6
‘Monty’s fault?’ Lyssa couldn’t help but yelp a little at that. Catching Monica’s look of surprise, she hastily apologised. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound so judgemental. But how on earth could it have been Monty’s fault? She died only months after Glen did, didn’t she?’
‘Ah, that’s true,’ Monica said, playfully wagging her index finger at Lyssa before smiling slowly. ‘But she was making trouble long before then.’
Lyssa knew that Monica was enjoying herself enormously now, but she didn’t begrudge her that. Especially as it was becoming clear that she was going to spill everything that she knew – and by the sounds of it so far, some of those details might well prove to be sensational.
‘I’m all ears,’ she said with a grin of her own, turning the page on her notebook, and surreptitiously checked from the corner of her eye that the recorder was still on and working properly. She didn’t want to miss a single thing that was about to be said.
‘Well, you have to understand, I got most of this from Racey after I married him, and the Lucky Cuckoos were more or less defunct by then,’ Monica began.
‘When they were in their heyday, I was around, but only as a young girl, a friend of his little sister. Nobody took me seriously or paid any attention to me – certainly not Racey. Not then. I don’t want you getting the wrong ideas about him or the other lads in the band.
It wasn’t until I was over eighteen and began to fill out that he noticed . . . well, you get the picture.’
Lyssa nodded.
‘So, most of what I’m about to tell you has been coloured by Racey’s point of view.
For myself – well, to me, the band were just the most exciting thing in my life, and I was so made up to be on even the fringes of it all.
And Monty was this glamorous figure with a rich daddy – she wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met.
The way she talked with that posh voice of hers, and her clothes, and the way she swore and didn’t care!
My mum would have washed my mouth out with soap if I’d come out with even the least of the swear words she used!
She fascinated me, but not in the same way as the band and the music, so my focus was always on Racey.
And to be honest, I wasn’t old enough or mature enough to come to my own conclusions about the dynamics going on within the band. ’
‘I understand. Please, go on.’
‘Well, OK, just bear in mind what I’ve said, then,’ Monica admonished.
‘Anyway, according to Racey, when the band began to form in the early days, their roles weren’t so clear-cut as they became after Monty appeared on the scene.
Both he and Glen played guitar, but they took it in turns to sing songs. ’
‘And these were their own songs?’
‘Oh, hell no! Most of them were cover versions of past hits, either from here or over from America. You know, Elvis songs, or whatever.’
‘OK, thanks. So, basically they were taking it in turns to sing “Blue Suede Shoes” down at the local Dog and Duck or White Horse?’
Monica laughed. ‘You’ve got it. Glen’s voice was deeper and stronger, but Racey had a higher tone, and sweeter, so it really worked out well for them.
Anyway, slowly, they began to gather a following – you know, older teenagers than me, both girls and boys who liked their sound.
Word would get around where they were playing, and the pub would be packed.
Racey, Glen and Artie were all real lookers, and Micky – well, bless him, he wasn’t quite so handsome, but he had personality, if you know what I mean?
Some of the fans saw him as a big brother, I suppose, and cute in a funny kind of way.
Anyway, according to Racey, that was how things stood when Monty showed up at one of the pubs and began to pay attention to them.
With Racey and Glen sharing the spotlight equally as lead singers. ’
Lyssa nodded cautiously. Thinking back to all the songs she’d heard the Cuckoos singing since taking on Elizabeth’s commission, she could remember clearly Glen Bannister’s well-known deep-timbred voice but couldn’t recall hearing any other one that had stood out.
Surely there had been only a general harmonising in certain parts, usually in the chorus.
Like most hits in the early 1960s, the band’s song formats were straightforward – chorus, verses, maybe with an instrumental bridge, repeat and so on.
The lead singer usually sang the verses solo, and then the band would join in on the chorus.
Occasionally you’d get groups where two men would sing together, but she didn’t think the Lucky Cuckoos had ever favoured that arrangement.
‘I’ve listened to all their big hits now, and some from the albums, and, sorry if this sounds insensitive, but I don’t know that I could pick out your husband’s voice,’ she confessed.
Monica nodded. ‘Yeah – that’s the point I’m making. Or rather, the point that seriously pissed off Racey. Once Monty got involved, it was Glen’s show all the way. She said he had the bigger and more individual voice, and it was that that made them stand out from all the other groups.’
