Boogie Nights: How city’s clubland shaped songwriting legend Rod Temperton

SONGWRITING LEGEND: Rod Temperton

Now & Then, a column by Angus Young

Revealed: The musical apprenticeship in Hull of the man who wrote hits for Michael Jackson

Fifty years ago this month a new band recorded their first ever demos at Fairview Studio in Willerby after emerging from Hull’s clubland.

They would later achieve chart success on both sides of the Atlantic, while their keyboard player became one of the world’s top songwriters.

Yet today they’re absent from Ed Ullyart’s otherwise excellent Clumber Street mural depicting famous historic faces from Hull’s music scene, and missing from Steve Mathie’s legendary local Hall of Fame at his Spin It Records stall in Trinity Market.

In fact, the story of how the late Rod Temperton and pioneering soul funk band Heatwave came to adopt Hull as their home city remains largely untold until now.

Over a decade first Rod and then the multinational group he played with became familiar faces around Hull until the hit single Boogie Nights and a link-up with Michael Jackson would change their careers forever.

PIONEERING: Rod Temperton, left, with soul funk band Heatwave

Born and brought up in Cleethorpes and Humberston, music was in his blood. As a child he played along to the BBC TV test card on a set of drums. Later at school he formed his own band and even re-wrote some of the traditional hymns sung at a local church.

His first job was as a trainee computer programmer at fish firm Ross in Grimsby but within a year he moved to Hull to become a full-time musician.

In what must have been quite a step for an 18-year-old, he teamed up with John Parker – a  friend from his school days – in The Hammer, which had evolved from an earlier Hull group called Roger Bloom’s Hammer.

Having switched from drums to keyboards, Rod, and his Hammond organ nicknamed Betsy, moved into a first-floor flat in Anlaby Road as the group began touring both in the UK and Europe. 

Hull-based entertainment agency boss Peter McLeod became the new-look band’s manager and agent after being the drummer in the original Hammer.

“When Rod joined there was a big change in the music because they dropped all the soul stuff they had been doing previously,” said Peter.

“They still did a fair amount of pop but Rod was into some of the more far out material – Hawkwind, Soft Machine, that sort of thing. He brought that sort of music into the group.

“It worked well and they became very popular in Denmark. We sent them back there repeatedly and we had them in Sweden, France and Germany too.

“It was a little bit more difficult to book them over here because there wasn’t really a particular slot for them.”

Being full-time musicians, the band members were nearly always skint. In a 1981 interview, Rod recalled his days with the band in Hull.

MODEST: The Anlaby Road flat where Rod Temperton lived alongside a ‘terrible smell’

“My earnings averaged £5 a week of which half went on rent. The owner of a nearby Chinese takeaway, who had thoughts of backing us financially, used to give us a daily free meal. In the winter I would huddle in a mattress in my room to save on heating. This lifestyle lasted four years.”

His Anlaby Road flat became almost legendary, mainly because apart from a bed and Betsy the organ it was largely devoid of any other furniture.

Hull musician Peter Green remembers another quirk about the flat: “There was always a terrible smell. It wasn’t Rod’s fault because it was from a pet shop next door.”

To earn extra money, the band split into three different outfits while Rod worked as a DJ at the Flamingo, a notorious late-night coffee club in Londesborough Street.

When not performing, he would develop what became a lifelong habit by locking himself away in his flat to write new songs.

MANAGER: Entertainment agency boss Peter McLeod

Peter McLeod: “Rod could disappear for days with the songwriting and was absolutely assiduous with it. He used to stay up all night writing through until the next day. His total concentration was on his songwriting.”

The Hammer’s style of progressive rock wasn’t for everyone – even their own agent.

“To be honest, it was pretty much all over the place but I don’t mean that in a scattergun way,” said Peter.

“They were very eclectic with the musical paths they followed. It was mainly semi-futuristic rock and the lyrics weren’t what you might have expected from normal pop groups. The songs were quite lengthy and it wasn’t terribly commercial.”

Keith Herd. who founded Fairview Studio, recalls Rod being at “rock bottom” when working at the Flamingo.

“He would often come along to our gigs as he had nothing much to do because The Hammer weren’t getting regular work.

“I knew Rod was writing songs and I offered to record a selection so he could submit them to record companies. It was the usual agreement – we did the recording for free of charge and got paid if a record deal came out of it.

“We recorded five tracks with Rod singing but he didn’t have a very good voice so I suggested the singer in my band, Johnny Small, record them instead. The vocals were much improved and Glen Petty, who played drums in my band and was a friend of Rod’s, suggested we all take them to the powers that be in London.

“We used Glen’s dad’s car for the journey and hawked them around for a few days before setting off home. It hadn’t been an encouraging trip and it got worse when the car’s engine blew up spectacularly on the M1.”

A second crack at securing a record deal came courtesy of interest from DJM Records, whose founder Dick James was the publisher of The Beatles’ song catalogue Northern Songs.

This time, The Hammer were invited to record an album’s worth of songs at the company’s expense with an option of a contract to follow.

NOTORIOUS: The Flamingo Club in Londesborough Street where Rod Temperton worked as a DJ

“We spent a number of weeks in studio number two, Denmark Street in London, recording Rod’s original compositions and there was great deal of excitement from Dennis Berger who was producing the album,” said Peter.

“Everything seemed to be going absolutely dandy but in the next studio there was a chap called Reg Dwight who was also busy recording. He was the house songwriter and pianist at DJM.

“His material came to fruition at the same time as The Hammer’s. There was a big board meeting and Dick James gave the news that they really only had the budget to promote one new album from a new act and it was going to Reg.

“Reg, of course, became Elton John and the rest of that story is well known. As for The Hammer, we were left with some excellent tapes but no ongoing deal.”

Eventually, The Hammer would go their separate ways and Rod joined a band with an established residency slot in a city called Worms near Frankfurt.

He later recalled: “I answered a music paper advertisement to join a band called Sundown Carousel. They didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak German but we communicated well enough for the eight hours a night we were on stage.”

The residency finally provided a steady income for the aspiring songwriter who had been living on a shoestring since The Hammer’s demise, but another music paper ad would ultimately bring Rod back to Hull, this time with a new band and a dramatic change of musical direction. The Heatwave era was about to begin.

• Next month: From The Trog Bar to Top of the Pops: How Rod Temperton and Heatwave conquered the charts