Supertramp may not be the name that trips off of the tongue
when discussing the Carry Ons, but back in 1975 I was forced to flee a somewhat
numbers depleted cast and crew get together to celebrate my fourteenth birthday
at Brighton Dome in the company of that very band.
As a present from my brother Martyn, I had been invited to
join his very own 'crew’, and head in to the centre of Brighton
to catch the band Supertramp, who had just released their fourth album,
'Crisis? What Crisis?'
Among my fellow group of gig-goers there was much talk of
poppers (alkyl nitrites), of which I happily concluded would mean end of
evening balloons. I was to be both confused and disappointed by naivety!
Rewind back to lunchtime and I was sat in the kitchen of
ex-Carry On scriptwriter Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell's house, quietly observing the
coming, goings and conversations of the few Carry Oners who had accepted the
invitation to Tolly's farewell shindig in honour of his uprooting from his
beloved secluded bolt hole in the picturesque village of Fulking, to the rather
more urban soundtrack of the bustling coastal town of Worthing.
The move had been necessitated after Tolly's breakdown
following scripting twenty-two of the highly successful and lucrative Carry On
films.
Sadly, it was glaringly obvious from the turn out of cast
and crew that the famous Carry On brotherhood counted for little once talent
had flown the nest.
But Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Jim Dale and producer
Peter Rogers were the 'a-listers' who mingled at Tolly’s along with a
sprinkling of those who worked behind the Carry On scenes.
Conversation was unusually muted, and the expected ribbing
and backbiting was absent. All-in-all, and not surprisingly due to the
circumstances, it was a party that had the air of a wake.
Meanwhile, I was clock watching. I still had to get out of
Fulking and back to Brighton by 7pm to meet my
brother and his cast of merry misfits.
My attendance at my first ever gig was imminent, and I was
almost breathless with anticipation. Supertramp meant nothing to me. I hadn't
heard their music and didn't even know they were American and at the peak of
their prog/pop powers.
Upon entering the Dome I tried to act in a nonplussed and
laid-back manner. Most of the longhairs milling around the venue were sporting
the band's current album title, 'Crisis? What Crisis?' on their t-shirts.
The memory of the gig itself is a
bit of a blur. I remember being highly impressed by both the personality and
musicianship of John Helliwell (woodwinds, keyboards, backing vocals), as well
as the swearing heavily featured on the band's closing number, 'Bloody Well
Right'.
Once back outside and engulfed by the town's ice cold air, I
discovered poppers had nothing to do with balloons! But I went home happy and a
few years wiser to the world.
The next morning my brother presented me with a second
present, a copy of Supertramp's break through third album 'Crime of the
Century'.
For me, much like for those involved in the ongoing Carry On franchise, the times they were a changin'.
A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows
by Mike Cobley
