Dennis Signy's blog about the McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell brought a smile to my face. Whilst to Dennis, Clarence was a cub report to be dispatched to cover small fires in sheds, to us local muso's he was a mythical figure. This is why.


Sometime around 1979-80 the Times decided to have a column reporting on the local music scene. It was called "Rock around the Corner" and was initially written by Kevin Black. Now this was a great chance for local bands to get a bit of press exposure and add a few punters to the crowd at gigs.

My band "The False Dots" saw the potential of this for a bit of publicity and got in touch with Kevin to promote a gig we were doing at the Harwood Hall. Kevin explained that he could only write a piece if there was actually a story. I thought about this and suggested he came down to the gig and wrote up a story as we were doing it to pay for a "mini Woodstock" we were orgainsing later in the year. I suggested that Kevin's column could help us find other bands for this extravaganza.

Now seeing the potential, Kevin agreed and we got our first ever press with the title "False Dots Seek Gig Mates" in the Jan 8th 1980 issue. This even had a picture of the band we were on our way. Kevin wrote the column for about another year before handing over to Joy Bentley. Joy was equally helpful with the coverage but we always suspected that Rock journalism wasn't her passion. Step in "The Man" Clarence Mitchell. Now from the first time we met Clarence we realised he was a contender. Whilst Dennis would have preferred Clarry, we instantly recognised a true music journalist. At the time the top music Journalist was "Charles Shah Murray" - no Charlie there. When Clarence turned up to interview us, he was in the sharpest suit I'd ever seen with a real Brain Jones mop. By this time the band had become quite good and been on tour around europe. Clarence wrote several in depth features which added tens to our local audiences. Not only that he plugged all of the other bands and in terms of local music , the Times had a mini Golden age.

Then one day, disaster struck. The Clarence Mitchell column was gone. A quick call to the local paper revealed that he'd left for a better job. How could he do this to us? What could possibly be better than writing up the exploits of "The False Dots", "No Biscuits" and "Stylo" playing at the Harwood Hall?

Now Clarence was a great journalist and put a lot into his columns, unfortunately his replacements didn't share his passion to the same degree. Eventually I came up with a plan. My Dad knew Dennis Signy - Editor at the Times. I suggested to dad that the paper was full of boring stories about fires in sheds and what it needed was a makeover. Full coverage of the Punk Rock scene in Mill Hill & Edgware, along with exciting articles about pollution in rivers in Burma and Political repression in Argentina. I suggested that Dad could ring up Dennis & get me a job as a reporter to cover these. Anyway a couple of days later my dad said "Oh by the way I spoke to Dennis Signy, I told him that you thought that the paper should cover more Punk Rock and political repression in Argentina". Excitedly I asked (realising that the Great Mr Signy would, upon hearing these words, realise where he'd been going wrong for the last 17 years) what his reply was. "Oh he thinks your a genius and wants you to replace him as editor starting on Monday on 30 grand a year". At which my mum & siblings roared with laughter and I departed from the room in high dudgeon.

Now as a footnote the last time I saw Clarence was in about 1987. The band had just come back from Belgium and I was sitting in the Garden of the Railway pub with, Captain Ubungus, our other guitarist, strumming away and up popped Clarence. Always the gent, he asked how we were doing and bought us a pint.