mate Pete Dawkins and his wife Penny to celebrate his 60th birthday, it was great to catch up after all these years." Yes! — we certainly had an adventure and we've often thought - wow! we almost nearly made it! |
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 Funny Feeling at The 1480 Village - 1967 |
 Rob Carpenter and David Chapman |
 Funny Feeling - Newspaper pic |
Additional information is available on the following individual pages, as well as the AudioCulture website ..... |
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