Brian Matthew tells Bob Stanley about some of the American stars that ed through the doors of Saturday Club.
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Gene Pitney
Once in a while, circumnavigating union rules, Saturday Club would have a visiting American guest. They weren't allowed to play their current hit, but in the case of stars like Roy Orbison, Gene Pitneyand Gene Vincent, with their long runs of hits, they were never less than welcome. "We get a lot of requests now for Roy", Brian says. "I would say he's one of our most played artists on SOTS. I interviewing him when he was on Saturday Club. This is the sort of thing I used to ask people - bit of a cheek - I said "Is it true, Roy, that in sterling you're a millionaire?" He learned forward and said (puts on strong southern accent) "Yes Brian, I am!" I thought it was quaint! But he was a lovely guy, a gentleman, I met him many times subsequently."
"Once in a while, a Saturday Club session didn't go so well, and the act would have 'high blown' ideas of their own importance. It was a weird eye opener. I was booked to do a session with Brook Benton. Radio was quite different where he came from. He asked 'who's gonna put this out on disc?' - he really thought we were ripping him off, and he wasted half the session arguing about whether he was going to sing. He gave me a really hard time, but he came out with five songs in the end."
Of the hundreds of stars who Brian met at the time, many came and went without leaving a huge impression. It's only looking back that he realises what a ridiculously fertile time it was for music. "Someone I was less impressed with then than I am now is Gene Pitney. He was on Saturday Club several times. I've really learned to appreciate the songs he wrote for other people. I was amazed, when I discovered he wrote such good songs, that he recorded so few of them." Gene wrote, among others, The Crystals' He's A Rebel, Ricky Nelson's Hello Mary Lou, and Bobby Vee's Rubber Ball. "Having proved he'd got that ability and skill, I'm surprised he didn't utilise it more in his own repertoire. Most of the big names were only too ready and willing to sing their own songs."
One of the better known Saturday Club sessions was with Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran. Brian recalls that it was recorded at the "Piccadilly Theatre, round the back of a gentleman's outfitter. Gene Vincent, he was alright, but he came in on Saturday Club swinging a knife and frightened me to death. This dagger he'd bought in Africa. It was just a thing he did, he didn't make any threatening gestures. But I was a bit put out. Then Cochran came in to do his session, who I must say was a thoroughly nice guy. Vincent got up to leave and Cochran shouted 'Hey Vincent, you ain't goin' anywhere. I got your crutches! You come and jam with me'. They did a twenty minute jam which was fabulous, at the end of which our recording engineer came out of his little booth and said 'was I supposed to record that?' Can you imagine? Twenty joyous minutes."
