The Baines Grammar Rock Family Tree -

I guess it all started around 1971/72, the likes of Phil Walmsley, Ada Hindle, Craig McCarthy and Paul Metcalfe would often be seen discussing guitars, chord shapes, The Who, and the Stones. By 73/74 a band had evolved, Warlock they called themselves, Phil (guitar) and Ada (bass) were joined by Johnny Inman (vocals and occasional violin) and, from the year below, Neil Smith (drums). Before this line up was established there was inevitably a bit of jockeying for position. It's quite possible Paul Metcalfe might have been in but his parents wouldn't buy him an electric guitar.

"I have very tortured and previously untold memories of Warlock. For some reason, in one of my more arrogant moments (which I was very prone to in those days!) I thought I had a chance to be lead singer. The one small problem was that I was crap at singing but this didn't stop me learning songs like Horse With No Name (America) and Behind Blue Eyes (The Who) and even practising with Phil and Ada. Unfortunately, neither of them had the heart to tell me how bad I really was. Consequently, when I heard about the gig at Thornton Youth Club and finally realised I was never going to be in the band I was gutted and refused to even go along."

There was great excitement at the Thornton Youth Club where that early Warlock gig took place, they'd never had a live group before and didn't really know what to expect. The usual crowd were swelled by quite a few new faces for what turned out to be a memorable evening. The band were very Stones/Who influenced and played all covers except one original instrumental. Other titles were the straight ahead rock 'n roll of Good Golly Miss Molly, the moody Pete Townshend composition Behind Blue Eyes, Bowie's Jean Jeanie, and Blockbuster by the Sweet. As for the visuals, well things were a bit limited in those days, friend of the band Dave Spencer was instructed to "Flash the lights on and off in an attempt to recreate the light show at a Genesis concert." Far out! Johnny Inman was a competent if limited singer who provided a memorable moment at the end of the evening when he picked up his violin for an inspired instrumental arrangement of Slade's Coz I Luv You. For this finale Phil switched to bass and Ada strapped on a nice semi acoustic, the violin took the vocal lines and the distinctive motif of the original. At this point they were also joined on stage by Dave Spencer who added tambourine, triangle and eccentric dancing to the mix. It was a great finish, Thornton Youth Club had never seen anything like it, although a few of the lads were a bit envious of the female attention the band received afterwards!

In late 1974 after 'O' Levels Johnny Inman left Baines' to go to Gordonstoun school up in Scotland, being a member of Warlock was no longer an option. He was replaced by Anton Rosenfield, who by all accounts was an excellent singer and under Phil Walmsley's tuition soon became rhythm guitarist. A further change took place when non Baines' John 'Grinny' Grinton took over from Neil Smith behind the drumkit. Grinny was already familiar to some through his football connections.

"I was their most loyal fan, groupie, roadie etc! I travelled far and wide with them, well as far as Hambleton, Preston and Blackburn anyway. They were really good, well, I thought so anyway. I can still see Anton singing I Saw Her Standing There. If you look back at the photo, hey, there IS their number one fan, centre stage, cheesy in cheesecloth, looking as if she's giving the evil eye to the other girl who might be getting too close!"

"I've got lots of photos of the group. Some were taken the day they practised outside in a garden in Carleton [see below]. The police turned up, there'd been a complaint about the noise. It even got into the newspaper, but nobody seemed that bothered about it really, it was just kids larking about. They even made a bit of cash, from playing around the Fylde Coast, including a summer season at a seedy nightclub in Blackpool somewhere."

At the end of the Summer Phil decided he'd had enough and quit, he was replaced by Hugh Mett who has the following recollections:

"I did quite a few gigs with them including one memorable occasion at the Station, a pub in Kirkham, where Grinny cut his hand on a cymbal, there was blood everywhere but he carried on playing!! He was a bloody loud drummer, reminded me a bit of John Bonham. Our roadie was Steve Teasdale, usually to be found in the Highcross tap room. He worked for a window company and would pick us up in the works van. Anton and I still laugh about the Warlock repertoire which included Radancer (Marmalade), Apache (Shadows) and believe it or not Shang a Lang (Bay City Rollers)."

After a couple of months without a band Phil Walmsley was back in business with Tumbling Dice (late 1975). This new band developed Phil's love of the Stones/Who/Free in a much more earthy fashion than Warlock. His main partner in crime was vocalist Ian Stuart (Ian Stuart-Donaldson or Don as he was known at school). Don had been looking for a way into the scene for a while, his developing friendship and musical common ground with Phil provided the perfect opportunity. Original drummer Grinny was fired after a falling out with Don and was replaced by Steve Gaulter from the now defunct Paranoia. The McKay twins Kev and Sean, new to the music scene, were on bass and second guitar respectively. Only Phil had any significant experience so it was a steep learning curve for the rest. A gig at the Teanlowe Centre in Poulton showcased their basic no frills approach to playing their favourite songs, evidently there were also a few original numbers in the set. That so far is the only report of the Tumblin' Dice live experience. Anybody else out there see them?

In all honesty though Tumbling Dice weren't really very good and it all ground to a halt in the summer of 76. Don was still very keen on a career in rock music but was badly in need of a new direction and fresh impetus. The key moment was seeing the Sex Pistols' second gig at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester in July 76. Phil and Don immediately set about transforming what was left of Tumbling Dice into a serious punk band. Steve Gaulter wasn't keen so Grinny returned, Sean McKay had decided to go to University but brother Kev was still on board. Thus the Fylde's first (as yet un-named) punk band was born.

They could never be accused of musical sophistication but had a certain appeal. Roger Armstrong boss of Chiswick remembers his initial impressions:

"They sent in a tape from Blackpool with a hilarious photo of them in torn blazers and flares standing in front of Blackpool Tower. The whole thing was so gormless and the tape such a noise I couldn't resist. I think that the motivation for signing them was a reaction against the studied arty side of the Pistols and the Clash as projected by their management. Here were real kids from the arsehole of nowhere and very angry at anything they felt like being angry at. But as out of town kids they were a bit in awe of it all. They were part of that second generation of Punks inspired by the Pistols."

Chiswick signed them up and financed two singles, You're So Dumb (B Side, Better Off Crazy) and Antisocial (B Side, Breakdown) followed by an album All Skrewed Up during 1977 and the band attracted a small but enthusiastic following.

Phil Walmsley played on all these recordings but quit before the album hit the streets, he could see which way the wind was blowing. He was replaced by Poulton hard man Ron Hartley who had played in various other local bands, and who appears on the All Skrewed Up sleeve. Around this time the punk image was dropped, hair became close cropped and Skrewdriver became part of the skinhead revival. This happened to coincide with a couple of high profile violent incidents at gigs and resulted in an increased presence of undesirables amongst their audience. These characters seemed to strike a chord with Ian Stuart and he began to find his niche in the racial hatred white supremacy movement as championed by the National Front in the UK at the time.

Roger Armstrong again, "The original band were a great punk band, they were about as raw as it gets. It is a shame that the name was dragged through the gutter like that. The other three guys in the band were really pissed off too. When they made records for us Ian Stuart showed no signs of Fascism. The skinhead image was a fashion thing, maybe in hindsight a bit misconceived."

The backlash in the musical press was immediate and Skrewdriver found it virtually impossible to get gigs and soon imploded under the pressure.

Ian Stuart revived the name a couple of years later with totally different personnel and the full National Front manifesto. Unfortunately the image of Skrewdriver will be forever tarnished by the extreme political affiliations of these later incarnations. Despite his death in a car crash in 1993 Ian Stuart is still revered in extreme right wing circles, you only have to type Skrewdriver into any Internet search engine to realise the extent.