Pictures and stories of some of my fondest memories of...

John Entwistle

I remember...

...sitting on the couch in the front room of my studio back in 1975, and staring at this cover for hours and thinking , "How cool is this guy?". Quadrophenia and Who By Numbers were almost always on the turntable. The previous year, the same week of my high school graduation, I had seen the Who live for the first time ever, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 

(for $6.50 !!!)

They played 4 nights, but I only saw one show. 

I did, however go down to the Garden every night

and hang out where the limos came out after the show. You can imagine the awe of a 17 year old Who fan, personally getting to meet each one of his heroes. Life as I knew it, had been changed forever. 

Little did I know what would be in store for me 

20 years later...

Here's a young John backstage at the

Monterey Pop Festival with

Noel Redding and Jimi Hendrix...

(June 1967)

COOL...or what?

Here's John and Keith Moon at the

Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus with

John & Yoko (and Julian), Eric Clapton and Brian Jones (December 1968)

The very first time...

...I went to John's home to do some recording, I brought along

this picture that I tore out of a Who book with the intention of having him autograph it for me. It was one of my favorite pictures of John. I was a little embarrassed, so I told him it was for a friend. At the time, we were sitting at the bar in his house. Upon seeing the photo, he pointed to one of the shelves behind the bar, and there was the skull that he was holding in the picture, sitting up on the shelf. He went over and picked it up and brought it over to me while he explained that Keith had bought this for him as a present. He had told him that he had found it in an antique shop, and that he had used up the last of his per diem to get it. John

then told me that Keith had forgotten to take the price tag off .

He turned it over, revealing a sticker that said $5.00...John said, "Big spender, eh?"

This is one of the photos...

...that was featured in a huge spread for the October 25th,

1997 issue of "Hello!"magazine in the UK. We were at the 

house recording when they came to do the photo shoot and

the interview. Behind John are the black Ford Thunderbird 

convertible (my favorite), the Rolls Wagon, and the red '59 Cadillac Eldorado convertible. We got to drive them around

the estate before we brought them down to the lawn to be photographed. Whenever we stayed at John's house, (and sometimes it was for a month at a time) the band would take turns each night at "dog duty". This meant a different one of

us would have to help John walk the Rottweiler pups around

the estate. The cobblestones were always wet and slippery and

the pups pulled with so much strength that we'd go slipping

and sliding all around.

An aerial view of  "Quarwood" estate. 50 rooms and 7 cottages.

The band lived there for months at a time. What an amazing experience and what great memories.

John's Rolls Royce which

he had painted "Harrod's"

green and converted into a station wagon so he could

take his Irish Wolfhounds

into town.

John never got a driver's

license but he owned several classic cars. He told me that, in the earlier days, him and "Moonie" bought a limo and hired Richard Cole to drive them to gigs.

This photo was taken backstage at

BB King's Blues Club in NYC,

on the same night as the 

"Concert For New York City".

(10/20/01)

After John played the

Concert for New York City...

...at Madison Square Garden with

The Who, he came up to BB King's

in Times Square and played a show

with The John Entwistle Band.

That's Chris Clarke in the middle, 

our keyboardist at the time.

I have a good story about the eagle's head belt buckle that John is wearing. While we were on one of the JEB tours, we had a day off in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was put in charge to "mind" John for the day. He decided he wanted to go shopping for turquoise and jewelry in a very upscale part of town. I was told to not let him spend too much money. I remember going in and out of this one shop where the belt buckle was, and John scratching his head and looking undecided and concerned. So, I said to him, "What are you thinking over?...you're John Entwistle, if you can't buy yourself a few expensive things, what's the point of being you?" Needless to say, we got back to the hotel with the belt buckle and a few other things totaling about $3,000 and  I was never put in charge of "minding" John again.

John once told me about an ill-fated silver screen star who committed suicide by jumping from the Hollywood sign.

Her name was Peg Entwistle...

...no relation.

The folks at Warwick Basses once misspelled

John's name on a sign. John "corrected" it.

In the beginning...

These pictures were taken

the first night I ever played with John.

He came over to the China Club in

New York City, (2/23/94)

after having played Carnegie Hall 

for the "Daltrey Sings Townshend"

birthday tribute concert.

...YOU SHALL PLAY, AT

CARNEGIE HALL

Is John giving me the finger ?

Eddie Vedder, "Rabbit" Bundrick, Phil Palmer,

Linda Perry and Pino Paladino came along with

him and also sat in. We played an impromptu

2 hour long set of Who songs to a packed house.

Earlier that evening, Steve Lukather of Toto and

Jason Bonham also sat in, as well as Jon Paris,

Steve Murphy and Greg Gruber.

John & Roger earlier

that evening at Carnegie Hall.

photo courtesy of:

Michael Brito

www.classicrockconcertphotos.net

  China Club, again...

...this time (8/10/94?) John brought along Simon Townshend,

Geoff Whitehorn and "Rabbit". I was playing there that night with

Martin Briley ("Salt In My Tears"). I can't remember why John was in town.

