The Gents were a band with two identities, the cover band in the clubs and the original band who played real gigs.  Well there might be a case for arguing that they had several alter-egos, what with the mods, the scooterists and the rest of it, but in essence they were a cover band and an original band.  A few club bands have the odd song of their own now and again, but the Gents did it to a far more developed degree, with a full repertoire of original songs and releases, to a degree in fact that you seldom, in fact never, see in cabaret bands.  The most sensible way to look at it though, is that they were a band of dual identities, clubs and originals, but away from the mod and scooterist scene, there were a couple of other types of gigs they did, and "the rest of it" as I mentioned above is what I'm going to cover here.

The main area in which well, I guess most bands of the original variety also play is on the college  and university/circuit, many of which of course are part of the mainstream national gig circuit, and the Gents were no different in that at one time and another they would get bookings from universities and colleges, some of the time for things like Christmas events etc, like for instance silly things like supporting the likes of (believe it or not) Showaddywaddy, Chas & Dave, and in nightclubs with Chubby Brown etc, which were fun because everybody just like really drunk and up for a laugh, but at other times for real proper straight down the line original gigs, ones where the band could just play their own stuff and be really appreciated for it.  One of the best Christmas college gigs that springs to mind was one at Owens Park campus of Manchester University, which the Gents did three of four times at Christmas during their time and where I got one or two good photographs and another was a fantastic gig at a campus of Hull University, where the band just went down a stormer.  Those sort of gigs were the sort that you just lived for at that time, the ones where people just came along prepared to appreciate the band and their music just for what it was and get really zappoed as well!

There was one famous occasion where the band supported the Farmer’s Boys at Salford University and then packed all the gear into the van and drove straight down to I think Claistor to do an all-nighter.  Hard flippin’ work that was!

The university and college gigs were some of the most rewarding gigs that the band did.  I well remember a gig on the Lawnswood campus of Leeds University where Anne Nightingale was doing a DJ set at the same gig, and it was at a time when Radio One was getting quite a number of requests for Gents songs to be played, so Paul Burton came up with this bottle of Champagne and we all went up to see dear old boring old Annie and give her the bottle and generally get on her case about playing the band on her show.  She was really very complimentary about the band, saying that she really had had loads of requests (which was one of the results of Paul’s sterling efforts with the Gents Newsletter) and so really was almost forced to play the Gents on the radio.

Talking about Anne Nightingale, that brings to mind the fact that the Gents really were on the very fringe of mainstream radio play, and it was for that reason that on several occasions the band were asked to play at Radio One Roadshow events, Scarborough with Janice Long and Askern Greyhound Stadium with Simon Bates being a couple that stick in the memory.  There were also meetings at gigs with Bruno Brookes and especially Mike Read at The Place in Stoke-on-Trent and Mike Read as you may remember was those blokes who never passed up a chance to play his guitar and so he played on stage with the Gents for a song or two.  All this culminated in the debacle of the Radio One Round Table fiasco in, I think it must have been 1986 because Friday on my Mind was down to be played on Round Table on one night and then be reviewed by such luminaries as Holly Johnson etc.  However, that day was budget day, which leads me to believe it must have been a Tuesday, and there was this apparently very important budget announcement which had to cut the programme short and the Gents record was not played, but just a few complimentary remarks from Mr Johnson. 

And that dear folks is as close as it got...