Hi:) Thank you for the reply. Yeah, I would probably have been about 11 when you were playing the Staging Post ;) This would have been about 1980 or so when the conversation took place. I really don't recall any detail except the vague 'nearly played for BeBop' element of it. The friend was Dave Cass & he was a fair bit older than me, but idk by how much. I originally knew him from the Leeds Music College in the mid-late 70's, he was a student, I was a school-boy part-timer. He later worked in a music shop in Bingley [of all places] where I bought my Rhodes Chroma [which is what nails the year for me] & later did something in instrument hire. I've not seen him in nearly 40 years, now. btw, did you know Crick's got the old band going again, new album & everything. Gigs are all on hold due to covid, of course. http://www.fiat-lux.co.uk We still manage to get to see each other occasionally, xmas, birthdays etc. though I've been based in London the past 30 years.

I never got to see BeBop, I regret to say. I was too young when they were doing gigs like the Staging Post [which I could get a bus to & played there myself later], too poor during the mid 70s & then too busy playing in my own band by the late 70s. It's a thing I truly regret. I've had Axe Victim, Futurama & Sunburst since the vinyl was still warm, but never got to actually see them live. I even had a friend at one time who "nearly got Andy Clark's gig". I've met Bill on a few occasions & we have chatted briefly. He wouldn't ever remember - at best I would be "that mate of D P Crick" [which I hope is sufficiently opaque that only Bill [or DP] would know to whom I am referring. I did once meet a.k.a. Nick Chatterton-Dew in a pub in Armley, some 20 years later. That was an odd encounter, but a fun night out. I had to dig the album out when I got home to check if it had really been him. I think it was. I did get to see Steve Harley doing a 'retro' tour [late 80s/early 90s maybe?] with his 'original' band, so I did get to see a part of it, in effect.