Steve Greenfield - Martin Newell - Michael Natkanski
John Fitzsimons - Paul Hart - Carl Szymanski

Lost in music - This little ziggy... Velvet Tinmine - Press Cuttings 1 - Summer '72 - Press Cuttings 2 - Summer '73 - A House in the country - Press Cuttings 3 - Recording - The Bandbox - The Record companies said - Signed up - And where are they now? - The Re-union ? - Buy the album - Contact the band - The Roadies

Three decades have elapsed since The Mighty Plod first took the stage. The three year life span of this creative, charismatic and intoxicated pop band from Colchester took them from local covers band to recording artists in their own write, only for them to split ignominously shortly after their record company went under.

But the spirit of the Mighty Plod is alive and well, and is making its presence felt. Even after all these years, the corpse twitches restlessly and may even be capable of moving about. In the last couple of years, The Mighty Plod have resurfaced in the pages of 'Record Collector', and in two successful books, one of which is to be realised as a comedy film, one of their tracks has finally made it into the record shops on a compilation of lost treasures from the glam rock era, and a long-awaited album is in preparation.

In the years after Plod died, Four of them succeeded in getting deals with major record labels - Martin Newell with RCA, Michael Natkanski with EMI, Steve Greenfield with Prism, and Paul Hart with DJM. Three decades later, five of Plod's six musicians remain musically active, and are pleased to have their history revisited in this unexpected way.
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First to put The Mighty Plod into print was Daily Telegraph journalist Giles Smith. His humourous and affectionate recollections of his life long love affair with pop, 'Lost in Music', revealed that they were one of the first bands he grooved to at his local youth club. Years later, stories from his time as the keyboard player in Martin Newell's band 'The Cleaners from Venus' featured prominently in his book.
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Summer 2001 saw the publication of 'This little ziggy...' the memoirs of the bands influential singer/songwriter, and now journalist, Martin Newell. The first half of the book deals with Martin's traumatic childhood, and the second, told with "...hugely genoruous dollops of smut, pathos and humour...", tells how the band helped him save himself. 'This little ziggy...' received many favourable reviews and enjoys increasingly bouyant sales. In August of this year, noted film producer Michael Cummings bought the movie rights, and so the second half of the book, the story of Martin's time on the road with Colchester's finest band, is to be made into a comedy, and several of the band's tracks will be on the soundtrack album.
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The Mighty Plod turned up again in a feature on lost treasures from the Glam Rock era, the most important bands that got away, in the January 2002 'Record Collector'. As a result of this In March 2003 RPM records released a compilation CD of the 20 tracks selected by Record Collector under the title Velvet Tinmine. The sleeve notes explain that "Colchester's Plod were the first vehicle for pop raconteur and Cleaner From Venus Martin Newell. Locally notorious for their "fondness for bawdiness and spontaneous nakedness"..." If only this was true !

Then in October 2004 'Velvet Tinmine' was featured on the New York radio station WFMU 91.1 FM, and in April 2005 they surfaced again in the 'Sham Glam' feature in MOJO magazine.
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Press cuttings 1 :
Midweek :	Essex and Drugs
Big Issue :	This little ziggy...
Independent :	Velvet Goldmmine
Evening Standard :	Nearly a star..
Record Collector :	Velvet Tinmine
MOJO :	Sham Glam
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"The Mighty Plod" were formed in May 1972 by Colchester Musician Steve Greenfield. The original line-up was Steve Greenfield - Rhythm Guitar and vocals, Carl Szymanski - bass, Carl Seager - Lead guitar, and Terry Lloyd - drums. The sinister yet charming 'Big Nik' Irwin was also involved from the begining as roadie, but his legendary entreprenuerial flair ensured his influence in the band went well beyond the van and the gear. Three days before the first gig at Lexden Youth club on June 5th 1972, Steve replaced drummer Terry Lloyd with Michael Natkanski, a teenage runaway whom he found wandering the streets clutching a quart of Olde English cider, and after the first gig Carl Seager was replaced by renowned local blues/rocker Paul Hart.

