New York Public Library
It all began in 1961 with a group of guys from Leeds, Yorkshire, England who formed The Cherokees with band members, John Kirby Woollard, lead singer; Tez Stokes, lead guitar; David Bower, Rhythm guitar; Mick Sweeney, bass guitar; Jim Green, Drums and Jeff Hale roadie. They moved to Golders Green, London in 1963 and signed to the Roy Tempest agency, where they met Paul Servis playing with Johnny Milton and The Condors, this band was also signed to Tempest. The two bands became firm friends at the time. The Cherokees attained a record contract with Decca and later Micky Most produced some of their hits "Seven Golden Daffodils" and "Dig a Little Deeper". It must be said at this point that Jeff Hale was the bands roadie and he also took lots of pictures of the band.
The band changed the name to New York Public Library in 1966, with new drummer, Mick Ibbotson and released "Land Of A Thousand Dances" and "I ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore". They worked at the The Starclub in Hamburg between 65-67 where they met and became close friends with The Londoners from London, where else. (Another history).
In early 67 Mick Ibbotson and Mick Sweeney left the band and a reshuffle took place employing the services of Topper Clay (The Knack and The Londoners) and Paul Servis (Johnny Milton and the Condors).
In 1968, John Woollard, Paul Servis and Jeff left and Brian Morris (The Londoners and The Knack) joined, on Rickenbacker Twelve string guitar and lead vocals. Jeff was replaced by Les Brown as roadie. This line-up toured the Halls, Universities and the London Clubs of the day, had two releases on MCA, "Gotta Get Away" (recorded as a demo) and "Love Me Two Times". They recorded some great stuff again with Micky Most, "Come Away Melinda and" If I were a Carpenter", both very long and freaky, but unfortunately never released.
Brian Morris left in August 69 to pursue a solo career as Brian Parrish and Peter Morrison joined. (It was at this time that Topper and Dave did a closed session for Robin Gibb, after a brief Bee Gees split. The single they played on, "Saved By The Bell" , went to No 1 in the UK charts.) The new NYPL line-up recorded an album of Buddy Holly songs, but contractual difficulties and court orders ensued. Without any say in the matter, the album was released as "Raw Holly" in 1971 in the US and Germany. After a meeting with Brian Parrish in The Giaconda, Denmark Street, the studio owner, asked him to sing lead vocal on the single "Raining in My Heart", which became a BBC record of the week. When asked to perform on BBC's TV program, "Top of the Pops", the band promptly but stupidly; refused. The band went on to record and release "Wheiling Ty Loo" b/w "Boozy Queen" for B&C Records as well as "Live On" b/w "Make Me Take Me" (unreleased), but not before manager Danny O'Donovon arranged studio time in the US to record the album (The Boston Tapes) in Boston, Mass. with close friend and engineer, Richard Berred Ouellette and session guitar player Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. Mike Martineau produced it and according to his present day online biog, he was 12 at the time.
The band split in the Spring of 1973 and Dave Bower and Tez Stokes carried on as a songwriting duo while Topper and Pete formed "Hogpond" with Kirk Riddell and Dickie Middleton, who both hailed from Guildford. Tez and Dave finished a record started by NYPL "Make Me Take Me", taking Pete's voice off and putting on John's. Sounds familiar.
In 1974 Dave Bower, John Woollard and Peter Morrison formed a new band called "Little Big Man", recording an album in 1974 in Quinvy Sound, Sheffield, Alabama, with Swamp Dogg producing and David Johnson engineer, who changed the name to Broadway Studio after buying out Quin Ivy's shares. Here is where lots of great stuff was recorded including "When a Man Loves a Woman; Percy Sledge and JJ Cale's "Really" album. During this period "Bower, Morrison & Woollard entered the song "Round and Round" for The Tokyo Song Festival. Susan Anton (The Miss World runner up) sang the song. We came second behind The Three Degree's "When Will I See You Again" The US album was not released. Another unreleased album produced by David Mindel, for Polydor was recorded in 1975-76 and the track "Time & Tide was pulled off as a single release. The 1st band consisted of Bower, Morrison, Woollard, Keith Purnell, Ld Guitar and Jeff Rich drums. Jeff and Keith rejoined The Jackie Lynton Band and after Jeff joined Staus Quo. Band 2: Bower, Morrison Woollard, John Danter Ld Guitar, Andy Hill, Keys, Graham Walker, Drums. Andy and john went on to right "Making Your Mind Up" Bucks Fizz and Graham joined Gary Moore's band.
After that little excursion, Little Big Man split. Dave Bower, John Woollard and Peter Morrison carried on as an acoustic outfit, together with Howard Fullbrook and toured the folk clubs as BMW, playing all originals.
Eventually Topper Clay, from the original NYPL, came back and a new NYPL emerged. Dave Bower emigrated to Canada and Tez Stokes opened a recording studio. The new line up for NYPL started as: John Kirby Woollard, Vocals: Topper Clay, drums: Peter Morrison, guitar, vocals: Paul Servis, Bass: Karl Rylander, acoustic guitar, vocals: Dave "Lofty" Reng pedal steel:. This line-up recorded the album. "Take Some Music". Shortly after finishing it, Paul was tragically killed in car crash on the M1 after returning home from a jazz gig in the north of England. Paul studied at The Royal College of Music as a mature student, attaining a degree. He became Head of Music at a 6th form college in Loughton, North London. We lost a giant of a musician and friend that day.
This was a tough time, but we started up again after recruiting Bob Doughty, who had already played with us when Paul was away playing jazz. Eventually we recorded "Keep a Clear Head", which included 17 tracks. The most poignant being the song John wrote for Paul, "Today Is For My Tears."
In May 2007 John died of Leukaemia. This left the band devastated, without the will to carry on playing. They once recorded a song called "Time is a Healer" and as these words are being typed; they reflected the thought of John knowing full well that he would not have wanted the band to pack up.
In May 2008, a year after John died, the band played their first gig without him. This was a benefit concert for John's charity "For-get-me-not" for Leukaemia.
John could never be replaced and so the band enrolled a young 19 year old guitarist Sam Clark, with an idea of trying to change the sound, leaning towards a more acoustic element.
Present band; Topper Clay, Drums, vocals: Peter Morrison, various acoustic instruments, lead vocals, clap: Karl Rylander, acoustic guitar, lead vocals, harp and maybe clap: Dave "Lofty" Reng, pedal steel: Bob Doughty, bass, vocals: Sam Clark, electric guitars. We occasionally go out and test the stages of local venues in and around Farnham Surrey, playing songs we like, in the country folk vain with some Rock n Roll thrown in out of spite.
February 2010, Just for the record, we have started to piece together and record another record. This record has been 2 years in the making. We should have been cathedral builders. It will probably ready by the next Dissilution of the Monasteries or the second coming. We'll keep you posted
Click on coloured names