Create Hoooka Richard (Lefty) Delahunty's Hoookas
Richard (Lefty) Delahunty has not created any Hoookas.
Richard (Lefty) Delahunty's Details
Richard (Lefty) Delahunty
The man who gave away the SlowGuns - but they kept coming back!
My early life centered around the hard Dock-land of Glasgow. To many, I am known as 'Lefty' - though I prefer to be called Dickie. As a kid I was a runner for the various gang rackets that went down (1). This was where my love affair with American 7 inch vinyl records began. Often I would barter with the sailors who came into port. Anything for a handful of their mysterious imports. In the mid-sixties a nasty altercation transpired that made me make a hasty exit - south of the border. I soon found myself wheeling and dealing again, and by the early seventies I was the proud owner of a Milk-bar, seven miles south of Manchester in Stockport. 'Che Fred's' was my pride and joy and came with a fantastic Wurlitzer juke-box that could facilitate my beloved record collection. This was where I first clapped eyes on those two scally-wags Daulby and Podmore. They hung around the Milk-bar all the time when they should have been studying at Art College. My juke-box got a right-old work-out every time they were in. Many was the time on some cold and wet afternoon at Che Fred's that the boys would confide in me about their dreams and desires. Pete would say he was going to be the 'Topper-Most of the Popper-Most', and he was going to get there anyway he could - as soon as he learnt how to play the guitar. Terry would talk about his aspiration to become a famous artist and write poetry. Yes, there was more to these lads than just sixteen-year-old shirkers and scroungers. By '76 Pete saw his opportunity to get into the pop world. He was getting into a new music genre - a scene called Punk. He used to tell me '...you don't have to be able to play ...you just get up on stage and do it ...and the worse you are the better it is...' Little did I know that I was to play a part in Daulby's vision. Pete enlisted his 14 year-old younger brother Dave to play guitar, and with no encouragement he got Terry to play bass. Rick Norman, a regular at Che Fred's, was known to drum - mainly on my coffee tables, and with Pete on vocals the band was formed. I accidently named the band SlowGuns when I suggested the name Slogans. But with my Glaswegian accent they thought I said Slow-Guns - they liked it and the name stuck. I let them practice in the basement of the Milk-bar. What a noise came up through the floorboards! Scared half my customers away. Pete and Terry begged me to give them a spot upstairs. Terry would say, '...we need to play in front of a real live audience!...' I got the boys a 'real live audience' far removed from my place on the other side of Stockport, a cellar bar called 'Dungeons'. In a-round-about way that's how I began to manage the SlowGuns, finding them gigs a good distance away from Che Fred's. For the next year we zigzagged the Manchester landscape (2). One gig after another. It was early days, but by all accounts by the buzz going around town the boys were getting better as each week passed. I witnessed them hone their craft and become a cracking, tight combo. Soon all the talk became about making a single. The boys pestered me for a loan, saying they would pay it back with interest once the song hit the charts. Needless to say they got the money, and like usual I sorted everything out for them. Those boys were molly-cuddled, can't say it was all one-way traffic - I got a beautiful supply of groupies courtesy of managing the SlowGuns (3). On the release of their 1st single 'TV Movie' the boys had me flogging it around the Record Labels down in London. One door after another was closed in my face, Decca, Stiff, Virgin, the list was endless. Thinking about it now, the only place it went down well was on the Juke-box at Che Fred's. The boys met me at Stockport Rail Station on my return, I was deflated and they were dejected, nothing was said that night. Pete being Pete, bounced back the next day. He said, 'The 'Guns would make it up to me on the next one.' 'There isn't going to be a next one' I said. He grinned, and stared back at me sardonically. This was a growing trait of his. Daulby and Podmore were getting very ruthless and down-right nasty around this period, unnerving, even for someone with my background and up-bringing. But I felt an obligation, if not a protective instinct over the younger members of the band. Dave with his little boy lost expression and Rick saying 'What am I going to do now?' I did not want to let them down and they deserved a second chance. So the next single came and went, and so did the SlowGuns and Che Fred's. The boys vanished, each in their own direction. As for me, I had to pick up the pieces. Everything was gone. This situation wasn't new to me but, this time it was different - without the band, life had lost its meaning. I was on a downward spiral to what was to become known as my 'wilderness years'. A day didn't go by without me cursing the name: SlowGuns. This period wasn't all uneventful (4). I crawled myself up from the gutter and did a few things, which, in retrospect, I'm not very proud of. But these were hard times. 