John (Pat) McAuley was an old friend of mine in Belfast, which I had left, aged 17, in April ’64 for London with my drum kit under my arm - literally. When I left, I had been playing with a Belfast group and felt obliged to find them another drummer. I asked John to take over the job, which he did.

I worked Irish clubs in Balham and Wimbledon throughout ’64 and much of ’65 four nights per week and playing from C&W through rock, to jazz.

The next time I saw John McAuley was on television with ‘Them’ doing ‘Baby Please Don’t Go.’

It was some months after this when Van and Alan Henderson, the bass player, had gone home to Belfast and John (drums and organ) and Billy Harrison (lead guitar) had formed their own ‘Them’ in London when I met John, purely by chance, in a pub in Putney. This was during November ’65. Skip Allen (drums) and Billy Harrison had a brief stay in John’s group but had already left by then. John brought me across the street to a gig they were playing and I met Mark Scott (Peter Cutchey), Nick Wyner and Ray Henderson, manager, for the first time. John invited me to play drums, so that he could move back onto the organ to get a bit nearer to the old sound of the early ‘Them.’ At this point the group consisted of John McAuley on drums, Mark Scott on bass, singer Nick Wyner and a guitarist named Don. Sorry to say that I don’t recall Don’s surname.

Around December ’65 John convinced his brother Jackie, another ex-member of Van’s Them, to come into the band and help it get closer to the raw sound of the old Them. Jackie took over as lead singer and organist in January 1966. A Belfast newspaper ‘Cityweek’ – now defunct, sometime later reviewing the single ‘Gloria’s Dream’ stated that Jackie sounded more like Van - than Van did. Jackie was good at the wailing type of stuff. Don the guitarist and Nicky the singer were let go. As I also played guitar, John asked me to take over that job, which I was reticent to do. I always felt more comfortable hiding behind the drums and considered myself a better drummer than guitarist.

In the meantime Van Morrison had created a new Them and so the lawyers got involved.

In February ’66 we recorded, at our own expense, three tracks at a studio called KPS Studios somewhere in North London. These were, Dylan’s ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’, our own composition ‘Movin’ Free’ and Graham Bond’s ‘I Want You.’ This tape and the acetates were lost for many years. This first version of Baby Blue was recorded using a Vox 12 string guitar (which I had borrowed from Jennings Music). After the re-issue of ‘Belfast Gypsies’ in 2003, the record company, Rev-Ola, got a message from Christian Jespersen, a Danish record collector, who had bought a copy of the acetate at a collectors fair some years ago. The two tracks on it are those re-produced here. I never expected to hear them again. ‘Movin’ Free’ seems lost forever.

In February ’66 also, we were invited to play in the KB hall Copenhagen, at a concert with the Pretty Things. We had a ball in Copenhagen. The money was better than what we were making in the UK. UK gigs paid us £100 or less for a thirty-minute spot in those days. In Denmark and Sweden we usually got around 2000 Kroner per 30-minute gig (around £200 - £240). John promoted his group as ‘Them’ in the U.K. until March ‘66 when Van’s manager, Maurice King, won a court case over the name. The judge decided that the singer was the most important part of any group. We were allowed to use ‘The Other Them.’

We played only one or two gigs as ‘The Other Them’ in England and decided to go back to Denmark and work from there where we could continue to use the name ‘Them.’ The loss of the name was a major part of the reason we left the UK, but we also needed to come to terms with what we wanted to do and have an income at the same time which was possible in Denmark.

In May ’66, while we were negotiating a tour in Scandinavia, Kim Fowley turned up in London and met Jackie in the Giaconda. He showed an interest in recording the group and recorded some tracks afterwards, but not enough for an LP.

The tracks recorded in London were ‘Aria of the Fallen Angels’ (Kim’s name for our simplified version of Bach’s aria in D), ‘The Crazy World Inside Me,’ and ‘Hey Gyp’ The following day we recorded ‘Last Will and Testament’ (Saint James Infirmary) and ‘People Let’s Freak Out.‘

Kim told us to go meet with Sonet in Copenhagen where we met Jimmy Campbell. Jimmy recorded several tracks at the Vanlóse Bio on the night of June 30. These were Midnight Train, Suicide Song, Baby Blue (different version to the earlier acetate), Portland Town and Boom-boom.

We toured in Denmark, Norway and Sweden until November ’66 and after three gigs on one night in Stockholm, John and I went back to Copenhagen, Mark went home. Jackie and Ray Henderson, our manager, stayed in Stockholm. A few days later our roadie arrived with my guitar. John and I took the next London train and I never saw Jackie again until 1985 when he came to Belfast with his own band. I never saw John again either. John died in 1984 in Ireland and Mark in 2002 in Texas. Jackie is living in Ireland but refuses to talk about the old days. My good friend Ray Elliot of Van’s group died in Canada some years ago and Peter Bardens died in San Francisco a few years back. Peter had played with Van’s ‘Them’ and came to Denmark to play with us for a week or so in ’66. If you want to read the whole uncensored story, see the US magazine ‘Ugly Things’ to be published in February 2005. It is an interesting one.

Ken McLeod. Guitar and drums.

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