|
|
Pete and I decided to team up again and along with some of his friends Spring Fever was born
Back Row. A nice slim Merv on the right with lot's of hair. |
 |
Spring Fever became quite versatile and played many musical styles, we even got into Waltzes, Foxtrots and Quicksteps etc. We also auditioned for New Faces at the London Palladium, we didn't get very far but at least I can say I have played at the London Palladium.
 |
The band scene had changed and this was now the time of the Disco. To continue working Spring Fever had to adapt. We learnt lots of new songs and became a function band playing Dinner Dances, Weddings etc.
We played US and Air Force bases and even passed an audition for Opportunity Knocks. Hughie Green was really nice to us but sadly we didn't make the show. Look at those trousers. |
| Here we are playing in King's Lynn at The South Lynn Community Centre. We were also regulars at the St Augustines Club in North Lynn. I still have that Guitar, an Arbiter Les Paul Copy to which I fitted new pick up's. Did you see Spring Fever and have you any Photo's ? Please e-mail me here This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
 |
We were quite successful and did quite a bit of travelling at the time. I suppose we were together for about three years. We rehearsed a lot and entered several talent shows and did very well.
As always things seem to have a natural peak and then things start to slide. When things stop being so much fun it's probably the time to stop. We were all still friends but decided to call it a day.
 |
This picture was taken at Wooton sand pits near King's lynn. I just can't remember who the photographer was. My knees were good in them days we would have been able to run up the sand hill then. These were happy times and I would guess that this is around 1977-8 |
Irwin and I formed a band called Mosaic with an excellent local musician Tim Nesbitt, so with Tim on bass and vocals and along with Kevin Cahill on drums, Mosaic was born. We actually only lasted around nine months I think. I was still working full time and at this point had just started working for myself as an electrician and just couldn't commit myself to the band so sadly Mosaic was no more.
I worked for myself for a year which I found very tough, I had trouble getting money from my customers and finding new work was always a worry. I found this far too stressful so I applied for and got a job at Frigoscandia as a shift electrician on a three shift basis. If you've never done it believe me, shift work is not a bed of roses.
I stayed at Frigoscandia for three years and was really desperate to get off the shifts. One day I was just finishing an early 6-2pm shift and something told me I had to get to the Job Centre. I wanted to work at the hospital and went to look if anything was going there. Sure enough there was a job going and that day was the closing one for applications. I filled in my form there and then and got me a job on days at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Spring Fever was still in touch with each other and we decided to revive the band to recapture our earlier success. It was a very good band and it seemed like a good idea. That's another lesson learnt, you can't often go backwards and expect things to be the same as other things have changed.
I have always loved Country Music and kept trying to get the band to do some and sometimes I succeeded but their heart wasn't in it. It soon became obvious that nothing had changed and Spring Fever wasn't going to re-create it's earlier successes. After about a year we decided to split up and I set my sights on a solo career as a country singer. That's not quite true as I did the pub circuit for approx two years but I hated it, I wanted to sing Country and the only way was to specialise and only play country, which I did. Mervyn J Futter was launched on the Country scene.
