Kevin's Story

Guitarist Kevin Dempsey describes the start of the folk rock scene, and the part played by Les Cousins on Soho's Greek Street

Kevin Dempsey

Kevin Dempsey is a remarkably innovative and versatile guitarist who has worked with Alice Coltrane, Dave Swarbrick and Percy Sledge alongside many others. Founder member of folk bands Dando Shaft and Whippersnapper, his work also spans jazz/funk and soul music. He was one of the pioneers of the folk rock movement of the late 60s / early 70s. His latest album is a beautiful collaboration with Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee.

My dad was a drummer…

I guess when you're a kid you want to emulate your dad - so when I was about seven years old I started having drum lessons and I just loved it. I started playing in a couple of little bands when I was about 13, just doing covers of top ten hits. Then I joined a Coventry soul band called The Bo Weevils. We started as an R&B group with three saxophones, guitars and drums, playing Alexis Corner type stuff. Then I joined a band called The Soul Express which had a little horn section - trumpet, sax, and a Hammond organ - and, I loved it. I absolutely loved it.

One day a friend, who was not into soul music but was into folk, persuaded me to go along with him to Bedworth civic hall to see a folk concert. I really wasn't up for going. I just thought folk music was beards and those roly poly sweaters. But I went and it was just phenomenal.

The atmosphere in the place was incredible…

There was a communal spirit that was just not there in the gigs that I was playing in. There was this other more human side that came out for me in folk music. That concert changed my life. From then on I just wanted to play acoustic guitar. That's how I got into folk.

There was a folk club explosion around that time - you could go to a folk club in Coventry every night of the week - on a Sunday night you had a choice of three. They’d have singers’ nights at the clubs - if you go to a singers’ night now at a folk club there's usually not many people there, but in those days they'd be queuing up outside the building to get in even if there wasn't a guest - if it was just people getting up and each doing a couple of numbers.

Dando Shaft was formed out of going to the clubs...

I met Dave Cooper through going to the folk clubs. We started playing together just the two of us. Of course, we thought it was fantastic. It was a great sound and we were really loving it. After we'd had a few sessions and started to write songs, I remember Dave saying that what we need is a multi-instrumentalist. I’d seen Martin Jenkins perform at folk clubs. I didn't really know him, but Dave knew him quite well and he suggested we go around and see him. So we just turned up and knocked on his door. He invited us in and we had a very brief chat. Then we just started playing and it was one of those situations - we just played for about four hours without a break, without knowing what we were playing. And it was just wonderful.

Then it was, “well, wouldn't it be nice to have a bass player?” And Martin said “I know Roger and he plays double bass”. So we played with Roger Bullen and then it came up “wouldn't it be lovely to have a percussionist?” And we knew Ted Kay who played tablas and congas and all sorts of stuff - so we asked Ted to come round and that was it. That was the actual start of Dando. We started rehearsing, got a set together and started playing not only in Coventry, but across the Midlands.

Then we went to London…

We’d played all around the Midlands and decided that we should spread our wings, but we didn't really know how to do it. One day we just decided to go to London, buy a Melody Maker, have a look at who was playing and try and hustle our way onto a gig.

So we got to London, we bought a Melody Maker and saw that John Martyn was playing at Bedford College in Regent’s Park. We bowled along, found the student union bloke, and said “we're an acoustic band, can we play on John's concert tonight?” And he said “well, I'll have to ask John”. So he went away and asked John. He came out and saw us and just said “yeah, that would be great”. You know, this was 20 minutes before the start. So we did the gig - and the thing was, John loved it.

John Martyn was raving about us…

He got us to talk to his agent who at the time was a man called Sandy Glennon. He told us to go to a particular folk club the following night and said he’d get us a floor spot, which he did. He became our agent and he got us a recording session.

Some guy was booked in to do some demos or something at Pye Studios and he couldn't make it. So Sandy asked if we wanted to come down and use that time to make a demo. We just sat down in a circle in the studio and played a couple of numbers. The producer, Miki Dallon who owned Young Blood Records, was quite blown away by the fact that we could actually just sit down and play and sing and do everything live. So he said “do you wanna make an album?”

We recorded it on a Sunday in four hours. Then we went back the following Sunday and mixed it. The album was made in a total of eight hours - it was just like a live studio album. Because we had this record deal we moved down to London, rented a house in Ealing and all moved in. That was the start of it.

We were thrilled to play Les Cousins…

The first time we played there we knew of its reputation and we knew that everybody had played there - like John Martyn, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, Davey Graham, Sandy Denny, Jackson C Frank and Michael Chapman. It was something special.

What Ronnie Scott's was for jazz, Cousins was for our music. Andy Matheou who ran it really had his finger on the pulse. I don't know how, but he just seemed to know everything that was going on with the kind of up and coming artists. He was playing Biff Rose albums in the intervals. So a very cool place. And a very small place - I mean, very small. There were no dressing rooms. You were just there hanging out in the club and then you went on and played - it was informal but very respectful. I think everybody was aware that something special, something interesting was happening.

It was a magical place…

That was in part because it was London and a lot of people gravitated there, but I think most of it was to do with Andy himself. He was a very special kind of person. He was a large man, very friendly and very insightful - so everybody loved him. All the artists had a great deal of admiration and respect for him as he was encouraging all this. He made you feel unbelievably welcome and unbelievably worthy.

It's ridiculous to say, but he was kind of like the voice of truth. Whatever Andy said was absolutely spot on. It always was. He just seemed to deal from the heart. He communicated with you on that level. There was something about Andy that made people want to go there and play. Andy was a huge friend of John Martyn in particular - and John wrote that song May You Never about Andy. You know, you're like a sweet, crazy brother to me…

Diana was this incredible calming influence...

She would come in and have this wonderful spacious vibe about her. She was Andy’s wife and was herself a very special person. It was just always lovely to be there. And there was Andy's father who ran the restaurant above the club - the Dionysus. When you finished the gig, you'd go upstairs and have a meal. And then people would come in. Dando was sitting there one evening having a meal after the gig and Nick Drake came in and sat next to me. He just spoke for a few minutes and then vanished. It was that kind of place where people would just walk in and feel very comfortable. The family would invite people in and feed them and that's all part of the sharing thing. And that's how you felt there - you were part of the family.

Dando was this incredibly inspired experience...

We didn't know anything about music per se, but we just knew what felt good, what sounded good. We were all finding our way musically, and there were no barriers to what influence could be brought in.

Ted Kay was really into Indian music - so we had that influence. Then one day John Martyn called us up when we were in Ealing. He was living in West Hampstead and he said “you just come around here, come around, I've got something to play you”. So we all bowled into the van, drove around to his house and he played us the album The Music of Bulgaria. Oh my God! That was another huge impact on us musically.

We were open to all kinds of things. Because I had been playing soul music, there was that as well - all these influences I brought to my acoustic playing. Martin had played a lot of traditional music as well as being a rock and roller, so he brought that in. Dave Cooper was well into Jackson C Frank and others. It just opened up this whole world of music for me, and I guess that's carried on through all the years in a total love of and respect for music. All music.