Their debut was a success, and their enthusiastic reception by the largely middle class kids of the priveleged neighbourhood of Lexden ensured they were promptly booked for the next big Saturday night dance a few weeks later. One of the audience was the young Giles Smith who recorded this, his first excursion into the world of pop,on page n his musical memoirs, 'Lost in Music'.

Their music was simply covers of the glam rocks hits of the day such as Slade and Sweet, and a selection of rock'n'roll standards like 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'Shakin' all over' done in a fast thrash style. Steve immediately established himself as a charismatic front man, and together with the energetic guitar skills of Paul Hart, they made a powerful and punchy front line that quickly made an impact on the locals. "Love me or hate me", said Steve, "But I won't have apathy". Steve also had an excellent graps of the psychology of hype and knew how to court the gentlemen of the press. See Press cuttings 2.

They were also fast learners, and the steady flow of local work and gigs farther afield, most of which were successul, helped enormously. But they were still only a covers band. After such a promising start, the band nearly came undone when founding member, leader, and front man Steve suddenly quit. In the middle of the traditional band cash-flow crisis, with a steadily enlarging gig list, they couldn't afford to advertise in the local press for a replacement singer. But with his typical flair, Big Nik seduced the journalists from the Anglia Press Agency office next door to the bands headquarters on East Hill, and a story duly appeared about the promising local band whose inevitable rise was on hold because they could not find a singer.
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In the midst of yet another family confrontation, Acid-drenched teenage songwriter Martin Newell was presented with the article by his anxious mother, and duly went and found them in a local music shop. Pragmatically ignoring the fact that he wasn't actually a singer, he successfully auditioned for the job of lead vocalist, and two weeks later his debut gig was one of the most enthusiastic receptions the band ever had, complete with screaming schoolgirl fans who had to be "restrained" by the road crew, at Fairlop High School for girls, Loughton, Essex. The next one, at the New Penny Discoteque club in Stevenage was the opposite, and the band were instructed not to complete their set "for their own safety".

The band continued gigging up and down the country, and the cash flow was by then sufficiently healthy for them to look forward to giving up the day job and taking an even better wage from the band. But it was not to be. Cracks were appearing. Big Nik blew out of an important gig in Portsmouth, causing the agent to close down the financially promising gig list, and other tensions led to the departure of guitarist Paul Hart in May.
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Once again unable to find the money for an ad in the local paper, the band again stumbled on the right replacement. Bass man Carl suggested they try out an acquaintance of his from the nearby Essex University bar, John Fitzsimons, lead guitarist of the campus heavy rock three piece Meat Axe Jackson, whose name was never ever explained. He soon became 'Bachelor Johnny', named after a character on a Bonzo Dog DooDah Band track. His acceptance into the band completed the line-up whose story is told in 'This little ziggy...': Stix(Michael Natkanski), Jack(Carl Szymanski), Zap(Martin Newell) and Bachelor Johnny(John Fitzsimons).

Bachelor Johnny was a quiet, placid and kind hearted irishman from Orpington in Kent. Although he had successfully graduated in Economics from the University, his heart was in music. Spiritually and psychologically he lived in Haight Ashbury. Although initially willing to enter the spirit of glam rock by wearing feminine clothing at pop gigs, he did so with a certain mental detachment. Yes, he was happy to wear a dress, a Biba dress at that, but he still kept the beard.

At this time in the music business when sales were bouyant, top selling bands were advised by their accountants for their greater comfort and wealth to 'get it together' in a house in the country, and like so many other bands, Plod were keen to indulge this fantasy. Bachelor Johnny, as a graduate of the University, still had access to its' facilities, which included a free rehearsal studio which was actually a disused biology laboratory attached to the back of the Wivenhouse House annexe of the University, and which was itself a splendid country house.

