Long overdue . . .
During the first few weeks of June 2017 I traveled back to England to introduce my family to the beautiful English country side, the historic sites, a few stately homes and, of course, to my remaining family and friends who still reside in the United Kingdom.
June 2nd., 2017
Terry Friend, Pete Kiely and my self met for a mini reunion at the Letchworth Hall hotel and over, more than, a few pints of good English ale enjoyed each others company as we reminisced over the ‘Good Old Days’. There was even talk about what we might do together in the future.
Pete Kiely has been the Stonefield Tramp lead guitarist since replacing Dave Lloyd back 1975. As an accomplished musician, song writer, recording engineer and the Stonefield Tramp archivist, Pete has been a very important force in the band over the years and continues to be so. I always feel musically invigorated after meeting with him and perhaps we can conjure up another project to work on?
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Left to right: Terry Friend, Rob van Spyk and Pete Kiely
Pete Kiely – 2017
Pete Kiely – 1975
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June 3rd., 2017
Terry Friend’s Garden Party.
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Terry Friend – 2017
Terry had invited us to a wonderful pub lunch with several other guests from days long past and much to my surprise I was to be re-acquainted with two good friends from both my early army days and the Stonefield Tramp period. After a most enjoyable lunch Terry invited us all back for tea and cake served in his back garden.
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Left to right: Dave Lloyd, Terry Friend, Rob van Spyk and Davey Maughan
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The two friends who Terry had invited were; Davey Maughan who had been a good friend from our Junior Leaders days with the British Army. I remember writing one of my first songs with Davey back in 1965. Titled ” The Vagrants are Coming”, sang to a simple two, three cord riff, if required I could still probably remember all the lyrics.
Dave Lloyd was the other surprise guest. One of the founding members of Stonefield Tramp, Dave was our lead guitarist also contributing vocals and acoustic guitar and his creative energies to our second album, “Dreaming Again”. During Dave’s period with the band he contributed much to our development from a purely folk genre to the more adventurous sound that we developed as we rehearsed for the recording and after it release.
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Dave Lloyd – 2017
Dave Lloyd – 1975
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Of course Terry’s garden party would not be complete with out an introduction to the ladies in attendance who really made the occasion the great success it was.
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Left to right: Jasmine Friend, Cherry van Spyk, Jen and Monica van Spyk
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June 5th.,2017
Who’s voice was it?
The last member from the very early beginnings who we met during our visit was ‘the voice’ who read the poem, ‘Garbage Drama’ from the acetate ‘Going Nowhere’. Recorded in 1971 we re-issued the recording as ‘The Acetate’ in a very limited vinyl edition in 2016. Marion Green was the contributor who did the reading of the poem; she was my girlfriend at the time and has remained a close friend ever since.
Note: Marion now goes by her married name of Marion Ohlendorf
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Left to right: Marion Green, Cherry van Spyk and Monica van Spyk
Left to right: Marion Green, Rob van Spyk and Monica van Spyk
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After this trip back to the UK and meeting the people who have been so important in the musical sphere of my life I feel very refreshed and ready for some new Stonefield Tramp project to focus on. Terry and I still work together on the Tramp Records side of our business so perhaps as a unit we could all stir the joint creative juices again?
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Just like recording sessions trips never last long enough.