Bass Guitar
Ian Cross
It was in November 1963 that I got my first Bass Guitar, a red Burns Sonic, and after banging the bass notes on the piano in the Mexborough
Church Hall for some friends, Mike Robinson,Steve Colclough, and Tony Wright, who were playing instrumental music mainly The Shadows
but also The Hunters - The Dakota's - The Spotnicks - The Fentones, and Nero & The Gladiators. Wonderful stuff and I was hooked !
It was Steve who said that if I got a Bass Guitar he would show me how to play it. I found it more or less straight forward to transfer piano
notes to the Bass guitar, and 3 weeks later played my first gig at the Scout Hut in Denaby. I sat down for the first few gigs as I could not see
the frets if I stood up.
The first tune I learn't was F.B.I. with a reasonably easy bass line. We called ourselves the "Pathfinders" but decided to change our name to
"Disc Guys" as there was a group in Rotherham with the name The Pathfinders Tony our first drummer left to join the Navy and
John Bradshaw became our second and final drummer.
We managed to make an EP at a recording studio in Hull which makes interesting listening 40 years on !
The Group had to disband in 1966 as we all went of to college, though we still met up once a year at Christmas in a local hostelry.
I trained as a teacher and worked in the East End of London for 4 years. I joined a folk/country band called "Tradewind", playing bass.
We were playing at a gig in Loughton in Essex and we heard that Joe Brown and Alan Clarke from The Hollies were listening to us in an
adjacent room....... our claim to fame. !!
I moved to Suffolk in 1973, still teaching and joined a country group called "The Ashfield Ramblers" which featured an exceptional
fiddle player. Later on I joined another country band "Country Law", playing keyboards initially before moving on to Bass after the bas
player left. We made an LP/cassette at a studio in Ipswich and were asked to back recording star Tammy Jones at The Peterborough
Country Music Festival.
I left the band in 1994 and moved back to Yorkshire. It was 4 years later that I discovered that there were Shadows Guitar Clubs all over
the UK still making that wonderful music that started me off all those years ago. I joined the East Yorkshire Club and have spent the last few
years playing Shadows music again. The Club has a wonderful camaraderie and I have some fantastic friends there. All of us united by
a love of The Shadows music.
One of the members Peter Henderson suggested that we start a club band playing the more obscure Shadows numbers and so "Jigsaw"
was formed, playing our anual galas and also the Shadicts gala in Blackpool.
I have been privileged to meet "Jet Harris" - Brian "Licorice" Locking, and Alan Jones all very famous Ex bass players for The Shadows
With the Jigsaw repertoire we soon found out how much The Shadows had progressed since the early days !
Its interesting that the club also spawned 3 other bands "Shadow Music - Legend - The Fentone Four.
A club member, Ken Adams told me about "The Apaches" and mentioned they were looking for a Bass Guitarist !
I checked out the superb website contacted them, auditioned ..............and here I am !
The equipment I use at present is :-
1967 Fender Precision Bass
Ibanez SDGR Bass
Trace Elliot AH300 Bass Amp
Peavey 4x10 cabinet.
Here I am with Brian "Licorice" Locking
