It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason
"It's Only Rock and Roll" goes beyond the spotlight to reveal the fascinating stories of the unsung heroes who made rock's greatest moments possible. From groundbreaking concerts like Pink Floyd in Moscow during Glasnost to Wham performing at the Great Wall of China, this podcast captures a special time in music history through authentic, unfiltered conversations.
Co-hosts Russell Mason and Phil Blizzard bring complementary perspectives – Russell from his years touring and promoting, Phil from interviewing countless music legends throughout his broadcasting career. Together, they're creating a relaxed, nostalgic journey through an industry populated by unforgettable characters (many known only by their colorful nicknames).
Future episodes will feature tour managers, production crews, artist managers, record producers, and the legendary "liggers" (backstage gate-crashers) who defined an era. These are the people who witnessed it all – the near-disasters averted, the bizarre requests fulfilled, and the moments of brilliance that audiences never saw.
It's Only Rock n Roll with hosts Phil Blizzard & Russell Mason
Six Decades of Rock’n’Roll: Stan Urban on Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee, Led Zep, and Life on the Road
The night rock and roll first grabbed Stan Urban wasn’t on a stage; it was in a cinema, watching Little Richard tear through Long Tall Sally. From that moment, a Dundee kid with two fingers on an old family piano set off on a six-decade run that takes us from church halls and converted radios to Chuck Berry’s stage, Led Zeppelin’s cocktail tab, and a viral train-station jam that made thousands miss their trains.
We sit with Stan to unpack the craft behind the chaos. He strips pianos to the frame, drops a podium mic inside, and turns boots and pedals into percussion. His left hand flips the groove—pink donk instead of donk pink—while his right hand leans ahead, stretching time until the room starts to shake. Along the way are stories that anchor an era: Jerry Lee Lewis returning his Yamaha CP with snapped strings, James Brown’s brisk handshake, and Robert Plant climbing stairs to sing Summertime Blues in a tiny Ibiza flat. Hamburg’s Star-Club brings long nights and hard lessons while Britain goes polite; East German television offers Saturday-night spectacle and the odd secret door; Denmark becomes home when touring turns into belonging.
This is a love letter to live music and the people who keep it honest. We talk writing rock and roll that isn’t pastiche, why “perfect” timing can drain feel, and how a pianist becomes a one-man rhythm section. There’s joy, grit, and plenty of laughter: Bahrain New Year’s Eve mayhem, a cannabis festival that forgot the piano, and the small, lonely minute before midnight when fireworks bloom outside and the crowd waits inside. If you care about rock and roll piano, Little Richard’s spark, Chuck Berry’s engine, Led Zeppelin lore, and the craft that makes a room move, you’ll feel right at home here.
Subscribe, share with a friend who loves real live music, and leave a review to tell us your favourite moment—we’ll feature the best replies next week.
It's Only Rock and Roll is a Phil Blizzard Radio Production - for your production email philblizzardmedia@gmail.com
Well, welcome along to It's Only Rock and Roll, we love it. It's episode number two. We had a brilliant first one to start things off. We're going through the different areas of uh rock music, rock and roll, pop music in terms of well, production stories of what's happened on the road, looking at artists, looking at managers, looking at production guys. And we started off with two production guys, uh Jake Duncan and Steve Martin, some fabulous tales from them, a massive and magic experience, 50 years or so, or 40 years each. And uh they've worked with people from an A to Z of saying from Aerosmith right through to uh Z Z Top and a multitude of stars in between. Today, a different aspect of rock and roll. So, Russell, tell us tell us who we got lined up.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'm quite excited to have my old friend Stan Urban, um, who's it's fair to say more than six decades in in the rock and roll industry and really rock and roll, where it all started. So he can give us an insight. I think uh both you and Phil, no disrespect to uh Stan. I think both you and I were probably in diapers when he was, or not even thought of when he would he got started. But uh native of Dundee, Dundee Stan, and uh Stan's a singer-songwriter, um uh piano player, rock and roll piano player, um, native of Dundee, but uh now lives in Denmark, but has performed around the globe, still performing. I don't I don't think Stan would mind me saying he's uh 81 years old or 81 years young, as I've experienced being with him recently when he came to visit me in the Philippines, and he's got lots of energy, still playing, played a gig in the Philippines, and now we've invited him onto our podcast to just share a bit about his life because our listeners don't know so much about him. All I would say is that I had two weeks with Stan um just in the house with us and and hanging out, and we just laughed from from beginning to end. I think it's fair to say, Stan. So welcome, mate. It's really good to have you on, and uh over to you, Phil.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I understand uh Stan, you've played with the likes of Chuck Berry through to Led Zeppelin or hung out with uh Led Zeppelin. So we're gonna find out more about that, and uh regularly uh the Gracelands Elvis uh famous home, and there's a German or Danish connection with that, I believe, or German connection. So uh welcome to It's Only Rock and Roll. Russell said about energy. Where'd you get it from? I read some of that you have on stage, the energy to light up a big city like New York. So, where does that come from?
SPEAKER_03:It's a little bit of an exaggeration. I don't know. I think it's because I am a rock and roller. I mean, I didn't get into rock and roll, it sort of got into me. I was there at the start. Um, I was one of the British, the second generation's rock and rollers, if you like. Uh, and and uh we we listened to Chuck Berry and Little Richard, he was the one that got me going. I'd never I'd never heard uh a black singer like that. I thought black singers were like Nat King Cole or way above my head. But uh I saw a movie called Don't Knock the Rock, and there was Little Richard up on the screen wearing giant gabardine flags for trousers, and uh it was Tootie Frutti and Long Tall Sally. And to cut a long story short, we had an old piano at home, and that was it. I went home and I was playing Tootie Frutti, two fingers on each other and I'm still playing two fingers on each on each hand, and it just started there. I was about 13, just just turned 13, 1957. Okay, and that was that was it. Uh, a lot of groups started started up, and everybody played guitar, nobody played piano. So uh lucky for me, they came up and uh they wanted a piano player, and that was it. I was on a group at uh just turned 14.
