Mike Patto, Ollie Halsall, and Keith Ellis describe the paths that led them into the ring. Intervering the group Patto on late-night FM radio several years ago, it was depressing to learn a few months later that the group had broken up. However. since then it has been interesting to watch the two main figures of the group, Mike Patto and Ollie (Pete) Halsall. go through various musical periods. Mike spent time with Spooky Tooth, and Oliie played guitar for Kevin Ayers. Tempest and Grimms as a sessioner and sideman. In the past year, after a brief reformation of Patto. Ollie and Mike got back together in a new group which they dubbed Boxer. The other members are Tony Newman on drums and Keith Ellis on bass. Since the history of Patto as a group has been extensively discussed in an earlier Trouser Press story (issue 17) by Ben Richardson, we'll leave that out here. What does concern us is pre- and post- areas in which all four Boxers have rich knowledge. As we were only able to interview Mike, OWe and Keith, they're the focus, but in terms of experience that should be enough. We'll start at the beginning. with Patto.

TP: I have you down with a group called the Bluebottles in 1963.

MP, Shit a brick! How the hell did you know that one? TP: There are others. But tell us about the Bluebottles. MP: That was the group I turned professional with. It was a rhythm an blues band. We used to back Graham Bond before he fonned his group with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. He used to travel up to Norfolk (where I lived) in an old ambulance that had an organ in the back. The Bluebottles played like Georgie Fame, Zoot Money Big Roll Band-that era. We had an organ in the band as opposed to a rhythm guitarist.

After the Bluebottles broke up, there was a guy called Jack Barry who managed a guy called Boz who now plays with a little skiffle group called Bad Company. He sent me to London to cut a record and take it to Robert Stigwood's office. I sat outside this glass wall while they played and talked about the record. I was getting really nervous because theft'! were all these stars walking around.

After a while. Jack Barry poked. his head round the door and asked if I'd fancy compering (emceeing) at rock concerts. I got really mad and started shouting about my music, but when he told me it paid 100 pounds a week I decided I could compere. sure. There was this great tour- I'm so pleased I did it because I used to open up with three songs before anyone knew I was the compere. The bill was Chuck Berry, Moody Blues (who hit number one with "Go Now" the first week. we were on the tour), Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, Graham Bond Organization, and this band called Jimmy Powell's Five Dimensions, except that Jimmy Powell split. [Note-Rod Stewart had been in the Dimensions but left before the tour in question.

The group released two singles on Pye in 1964. They were backing Chuck Berry and they also backed me for the first three numbers. After the tour, I went and lived with the Moody Blues who had this big pad. I met the Beatles there. They used to come around and swim in the pool, get stoned. After that, I went up to Norfolk to spend some time with my folks because I'd run out of money.

The Bo Street Runners offered me a gig - they were doing well on the R&B scene. Tim Hinkley [Jody Grind, Vinegar Joe and Humble Pie] was the organist-he saw me when we supported them-I was in a band called the News that was originally called the Continentals- we wore red jackets. Tim dubbed me Norfolk's Chris Farlowe and got me into the Runners. He wasn't an original, but he was the only one that could play. The rest of them were just past the skiffle three-chord stage, but since they'd won the Ready Steady Go TV contest for amateurs in 1964, they were getting work.

After that, I formed a band with Viv Prince [see the Pretty Things in TP 1131] called Patto's, People. It had Tim Hinkley and Louis Cennamo on bass and a trumpet player called Mike FeUana, a Nigerian cat who played with Graham Bond. This was around the end of '65 or early '66. After two months we sat down and very deliberately named ourselves the Chicago Une Blues Band. We did pretty well, but one day we stopped at a traffic light and Viv Prince got out and said, "That's it, I've had enough. No hard feelings."

Then I took up an occupation that I'd always wanted to do-I sang with a London Youth Jam Orchestra. We used to do songs that Mel Torme or Joe Williams did. TP: How did you meet Ollie? MP: He was in Timebox, and they needed a singer. They'd had this black American dude who was stationed in England on an airbase. They were on stage one night, and he got taken away by the MP's. They needed a singer and John Gee, who managed the Marquee on Wardour Street, dug me. He was a Frank Sinatra freak and I was a rocker who was singing with big bands. He figured I had integrity. H. got them (Timebox) to come see me sing with The London Youth Jazz Orchestra (LYJO), which was a 24-piece big band. I got the sig, and the group trotted along merrily for about two years. We even had a hit single with a Four Seasons cover called "Beggin'."

Decca kept giving us these demos of songs, telling us what our next single was. We protested, but they kept teUing: us that we were young and if we had three or four hits their way, then we could go off and play our far-out stuff. When we: did that, we got promoters saying "You're nothing like your records-what the hell am I booking you forl" Then the organist Ieft. I was out in the cafe having lunch and Muff Winwood came over and said that the group was now called Patto. The explanation, according to Muff. as to why the group's name was Patto was that every European country could pronounce it. All the other guys' names were too hard to say. Patto went on for four years. When it became Patto, Ollie switched from vibes to guitar. He'd never played guitar before. There's a fourth Patto album that was never released, called Monkey's Bum.

It was done after the '72 tour with Cocker. When Ollie and I break through in a big way (snigger) Island will put it out. Two-and-a-half years after Patto broke up, it reformed to play some benefit concerts for the family of one of our road managers who was killed in Pakistan. Spooky Tooth was my next band. I joined with Keith Ellis who had been with Bobby Whitlock in America. We had a day-and-a-half's rehearsal. On the first tour, I had idiot cards with the lyrics printed on them pasted all over the stage.

Gary Wright wanted me to do a Mike Harrison impression. Me and Gary didn't get along too well.