Geno's transcript | Black USAF

Geno Washington's audio transcript

<00:00>

Hi. My name is Geno Washington, Airman second, and the number is 2299 1785. I'm a singer with the Ram Jam Band. Also sang the blues with a band called The Yo Yos, which is the rhythm section of the Ram Jam Band. And basically I just like having fun cheering people up. I grew up in a place called Evansville, Indiana. It's a city in the state of Indiana att the bottom of the state. The top of the state, you would have Gary Indiana, which is where the Jackson Five are from, and the capital is Indianapolis, where you have the jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery is from. So I'm basically from Indiana, and I was there until I was 17 and a half. What brought me over to the UK, that was when I joined the American Air Force and came over to the UK, and I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters and RAF Woodbridge. Because I was a PT instructor. So that's how I got here. Why did I join the Air Force? To keep from going to Vietnam [laughs] yeah…

<02:07>

When I arrived in Suffolk, it was a great experience. I was a PT instructor, teaching sports, umpiring, refereeing and different sports and all that, you know what I mean? And because, basically, I was an athlete. You know, in high school, I was an athlete and the Air Force started to express that I use some of that talent in the American Air Force as an athlete, so they put me in the base gymnasium. You know what I mean?

<02:55>

Yes, I work from RAF Woodbridge, RAF Bentwaters, dealing with teaching, instructing and refereeing different games. You know what I mean? You got tennis, badminton, soccer, you know what I mean? Yeah, I used to go to Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Alconbury, South Ruislip because I would be competing and the track and field events that they had, and American football, I played football also, you see, and occasionally basketball, yeah. So that worked out pretty good, but mostly football and track and field. I was the champion of UK Air Force wise the 120 high hurdles and the four that needed high hurdles. I was the champion for three years, mmm.

<04:20>

Being a Black man in England, where you didn't have a lot of restrictions on you. What are you doing walking down this street? What are you doing in this neighbourhood? What are you doing with this white girl? You know, a lot of the restrictions was removed, you know what I mean, which made it so nice, you know I mean? And you would see Black, White, Indian, Chinese, all mixing together, you know what I mean? So, that shows you how different it was, and [no] segregation and all that. You know what I mean? It was, it was good, a surprise [laughs], a whole lot of Black people, [laughs] you know what I mean? But they had it up in London, you know? No Blacks, no artists, no kids and sign posts, sign posts in front of the house and all that renting it. You know, when you want to rent a place, no Blacks, no Irish, no kids, oh and no dogs. I never seen nothing like that when I was around in Ipswich, I ain’t see nothing like that, you know. It it worked for you if you said ‘I am an American’, cool. They knew they was going to get that cheque. They was going to get that cheque, you was going to pay the rent, or they go see your commander and they make you pay the rent. But that never happened. Ipswich was my stomping grounds. You know what I mean? It was not boring, it was going on, man, people having fun, you know what I mean, and you can't miss Ipswich, you know what I mean? Nah, nah, all of them pubs, I was hitting them all! And the Mecca ballroom, top rank ballroom, they had dances on, bands playing and, oh yeah, happy days.

<07:12>

How did I end up in the band? Well, it's because when you see English guys doing the music, and then you see the crowd going crazy over them and all of that, you go, why can't I do it? You know what I mean? So when I start singing in pubs with different bands, I just go, can I have a song with you, please? And he say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, what are you singing?”

And I started off singing Lucille because I'm a big fan of Little Richard. I sang Lucille and they usually gave me a standing ovation. So I went, oh, I might be into something here [laughs]. I might be into something! And that got me started at Ipswich, and it did go in London for me to sing with Georgie Fame, John Mayall, Zoot Money, Cliff Richard, and all of them. I used to tell a lie. My favourite lie was they, when I asked them, “Can I do a number with you?”, they go, “Yeah, can you sing?”. Because other GIs used to sing with them also. They would let certain GIs jump up and sing with them, you see, but they didn't know me, you know what I mean? “You sing?”, I say, “Sing, of course I do”. My auntie is Dinah Washington, because she was big in England, you see what I mean? And my sister is in Martha and the Vandellas. They said, “Oh, well, oh, come on up here, man”. Of course, I'm lying. I'm lying [laughs], but that got me that they would let me sing. You see, by that lie.

<09:54>

I'm not bragging but this actually happened. There was a pub called The Coach… Coach and Horses. There was a group in there. They had been playing a year. The guy hired them for a year. Well, anyway, they heard about me singing at this pub, and it was jumping, and I go in there and sing with the with the group.

