A POCKET HISTORY OF WISHBONE ASH

By: STEVE UPTON

Steve Upton 

Born 24th May 1946 started playing drums at college with classmates 
when I was sixteen. I played in several different bands. At eighteen, 
I went to Germany with my band and spent three months playing the clubs 
until we finally split up and went our different ways. On my return from 
Germany I rented a small terrace cottage in Exter, Devon and took any 
gig that came along. It was in one of those lean spells that a chance 
meeting was to change everything. 

16 July 1966

Met Martin & Glenn Turner on the main Western route out of the city 
of Exter, Devon, in a place where the road rats met at night called 
Dirty Dot's. Dirty, or as we called her Dot,was very fat and ugly, 
her hair was always greasy and lay flat on her head like a big pet 
spider and she stank, worse than shit. The only reason we were there 
was the fact she stayed open until the early hours of the morning. 

(Martin Turner, born October1, 1947 - Torquay, England).

The Turner brothers and I chatted that night away. Their drummer 
had just left and they wanted me to play with them. We rehearsed 
the following Wednesday and did our first gig together on Saturday 
a week after meeting at Dirty's. We played locally for the next 2-˝ 
years as the Empty Vessels. Then came time for us to leave the small 
pond for the big one.

13th May 1969 

That night we piled into the van with our equipment and worldly 
belongings and headed for London. We arrived at dawn and found 
ourselves on the wrong side of town from where we had intended to be, 
but being lost was just part of the adventure.That day we sat in the 
van outside a studio, which a friend of ours from Torquay worked in. 
It was in New Bond St. In the evening he took us back to his flat. 
By coincidence a one room flat was vacant in the same block as our 
friend, and so we took it. For the next few months we learned how to 
get around London and how to hustle an existence in the Metropolis. 
It took its toll though, and Glenn, Martin's younger brother decided 
he wanted to return home due to his health. We had managed to scrape 
together a few gigs and Glenn was to leave after the last one. 
This gig was at the Country Club in North London. We played our last 
set together that night in July 1969. 
	
After the show I went to the bar for a coke and there I met a 
guy sporting a short back and sides, horned rimmed glasses and 
of collegiate dress. I thought I was in the presence of a 
Joseph Smith fan and was preparing myself to argue the virtues of 
Rock n' Roll but he was not. He was American. I told him our story 
and that this was the last gig and he offered his help. He gave me his 
number and said ring in a few days. I had just met Miles Axe Copeland III. 
Another chance meeting! I made contact with miles. Martin and I went over to 
his house in St. Johns Wood, London. A well proportioned house with its own 
rehearsal studio in the basement, which had been built for Miles' kid 
brother Stewart, a budding drummer. After several days of discussions, Martin 
and I agreed Miles should manage us, even though he had had no prior experience 
managing a group. We spent the months of July and August 1969 searching the 
country for guitar players, auditioning all those who answered our advert in 
the music press. Finally, we settled on both Andy Powell and Ted Turner, 
mainly because we couldn't choose between the two of them. 

Ted Turner (born in Birmingham, England, August 2, 1950). 
Lived for and with his guitar. He played it constantly and took it 
everywhere he went, His greatest goal in life was to get a
Gibson Les Paul Sunburst Guitar. 

Andy Powell (born in Stepney, England, February 8, 1950). 
Was a very different sort. He played a Les Paul copy that he built for 
himself. Come to think of it, Martin's bass was also home made and so 
were or speaker cabinets. 

The year continued with more English dates and more importantly the 
offer of a recording contract with MCA Records. This offer was a direct 
result of Richie Blackmore recommending us to a friend at MCA after we 
had done a gig with Deep Purple… We secured a deal with MCA or Decca, 
as it then was and recorded our first album at the DE Lane Lea Studios 
in London, engineered by Martin Birch and produced by Derek Lawrence. 
During that session I remember going to buy a paper and seeing that 
Jimmy Hendrix had died.