I'll say one thing for the present day, and that is: "There is a medical name for every real, or imagined, ailment".I just thought I was painfully shy, but according to the Readers Digest I suffer with 'Social Anxiety Disorder'.Anyway, had it not been for SAD - which sums me up perfectly - I would not have spent most of my early teen years alone, listening to 45s and thumping away at an old acoustic guitar that had a neck like a tree trunk!Therefore, I wouldn't have met another 'Brumbeat' artiste!! Religion has always been at the core of my being, and I do believe my protector thought "Well, we'd better give the poor little bugger something", and promptly despatched me off to work at CMCo, Park Wharf.

Here I met Alan Hutton, who'd served with the 'Acceloraters' and 'Eddy and the Kings'. I have fond memories of leaving work and going straight to Alan's for rehearsal - with a sausage bap and a cuppa thrown in! Being a gentleman he allowed me to practise on his beautiful Epiphone semi-acoustic - played through his 30 watt Selmar amp.

I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven! Alan switched over to bass, and we eventually hit the road as the "Massive Handlebar". We must have sounded pretty bloody awful, as the only microphones we had were tape recorder mikes 'acquired' by the sister of a group member!

These were taped on to broom stales, as we couldn't afford microphone stands. Anyway, during May 1968 we were booked to play support to a 'name' act at Upton-on-Severn Village Hall. Previously: A young Brummie lad, Steve Newman, had tried to impress Opportunity Knocks godfather Hughie Green with 'Welcome To My World' - only to be stopped mid-song with "You'll never make it as a C&W singer, son"! Under his real name, Raymond Froggatt, the lad recruited a band to fulfil a residency at Titos Night Club in Handsworth.

'Froggy and the Tadpoles' soon became 'Monopoly' and one of their attractions was guitarist Hartley 'H' Cain. He loved the 12-string jangle of the Byrds "Mister Tambourine Man" so much he made an 18-string guitar! A car clutch cable was stretched between guitar neck and body to stop the neck bending forward!!

By 1968 they were simply billed as 'Raymond Froggatt' and they were a bunch of lovely guys. When the 'Handlebar' rolled into Upton, they'd already set up, but said we could use their gear while they went down the pub.

Unfortunately, I'd been using Alan's 'suitcase size' Selmar, while 'H' had a twin-stack 100 watt Marshall. I could hardly reach up to the amp, so he plugged my lead in for me and twiddled the knobs. I wasn't used to all that power, so when I hit the first chord I nearly flattened the first five rows - and the band were deaf for about a week!

We did our best, but the crowd kept chanting "We want Froggatt, we want Froggatt" - so our harmonica player shouted out "F**k Froggatt".

Unfortunately, his broom stale fell over and knocked his harmonica into the crowd.

He only just made it back onto the high stage without getting lynched. Anyway, Froggy and Co were brilliant that night, and Raymond found song writing success with "The Red Balloon" - No.7 for the 'Dave Clark Five', September 1968; and "Big Ship" - No.8 for Cliff Richard, May 1969. His mid 1980s album "Southern Fried Frog" utilised Elvis's 'Jordanaires' on backing vocals, and made him the top European country singer/songwriter. Got it a bit wrong there, I think, Hughie!!