It was a time of great economic uncertainty in the country, with strikes, union bashing, energy shortages and the three day week. But as an academic institution Wivenhoe House was exempt from the restrictions, and the band made the most of the high powered fan heaters they weren't paying for, and began rehearsing nearly every night of the week. So while rival local bands froze their fingers and scrapped their knuckes loading 4 x 12 cabinets in and out of grubby church halls, and the rest of England shivered in penury, the Mighty Plod set to work in their new musical home. In the days when MIDI was a skirt length, they set up their own primitive homespun recording facilities at the same time as working on their own compositions. Working hard, stopping only for the occasional drink in the comfortable subsidised bar at the other end of the building.
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Press cuttings 3 :
Melody Maker	Plod to victory
Other	Plod something
Other	Plod something
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Recording

Wivenhoe house was a great benefit to their burgeoning creativity. Encouraged by the lavish freedom of a subsidised rehearsal and recording space, the band started to rebel against the covers band mentality. They were all impressed by Zap's fast developing songwriting abilities, and at this this he acquired his first stereo tape-recorder, and for the first time in his career he had a competent and enthusiastic rhythm section and an eager and creative guitar to play to flesh out his songs. Wivenhoe House was also used as a workshop to assemble a new PA system designed by bass man Jack who was also an electronics wizard. Powered by the new solid state amplifier technology, and using folded horn cabinets, it gave the band a live sound that was alot more powerful than their paltry gig money suggested.

There was also a major social shift that greated helped the creative effort; increasingly the band began to hang out in John's bohemian student house a few hundred yards down the hill from Big Nik's flat, a curious and unusual dwelling that had once been an orphanage called St Olaves, that still retained its Gothic pointed doors and windows.

. One of its residents was a music lover called Paul Randle who had recently been the disc jockey on the Essex University campus radio station, and he had a truly spectacular album collection which was well partied by the band and the students. At the same Bachelor Johnny took an active fatherly interest in encouraging Zap and Stix to drink, Zap introduced Stix to LSD, and the band meandered away from the artistic futility of the covers band mentality. Seemlessly they adapated to the psychology of recording and automatically began to think in terms of how their original material would sound 'on record'. The nerve centre of the band shifted from Big Nik's flat half way up the hill in favour of the student house, and eventually Big Nik quit, having lost all managerial control. Soon the first demo tapes were taken to a London in pursuit of a contract.
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The Record companies said
George Martin:	I regret
Dave Dee (Warners):	Unfortunately
Sunbury Music:	I am afraid that
Savage-Ayris:	Interesting but
RCA-1:	More material
RCA-2:	not interested
EMA:	very interesting
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The Bandbox

But as their original material and their recording skills continued to improve, the live situation was getting harder and harder, and they were finding it increasingly difficult to finance their creativity from occasional dodgy gigs in the cultural dustbins of back street bars across East Anglia. Stix was effectively the band's manager, charged with getting hard to come by gigs, and while he was impressed with Zap's songwriting skills, he was financially ambivalent about straying too far from their staple diet of chart covers as demanded by the sordid provincial agents. So as the band's original material got better, the weren't always well received by their audiences. One notable exception to this was a club in Ipswich called the Bandbox, where they had a long and arduous residency. As Zap said in 'This little ziggy...' it was to the band what the KaiserKellar had once been to the Beatles. And after a while, they were getting requests for some of their original material.

Zap always seemed to take it personally when the pub audiences would typically move to another bar, in search of current hits on the jukebox, whenever the band were doing a pub gig. So much so that in the late summer of '74 he wrote a pop/rock parody of Status Quo, called 'The only way to go'. They want Status Quo, he thought, well I can give them Status Quo. The combined effect of the Bandbox residency and the hundreds of hours spent recording demos in Wivenhoe House made the band almost as tight as their trousers, and Stix became more involved in contacting record companies and publishers.
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Click here for the Roadies page

Signed up

As the gig list continued to shrink alarmingly, the output of demos increased, and in the early January of '75, South London independent record company Banjul decided to take a chance on them. And the song that did it for them ? Why, the Status Quo piss-take 'The only way to go' of course. How ironic after a year of experimenting with clever chords and jazzy pop. But they were desperate for a chance to make real records. And on January 13th, 1975, they had their first day in a real recording studio. Label owner and producer Oscar Carroll left them alone for a day in TMC studios in Tooting, just to say if they could get anything done.