SPEAKER_01:So, with everyone looking at playing guitar and playing the guitar, you picked up the piano and you got those gigs which people weren't available to do, I suppose. But I want to go back, you said you were playing with two fingers at home. What was the reaction from the folks at home when you came home and started playing rock and roll on their treasured piano?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it they were against it. Well, my dad was a widower, you know. I lost I lost my mum at a very young age, and uh oh, he thought I could be a doctor or a lawyer. It's the old story, you know, and he he meant the best. And on rock and roll hit, and that was it. The school went out window that became everything to me. The music became everything. I don't know, it's it's pretty hard to understand somebody who wasn't there, the impact. There was nothing before it, you know. I was born during the war, and uh you know, it was Rosemary Clooney and 20 Tiny Fingers, and uh there was nothing until rock and roll. It was a revolution.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, how did your career take off? How what was your first professional gig, for example?
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh it was in a band, it was in a group, and can I go on? The group played through a radio, the whole band played through a converted radio. Um it was in a church hall, but before that, um after I saw little Richard in the movie, I used to get a newspaper on a Saturday afternoon and I would watch where the weddings were. There'd be a wedding in St. Joseph's Church, there'd be a wedding in St. Andrew's Cathedral, and always next door, it was a little hall. So I used to time it, and I would simply walk in. All these halls had pianos. I think the Germans dropped them when they ran out of bombs, you know. There was always a piano, an upright piano glued to a wall someplace. I would simply walk in to a private wedding party, strip the piano down, move the stole stool far away. I would never sit on a stool because little Richard, he played it standing up. And that's it. I'd go into Tootie Fruity and they'd pass the hat around, everybody would be laughing. And I knew I had something there. I think it was the cheek, just the cheek of this kid coming in there and playing. So that that's the first money I earned. I was actually on my own playing Tutti Fruity at uh uninvited at weddings. But then a group invited me to join. So I was in a group from there, from then on.
SPEAKER_00:So just talk just talking, Stan. Sorry, Phil. Um, just talking, Stan, about uh the piano, you couldn't have chosen in those early days a more difficult uh instrument to lug around, surely, because nowadays you have electronic pianos and all the like. But in those days, it wasn't exactly the most user-friendly to be in a band, to be a piano player in a band, was it? You'd have to, okay, the church halls had them, but when you're doing gigs, it doesn't always there's not always a piano.
SPEAKER_03:How did you manage there was actually Russell? There was a piano everywhere. If it was in a hall, they'd have a they'd have a piano for classical concerts or whatever. There was always a piano there. I never loved a piano round, but uh you know, run into trouble with the the the hallkeepers because I would always be stripping the piano down and doing things to it, ripping off bits of felt off the pedals, so they would they they would make a noise when afflicted with my foot. Um so I always run into problems with the hallkeepers, and I always used the the microphone that was used for political speeches that was always in the corner of a stage, and I would just throw it in the piano, close the lid, the band are playing through a radio, and I'm playing through 36 tiny little speakers on the roof. I don't know what this what it sounded like, but that was it. It was great, it was great fun.
SPEAKER_01:So investment in terms of uh sorry, sorry, Ross. You had no investment in terms of musical instruments or uh sound system, brilliant. Nothing, nothing.
SPEAKER_00:Because money must have been really tight. Huh? Money must money must have been incredibly tight. I mean you you know, you were born with a silver spoon, aren't you?
SPEAKER_03:15 shillings. That was what we got for birth sale every Monday night. Fifteen shillings, that's 75 pence today's money, and it was great. Hey, I could buy a shirt and a pair of shoes for that then.
SPEAKER_01:Can I just show you something? While Russell was talking, I've went to my uh other side of the studio and picked up the sound system for you. A radio. Can you can you speak this? Was it something like this you were playing through?
SPEAKER_03:Wait a minute, wait, wait till I got my glasses on.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it's going through very clear.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, there we go.
SPEAKER_01:There you go.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't play that. I was playing on the 36 speakers on the roof.
SPEAKER_01:The band were coming through. The band were coming through this, were they?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:One of the guys in the band I was in, he worked in uh uh an iron foundry and he he invented a steel guitar. It took four guys to lift it. He thought the guitar, he thought the guitar was made of steel. Brilliant. It's brilliant. I made an organ out of a hoover. You know the old, you know the old Hoovers, uh stand-up hoover, and it had a big bag on it. Yeah, yeah. I got a second hand accordion, and I cut the cut the accordion in half and fit it on the top of this hoover. So the hoover was blowing through where the bellows used to be on the accordion. But the problem was you hit the hoover was louder than the accordion. But anyway, I had an organ. I had an organ and a and the piano was the piano was in the hall.
SPEAKER_01:Was your inspiration for that from your what should we say, the national instrument of Scotland, the bagpipes?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I tried the chanter, you don't learn the bagpipes, you you learn on the chanter. It's very difficult. Most instruments you play a note when you press your fingers down. With the bagpipe, the note comes out when you lift your fingers up. So it was a mystery to me. No, the piano, the piano was was the my goodness, the pianos played for it, paid for everything. Cars, houses. It's paid for everything, uh my whole life. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Just going back, Stan, um, you know, like when you you obviously you're in a band and you're touring around, and those early days it was it was pretty rough and ready. You know, you you you probably had a van with equipment and stuff in it. And I I seem to remember a story you told me. It was a bit of a gruesome story, actually, about a fan, because you're starting to pick up fans then. And obviously, when when you load out in the evening, and you know, that there's there's the girls there, and you know, the guys, you're young guys, you you love it, you know, all the adoration and that, and uh, people taking interest. And there was one story, what a bit of a gruesome story, which maybe you can share, where you um uh you picked up an unwanted uh uh uh part of part somebody's body.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, I was you I would be about 18 by then. I mean, the the days of uh gate crashing weddings were over, you know. I was actually in a in a group by then. Yeah, it was called the High Four. And there's two lies there already because first we weren't high, that that came later, and there was five of us. So there were you know that was called it's called the High Four. And uh I was driving. There was a place called Peterhead, northeast of Scotland. Uh Peter be hanging around when you're putting the amps in the in the car. I was driving, we drove off, and the girls would run after the van. Then I would stop, then they would run after it again, and just before they caught up, I'd I'd you know, leave them in a cloud of black diesel fumes and drive off again. So this happened two or three times. Anyway, we we drove off laughing. Three hours later we're in Dundee, cold, five in the morning, frost, and I was getting my amp out of the back of the van. And when I opened the doors, something slipped out of the handle. And in the in in in the the the dawn light, I picked it up, and it was a finger. A girl's finger, and it was bent, it was like that, and I was very surprised that it was so heavy. You know, I always you think of fingers as being light, but it was heavy. And I went round to the side of the van and told one of the other guys, I says, Dougie, look at this, and he just says, Fuck off, Stanley, closed the door and drove off. So I was left with my arm and a finger.