Considering who he had with him, I would assume it was a Who gig,

but there was no tour in 1994. Can someone help me on this?

Thanks to Lauren for e-mailing to me that the Daltrey Sings Townshend tour

was still going...duh

Le Bar Bat, NYC (7/18/96)...

The Who had just played at Madison Square Garden,

(they were there for 6 nights) and John came by to jam with us

with Simon, Geoff Whitehorn, "Rabbit" and John Karan.

We had played a set earlier with Joe Lynn Turner on lead vocals and

Mark Clarke on bass. Also in the house jamming that night were, Noel Redding,

Jason Bonham, Steve Conte and Frank Guella.

I got a kick out of teasing 

John about this.

"Gee, John...was this YOUR idea?...

that was really nice of you,

but you didn't have to do it..."

February 1996

Another of my all-time favorite

pictures of John...

very similar to what we used to call

his "Genghis Khan" look...

There was also the "Prince Valiant"

look as seen on his manikin at the

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland.

On the second floor landing...

 ...of John's home are just "some" of his gold and platinum records and the main bass guitars he used

during his years with The Who. (There are gold records hanging in the bathrooms as well.)

BTW, I hid the Gibson Thunderbird

bass which is the furthest back

and the gold record from right out

of the CENTER of the wall.

I have a very funny story about this...

During one of our month long stays at Quarwood, Jackie Lomax and a few friends came to visit for a few days. The day he left, he awoke very early as he had to catch an early flight out of Heathrow Airport which is about a two hour drive from John's. He said his goodbyes the night before and slipped out at dawn while everyone slept. I thought it would be funny to hide one of the basses and gold records and see how long it would take John to notice. I was up earliest so, I took the opportunity to hide the stuff in my room and went off into town for some breakfast. On my way back up the path, I could see that John had already awoken and was standing in the kitchen reading the paper. I thought to myself, "Oh boy...here we go!!" I got into the house, went into the kitchen and...NOTHING. Hours passed and everyone went about their business with no notice of the missing gear.

Finally, I caught John coming out of his bedroom which was directly across from this wall. I called to him and he came over to where I was standing. I started asking him questions about the recording we were doing while I was moving closer and closer to the area and...NOTHING. Finally, I just pointed to the empty space in the middle of the wall and then to the empty space at the end of the line of basses and said, "Hey, where have these things gone?" At first, he just stared blankly as if he was still digesting it all and I said, "Hey, maybe Jackie Lomax...???" Then, his face got a little red and he got a little angry looking. I let it go for about twenty  minutes while he looked around some of the other rooms and then, someone else finally spilled the beans to him...

Later that night, as I climbed into my bed, I felt something sharp jabbing me. As I lifted the covers away to see what it was, I found a huge solid brass sculpture of an antelope skull (or something) with long pointy horns that

John had put there to get me back. He'd had several of them in different sizes decorating the furniture around the halls. To the left is the only picture I could find of one of them taken from John's "Bass Culture" collection book. And, this is one of the smaller ones! I had a helluva time dragging it out of my bed and onto the floor.

With Gary Richrath, original guitarist from

REO Speedwagon after a JEB gig at the

Ventura Theater, California. (7/24/98)

John with Alan Parsons,

Ann Wilson & Todd Rundgren,

posing for the first publicity photos for 

"A Walk Down Abbey Road".

Taken during our mere 2 days of rehearsal

at Roseland Theater in Portland, Oregon.

This is a baritone guitar that

Paul Chandler gave to John at a

NAMM show.

This photo was taken at one of  3 shows we did

with A Walk Down Abbey Road at the

Villa Montalvo Winery in Saratoga, CA

in June of 2001.

John makes a face in the dressing room

at BB King's, sitting with Jimmy Archey

& his wife. (formerly of Gibson Guitars)

John doing the "big arms" thing.

You'll have to refer to Eddie Izzard's,

"Dressed To Kill" standup comedy video/dvd.

Synergy, West Chicago with the JEB.

John's birthday, 1998...we were kidding

him about the fact that his zebra print

leather jacket matched the backdrop

onstage.

Sometimes I had the task of waking him

up while we were on tour. He always

climbed aboard the tour bus in the 

morning much more chipper than the 

rest of us.

John and I doing an interview after our

performance at Woodstock '99.

Rome, NY (7/25/99)

After the festival was over, the roadies pulled down the colorful backdrop and stuck it in the trunk

of my car.

Sometimes, John would venture over

to my side of the stage and yell to me,

"Where's ONE ??!!"

On tour with the 

John Entwistle Band in '96.

A meet and greet and 

signing at a record store. 

( record store ?)

John signs someone's 

Fender Precision bass.

Who should I make it out to ?

...eBay ?

John cutting his birthday cake 

at sound check for our show

 at Synergy's in West Chicago.

(10/9/98)

You'd like us to sign your pool table?...SURE

Chris Clarke, myself and John at another

meet & greet and signing at the Stone Pony

in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

John looks rather bored. How many

signings do you think he's done ?

May 2001

Imagine being a bass player and having

John Entwistle sign your bass...here he is

with long time friend and roadie, "Little Frankie" who traveled with the JEB as our merchandise guy.

