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From
the age of 10
Rus started forming bands with school friends. By the
age of 11 the trio, comprising Phil Brown - Drums, Mark Cole -
vocals and Stylophone and Rus - piano, were known as Flame. |
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They
had been performing live to retirement homes and when they began
secondary school they returned to their junior school to perform
end of term gigs. These pix are from their second gig at Raglan
Road Junior School. Bromley, Kent. circa 1971. |
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 Phil
was still using a large military style floor tom borrowed from school in
these days though he had now bought his own basic kit. After the gig he
discovered that the lamps I had rigged up had melted the kick drum skin.
Mark's Mum acted as our manager in those days and Phil's Mum and my Mum
made our respective 'Flame' tops. |
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 At
our first Raglan Road School gig we wore David Bowie style make up,
rings and 'Glammed' it up. After the gig the piano keys were running
with makeup! I was ribbed for this photo from our second gig there
because it clearly advertised Wavy Line Cola. Most uncool! I also
remember having problems with that old radio on the piano. I had rigged
it as an amp for the Stylophone but 2 false starts later I discovered a
valve that had worked loose! |
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One of our tracks
'Crazy Impulse' was about a 3 year old that went off the rails on an LSD
trip. (Pretty weird for a bunch of 11 year olds, I know). Oddly, the
school, though they didn't ban us from playing it, had us change the age
of the character to 23! |