10 years went by, and not one word from Pete, Terry, Dave or Rick. The SlowGuns were all take. I knew that, I also knew they would be back when they needed something. Predictably, that day arrived. There he stood in front of me, looking a little older than the sixteen-year-old I first clapped eyes on at Che Fred's. But when I did the arithmetic, Terry must have been in his early thirties. 'Lefty' he said, 'the 'Guns are being raped.' I found out from him that TV Movie had been boot-legged and sampled a number of times. Momentarily, I could smell my lost money coming back to me. But litigation would cost more money, lots of money -money I just didn't have. 'Pete wants to put the band back together again, and we need you, Lefty.' I felt flattered, even after what had gone down all those years before. I read from Terry, what kind of mood the rest of the boys were in. I believe they were loving it, gaining the kudos they never received at the time of the singles. I imagined Pete holding court somewhere in Stockport, like he always did at Che Fred's Milk Bar. Preaching to the gathering, 'We are the Topper-Most of the Popper-Most.' I told Terry I would do what I could and arranged to meet the boys the following week. It never happened (5). Many years have passed since that brief encounter with Terry. Occasionally, I read about the boys on the Internet, without mention of me. Hell... I made the SlowGuns! Life goes on (6). Rick's still drumming, playing the pub-rock circuit. Dave's a busker on the streets of Manchester City Centre. Pete's serving time in Manchester's Strangeways Prison for identity fraud. And Terry is believed to be living in recluse at a Buddhist Monastery, somewhere high on an Australian mountain range. As for me, for the last 6 years I've been earning a crust stripping lead from the roofs of old churches and selling it to the scrap metal merchants. But, no matter where me and the boys are, or what we are doing, the SlowGuns spirit is alive and well -and ready for the next time.
Dickie.
Future readings of Richard Delahunty
1. My Early Life.
2. Four Scruffy Boys, Me and a Ford Transit.
3. The Making of TV Movie.
4. Wilderness Years.
5. Water Under the Bridge.
6. The Man They Couldn't Root, Shoot or Electrocute.
Basic Info
Personal Info
The man who gave away the SlowGuns - but they kept coming back!
My early life centered around the hard Dock-land of Glasgow. To many, I am known as 'Lefty' - though I prefer to be called Dickie. As a kid I was a runner for the various gang rackets that went down (1). This was where my love affair with American 7 inch vinyl records began. Often I would barter with the sailors who came into port. Anything for a handful of their mysterious imports. In the mid-sixties a nasty altercation transpired that made me make a hasty exit - south of the border. I soon found myself wheeling and dealing again, and by the early seventies I was the proud owner of a Milk-bar, seven miles south of Manchester in Stockport. 'Che Fred's' was my pride and joy and came with a fantastic Wurlitzer juke-box that could facilitate my beloved record collection. This was where I first clapped eyes on those two scally-wags Daulby and Podmore. They hung around the Milk-bar all the time when they should have been studying at Art College. My juke-box got a right-old work-out every time they were in. Many was the time on some cold and wet afternoon at Che Fred's that the boys would confide in me about their dreams and desires. Pete would say he was going to be the 'Topper-Most of the Popper-Most', and he was going to get there anyway he could - as soon as he learnt how to play the guitar. Terry would talk about his aspiration to become a famous artist and write poetry. Yes, there was more to these lads than just sixteen-year-old shirkers and scroungers. By '76 Pete saw his opportunity to get into the pop world. He was getting into a new music genre - a scene called Punk. He used to tell me '...you don't have to be able to play ...you just get up on stage and do it ...and the worse you are the better it is...' Little did I know that I was to play a part in Daulby's vision. Pete enlisted his 14 year-old younger brother Dave to play guitar, and with no encouragement he got Terry to play bass. Rick Norman, a regular at Che Fred's, was known to drum - mainly on my coffee tables, and with Pete on vocals the band was formed. I accidently named the band SlowGuns when I suggested the name Slogans. But with my Glaswegian accent they thought I said Slow-Guns - they liked it and the name stuck. I let them practice in the basement of the Milk-bar. What a noise came up through the floorboards! Scared half my customers away. Pete and Terry begged me to give them a spot upstairs. Terry would say, '...we need to play in front of a real live audience!...' I got the boys a 'real live audience' far removed from my place on the other side of Stockport, a cellar bar called 'Dungeons'. In a-round-about way that's how I began to manage the SlowGuns, finding them gigs a good distance away from Che Fred's. For the next year we zigzagged the Manchester landscape (2). One gig after another. It was early days, but by all accounts by the buzz going around town the boys were getting better as each week passed. I witnessed them hone their craft and become a cracking, tight combo. Soon