A happy John posing for a photo with

a fan named "Doug"

Me, John and Stoney...

...just hanging out.

Did you know that this guy

in the football helmet on the

back cover of Odds & Sods

was Bob Pridden ?

Bob has told me some

AMAZING stories.

Bob Pridden and me

(and a very stoned photographer)

backstage at the Garden.

August 2002

Bobby Pridden stands onstage at a '97 "Quad" tour

sound check...Stage left is Geoff Whitehorn,

in front of the gong is percussionist Jodi Linscott and far right is Simon Townshend. Bob was mainly responsible

for the creation of fold back monitors and has been

working with The Who for over 40 years.

John posing with his

Rainsong acoustic bass

outside the House Of Blues

on Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.

These Rainsong instruments

are made of graphite as were most

 of the Status 'Buzzard' basses

John designed.

The Rainsong company

generously gave me a

beautiful 12 string that I used

the few times  we performed

"When The Sun Comes Up".

These photos were taken at the Moondance Jam Festival in Walker, Minnesota

on July 7th, 1998. The day we performed, the other acts on the bill were

The Alan Parsons Project and Yes. ( little did I know then...)

Neville Chesters, the Ox, Jon Paris and

drummer extraordinaire Sandy Gennaro...

John's wearing my favorite shirt AND the

eagle head belt buckle.

An old photo of Neville circa 1966...

He used to roadie for The Who...

Here he is loading gear in the van.

(photo courtesy of Max The Mod)

Neville and Jimi Hendrix in 1967.

Neville was a roadie for Jimi and Cream as well.

Back in 2002...

I was fortunate enough to be invited

to attend the memorial service

 that was held for John at

St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London

back in October of 2002.

Special thanks to Gigi Barlowe,

Nicola Joss, Bill Curbishley and

Victoria Hawkes for making

it all possible.

Okay...time for some fun.

Here's a guy from Ontario, Canada

who goes by the name of Ranger Rick.

He posted this on a site because

he thinks he looks like John Entwistle.

Whaddya think?

Pete

Joe Satriani

I saw this sitting in John's fax machine one day

and asked him if I could have it. It was a fax he was sending to Noel Redding with a quote for his book.

It reads as follows:

"My first contact with Noel was back in the mid-sixties. He phoned me to tell me that he had just said yes to the job I'd just said no to...playing bass with the Jimmy Hendrix

Experience. He was a lead guitarist at the time and he asked me for a list of the equipment I used.

I gave it to him and the next time I saw him was at the Monterey Festival. He was using that equipment and I was using a heap of borrowed Vox stuff !!

Thanks Noel for trying to teach me (I still can't get it) the Bass part to Hey Joe (right). Anyway good luck with this book. I hope you send me a copy along with the negatives of the photographs you blackmailed me with. Will be in the post soon.

P.S. I still think you're really Charles Hawtrey

with a wig !

Noel Redding

Charles Hawtrey

Here's Todd Rundgren trying to get a rise out of

John onstage during the AWDAR 2001 tour.

This was going on while David Pack sang "Fool On The Hill"

and Todd would dance like a madman around onstage.

Here's a photo that John took of himself with my camera...

The Japanese promoter had taken us all out to dinner at a restaurant in Tokyo during the Japan leg of the

" A Walk Down Abbey Road"  tour in Fall of 2001

...notice Todd in the background pouring.

John was good buddies with Chris Squire, bassist

from Yes...We hung out with him a lot at NAMM shows.

Bjorn Cigaar from Holland is a huge fan of The Who

and John always enjoyed his company.

John and I with radio DJ, Brian Cosgrove

at 92.9 WEHM in Long Island.

We were performing right down the street at

Stephen's Talkhouse.

August 1999

In John's bar at Quarwood...

One day while we were over at John's doing some

recording, some artist relations guys from Trace Elliot

amplifiers came over to visit along with "Oasis" bass player

Paul McGuigan (aka "Guigsy"), who was also a Trace endorsee.

Half way down the bar is John's mom "Queenie" and

his girlfriend Lisa.

Besides the huge "world-class recording studio John had on the main floor

of his home was a smaller demo studio up on the third floor. I recorded

most of the guitar tracks for my CD here in the wee hours.

What a privilege.

Well, I could go on forever and never get tired

of telling stories about John. I loved to tease

him because he was such a good sport. We got

along famously and always looked forward to

each other's company for a laugh. He made fun

of how neat and particular I was, only because

he was exactly the same way. For the 8 years

we knew each other, we never had one quarrel

or disagreement. As a matter of fact, he would

always stick up for me in such instances.

The last time I spoke with John was on

my cell phone from a tour bus. I was out

with "A Walk Down Abbey Road" 2002.

We were playing the following week at the

Greek Theater in LA, and John was meant

to play at the Verizon Amphitheater the

same night. We made plans to meet up at

his hotel after our shows. We were going

to hang out and, also discuss the future of

the John Entwistle Band.

That meeting never took place...

Thanks for listening, Godfrey