SPEAKER_00:And a finger, and you've always wondered where that where that girl was and how she explained to her children and grandchildren, uh, Mummy, grandma, where did you lose your finger?
SPEAKER_01:It was Stan, Stan Urban's garden.
SPEAKER_03:So I do uh it's probably still there. They'll find it in a thousand years statement. I'll try to find out what why is there one one finger there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh some pretty amazing uh stories there, and uh let's move from your gate crashing of weddings, which is fabulous. I love that, to uh some of the iconic stars you've uh been associated with and worked with and played along with. So let's start with Chuck Berry. Um, that must have been a pinch me moment. And what what are your key recollections of of that uh uh that occasion?
SPEAKER_03:Well, of course I I was knocked out. I I I'd be in my forties. Uh yeah, I think I was in my forties then, and it wasn't a big stadium in Denmark. Uh I get to the stadium, I drove my I used to always drive two CVs. I drove my two CV next to this black Mercedes, and the promoter said he's he's in the car there. Black windows, I couldn't see anything. Nobody can go near him. And I said, That's nonsense. I'm playing piano with him tonight. So I went over, knocked on the window, the window came down about two inches, and and right enough, there he was. It was Chuck Berry. And I said, Mr. Berry, I'm Stan Urban. I'm really looking forward to playing piano for you tonight. Then the window went down, and the first thing I noticed was his legs. They went on forever. They just seemed to go on and on and on. And he couldn't have been nicer. He was very nice. You know, I heard he was a bit volatile, but uh he couldn't have been nicer. And I thought, yeah, I know what I'm doing with the piano. And right enough, on stage, after about five minutes, we we really connected. We we connected after the show he said I want the little guy, and he pointed it, he pointed to me. So that that was wonderful. Really fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:That is didn't you didn't you Stan um once lend your piano to the great Jerry Lee Lewis as well? And he he trashed it from all yeah, I didn't lend it.
SPEAKER_03:He arrived to do a gig in Denmark, and uh there was no piano. So it's only a couple of hours before the gig, and they thought he uses the same type of piano I use, which was the big old electric grand pianos from Yamaha. Uh CPA Cap one, and and and and they and they knew where it was yeah, it was in a warehouse, so they got it. They never asked me, they got it, and he played it, and next day I I tried to play it on a gig, and there was string broken strings, and it was it was dreadful, you know. Yeah, he just I think he I think he plays the whole gig with his foot on a sustained pedal. Oh that that breaks strings because the strings are open all the time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's and and and and didn't you bump into the legendary chap um the legendary James Brown as well at one stage?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, it was a handshake, that was about it, you know. Dun dump grunts and a grunt, yeah. You went, yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, from those uh icons of rock and roll, uh Stan, you're very much referred to as a global citizen from your home in uh Scotland, Dundee, to uh various uh locations around the world. And uh at one point you spent you and your family spent uh quite a lot of time in Ibiza, both uh I suppose from a family perspective and also playing professional. So what took you there? And what were you doing in Ibiza?
SPEAKER_03:It's a holiday. It was in I believe it was 1967. Uh uh went on a holiday to Mallorca, and there was no airport yet in Ibiza. So we got a ferry boat over just to visit, and you know, just before catching the ferry back to Mallorca, I passed a place called La Reja Piano Bar. So I said to my wife, uh, I want to I want to go and see a piano player. Went in. There was no there was the place was empty. There was a born barman, Spanish guy, and a piano over in the corner. I said, Where's your piano player? He said, He's sick. Uh and I'm not very good at a Spanish accent, but he says, Where did you come from? And I said, Scotland. What do you what do you do? And I said, I'm a piano player. And he said, Do you want to play? Uh my wife's pulling me out because she knows how it was. And but anyway, we went over to this piano, stripped it down as usual, took the whole thing to pieces. Uh, and he had a mic stuck in it, and started playing within ten minutes the bar was full. Yeah, so he said, What are you doing next season? I said, Oh, I'm very busy. I was lying, I had nothing. But that that's how it started. I started doing seasons seven days a week for seven months. Uh I I used one piano a year. Uh, we'd get a new piano, and at the end of season we'll have to get a new one for next year. And and that's the way it was. Maximum 80 people in the place. Uh facing the corner. You know, these pianos were always well, they took a lot of room up, so you would always push it in the corner. So most people saw me from the back or from the side. So until this day, I can't I can't face people over a piano. I have to play the sideways on, but that's it. My goodness.
