Taken from the album "Demobilised" released on Sticky Records. Steve Fearn started out in rock and roll bands around Market Harborough in the late 1950s, but when he moved to Leicester to take up a steady gig with an Irish show band in 1963, he found enough affinity with the brass section of Tom Bunney and Alan Warden to form their own band, also featuring Hubert Holt on vocals, who is nowadays with the Foundations. Gigging around London they were soon spotted by Decca and Fearn's Brass Foundry were contracted to release two 45s. The first; Don't Change It can be found on several Northern Soul compilations and will go down in history as the last record ever played on Juke Box Jury. Radio One DJ Stuart Henry also picked it up as his theme for a while, generating what they used to call a radioplay hit, but no chart action. However, instead of building on the success with another Fearn-penned dance floor filler, Decca selected a duff cover version for the follow up A-side, which sank without trace. For a while, the band enjoyed a high profile residency at Bailey's night club in Leicester, but Fearn tired of the gig and left Brass Foundry to continue without him for a year while he worked on other projects, including an LP with the Pete York Percussion Group. York was drummer with the Spencer Davies Group and the band also featured Ian Paice of Deep Purple. Paice and fellow Purp Jon Lord were common fixtures sitting in at Brass Foundry gigs during their early 70s residencies at the County Arms in Blaby and the Bath Hotel in nearby Shearsby. During this time the set featured a lot of comedy material and Bill "Magic Our Morris" Maynard was also a keen follower of the group, as evidenced by the sleeve notes to Demobilised. The album was recorded in Wellingborough with Derek Tompkins, who recorded all of the band's demos down the years, including the unreleased untitled bonus track featured on this compilation, which dates from the pre-Decca years. Demobilised sold out its 1000 copies almost overnight, recalls Fearn, but he was again ready to move on, forming a comedy and music duo Fingers and Thumbs with Des Dyke of 70s hit-makers Jigsaw. Brass Foundry are still gigging every week at the Bath Hotel without Fearn, but every now and again they all get together for a reunion gig. |
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