So to cut a long story short the Men's Club carried on doing the same thing, the clubs and dancy covers, which they remain doing to this day, and Kendell retreated to Barnsley where he continues to live with his girlfriend Debbie, went to college and recently gained a Degree in Illustration and Design.  Initially after leaving the Men's Club he worked for a while with an entertainment agent in Rotherham booking bands into clubs etc.  His next move is to soon take a PGCE qualification and become a Technology and Design teacher.  He currently has no involvement with music whatsoever, but the last time I saw him he said he wouldn't never say never again to anything like that.

     The Men's Club, they just grind on with the same old club scene earning a living and probably will do for quite a while yet.  They still do a version of the Gents' World Famous Drum Solo, setting things on fire etc.  Steve Chambers to his eternal credit is a serious and original musician, and I don't think that any of the other three would dispute that he is easily the most talented musician of the four ex-Gents and around 2001 or 2002 briefly started an original band for a hobby if you like, called King Cinder (named after a children's TV series of the 70s starring I believe Peter Duncan), who have a very new wave influenced sound. They self-released one EP length single known as Meet the Public, for which yours truly was privileged to be asked to do the cover design and over three years or so they have recorded many higher quality demos of original songs.  I believe they are currently in what might be described as a dormant state.  Steve played occasionally with a folk rock Doncaster band Stafford Galli who have a long history before he joined and a large cult following.  Their drummer is Dean Cousins with whom Steve formed King Cinder along with Adrian Evans, formerly of another Doncaster band No Man's Land and who I know through my own work, 'cause in the real world he's a Probation Officer! (I for my sins am an Admin Officer in the same Service, not a Service User as we rather euphemistically call them!

     Glyn, away from the Men's Club, has managed to branch out a little and picked a couple of acting jobs that I know about, one recently in a stage version of Rita, Sue and Bob, which considering he's being doing an impression of the old man (Sue's dad) on stage with the Men's Club for 16 years or so, is probably logical.  He told me recently that he's hoping to get the part of Judd Casper in a stage version of Kes next year.  A few years ago he had a bit part in the Ken Loach film The Navigators, a political piece about safety on the railways in South Yorkshire starring Steve Huison, the ginger-haired one in The Full Monty (the one who tries to gas himself in his car!).  Glyn did get to speak a couple of lines.  The film is available on DVD and also ensured that Glyn appears on IMDb, the Internet Movie Database.

     In the last few years Martin Burton has resurfaced on the club scene, after the travesty of a mockery of a farce of the New Gent/Nu-Gent, in a cabaret singing outfit called Martin Burton and the Soul Men. They do exactly what they say on the tin, 60s and 70s Tamla Motown covers, very similar to many bands of the same image currently on the club circuit.  They're okay I guess, better than Lip Service!  I last saw Martin when chancing across a Soul Men gig in Pontefract (close to where I live) and it must have been about April or May of 2005 because I remember him telling me about how he'd seen my on Who Wants to be a Millionaire a few short months before in January 2005.  I did speak to Martin once on the telephone a year or so back when were getting interested in hammering together a deal with Detour Records to release the CDs, but not since the project broke down.  He did send me a couple of CDs of his original songs that he had put together and I remember thinking how nice it would have been if these had been Gents songs, a bit like that emotion that tells you A Solid Bond in Your Heart should have been a Jam song.

     All-in-all, a pretty sad end to the Gents, but I'm sure all of them will tell you they're doing alright these days and I suppose for that, and for them, we should be happy.  It's a terrible shame about the acrimony of 2000.  I do still hang onto the hope that one it will all be sorted out and everybody will be on speaking terms again, especially as it does seem possible that the story receives a little more embellishment every time it is told.  Also because I personally have managed to maintain a decent ongoing relationship with all of them, even if it doesn't mean a Gents' reunion.  They are it has to be said, pretty tolerant when I now and again jokingly ask the old question "So when's the Gent's reunion?".  Hopefully I'll bore 'em into it eventually.

 

I only ever get one answer, the same from all of them…"F***ing never...".

 

 

Simon Curtis - August 2006