SPEAKER_00:What about the tuning? You had some strange tuning with knives or something.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I well, for a start, the piano would be stripped down totally. And I I was literally sitting inside it. My feet were in the bottom part of the piano, and I wore boots. And the amplification was Barcus Berry piano mics. That they were clamped onto the frame. So if I tapped my boot onto the bottom of the piano, it would come through the pickups. If I took the felt off the pedals, they would clatter, they would clatter onto the piano. So there was this cacophony of sound, and I haven't started playing yet, you know. Um drawing pins in the hammers, and these drawing pins would give a strange sound uh uh on the strings. Yeah, it was just a cacophony of sound. I had a microphone tied around my ankle as well. So when I hit the piano, I went thump, and it went through the Barclays Berry pickups and through the little PA, and there was a cable as well. It wasn't radio controlled then, it was a cable, so it would go thump, whew, thump, whew. The pedals would be clattering. It was a cacophony of rhythm.
SPEAKER_01:So I'd say you were a piano player plus uh avant-garde percussionist at the same time.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't know what I was doing, but and and I knew, I mean, my left hand, that's the bass, the guitar, and the drums. There was no backing, there was only a piano. And uh they told me later, they told me later what I was doing, what I am doing on my left hand is impossible. Because I reversed the reversed the rhythm. The rhythm was like normally it would be donk, pink, donk, pink. Well, I would do pink donk pink donk. So I've already reversed, reversed where the rhythm should be. And the right hand was about a quarter bar ahead of the left hand, so it's going pink donk, which is bad enough, and then I'm I'm stretching the rhythm on the right hand. There's this cacophony of battering and sounds and clattering and boonk boon and all this clattering going on, drawing pins, and someplace in the middle my voice is kind of bleeding through. I'm ahead of the beat, I'm behind the beat, the left hand's going pink donk instead of donk pink, the right hand is pulling the rhythm in the other direction. So I was literally stretching the rhythm all over the place. People's ears are not perfect. So they went, they just went with it. Nowadays everything's perfect, but this was far from perfect, and it was great. The atmosphere you can't really describe it. It was just just hundred percent rhythm, and all I've got is three chords. Rock and roll is only three chords, you know. Uh so to try and do something different with that. I don't know, it must have been different. And yeah, the knives, you're right, Russell. The knives, there was so much battering and thumping and moving and clattering going on that the little brass pins that held the hammer together would sometimes slip out. So the only way to get them back in while playing and going pink bonk instead of donk pink was with a kitchen knife. So it would slip them between the hammer and push the little pin back. Oh, while I'm playing.
SPEAKER_01:Stan is definitely fabulous. Can you give us a little demonstration, a bit more stretching out of the dink donks we were doing on the piano, so we have a bit of a music interlude here?
SPEAKER_00:Piano here. Um don't don't uh don't show Stan a piano. I took him to a shopping mall in in in downtown Manila, and there were there was a piano, and immediately he got up on stage and started playing like a set, and in no time there was a crowd, you know. It's just you can't show a piano even now. And I think the only reason I managed to convince him to fly halfway around the world was because I do have actually have got a baby grand piano in my house. So uh uh that was uh very entertaining every morning, wasn't it, Stan? We had a little uh a little show every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But but you used to get you used to get quite a few free drinks in in that bar, I I believe, as well.
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh well, the deal was that uh between nine and twelve, I got a percentage of all the drinks that were sold. So if anybody said to the bar, oh uh give a drink to the pianist, you know. So I got the most expensive, they knew that I got the most expensive drink in the house, and it was called uh San Francisco cocktail. And this thing had fireworks in it and pink sugar and I don't know, coconut ice cream, cherries, oranges, pineapples. It looked like a jungle. So the piano was covered in these San Francisco cocktails.
SPEAKER_00:Or like Alexis L used to say, uh, it looked like a glass of phlegm with a tree in it.
SPEAKER_03:That's the point. That's only more elaborate, more, more, more colourful, you know.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:So it sounded like a beefer was a fun time for you. Abifah sounded like it was fun time for you.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and you it was quite hard. I mean sorry, sorry, it was it was seven days a week.
SPEAKER_00:Was that where you you met Led Zeppelin, wasn't it? They used to come on holiday and you met their families and everything.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Well, in the old days, Ibita really was a paradise. So then then well, they opened up a big uh uh a big airport and it started getting a little bit, I don't know what the word is, a bit cheaper. You know, all the artists, all the poets, all the musicians kind of left, and it became the mass tourism, you know. And yeah, I'm jumping ahead, but that was when I decided to leave. But yeah, there would I could always tell there was a band uh in the corner. I knew they were a band because they had long hair. And they sent up the San Francisco cocktails and they would send up requests for obscure rock and roll stuff like Larry Williams and things like that. So during the break, I went down and I says, You're a group, right? And they said, Yeah. I says, because only a group would know these obscure numbers. And I went and played another set, more San Francisco cocktails, and later on I said, What's the name of your band then? And Led Zeppelin. What? And you didn't know who they were. No, I didn't know who it was, and uh I've always admired Robert Plant for that because if it was me, I'd walk into a bar and say, I'm Led Zeppelin. They didn't laughed, and I got friendly with uh Robert and Maureen, his wife, then, and and two little girls. I had two little girls, uh, and it was just after they had a bad car crash, I believe. Maureen still had a pain in her ankle, but then they came up to my flat later, and uh we got very friendly, and of course we jammed together. He he would summertime blues, um I think bye-bye Johnny, Chuck Berry numbers. He he he he always liked to come up and sing, so there was just V and Robert Plant.
SPEAKER_00:I think he still does, you know. I've seen stuff on YouTube where he still does. He just turns up and yeah, uh Robert Plant, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:100% musician. Later on, uh after we played together up in the flat, I said to him, I know what I know you know what I'm talking about, Robert, but what was the number that you heard and you knew that you would never ever be the same again? And he says, Uh, you tell me yours first, and then I'll tell me uh I'll tell you mine. So I said, for me it was long till Sally, little Richard. And for Robert Plant, it was weekend Eddie Cochran.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:So Eddie Cochran was touring Britain at the time, and uh, well, like loads of people, he you know, this is a real live rock and roller. We'd never seen them live before. So it was Jean Vincent and Eddie Cochran. They were touring Britain at the time. So, like many others, Robert Plant saw saw uh Eddie Cochrane, and that was it. That was that that that's the number that got him started, and that's from the from the man himself. He told me that himself.
