After Petrus Booncamp disbanded, Linda and John stayed together and joined forces with Malcolm and Eric—both formerly in a band called The Dominoes/the Beat Boys—and Joseph to form Goliath. I’ve read it took you a while to settle on Eric as the drummer, going through several before being happy. Could you go into as much detail as possible as to how the band ended up with its definitive line-up, mentioning, if you could, the names of any passing drummers?
Linda: We went through many drummers looking for Eric; I can’t remember most of them. The one in the picture was a stand-in named Pete?
Ros: Malc and me came back from Hamburg wondering where Linda and John Willy had got to; they were in Copenhagen, visiting Christiania commune. Eventually they returned, broke as always. We began to practise in earnest after that. Eric Eastman, I had seen on drums at Leigh Jazz club and thought, “Here is a REAL drummer.”. He had a job at an undertaker’s but did not like the job; he later gave it up when we started to get a few gigs as Goliath.
John: After watching Jethro Tull we decided we wanted a flute, so that’s how come we met Joseph Rosbotham, who was playing with a friend of mine called Gerry Kenny. Gerry Kenny used to be in the Lancashire Rats. Joseph joined the band and I went off guitar onto bass. Malcolm Grundy came in on guitar, we formed Goliath and then recorded the Goliath album. We had a drummer; again, myself and Linda can’t remember what his name was. His name was Pete; I can’t remember his last name. We had a drummer called Martin Roscoe [later of Nine Days Wonder] before that; that was in Petrus Booncamp. Then we got Eric. Eric was a jazz drummer and played vibraphones too. We got with Eric and used vibraphones in the stage set as well.
With the band formed, where did you rehearse and what memories do you have of some of those first practice sessions?
Linda: This question made me laugh. Ros lived on a farm with his parents. We literally practiced in the barn for the most part. John and I did a lot of practicing/jamming together individually. I was the one most focused on practicing.
Ros: The barn was full with tons of spuds (potatoes) by the time we were seriously rehearsing. We used what I called the Wash-house, stoked a big fire up, annoyed some neighbours half a mile away and had police call in. Trouble was Ros had to taxi Linda from Bury, so there was much driving around already for me. Somebody told me once that he didn’t think farmers had much time for music—that is true as farm work got neglected by me very quickly.
John: We rehearsed in Ros’ farm and barn in Rainford. It’s a bit of a blur really; I remember walking across to the pub every now and again.
Did it take long for some of the songs featured on the LP to take shape? Did you perform any songs not featured on your record?
Linda: It didn’t take that long; we worked together as a band pretty well. We were actually working on our second album when the band broke up; we were doing a lot of these songs onstage. The one that comes to mind was written by John and called “Seashore Sands”, which we performed live on BBC Radio.
Linda Rothwell © Linda Rothwell
John: I can’t remember the process, really, other than the fact that some songs were quicker than others to formulate; some take a lot of honing in and some get thrown by the wayside. We had a whole catalogue of stuff for the second album—which never came to fruition—which we actually recorded on a BBC session. I wonder what happened to that; we’ve never been able to trace it. It’s just one of those things. I really can’t elaborate much more on that; it’s a bit lost in the midst of time!
You were spotted at Leigh jazz club in Greater Manchester by Phil Sanderson, a representative of Family Tree Productions. He signed you on to CBS and ended up becoming your manager. Could you elaborate as much as possible? You mention on your Facebook fan page that a certain Tommy Sanderson was also involved in a managerial capacity. Could you tell us a few words about him too?
Linda: Tommy Sanderson managed Louisa Jane White. Phil was his son (who later married Louisa). If you remember, Louisa and I and Polly were in a girl group together and we kept in touch. She told Tommy about me and Goliath and what I was doing and he, along with his son, came up to Leigh jazz club to watch us live—they loved us. The rest became history.
Ros: Tommy Sanderson I remember as a very approachable guy, but Linda had more dealings with him than the rest of us. I think they envisioned us as a girl singer with a backing group more than we did. Although we thought the world of Linda, it was intended to be a group of equals—each had their own voice to discover and share.
John: It was kind of an intense situation where we were focused on what we were doing, I suppose, and the band was getting popular. I think then we just came in contact with Tommy Sanderson, who had something to do with Linda before we met her. We got the management situation deal and they put us with CBS.
Goliath CBS Advert
Where did you record the album and could you share any memories that stick out for you during that time in the studio? In particular, we’d love it if you could say a few words about each track off the LP—anything at all that comes to mind!
Linda: The album was recorded in London. I remember being quite stressed out at the time, trying to sleep but the songs going around and around in my head. The songs I loved singing on the album were “Men”, “No More Trash” and “Hunters song”. I remember “Prism” was extremely difficult to record as the timing of the song is quite difficult for a singer, if you listen closely. But, I loved singing it; the high notes—loved them. I would open a set with “Men” or “No More Trash” many times and often close the set with “Hunters Song”. In the middle of “Hunters Song”—where you hear everything being played but the kitchen sink (quite literally bottles, etc.)—I would sneak offstage, and at the end where I start singing softly I would appear from behind a speaker…“In some fields where rabbits run”….loved that song.
John: I can’t remember much about it to be perfectly honest, what with lots of green smoke lying around. It was those kind of days, so I don’t really remember too much about it, other than the fact that I know we weren’t happy with the overall sound. It didn’t quite hit the spot that we thought, even though we were all very proud of it when we’d finished. I think we were kind of intimidated by the studio in London, really. They weren’t really used to Jimi Hendrix sort of turning up, so guitar amps had to be quiet and the engineers were in white coats looking at dials.
From: https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2014/07/goliath-interview.html