The portrayal of the band in 'This little ziggy...' as intoxcated outcasts with somewhat limited social skills is accurate, as anyone who ever drank with them can testify, but recording was a different story. Put a microphone in front of them and they were capable of exceptional dedication and hard work. Oscar Carroll was staggered to discover later that afternoon that six backing tracks had been laid down live in the morning, and that all the vocals had been done in the afternoon, and he offered them a recording contract there and then on the spot, which they stupidly signed. The Musicians' Union thought it was a dodgy deal

Their jubilation at finally proving themselves in a studio was immense. But the anti-climax in the following few months was so intense that it killed the band. As custodian of the ailing gig list, Stix was summoned to London for a strategy meeting with Banjul's agents, but not gigs were forthcoming. Then Banjul lost their case with United Artists, a tour they were promoting lost money, and there was no money left to finance The Mighty Plod. A two month European tour was planned, but it never happened. There was actually only one more live gig, at Reading University, at the end of January. Stix was unable to get any more gigs, as all the local agents were now wise to the fact that they weren't really a covers band any more, and he was offered another job backing local soul singer Lucas. Zap went on a drinking holiday France. The lease on the Bachelor Johnny's house was up, so he planned to move to London, and the University authorities signalled their intention to re-allocate the rehearsal rooms.
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Carl Szymanski ('Jack') retired from music altogether, and went into Electronic engineering.

Big Nik Irwin The charismatic chief roadie became a publican, hotelier and then a local politician, so no change there then.

Paul Hart - Following his departure from the band, blonde guitar wizard Paul Hart saw more active service in both of Plod's local rivals, 'Shay', mentioned in 'This little ziggy…'. And Jumbo Bus.

After them, he joined the Ipswich rock band Hogg, which also included guitarist and songwriter Nick Kershaw (who merited his own chapter in Giles Smiths' 'Lost in Music') who subsequently had big chart success with his compositions 'Wouldn't it be good' and 'The Riddle'. Then he joined forces with another renowned Colchester guitarist, John Brunning, who had spent the last few years touring with 70s chart toppers Mungo Jerry, to form a band called Boy Bastin who were signed up by DJM records, the label owned by erstwhile Lennon and McCartney publisher Dick James, and they made six singles, which Paul maintains "escaped" rather than were released. One of these was recorded at Abbey Road, making Paul the only member of The Mighty Plod to tread such hallowed ground thus far. ( John Brunning, by the way, is now much better known as a presenter on Classic FM.) These days Paul has a career as a medical scientist and plays lead guitar for a Yes/Pink Floyd/Genesis tribute band in Norwich.

Steve Greenfield ('T') After falling in love with a particularly attractive young fan, Steve left The Mighty Plod and turned his back on the music scene to sample life in the 'normal' lane. This didn't last long of course and soon he began the task of forming a new band, who also toured with the R 'n' B star Lucas.

After many auditions, rehearsals and false starts he made it back to the music business. With a change of name to Steve Ashley he soon filled the gig diary with tour support dates to many of the top bands of the day including Thin Lizzy, ELO, Mud and Showaddywaddy.

In 1979 Steve sensationally appeared in all the national newspapers in a story proclaiming 'I am Marc Bolan's brother' as a tacky stunt concocted by his publicity hungry manager. At this time he made an album of original rock songs that escaped release, but have now been reissued as the album 'When yesterday was now'.

After another legal wrangle, this time with a folk singer of the same name, Steve was obliged to change his stage name again, as he took another change of musical direction into MOR singer Steve Travis. He soon got a recording deal and his first album sold 25,000, while he toured with American country legends Billie Jo Spears and Dr Hook. He has since released two videos and made another 10 cds, including one of entirely original songs called 'Song Book', and another of original ambient relaxation music called 'Cornwall: Land of Myth and Legend' on which he also played most of the instruments. He is now signed to the Prism label as the MOR/country star Steve Travis.

Steve is also an excellent photographer, and it was his work that was used for the 'This little ziggy...' cover, the 'Melody Maker' feature, and indeed throughout this site.

John Fitzsimons ('Bachelor Johnny') became Sten Stenapo, leader of 80s cult reggae rockers The Papers who were a tight edgy alternative to the New Romantic club scene in London in the early 80s, also achieving a substantial following at Green festivals and CND rallies through six years of consistently good live work.

They got deal with ex-Jethro Tull producer Robin Black at Maison Rouge which yielded three singles, of which "How many more (for the third world war)" reached number 3 in the Indie chart, and they also had a track featured on the 1980 Chrysalis compilation 'Heat from the Streets'. They were produced by Tony Taverner who shortly afterwards had a string of major international hits with Five Star and other pop acts of the day. This was followed by some excellent live recordings by Elton John's producer Gus Dudgeon that were featured in the New York film "This is London".

