Many years ago I was asked by my school’s music teacher to return and play some drums behind the school choir for an anniversary concert. Astonishingly, this little bog standard comp had produced quite a lot of show biz slebs and a few were returning for the great event. Amongst them was a chap five years younger than me who had left school to become one of the most in-demand drummers in the world.
My teacher said she had spoken to him and he’d given her a list of some of the people he had worked for so she could include these names in the souvenir programme – they included Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Whitney Houston, The Bee Gees, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and on and on. She asked me if I could furnish her with some names I’d been associated with. I had a think and came up with Basil Brush then a long silence. “Anyone else?” After more head scratching I remembered I’d done a gig with Roland Rat. So there we were – 10 years in the business and I was the drummer of choice for vermin puppets.
Roland Rat was the subject of one of the funniest quips about Breakfast Time TV. Some wag said “He was the only rat ever to join a sinking ship”. I remember the gig very well. I was playing sousaphone in a Dixieland trio in the corner of a supermarket when they announced that Roland Rat was going to do the supermarket sweep (one glove puppet I’ve yet to work with).
The midget who had the Roland Rat costume on then tore round the supermarket at great speed filling up a supermarket trolley and at the end of the two minutes had pretty much duplicated the kind of shopping which has made my wife ban me from supermarkets ever since. Chocolate Hob Nobs, tins of rice pudding, Jaffa Cakes, Sugar Puffs, lots of jellies, tubs of ice cream etc. 25 years later and Roland Rat’s shopping proclivities are duplicated up and down the country by the person in front of you at the Tesco check out (so they tell me – I’m banned).
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