SPEAKER_01:That's uh a real nugget of information, fabulous, and uh to hear that. Brilliant. So uh Ibitha was uh an important time for you, and also in a different part of Europe, Hamburg, Germany, uh, so on, East Germany. When did that fit into your career?
SPEAKER_03:Well, uh the early early 60s, 61, 62, rock and roll was finished in Britain. It was over, I think, in 59. Uh Buddy Holly was dead, Elvis was in the army, little Richard was in the church, Chuck Berry was in jail. It was all over. And it was numbers like rubber ball, I keep bouncing. It was all these silly Fabian Bobby V. It was over. And then to my mind, it was a dreadful uh trad jazz revival going on at the time. Uh Ackerbilk and Kennyball, people like that. So it was all over, but there was a renaissance going on in in Germany, namely Hamburg, the Star Club, Berlin, there was a star club, Cologne, Stuttgart. Yeah, rock and roll was it was still going there. So yeah, I I joined a band and I went there, a Bristol band I was with called Johnny Carr and the Cadillacs. So that that that that's when uh I went over to Germany, and it was all happening there. A guy called Tony Sheridan, he was being backed by a uh Liverpool band called the Beatles at the time. Uh Stuart Sutcliffe, he was playing bass, uh Paul McCartney was playing piano. Uh it wasn't the Beatles as we as we knew them. Um Ringo was with another band.
SPEAKER_00:I believe it was Rory Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.
SPEAKER_03:He was with them, and well, it was just more great times, and uh oh my goodness. The the the people in these clubs they used to feed the bands uh preladines. They were pills, and we didn't know what they were, but you didn't get hungry, and that's what they wanted, and you could play all night. So they they they they got they got all these young guys hooked on the on on what we call speed now, you know, and it was pretty dreadful. You you um you wonder why you you felt so bad in in the morning, you know. Yeah. But my goodness, you certainly learn your your rock and roll craft and these these clubs hard times, I guess.
SPEAKER_01:A lot of playing, a lot of hours involved.
SPEAKER_03:I didn't mean to go off in the screen of a dungeon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, that's how I mean it's um just uh no secret, Stan. You uh you uh obviously you have a German wife, uh the the lovely Eve. Evie and uh you spent a lot of time in in Germany. Um and what I found really interesting talking to you previously is that you spent a lot of time in East Germany, and if people don't realize when Germany was segregated, there was a thing called the corridor that you had to drive through to get to East Germany, and East Germany and West Germany was divided by this great wall. I've been there, I don't know if you've been there, Steve uh uh uh Phil, but it was quite a it was Berlin was quite an interesting place because I felt when I went there, people lived as if there was no tomorrow. They didn't know whether the Russians were gonna come over the wall or come through the wall or whatever. There was this feeling of, you know what, we don't know what tomorrow holds, so we're just gonna have a party today. Is that fair? That was my feeling when I went there, but you were there right at the beginning, and you actually became quite a big star in in East Germany and were on TV and everything. Can you maybe just relay a bit of what went on there?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I'll have to go back. Uh I was playing in, I believe it was 1964 in the Star Club Berlin. There was also a Star Club Berlin, and um I got friendly, I got friendly with uh a chap in East Berlin who was at the very first rock and roll concert in Germany. It was Bill Haley in the Comets, 1955, and it was a riot. I mean, after 20 minutes, the whole everything was destroyed. The piano was pushed off stage. It was a riot, and it was filmed, and that's I think that's why rock and roll got a bad name because of this particular concert. Anyway, many years later, uh I met this chap, and you know, uh I used to go over to the east, and he had um his wife, he had two two little girls, two two daughters. No, he had a daughter and a son, and many years later, his daughter is Evie. I I met her many years later. I'm jumping ahead there. What was the question again? Oh, yeah, about about the east. Yeah, and well later on, uh I I I got invited to to play there. I think because rock and roll was a working class uh music, it was uh social socialism. It was yeah, and we asked questions about the impact of of rock and roll uh in the 50s here in Britain. So it I was kind of accepted, yeah. I was running down silver stairs and things like that on TV on a Saturday night.
SPEAKER_00:Can you can you there is one episode where I mean it it back in the day, I know it's not really appropriate now for you for you, but back in the day it was well known that in legendary status that you did enjoy a bit of the the wacky backy, and as most artists did. And um wasn't there a situation um in backstage you were in the dressing room ready to go on with with your with your tour manager or sound guy, and you uh you were having a little relaxing puff and something something happened?
SPEAKER_03:As as usual, yeah, I picked this up in Ibiza. You know, this is this is where yeah, this is where it all started, you know. Uh yeah, um I'm prepared to go on on uh TV there, and it was a live stage, it was in a city called Gera, and it was in a hall where Hitler made one of his famous speeches, actually. So, anyway, it was backstage there, it was a library type place, and just like the movies, this whole row of books opened up. Like they used to get in the horror movies, like a secret panel, opened up, and this guy walked in and and he said, Here, werde nicht, geracht! And he disappeared back into the library and closed the books again. So there must have been observing me, you know. And thankfully, he didn't know it was wacky backy. He just he you weren't allowed to smoke in in the in the backstage area, and that was it, you know. But my sound guy and me, we nearly had a you know, we nearly had a he just appeared from the wall. Here, wird nicht geracht, and then he went back into the wall again. And then I went on stage. They used to use me as a kind of straight man for jokes. Um there was some jokes that I I brought I brought a plague of ladybirds from the west over. But people on the bikes that were getting they were like bullets, they were riding in and on bikes and these clouds of ladybirds, and uh so everybody laughed. They kind of used me as a it wasn't nasty, but they were just kind of vaguely political jokes, you know. And then it would do good golly, Miss Molly, and everything was okay.
SPEAKER_01:So you were very much a political fool guy by the side of it. So uh that didn't destroy your career because you were a big star in East Germany. What was the what was the starting point for that?