After that Bachelor Johnny emigrated to Devon and formed England's only gaelic reggae band 'Kan Kan' with ex-Boomtown Rats drummer Simon Crowe. Since then he has been writing and recording with songwriter Bob Smith, who is signed to CBS Italy, and they have had one album out so far, and he also had a small deal with Bucks Music, co-writing with Stix. And by the way, Bachelor Johnny has now been married twice, which is more than the rest of the band put together.

Michael Natkanski ('Stix') toured with 60s R'n' B legend Lucas Lucas (of 'Lucas and the Emperors' ), and then joined 70s boy band 'Fiver' who signed to EMI and did a couple of unsuccessful singles, "Love to be loved by you" and "When love walks out the door" written by 60s songwrters Ken Howard and Alan Blaikely, and produced by Zack 'Grooving with Mr Bloe' Laurence. After that he ran away to College for nearly a decade but continued to play in various naff covers bands to pay his drinks bill, and even managed to record a version of Tony Orlando's "Tie a yellow ribbon" in the heavy fusion style of Weather Report along the way. Later he abandoned rock and roll drums to study classical piano and then set up "Gone to Lunch Productions", named after his experiences with EMI in the 70s.

Michael is currently busy establishing himself as a producer and composer, working with various collaborators, including theatrical coach, classical composer and singer Lisa Westerhout, and two very promising new singing actresses, Lorna Phillips and Melinda Brooks, whom many of you will have seen in 'East Enders, 'The Bill', 'Casualty' and 'Holby City'. In September 05 he began a music degree, specialising in composition, at London University's Royal Holloway College, and is active as an occasional session drummer for those who like the aux naturelle retro feel.

Martin Newell ('Zap') joined the Ipswich heavy rock band Gypp and continued to work the East Anglian scene with them for several years, and they also did rather well in Germany. In the 80s, he went solo releasing a flood of home made albums of his original material, on his own label, as the 'Cleaners from Venus' with various collaborators, including keyboard player Giles Smith, who later used this musical partnership as the source of 'Lost in Music'. And yes, it is the same Giles Smith that writes for the Telegraph and others. Interestingly, the version of the Cleaners from Venus story as told by Giles Smith is substantially different from the version according to Newell, and he should know. For those who have worked with Newell over the years, it is easy to believe that Giles took quite a bit of artistic license.

Martin Newell also made a critically acclaimed album 'The Greatest Living Englishment' for Humbug Records, which was produded by Andy Partridge of legendary 80s English pop band XTC, and he also has a new album out on Cherry Red records called 'The Spirit Cage'. He has a loyal following in Germany, Japan and increasingly the USA. He also worked very happily with ex-Damned guitarist Captain Sensible . In the last few years years he also enjoyed an increasingly successful parallel career as a poet who is regularly published in 'The Independent', and he does shows occasionally with John Cooper-Clarke. He has several books of his poetry available, see his numerous web sites for details.
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Mercifully perhaps, they have all said no. Although there have also been some sporadic collaborations between ex-band members. Stix drummed on Martin Newell's "Barricades and Angels" albums (originally titled 'Diminished Responsibility', and also did a few tracks on one of his early 'Cleaners from Venus' albums.

Stix and Batchelor Johnny got together as writers with Reggae star Carl St. Clair, ex of Desmond Dekker's "Aces" who charted with 'Israelites', 'Itmek' and '007', and also in the 80s as solo artist, and they recorded several tracks for Bucks Music.

Martin Newell produced one of Steve Greenfield's songs which was awarded the coveted 'Single of the Week' in the NME, and he is also the backing vocalist on many of the tracks on Steve's solo album 'When yesterday was now'
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An album is in preparation and will be available by the end of the year. It will include hitherto unavailable gems from the archives, from both the earlier and later line-ups. If you would like to put your name down for a copy, click here.
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Boy Bastin

Steve Ashley

Steve Travis

The Papers

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Lucas

Fiver

Gypp

The Cleaners from Venus