‘She had that much power?’ Lyssa asked, genuinely surprised. ‘I wouldn’t have thought, back then, that a young woman who wasn’t even a member of the band would have been listened to, let alone been taken seriously.’
‘Ah, but she was calling the shots, wasn’t she, because she was the only one of them with this,’ Monica said, rubbing her fingers together in the familiar gesture that suggested money.
‘And lots of it. Before she came on the scene, even their instruments weren’t paid off, and they were still making monthly payments on them.
Then Monty shows up, loves their sound, and begins splashing the cash.
A new touring van – poof, there it is. Studio time?
No problem! Getting their records played on the local radio station – “Oh, I know the DJ, my cousin went to Eton with him, he’ll do me a favour and play it for you” and next thing you know – airtime. ’
Lyssa understood her perfectly. ‘Yes, I get it. She must have seemed like a dream come true.’
‘Or a nightmare, according to Racey.’ Monica snorted a laugh.
‘Yeah, she bought them top-of-the-range instruments, and got them airtime, and all the rest of it. But what she said went. Take the recording studio – whenever Racey sang a song, it somehow got relegated as a future album track – never a single release. Glen’s voice “registered” better, or Glen’s voice could be heard better over the beat, and so on and so on.
By the time they came to cut their first record, there was no question as to who was going to be the lead singer. ’
Lyssa nodded, not without sympathy. ‘That must have been tough for Racey to take.’
‘Oh, believe me, it was. He never got over being bitter about it, and who can blame him? It was his shot at the big time she was trampling on. At first, he put up with it because he could see that the band needed her. Back then there were so many groups of good-looking lads chasing the same rainbow, and nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand never made it. How could they? They were mostly working-class lads like Racey and Glen, and they didn’t know the industry.
Unless they caught a lucky break – a really lucky break – they didn’t stand a chance. ’
‘And Monty was their lucky break.’
‘Too right she was, and she knew it,’ Monica said.
‘And Racey was no fool – he could see that, and so could the others. She swore that she believed in them and would do everything to get them to the top of the heap, so they were willing to go along with her at first. And to give credit where credit’s due, she was as good as her word.
Within the year, they had their first record cut, and it was a hit. ’
Lyssa glanced at her notes. ‘This would be “A Lovely Face” if my memory serves me right. Got to number five in the charts? Early in 1962, I think?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘And that was written by Glen, right?’
‘Sure. Well’ – she hesitated and gave Lyssa a knowing look – ‘let’s just say it was his name that appeared on the record label,’ Monica said dryly. ‘But according to what Racey told me years later, he reckons that he and Glen came up with it between them one drunken night.’
‘According to Racey?’ Lyssa repeated, gently raising one eyebrow.
Monica nodded, refilling her glass of Pimm’s.
‘Yeah, well, personally, I think it a bit unlikely. When he drank, he really drank, and it used to make him nearly comatose, bless him. I doubt he’d have been able to write his own name, let alone musical notes.
But I never argued with him. And I know for a fact that lyrics were not his thing.
His sister used to laugh about how bad he was at English at school.
But maybe he might have come up with some of the rhythm – although, again, from what I could tell, that was really Glen’s thing.
Let’s just give him the benefit of the doubt and say that his memory of those days was sometimes a little hazy. And biased.’
Lyssa smiled. ‘Fair enough. I don’t recall that the Lucky Cuckoos were ever particularly notorious for their drug use – not like some famous bands we could mention.
Even so, Glen did die of drugs, so they must have been readily available to the boys in the band.
I was wondering if Racey’s bad memory . . . ?’ She trailed off delicately.
‘Oh, I wasn’t thinking of that so much,’ Monica said quickly. ‘And I don’t want you quoting me, saying that I ever saw anything really heavy like that going down.’ She glared at Lyssa.
‘I won’t,’ Lyssa promised. ‘Seriously, I don’t lie to my sources, and I won’t publish anything that I can’t back up by solid research and proof.
Besides, Elizabeth wants Monty’s real story told, and that means an honest assessment of the times and her life.
Nobody’s interested in muckraking just for the sake of it. ’