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Lieutenant Pigeon
With Mouldy Old Dough, Lieutenant Pigeon had created a perfect novelty song but with the addition of Rob’s Mother in the band the concept had been extended and sound and image merged together perfectly to create a novelty classic that would see the band top the charts for four weeks. Not bad for a song they had originally given up on.
Lieutenant Pigeon began life as just a novelty off shoot of the experimental band Stavely Makepeace. Without a real hit record to their name, the creative force behind Stavely Makepeace, namely Rob Woodward (vocals, piano) and Nigel Fletcher (drums) liked the idea of an off shoot band based around two pianos, drums and bass. To give it an even quirkier edge Rob recruited his piano teaching mother Hilda Woodward on second piano and Steven Johnson Stavely Makepeace’s bassman completed the line-up. So they began recording a bunch of new songs in their own studio, the front room of Rob’s mums house at Kingsway, Stoke Coventry. Decca had been interested in Stavely so they used this contact to cajole a recording contract for Pigeon with the mighty Decca (a label Rob had been associated with some 10 years previously as Shel Naylor). The deal was done and the first single was to be Mouldy Old Dough. (Rob would say the title was a reference to decimalization that had occurred in the UK a year earlier, in fact the title had just came into his head for no reason and meant nothing in particular). Say what you like about this song, the fact remains it’s unforgettable! It’s also pretty unique, Red River Rock was probably the nearest I could compare it to. It had an off-key slightly unreal double piano sound, with a penny whistle bridge. Basically an instrumental except for Nigel growling the title now and again, it would eventually strike a huge chord with the record buying public, but not just yet.
The fact was a few weeks after its release Mouldy Old Dough was dying a death, Radio One hadn’t play listed it. Even a TV interview showing their front room studio in Rob’s mums house in Coventry on Central Television with a young Chris Tarrant, failed to help the song. Well that news programme wasn’t to help them, but one in Belgium was. You see unbeknown to them, Mouldy Old Dough was being used as a theme tune to a current affairs programme in Belgium, before long it was topping the Belgium charts! Decca began pushing it in the UK. On October 10th 1972 it hit the number one spot in Britain. The first number one from a Coventry group, the first instrumental chart-topper since Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross and the best selling single of 1972.
It was to stay there for four weeks, putting them and Coventry on the musical map. They were riding on a wave of publicity; the press loved the idea of Mother and son in the same band. Hilda at 60 became one of the oldest people to appear on Top of the Pops. “We were grateful for the Mouldy Old Dough hit ”, reveals Rob Woodward. “With Decca on our side at this time I felt we could muster a lower half of the top twenty. When it hit the number one spot I was knocked sideways -to say the least! I must say that reality did kick in though having to follow up a number one hit. It definitely had the cards stacked against it -as far as the UK was concerned, this of course proved to be the case with Desperate Dan reaching only number 17,The classic double-edged sword”!
Often erroneously cited as a one hit wonder their second single Desperate Dan as Rob mentions did also chart at number 17. More singles and albums followed but Desperate Dan remains their last UK hit single to date (Hilda Woodward sadly passed away aged 85 on 22nd February 1999). I say, “To date” because the guys have never really stopped creating music. Nowadays their output is more PC based; with computer ace Bill Boswell running the bands official site (www.lieutenantpigeon.co.uk) and Rob & Nigel are able to release a steady flow of new music under various guises. “How I wish the internet was invented twenty years earlier” reveals Nigel Fletcher, “Our fan base would have been much bigger then. We may not make money these days, but we certainly make a lot of new friends and it’s great to share our music with them. Besides, we both lead very private lives these days, I don’t think either of us could handle fame again”! Their fan base has included some big surprises though none more that Pulp front-man Jarvis Cocker who turns out to be a Lieutenant Pigeon fan and is including the bands song The Villain on a compilation CD he has compiled entitled “The Trip”. The guy’s current offering is the very unusual and a little disturbing 3 track CD under the name The Binj’d Rinkas, well worth checking out on their website
Say what you will about Coventry’s Lieutenant Pigeon the fact remains that through their unique brand of music they guaranteed to put a smile on your face and to all those trendy band out there who would dare mock them I would ask, “When was the last time you had a Number One hit record”?
Lieutenant Pigeon Trivia
For more Backbeat information go to www.covmusic.net
Contact Pete at backbeat@covmusic.net
You can hear Pete Chambers’ “Pop Into The Past” on Bob Brolly’s Friday Show every Fortnight from 3.00 p.m. and The “Sound Chamber”
on Anita Miah’s Monday Evening show
every fortnight from 8.00pm on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.