SPEAKER_03:I was on a show called Schoko Ladder, uh, and that was a Saturday night, a big Saturday night uh show, yeah, and then the wall came down, and that was it, career over.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so yeah, I thought we came to East Germany and Berlin, Berlin, of course, uh just after the wall came down. Uh it was real fabulous, really, really good. Real buzz and uh good to see.
SPEAKER_03:She was dancing on the top of the champagne bottles. She was one of them that was dancing on the top of the wall because Evie came from West from uh East Berlin. That's your wife, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:On the wall, dancing on top of the wall.
SPEAKER_03:That's not on the top of the wall, yeah. Okay, I've got a big I've got a big lump of the wall that's it's on the marketpiece in uh in Denmark.
SPEAKER_00:So um Stan, you you moved from Berlin and where you live now, Denmark, which is quite for other people on the outside, it's quite a strange move, really. But you're actually very well known in that area, aren't you? And do a lot of gigs. You work a lot, still you're working a hell of a lot. Um how did that how did that sort of come about? And obviously, you found a a second home in Denmark.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it was uh somebody made a tape of me in Ibitha and sent it across and an impresario there. Thought, oh, this is a bit different. So I did, I think, six gigs. Uh I was getting disillusioned with with Ibitha by then. Uh I didn't kind of I didn't like the keyboard players started coming in and and with one finger you could get a whole orchestra on the keyboard and drums and a lot. I kind of didn't like that. I'd like I liked the music more organic, you know. So I was getting a little bit fed up with playing in Ibitha, although I start I was still living there. And then I went and did a tour in Denmark and it was popular. And they'd another one and another one and another one, and eventually I thought, well, I might as well move there. So that's how I moved to Denmark in 84, 1984 it was.
SPEAKER_00:There there is a story, if I could just probably going back to this thing of being a bit of a legendary um uh weed um partaker uh back in the day, um uh you were invited, all expenses paid, you and Evie, I believe, um, to some stoner's convention in southern Spain um where they wanted you to come and play play. Uh can you explain that? It's quite it's quite bizarre and actually quite funny.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it was it was it was legal, it was it was above board by then. You know, if you were a member of a club, I believe, um it was quite legal. And by then uh cannabis was being used for medicinal purposes, it it it lost this kind of junky image, you know. People were starting to realize it isn't all that bad. But anyway, yeah, they advised invited me to do a gig there, and uh arrived at the gig. There was no piano. They forgot the piano. That was part of the deal. They're all yeah, exactly. So I got there, no piano. I said, Never mind, do you want to be a judge? I said, Okay. So I became a judge, and I was judging the different flavours of marijuana from all over Spain. I think I had five joints and in my hand at the one time. They didn't call me Afghanistan for nothing.
SPEAKER_00:Brilliant, Afghanistan, but all expenses paid, two flights, hotel, and they forgot the piano. I mean, it's it's just you couldn't make it up, you couldn't make it up, could you, really?
SPEAKER_03:It was great, it was great, but yeah, these days have gone by now. I don't I don't use I don't do that anymore.
SPEAKER_00:Well, when you when you got to 80, you told me.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I realize I'm I'm out of puberty now, you know, so I just ended up next. But I must stress that I've never got into anything else, apart from these early days in uh in Germany, they would they would feed us these these these pills. Uh I never got into anything else. And there was all sorts of funny stuff going around, especially in Ibiza, you know. And I saw these, I saw these drugs uh ruin people, you know, cocaine and things like that. It wasn't very smart. And I thought, well, at least with a wacky backy, you love everybody. It's not a violent thing, it's a very uh mild and kind of and that that was for me. I mean, if you're a bus driver, don't use it. You know, if you if you're a doctor, don't use it. But I thought I'm a musician, and it was okay, you know, poets, people like that, they've used it for for hundreds of years. Anyway, that that was my excuse. So that that was my thing. I only that's all I ever uh I never never got into alcohol or anything else, you know, just that. But now I'm completely clean, and I'm just exactly the same.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and full of energy, full of energy as well, by what we've seen at the moment. So great recollections of your career, so many funny stories that's got you smiling. And um, let's come up to recent times. I mean, you're in Dundee at the moment, and uh, there's an interesting story of many years ago where you were filmed, and it went viral on YouTube, you were filmed playing at Dundee Station, and that led you on to sort of doing bizarrely uh a duet with Tom Jones. Tell us about that. Well, there's nothing new.
SPEAKER_03:Somebody said there's a station, and there's a there's a piano in a station stand, and I was on my way to the gig. I I do a gig every year here. I was on the way to the gig, so I popped into the station and as is my want, you know. I just started playing a few numbers and people, you know, they were missing trains and everything. It was did the usual thing and dancing and let me hear you say yeah, and hail, hail, rock and roll, and that was it. By the time I got to the gig, there was about 18,000 clicks. It just kind of took off, which was great, and I think that led to the voice. Somebody from from ITV calling me, and we want you to come and do an audition. I said, I don't do auditions.
SPEAKER_01:He played out sing.
SPEAKER_03:But that's that's how it started. I'm sure it came through the station. They must have seen seen this going viral, and uh, well, we'll get him. And I says, No, I'm not doing it. Uh, because I thought they would be using me as a kind of aw. You know, the aww fact. Isn't he cute? And but the producer says, No, you're definitely not aw. So that's how the whole thing started. I said, okay, I got curious and I did it, and I kind of clicked with Tom Jones because I've always admired him. Yeah. And I told him, I I told him that uh in front of all these people in the audience. I said that he was rock and roll, is rock and roll, and always will be rock and roll, even though he sings ballads most of the time, you know. So what kind what kind of clicked? And I met him on a few a few occasions. I was I was there. Yeah. Yeah, he's one of my kind of a role model, if you like, you know. I mean, he taught Elvis how to go back on stage again after doing these dreadful movies. Now that's not bad for coal miner.