all the talk became about making a single. The boys pestered me for a loan, saying they would pay it back with interest once the song hit the charts. Needless to say they got the money, and like usual I sorted everything out for them. Those boys were molly-cuddled, can't say it was all one-way traffic - I got a beautiful supply of groupies courtesy of managing the SlowGuns (3). On the release of their 1st single 'TV Movie' the boys had me flogging it around the Record Labels down in London. One door after another was closed in my face, Decca, Stiff, Virgin, the list was endless. Thinking about it now, the only place it went down well was on the Juke-box at Che Fred's. The boys met me at Stockport Rail Station on my return, I was deflated and they were dejected, nothing was said that night. Pete being Pete, bounced back the next day. He said, 'The 'Guns would make it up to me on the next one.' 'There isn't going to be a next one' I said. He grinned, and stared back at me sardonically. This was a growing trait of his. Daulby and Podmore were getting very ruthless and down-right nasty around this period, unnerving, even for someone with my background and up-bringing. But I felt an obligation, if not a protective instinct over the younger members of the band. Dave with his little boy lost expression and Rick saying 'What am I going to do now?' I did not want to let them down and they deserved a second chance. So the next single came and went, and so did the SlowGuns and Che Fred's. The boys vanished, each in their own direction. As for me, I had to pick up the pieces. Everything was gone. This situation wasn't new to me but, this time it was different - without the band, life had lost its meaning. I was on a downward spiral to what was to become known as my 'wilderness years'. A day didn't go by without me cursing the name: SlowGuns. This period wasn't all uneventful (4). I crawled myself up from the gutter and did a few things, which, in retrospect, I'm not very proud of. But these were hard times. 10 years went by, and not one word from Pete, Terry, Dave or Rick. The SlowGuns were all take. I knew that, I also knew they would be back when they needed something. Predictably, that day arrived. There he stood in front of me, looking a little older than the sixteen-year-old I first clapped eyes on at Che Fred's. But when I did the arithmetic, Terry must have been in his early thirties. 'Lefty' he said, 'the 'Guns are being raped.' I found out from him that TV Movie had been boot-legged and sampled a number of times. Momentarily, I could smell my lost money coming back to me. But litigation would cost more money, lots of money -money I just didn't have. 'Pete wants to put the band back together again, and we need you, Lefty.' I felt flattered, even after what had gone down all those years before. I read from Terry, what kind of mood the rest of the boys were in. I believe they were loving it, gaining the kudos they never received at the time of the singles. I imagined Pete holding court somewhere in Stockport, like he always did at Che Fred's Milk Bar. Preaching to the gathering, 'We are the Topper-Most of the Popper-Most.' I told Terry I would do what I could and arranged to meet the boys the following week. It never happened (5). Many years have passed since that brief encounter with Terry. Occasionally, I read about the boys on the Internet, without mention of me. Hell... I made the SlowGuns! Life goes on (6). Rick's still drumming, playing the pub-rock circuit. Dave's a busker on the streets of Manchester City Centre. Pete's serving time in Manchester's Strangeways Prison for identity fraud. And Terry is believed to be living in recluse at a Buddhist Monastery, somewhere high on an Australian mountain range. As for me, for the last 6 years I've been earning a crust stripping lead from the roofs of old churches and selling it to the scrap metal merchants. But, no matter where me and the boys are, or what we are doing, the SlowGuns spirit is alive and well -and ready for the next time.
Dickie.
Future readings of Richard Delahunty
1. My Early Life.
2. Four Scruffy Boys, Me and a Ford Transit.
3. The Making of TV Movie.
4. Wilderness Years.
5. Water Under the Bridge.
6. The Man They Couldn't Root, Shoot or Electrocute.
Basic Info
| Age: 33 |
| Gender: Male |
| Status: Swinger |
| Orientation: Not Sure |
| Religion: Buddhist |
| Zodiac: Leo |
| Hometown: Motherwell |
| Schools: All approved |
| Occupation: Music Management & Dog Handler |
| Company: Yes, please! |
Personal Info
| Interests: Gurning and wasp taunting |
| Tattoos: 'God Save the Queen' on right arm & 'God Bless America' on left (just in case) |
| Piercings: Ear, Nose & Throat |
| Favorite Sports: Hang Gliding, Ladies Beach Volleyball |
| Favorite Music: Loud! |
| Favorite Movies: Rocky I, II, III, IV. Raging Bull. Bambi |
| Favorite TV: Plasma |
| Favorite Book: 'How to Manage a Band' Billy Cotton |
| Favorite Drink: Um Bongo |
| Favorite Color: Shocking Beige |
| Favorite Quote: 'I am innocent' M. Barrymore |
| Regrettable Encounters: To numerous to mention |
| Last Time You Went on a Date: Went last night after eating a whole box of them |
Post a Comment Comments to Richard (Lefty) Delahunty
see me at myspace
leave a comment....
myspace.com/shantelhobson