But on this particular night, I was down to The Coaches and Horses. Well, I tell you the name of that that pub was, you know where the bus station is in Ipswich? There's a pub next to the bus station. In that pub, I was in there and I asked the group, could I sing? I saw him with him, same old guy. My sister's in Martha and the Vandellas, blah, blah, blah. So say, yeah. So I jumped up, sung with him, and they said, “Hey, could you come back? The owner of the pub is going to be here and could you come back and sing with us then? We want you… him to hear you with us”.

I said, “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do that”. So I came back the next week and the place was packed, and the owner was always happy with this group, which is why he kept him for a year. Stopped hiring groups, only that group he wanted. So I was going to do half an hour with him, singing and all that. Jumped up and ended up doing the whole hour with the group, doing the whole hour, you know! And the group was so happy. The people was happy, they were shouting, got a standing ovation, and all of that. And then they went back to the owner and, “How is that? Was that fantastic? Did you like that?”. He says, “No, you're fired, hit the hell out of my damn club!”. Now. He says he didn't make the money. He said, people are so busy clapping and watching the show, they ain't coming up buying the drinks. Nobody's buying any drinks! Everybody's watching the damn show. Get out of here and you’re fired. And he actually fired those guys! I couldn't believe it, you know, whoa, whoa. Man, that was something I said, “I'm sorry, guys, I'm sorry”.

<13:26>

The guy, he was from the Caribbean, and he had a club, they used to call it ‘Shebeens’. You see Shebeens was a Jamaican club. That's what they used to call them. You see the name? And it is packed! It is packed out, man! Whoo, party time!

Well, then the GIs start going down there, because it's packed and all of that. The hippest of the GIs from Mildenhall, Lakenheath, Alconbury, Bentwaters, Woodbridge. They would all make that trip to Liverpool to a Caribbean club, a Jamaican club, called The Lighthouse, and it packed. Whoa, the women folk in there. All these things got good looking women. Good looking women. Oh, man, it's packed out and he's making money. I mean, he's got the club! Everybody's talking about this guy's club, this Caribbean guy, everybody's talking about this guy's club because hey, it's packed! It's not a little small, dingy place. It's packed. You know what I mean? Jumping, serving food too, drinks, food. Got the records going just kind of a.. you know, Martha and the Vandellas, James Brown, you know he's got, he's got all the tracks, man. And to show you how good he is, they're travelling to Liverpool for that. That's how good it was. You see what I mean?

<15:40>

Well, how did I join the Ram Jam Band? Well, there was a guy - he was a GI and his name was Ronnie Jones and he jumped in with a guy named Mick Eve who used to play with Georgie Fame, but Georgie fired him, well Georgie’s management fired him. Well, he went and got a guy named Ronnie Jones, this GI and put a band behind him and, boy, they changed everything! They start rocking, kicking and they build it fast. They building up a huge audience. So, there was a guy named Pete Gage. He seen this happening, so he wanted to put a band together with a Black singer. And, so, he went to Mickey's and says, “Do you know another GI who could sing and be the singer with my band?”. And Mick Eve told him. He says, “Well, there's a guy. His name is Geno Washington. He gets out of the Air Force in two months. If you wanted me to sing with him… I got his telephone number, because he sings with me sometime.”. But I came up to London to see this band. They didn't have a name, they're just forming. They not called the Ram Jam Band. So I auditioned with them, you know what I mean? And the two sax players, they was auditioning also. So there's three of us. He's got the rhythm section, but he wants to add the brass and add a singer, so we're there, and now we all got along great and all of that. So they asked me, “Can you go into the other room watch television? We got another singer, an old school friend of Pete Gage”. He was Jamaican, and they gave him a go but you can't have soul music with a Jamaican accent, and he had a heavy duty Jamaican accent. They say, “Let’s take Geno. At least we'll have a laugh as we do this. He talks a lot of trash”.

So we got to name the Ram Jam Band from, I think, the café on the A1, I think it is - the Ram Jam Café, you know what I mean, and Ram Jam petrol station [laughs]. We had, we wrote down, we have 1,200 names to call the band. But.. [inaudible] But what was that name, now? We forgot it already, so you can't have a name that you forget that easily. So when we passed by the Ram Jam Café, we had a laugh with and a laugh joke about. What if the guy who sells the steaks is doing the petrol? You know what I mean? And so we done a gig, not at the Ram Jam Cafe. We done a gig and was on the way back to London, and it was two hundred miles, and all the way back to London, we was making jokes about the Ram Jam cafe and the restaurant, you know what I mean? And here we are, we still remember the name, you know what I mean? Well, let's call ourselves that. Let's call ourselves the Ram Jam Band. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that.