SPEAKER_01:That's good.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I haven't got the Tom Jones accent, but we were born probably about 20 miles away apart. Oh, right. Several years apart, but distance wise, yeah. I remember doing an interview with him, and uh I said, How did you get involved? He said, Well, I'm invited up to London, it's a long schlep from the valleys. Oh, we've got a few shows with Tom Jones across the Middle East and places, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's great. Yeah, okay. It is a small world, really. You know, the rock and roll world, it really is quite small. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Didn't didn't um Stan, didn't uh American Idol also, after that performance on the voice, didn't American Idol come after you as well?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, well, uh, I couldn't do it anyway because I'd signed some sort of contract. Uh, you know, I couldn't do anything within several months of doing the voice. This program was too similar. Uh, but I didn't want to do it anyway. But well, I tried it. You know, yeah, in a strange way, I thought I was compromising my music a little.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Because it had a lot of control over you, didn't they?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, the songs they're all caught up, you know. They told me what to what songs I could do. I think I've written quite quite good rock and roll songs, you know, and it's not that easy to write rock and roll because if you get too clever, it's not rock and roll anymore. And if it's not clever enough, it's like a cross between Johnny B. Good and a whole lot of shaking. It's not that easy to to write rock and roll. But I think uh I did one called um The Devil Made the Boogie, uh, but they wouldn't let me do it. They they they actually told me which songs I could sing. So there were these kind of cliches, the the usual uh Chuck Berry numbers.
SPEAKER_00:And also, known as a piano player, not no disrespect, but you're not known as a singer, you're known as a piano player who sings.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I've never regarded myself as a very good singer. Although voice was a strange said I was I was I was a good singer, and we lost Sonny Curtis just uh about yeah, uh and he he encouraged me like that. He says, No, no, you you're a good singer. I never regarded myself as a a good singer, it was always the piano, the piano, the piano. But um, yeah, to go back to that. Um I tried that. I mean, I didn't want to do the American Idol. Uh, Britain's got talent, contact me as well.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So no, I've tried that, and it was a lot of fun and it was great, but no, it's not really not for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's that ship sailed. Um just to move on a bit, Stan, if you don't mind, I'd uh I must mention uh to me personally the hilarious times we shared touring the Middle East, and I think it's it's funny um because uh it's sort of like uh being a professional sportsman in a team or a uh a professional musician uh working with professional musicians. You have acquaintances, and some of those acquaintances you uh you like the person or you don't like the person, you click with the person you don't, but they're acquaintances because in in no time at all you've done that gig or that tour and you move on and you're working with another artist, but it always sticks in your mind. With us, it was many, many years later when you came and stayed with me for a couple of weeks that we were able to actually spend time and really sit down and get to know each other really well. But back in the day, I mean, you did I booked you for 13, I don't know if you remember, 13 consecutive New Year's Eves in Bahrain at the Diplomat Hotel. You were actually a real cult hero in that town, used to play New Year's Eve for three hours, um, you know, carnage, absolute carnage, just on your own, your piano, you know, tapping your foot, micing up the stage so everyone could hear your foot tapping away. You know, crazy, crazy times. But we went to Saudi together. We went all over the place together, and we we had some great laughs, and I I do remember that with fondness. I mean, what are your memories of of the Middle East? Because it is a strange one, isn't it? That you were actually you bec you created this big fan base in in Bahrain of all places.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I remember the first one I was disappointed because I'd meet all these bands, Marmalade, Swingin' Blue Jeans, uh, all the 60s band, I'd meet them in Heathrow and would travel down. I thought this is great because I'm so used to playing on my own. I'm gonna be on this stage with all these 60s bands. And when we got there the first time, the guy says, No, no, Stan, your sound check isn't in the big hall, it's in the foyer. The lobby, yeah. Oh no, I'm gonna be one of these tingling the piano and they're sitting around there with their champagne. And can you play this? Can you play that? But it wasn't. The foyer, I believe it held about 850 people, and that became the focal point because once the bands had finished in the big room, they would all go to the foyer and jam with me. That's how I got to know all these bands. I mean, I believe on the voice I said I played with all these bands, and people thought, oh, he was never in the trocks, he was never in the swinging blue jee, he was never in the fortunes. No, no, but I jammed with them all, that's what I meant. Yeah, and the swinging blue jeans great bats.
SPEAKER_00:Swinging blue jeans, guys, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:They played in Denmark once, and of course, when they were over in Denmark, I would I would connect with them all and I would say, When's your sound check? And I remember the genius that said, Oh, we had a sound check in 1962.
SPEAKER_00:That's about right as well.
SPEAKER_03:That's about right. I've just plugged in and it was for goodness sake, and there'd be away, yeah. A lot of these people are gone now. Uh, I got around well with uh Dave, the drummer from the Tremolos, Silence is Golden and was really good. He's gone. A lot of them, a lot of these guys are gone now, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Great guys, I I I did a uh thing with the Tremolos, and I remember Chip Hawkes. Um uh they were going on stage and I put a sign in felt tip I'd written on their dressing room, tremelos, and uh as he was coming out with his guitar and like go on stage, he tapped on the sign. He said, Oh, by the way, we're the trem tremolos, not the tremolos. I I'd not put the E. Tremolos. I embarrassed said, Oh, by the way, but you know, it was all in good fun. It was not like you know, they never no they didn't take themselves too seriously. But um, you mentioned you mentioned uh the old rock and rollers, and uh you mentioned Bobby V, rubber ball. I worked with Bobby V on the rock and roll revival tour.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, it was very good that show that Bobby that that uh Buddy Holly missed. I mean, how how heartless could you get the lost Buddy Holly, the big bopper and Richie Valence, and next day they had to go and do another gig. Uh the band got Bobby V actually stood in for Buddy Holly. Uh and I like I like Bobby V. I don't know why, but but he was he was also slung in with all these kind of pop singers that came after on that bill I did.
