Dick Taylor

Well, like, yeah, he did get a guitar, I think.

No, 'cause it, there was a guy across the road, um, who had quite a good record collection, and then there was Dick Taylor, who played with The Stones a bit and then played with The Pretty Things.

He used to come round.

So he had some mates that were all into the music.

That's how g- that's how good it was.

So you were immersed in those sounds already.

You write in your book about, uh, the first time you saw The Stones, you were 15, Dick Taylor was on bass.

Were, were you impressed with what you saw and what you heard?

I love The Pretty Things, I really do, one of my favourite bands I reckon.

Saw them just a couple of times but, you know, back in their pomp but they went on playing and were playing well in, well, Phil May and Dick Taylor who were the kind of main two guys I really think, although...

I think Wally Waller, the bass player, is still around.

And yeah, he is because he posts stuff on Facebook quite a lot.

But Phil May and Dick Taylor used to go out and play with, they had a younger band and go out and play gigs and they were absolutely fantastic until Phil May died in a bicycle accident.

Can you believe it? He fell off his bicycle and got killed.

I don't know, what a way to go, eh? Dick Taylor, of course, as you probably know, the original Pretty Things were kind of from the Dartford area, where the Stones were from, and they were friends with the Stones, and I think Dick Taylor started off in, actually as a member of the Stones, but then he kind of decided to continue his art project at Art College and didn't go with them, and then later on formed the Pretty Things with Phil May, and that, you know, So they were from the very same area as the Stones, as were Byrne Elliot and the Fen Men.

And some of the Fen Men ended up in the pretty things.

So let's hear music right now from The Pretty Things.

Now, an interesting tidbit is when Mick and Keith got together to form The Rolling Stones or, or Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, one of the guys in the room was Dick Taylor.

Dick Taylor goes off and forms this band called The Pretty Things, and so a track from them called Belfast Cowboy.

[singing] County children all with stolen hair.

Cars against the dark.