Fond memories of bands rocking city youth club in new book

As a teenager growing up in Wolverhampton his Saturday nights were often spent at Venturers Youth Club at Springdale Methodist Church where he saw the likes of The Californians, The Montanas and The Light Fantastic.

His fond memories of the decade have now inspired a semi-biography novel named after his favourite band of the era.

"Chasing The Light Fantastic is about pop music, football, the sixties, buying albums, experiencing first love and, most of all, celebrating the talented local bands that entertained teenagers in and around Wolverhampton in that decade of adventure, exploration and revolution," says Paul, who was born in Penn Fields and now lives in Kent.

Each chapter in the novel tells of these bands that entertained teenagers, mostly doing cover versions of the current chart hits but also beginning to introduce their own write and record their own material.

"The Californians, The Montanas, Herbies People, Finders Keepers and Lady Jane and The Royaltee all stay strong in my memory together with the N' Betweens, who went on to become Slade. Finally, there was one band that everyone wanted to see, because of their stage act, and that was The Light Fantastic.

"They were one of the best live bands, if not the best. They knew how to work an audience. They enjoyed the evening more that you did, that's how they performed.They were very entertaining and their theatrics on stage were ahead of their time," says Paul, who attended Wolverhampton Grammar School.

All the groups featured in the 67-year-old's novel played at the Venturers Youth Club in the late 60s. "I wanted to celebrate the bands I saw as a teenager. In the late 60s we saw some cracking music in Wolverhampton. For some reason Venturers managed to book the best bands from the area and nationally. It was just a youth club, it wasn't one of the big clubs like the Catacombs or the Lafayette, but we saw the best music," he explains.

"It was good, wholesome fun. To me, it seems a shame that such entertainment is no longer there for teenagers. They don't really have youth clubs any more," adds Paul.

Along with live music, he also discusses the albums he was saving up to buy between 1967 and 1969 and also reports on how Wolves were getting on in the league at that time.

"Wolves were coming back from Division 2 and we're getting back to the heights they were at in the 50s and early 60s and there were players like Derek Dougan who was absolutely legendary," says the father of two.

The start of Radio 1 is also featured in the book and Paul says it helped him to discover new music that he wouldn't have otherwise heard. "There had never been anything like this before. It's not like it is today, we didn't have a plethora of radio stations. We couldn't go online and pick the music we wanted. This was revolutionary," he adds.

Paul, who is now working on his second novel, a detective mystery set on the Isle of Wight, said he hoped the book would appeal to music fans as well as those who also grew up in the 60s.

"I hope readers enjoy the book for what it is - fond memories of originality, fun, pleasure, and the delights of those formative years at a time when so much seemed possible, especially with such a brilliant musical soundtrack to accompany it," he says.

Chasing The Light Fantastic is available from Amazon as a paperback or Kindle edition.