SPEAKER_00:There was Frankie Ford. Oh you remember it was Del Shannon, yeah. Del Shannon Runaway, there was the Marvelettes, there was uh Ricky Nelson, Bo Diddley, and uh Bobby V, and there were some of the crickets. Yeah, and I can't remember because I know you obviously with um Sonny who sadly just passed away, you you know, but yeah, um so that was that was my my uh sort of little bit of uh rock and roll. They did a revival tour of the UK and I I tour managed that, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So that was some lineup. That's some lineup what a lineup, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Promoted by a guy, American guy called Richard Nader, I seem to remember.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. I want to go back to Bahrain and the uh Diplomat Hotel because I know that hotel and it I cundering up memories of you saying you called Mayhem there because my recollection of the Diplomat Hotel in Bahrain is a bit of a a stayed uh uh oldest hotel. So you causing mayhem so it's absolutely wonderful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, they used they used to lock the doors, didn't they? Stan, they'd put whiskey bottles of whiskey gin, the you paid you or whatever it was, and and everything was in, and they put literally bottles of spirits on the tables, they locked the doors, and it was like it was like you know, all bets are off. Let's go for it.
SPEAKER_01:People were mad. No doubt a lot of the audience came over the causeway from Saudi Arabia for New Year's Eve. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:They didn't go back in a hurry, but they came quickly, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But it was very strange. Yeah, I used to get this very sad, nostalgic, wistful feeling because I was the only one who wasn't in the room at Happy New Year's time when the when the balloons went up. I came on about 15 minutes afterwards, and uh they used to I used to go through the kitchen and then would come on then. But I'd be up in this this suite, you know, all this opulence, and I'd be standing there and looking out, and there's all these fireworks, and I felt a wee bit lonely. It was a funny feeling, you know. And then I'd go in there and then it would just the whole blast would just just hit me with the balloons, and that was it. Away we went.
SPEAKER_01:That's brilliant, brilliant. So some fabulous recollections. And uh, Stan, you're touring uh we've been talking talking about touring, you're touring Scotland at the moment, and uh I want to let our listeners know about your sort of activities in terms of gigs. You do a lot in Europe, UK, Scotland at the moment, also the Philippines. So if you want to have a uh look at where Stan is and try and catch him, check him, check out his website uh regarding his events and so much we've been talking about there as well. So, what is your website? Give us your website uh URL. Or just do a search, Stan Urban.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, stanurban.uk or stanurban.dk for Denmark. It it's the same thing, you know. Yeah, so I'm not not very good with technology, I'm afraid, but I I've got a pal here in Scotland that keeps me right, a guy called Mick McCluskey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well I find it all right. We I've got you behind me on the screen there. You see, that's your website up there. So Stan Urban, do a Google search, you'll find that. So uh brilliant talking to you. I think we've only just sort of scratched the surface of your career, very extensive career. Amazing stories there. So thank you very much indeed for uh joining us here on It's Only Rock and Roll. And uh we'll look forward to the reaction from our uh listeners and viewers because this will be on YouTube as well. So, Stan, thanks. Russell, over to you.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you. It's great uh you're allowing me to recollect these things. So thanks very much.
SPEAKER_01:Pleasure, pleasure, great privilege for us to be on board.
SPEAKER_00:Um uh you're um obviously in Scotland at the moment, and uh you've uh uh uh written and recorded, and I think in Scotland recently you just recorded some some music. You're you told me you're in the studio a few days ago or whatever. But um hopefully we will be able to uh uh maybe play a section of some of your tracks because you don't you don't care about copyright and stuff, do you, with your stuff? You owe you own everything. So we'll we'll I think we'll in interject Phil some of Stan's music into this podcast so that we will uh because we love it, we love it, rock and roll, we love it. People can get a feel for it. Um but thanks a lot, Stan. I really appreciate your time. We're gonna catch up soon. I think you're gonna visit us again. Come and play in my old uh my my old friend's um uh jazz club. Uh talking about playing in discos, you played in in my jazz club uh down in downtown Manila, and uh Stan was really upset because um he uh the owner said, Oh, he can play 45 minutes. I said, sure. Anyway, he played an hour and then he said, Oh, so frustrating. He said, if I had another 15 minutes, I'd have had them on the tables, which I think you would have stand. And you know, fantastic. Let's let's let's do that again sometime.
SPEAKER_03:Nelson, you say hello to Nelson from the uh to play the other side.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, oh great.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you very much indeed. And we've come to the end of another podcast featuring uh Stan Urban. Next up, we'll be chatting with a singer, songwriter, and frontman for the biggest and most iconic band from India. Largest iconic band in the last 40 years. So the only Indian band to go um truly international. Spill the beans, who are they?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Indus Creed, um, who I had the fortune of of managing for quite a few years back in the day. Um, they won an MTV award, went to Hollywood, got their MTV award uh for best international video with all the big stars. And Uday is the the frontman for and they've like a lot of these uh bands that are around for a long time. They reformed and they're they're probably doing better business than they ever did, and they've played and supported a lot of big international artists around the world. And uh we're just gonna talk to Uday, who's very interesting character, going to talk about the old days. Obviously, uh, it's not so easy touring India, and there's lots of funny things that uh occurrences that happen with them during those days, and uh, you know, what the scene's like, because you never really think of India as a as a music scene, but there really is a scene there, like there probably is in most countries. And Uday is the guy to he's the go-to guy to talk to because uh he knows what's going on, he's got his finger on the pulse, and um he's involved in a lot of very interesting projects. So we'll be talking to him, and that will be episode three. Um, and uh we've got four and five coming up, which will be um some other interesting things like concert promoters and uh uh artist management. So um thanks a lot for listening. I hope you enjoyed it. Another insight. Thanks again to Stan. Thanks, Phil.
SPEAKER_01:It's only rock and roll of Phil Blizzard Radio Production available on Apple, Amazon, Gummy, PlayPy, Peaser, Google, and all of color channels, and also on YouTube.