<20:58>

There was a group called the mods. The mods, I mean, one time we was doing… well Brighton, I tell you about that one I gotta remember so long ago, but Brighton, they would have an outdoor festival. Thousands of people came, and it's all outdoors. We had the record for the outdoor festival of how many people came, and then, let's see, the next year, The Who came and they broke our record. And then the next year Jimi Hendrix came and he had the outdoor record, you see? And then the next year, Geno Washington and Ram Jam Band came and we had it, you see, and kept it for five more years, you see what I mean? And then suddenly the crowds start cheering, and then they put me on stage when the Small Faces are in the middle of they set, in the middle of the song. And you know what I mean? And start boiling those small fishes. PULL! “Geno! Geno! [inaudible]’Geno! [Geno claps] Geno!” [Geno claps]. Oh man, you know what I mean?

<23:08>

They had a club down there in Ipswich. I can't remember the name but Ron Lesley and his wife, they're from London, but they opened a club, and they had a club in London, which was called the Manor House, and it was huge, full, but I didn't know about that. Then they had a club down… opened a club in Ipswich, and it took over. The club in Ipswich. Packed!

It is packed every time they throw the dance - Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And they used to bring down, he brought down a group that was very popular called Long John Baldry and the Hoochie Coochie Men featuring Rod Stewart. They was huge, you know? So he brought them there, down to Ipswich for the first time, and then he told them, he says he to Long John Baldry and to Rod Stewart, he said, “Man, I'm at the bar, you know? I'm just going to sing a couple of songs”. He asked me to come down and just do a couple of songs. So Long John Baldry and Rod switched that. So he said, “Now look, guys, you want to go down great? Do you want to go down great?”. And Long John Baldry and Roger say, “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”. He says, “To guarantee you go down great… if you invite Geno Washington up to sing with you, you will go down a storm”. “Yeah?”, he says. “Okay, okay, we'll bring him up, we'll bring them up. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we’d like to introduce you to and get them up on their own stage. Give a big round of applause. Geno Washington!”.

And the crowd went, “WOOOAH!”. And it went like that, you know what I mean? And they know who I am… you know what I mean whoop whoop whoop…and they start singing, you know what I mean? And the crowd went, “WOAHHHH!”. And then it wasn't the same one when I stepped off the stage and they carried on the show because I'm only singing two numbers, they want to carry on the show. They can't do that because the crowd is going “Geno! Geno! Geno!”. And so Rod Stewart told Long John Baldry, “Look, I ain't taking this no more. I'm not taking this no more. If you want him, you can keep him, because I ain't going to do this no more”. So Ron Lesley came to me and said, “Now let's not start an argument and all of that. Tell you what - you done great, Geno. Thank you very much but you can't sing with them no more. What we're going to do is, if you come up to London, can you come up to London? I got another club in London?”. “You got another club?”, “Yeah, and I got someone coming that are much bigger than these guys, than Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart. They're bigger”. “Who is it? You’re joking, you know The Animals?”. “Yeah man! Come on! I'll introduce you to them and I'll pay you. Get on up to London. Can you come up to London?”. I say, “Yeah, I go to Flamingo Club all the time, you know?”. “Come on up to London”. And that's how I met the Animals. Eric Burdon, Chas Chandler, and all of them. Alan Price and.. that's how I met them and start singing with them in different places, because we became friends. They was really into Black music, you know what I mean?

And then, when I was… every time I go up to Newcastle their hot club in Newcastle called the Club a’Gogo, oh man, it was something. The Animals would come and see me, jump in and sing with me, you see what I mean? Sing with me in the Ram Jam Band, you know?

<28:41>

The biggest hit, of course, you had ‘Michael the Lover’, but that went to only about 18, you know? And ‘Que Sera’ that went to about 16 but the biggest hit was the album that was number two for 42 weeks! You see what I mean? ‘Hipsters, Flipsters and Finger-Poppin’ Daddies’. That was the first hit album and then we had another hit album called ‘Hand Clappin, Foot Stompin, Funky-Butt ... Live!‘ You see what I mean? That was a big hit too, not as big as the first one, though, you know what I mean? It stayed in the charts, it kept staying four five four three four five but it staying in the charts all those weeks, 32 weeks, you know what I mean?