The Scratch Band

RR: "One day when another band started playing upstairs. We drfied up and joined in for a 'jam' ....... They asked me to join and I said I'd take one gig at a time, no long-term commitment. This attitude soon developed into a lifestyle for the band and we were permanently drunk or stoned, the personnel interchangeable. Chaos ruled and we played some damn fine rock'n'roll (all this probably happened in 1978 and early 1979, L.)

So Rod had joined The Scratch Band, who did most of their practicing in Dominion House and most of their drinking in the White Horse. Previous incarnations of the band all included Phil Smith, with a rather wide variety of bass players and drummers who were ousted for one reason or another. At the time of Rod's coming aboard, they had a gig lined up at the Calne Youth Centre the following Sunday but their bass player wasn't coming to practice. Several acquaintances were approached but through circumstances none of them was available. So Phil "Smut" Smith decided to play bass, which meant they needed a guitarist and/or a singer because Phil couldn't sing and play a new instrument at the same time. So Tony "Torch" Orchard (aka Stoney O) from Jumpstreet was asked to play guitar for a one-off gig, just for charity; he agreed. After Rod's rather reluctant agreement to come and sing for them this made for a line-up of Simon Bewlay (drums), Phil Smith (bass and vocals), Nigel Easton and Tony Orchard (guitar and vocals), and Rustic Rod. In fact, they fitted in nicely with Rod's end-of-the-decade decline, for they were a typical 'losers' band, all drunks and junkies who were more into their dirty habits than the actual music, but a band nevertheless. Still, even in the times of his darkest despair Rod Goodway had a 'working' band. They had a short practise with most of the time spent jamming and a few songs being worked out, but they spent most of the time thinking up a name.
On Saturday 20th January, 1979, at the Caine Youth Centre, Rod introduced the band as "The Phil Smith Scratch Band, because we were put together in a hell of a hurry, thanks to Phil, and we scratch a lot..". After the gig the band weren't very popular with the management of the Centre as Simon had wrecked the floor and people had been ringing up complaining about the noise. Their second gig was at the Lysley Arms on 24th February 1979. Simon wrecked the floor there as well and further mishaps included Rod forgetting his lyrics at one point and Tony Orchard's amplifier being soaked in beer. The third and last gig with the aforementioned line-up was played at Compton Basset Village Hall on Saturday April 21st. It marked the farewell of "Torch" because Jumpstreet didn't like him playing with another band. After this gig he was replaced by Dave Shell, Jumpstreet's other guitarist. The most noteworthy aspect of the gig was that at one point only Simon Bewlay, the drummer, was left on stage as all the others were down among the audience, dancing and playing; apparently Phil started it, having fallen off the stage and trying to cover this up as a voluntary act.
Somewhere around mid-'79 Rod bade a temporary farewell to not only The Scratch Band but also his native territory:
RR: "In 1979 I finally decided to get away from Wiltshire again for a while and so, after a week-long party at my cottage, I found myself on the streets of Calne at 11 o'clock at night with my cousin's girlfriend on my arm (the girlfriend in question being Christine Cotter, still Rod's companion after all those years) and the cousin in question on the other side of the road threatening to kill us both... with, in between us, a police car just waiting for one of us to make a move. Christine rang her mother from a nearby call-box and just as the 'murdering' was about to happen mother-in-law screeched alongside us in her car and we dived in. Later that night Christine and I caught the milk-train to London and didn't come back for over a year! We had a lot of help of course: we stayed with Adrian and Maureen Shaw and Simon and Sue House for a while and then lived in various squats, one of which had Tony Hill (of High Tide, L.) sleeping on the floor at one time".
Meanwhile, The Scratch Band had another gig lined up (the White Horse, Calne, 9th June '79) and everyone was expecting Rod to turn up to do the vocals.
RR: "Later on that same year, word came through from Calne that there was a big gig with The Scratch Band starring and that everyone was expecting me to turn up. If I didn't then the bass player (Phil Smith) would have to sing and he was probably too nervous to go through with it (having only sung backing vocals up until then). Unfortunately not enough time had gone by to heal my cousin's murderous intentions towards me so l said there was no way I was going to be able to make the gig. However, everyone thought I would come and Phil Smith says that if he had known for sure that I wasn't coming then he probably would have called off the gig But the fact remains that this was the gig that turned Phil Smith (between bouts of vomiting, L.) into a lead singer and front-man (the far-reaching consequences of this shall become clearer as you get towards the end of this piece, L.). My poor old cousin wasn't as bad as I've implied either: he was just having a really bad time with alcohol himself still is for that matter... incurable. Insanity in the family perhaps?"
After the gig, Simon Bewlay and Phil Smith joined Tony Orchard once more and continued as a three-piece, still calling themselves The Scratch Band. Nigel Easton, left all on his lonely, eventually formed The Visitors (with Steve Lines). His next live appearance was to be with The Guest (with Phil, Simon and Steve). Rather incestuous, all this, what? Anyway, Simon, Tony and Phil played at The Plume and Feathers in Hungerford (as The Scratch Band) on July 21st, 1979. A fortnight later, they were to be found at the Cherhill Village Hall, desperately looking for their drummer. When he turned up he did so with a vengeance, bashing out a few seemingly never-ending solos. Before leaving in their borrowed van they managed to knock down a wall, annoying the van owner no end, not to mention the owner of the wall. Dave Shell rejoined The Scratch Band on guitar and vocals and they played another gig on September 22nd at The Plume in Hungerford, which had Tony Orchard playing standing on a chair. After this gig a fight occurred which may have influenced Dave Shell's decision to leave the band again; or maybe he was upset at being left two miles from home with no trace of his kit, who's to tell? By the next gig (same venue) they'd changed their name to The Generals, but more will be told about them later.