The story so far, pt.2

PREVIOUS LIVES of ED FURST, pt2

THIS REALLY HAPPENED
Only the facts have been changed to sell newspapers

Mustard Duo (aka Dave'n'Ed),
Dave Barker (vocals/bass) and Ed Furst (vocals/gtr).
Dave had always tried to play rhythm guitar, and even began to move on from Open E tuning, but I had always felt he would do better on bass.  One night a customer said: 'I see you've brought a bass guitar along.  Does that mean you're gonna do some Rock'n'Roll?'  I reached for the bass, but the customer said: 'Aren't you going to do the catahhring, then?'  With one bound, I handed the bass to Dave, told him which three notes would get him through the next song, and started playing a load of Chuck Berry stuff.   About eight songs later I lapsed briefly into reality, and realised that Dave was still playing the bass.

Washington Irving, aka Irving Washington (no, honest),
Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/hmc), Pete Hollis (vocals/bass), and Maurice Hayes (drs),
a semi-pro pub band which kept forgetting that it had been booked to play Country and Western.

Captain Ed, aka Mr Hook (or whoever the agent had said we were),
Ed Furst (vocals/8-string bass/hmc), Dave Hook (gtr/vocals), and Keith Allen - no, not one of the actors - (vocals/drs).
Another semi-pro pro band, but Dave Hook was seriously focussed on earning more than subsistence money.  Enjoying the music was an unexpected bonus, and we got such a high percentage of rebookings that we decided to carry on 'after Christmas', and eventually revamped ourselves as...

Sinbad (or whoever the agent had said we were), aka Langdale,
Ed Furst (vocals/pno/gtr/hmc), Dave Hook (gtr/vocals), Rick Barducci as Rick Bard (bass/vocals), and Keith Allen vocals/drs).
We recorded original songs at home and played anything but on gigs.  Rick was the recording engineer because he had a talent for it, and he also bought the van because he (rightly) did not trust the rest of us to buy something reliable.  We toured the entire UK mainland with Marty Wilde (or sometimes Heinz) on the cabaret circuit.  I was very relieved that this particular boyhood hero lived up to my memories of him as he had been, before some pretender stole his crown.  Rare, that.
We then changed our recording name to Langdale, in the belief that it would conjure up inspiring images of the Lake District.  Apparently not.  A few of the 54 independent record producers we sent our LP to thought we must be estate agents, and others thought we belonged to the million individualists who all buy their fell-walking uniforms from Milletts in Keswick, ready to hide in the Lake District when Saddam Hussein's WMDs are finally fired over the North Pole by whoever he sold them on to.  Won't be long now.
Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yes.  How many record producers does it take to change a light bulb?  Mmmm, I don't know, give me a ring in the morning.  But you're flying to Eurovision tomorrow.  Mm, yes...  Ciao...

Long Vehicle,
Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/pno/hmc), and Rick Barducci as Rick Bard (vocals/bass/drum machine).
Left over from Sinbad/Langdale, I built speaker boxes, and Rick made the mixer, and also a drum machine that was years ahead of its time.  We soon sounded better than the 4piece had, but Rick then announced that he wanted to have kids, get married, and settle down.  In that order.  His decision was helped along a bit by the return of Dave Barker from Canada.

Tower Bridge,
Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/pno/hmc), Dave Barker (vocals/bass), and on drums Gary Blaine, then David Clooten.
Dave came back from Canada to recruit me, in gratitude for 'teaching' him to play bass, and also how to sing vocal harmony (I did?!?).  He still only knew 3 notes (I taught him everything I know), but when he played them the dance floor filled up more than with any other bass player I've worked alongside, with the possible exception of Mick Rose.  After one year we were joined by Joe Villeneuve (or Jo Villainous on Punk Nights) on lead vocals and lead guitar, mainly because he knew all the songs we had been too lazy to learn.  Then Dave Barker started acting unpleasantly, and my wife got pregnant, and I was so demoralised at the prospect of becoming a father that I ran back home to England.  It turned out that the stomach cancer that killed Dave shortly afterwards had been well under way when he had started 'acting real weird', to use the Canadian vernacular.  I wonder if they let him play 'too loud enough' in the Great Gig in the Sky.

The Bottle Brothers,
Kim Ludman (vocals/gtr/bass/pno), Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/pno/hmc/bass), Gary Walker (bass/vocals/gtr), Bob Buchanan (pno/axxe/solina), and Pete Bogg (drs).
This band rehearsed more than all the other acts I've been in put together, and for that reason it was an artistic makeover for at least four of us.  Much more attention than usual was paid to getting the performance of each song to match the sound in the respective composer's head.  A lot of time was therefore also spent on rehearsing changeovers from guitar to bass to piano and back, so that each composer could play the instrument he most wanted to sing lead over.  We even had minuted policy meetings.  It was two years before we did any gigs and, when they did not generate the sort of income we had hoped for, we decided to disband rather than spend more time and money subsidising gigs to build up our following.

Ed Furst,
Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/pno/hmc).
Working as a solo act started as an emergency source of income running alongside the Bottle Brothers.  The repertoire started quite successfully as a programme of virtually all the most applauded original and cover songs from previous Ed Furst incarnations.  Things moved up a notch when I started substituting requested 'sing-song' material for the original compositions, and more mainstream covers for the 'way out' covers.  Quantum leap time was when I was able to compile a 2-3 hour programme consisting only of genuine unprompted requests (in other words: 'would anyone like me to play Dream Lover?' - "Oh, go on then, if you must" did not qualify).  Then placing a pad and pencil on the piano for requests led to the development of six or seven more programmes, plus embryonic theme programmes for Paddy's Night, Valentine's Day, St.George's Day, Remembrance Day, etc.

The Ed Furst solo act has carried on in various guises ever since, sometimes under the following names.

Rocking Gerry Champion's Furst Choice,
RGC (vocals) and Ed Furst (gtr/pno/drum machine/PA and van, oh yes, and vocals).
Gerry is a high energy performer with a comprehensive 1950s Rock'n'Roll repertoire.  He also thought of the name Furst Choice.

Ed Furst, Rocking Gerry, and Rolling Lenny,
as above, with the late Lenny Blond, aka Lenny Fowler (gtr).
Gigs with Lenny were always a laugh, and his guitar playing improved out of all recognition.

Gold Blend, aka Twilight, aka BOGOF,
Beau Regards (vocals/bass/gtr), and Ed Furst (vocals/gtr/bass).
I shall always be grateful to Beau for dragging me kicking and screaming back into the real world after my wife died, and I will never forgive him for being able to do a better Irish accent than me.

End of Part 2.

So.  What next, Ed Furst?

That's easy:
I'm going to be a Rock'n'Roll singer when I grow up.

E & O E