Frank Martinez - Grit (Part 1)

Born and raised in Saint Giles, Camberwell, Martinez begged his mother for his first electric guitar and from then on it never left his side! It was then that Martinez would soon begin playing his very own music in his very own bands before co-founding what would eventually become the legend of GRIT Released for the first time in nearly 50 years, GRIT has been awoken from it’s long slumber and has made its way to the surface of the Earth for all to hear. It was a pleasure working on this interview with Martinez in what is the first installment of the GRIT legend. Stay tuned for part two. Enjoy!

PART #1 THE LP:

The demo aluminum based acetate LP, was recorded at SWM Studios, 32/34 Clerkenwell, London, in December of 1972, it was recorded on the fly, we set up gear, played one set, there was a four second bass dub due to a drop out, some technical problem as the technician knew exactly where to go for the dub, one song "Child And The Drifter" was also dubbed over with voice to enhance the vocal effect.

Christmas Eve December 1972 set list:
1: MineShaft
2: Child and the Drifter
3: What do you see in my Eyes
4: I wish I was

The purpose of the LP was for agencies to listen to, not for use as a commercial product. Unfortunately we had no luck with the agencies. Not sure, but I think a copy of the recording was sent following an ad in Melody Maker to a music agent in Greece, "MANTAS PROMOTIONS". I thought there were only two LP's and two reel tapes made, but recently discovered there were four LP's and two reel tapes made, an LP each. I had one of the reel tapes and I think Paul had the other one. The band disbanded after the Greek tour (more on this later), and I sold out and left music altogether, after two tours in Germany and Greece. I thought it was time to work for a living, as I did not have a girlfriend (guitarist joke). In 2014 I received an email from some LP collector, he signed as Willy, asking me about the acetate LP and if he could use the music, I wrote back and said, let me check with another member and I will get back. Well I checked with Tom, he was the only contact I had of the band at that time, he said it was ok, so I wrote to Willy and told him he could freely use the LP. In 2015 Hans Pokora published his 7001 Record Collector Dreams, that was where the LP went, getting maximum points (6) for its rarity.

Jumping a few years forward, I had forgotten about all that, and one morning in summer of 2019, I was clearing out my workshop, I was retired from working as a self employed Electronics Technician, and I came across my LP and the Grit tapes.  At that moment a neighbor arrived, Justo by name, he is a fanatic LP collector, has thousands, don't know where he stacks them all. I showed him my LP collection and the Grit LP, which was actually damaged back in 1975 by a local Radio Station, who somehow heard of me and my LP and wanted to air it, but he didn't air it, he just scratched it up a bit. I was a new guy in town, Almeria 1975, starting my own business, ex musician with long hair, word got around quickly.

Well, getting back to my neighbor Justo, I told him I was going to throw it all in the bin as it was useless, he got me off that idea and asked if he could take the LP home to listen to on his gear, so I let him. A few days later Justo re-appeared with the LP, he had partially removed the noise by cleaning, and he said he liked it and why don't I put a track up on the internet, so I recorded one of the tracks with a brief history of the band and posted it to YouTube. May be a coincidence but a few days later, or maybe a week passed, I was phoned by Alex of Guerssen Records from LLeida, he said he was interested in the GRIT LP, and, as he had family here in Almeria, he will visit me and see what I had when he comes down. Well he did, he liked the recordings, asked for it all to be sent to them at LLeida for editing and mastering. On the 17th of August 2020, the GRIT LP was released, they said reissue, but it was never put on sale before, they should have said first issue, I think.

PART #2 HOW DID GRIT HAPPEN:

It was 1970, and after going through a few bands I teamed up with Michael Parker a drummer, to form a new band, we spent some days on thinking up a simple catchy name, but didn't come up with anything. One day in October 1970 we were walking around town and I saw a grit bin, gritty sand for throwing over the snow, the word grit on the bin was in big letters and captured my attention, I said to Mike, look that's our name GRIT, and on the 20th of October we went and  registered the band at Companies House, City Road, London. We had no luck in finding members and decided to leave the GRIT project, I kept the registered band name. From here I joined The Panick, Tom, drummer (not Grit’s Tom), and Mike, Vocalist/Guitarist, as a three piece band, resident at the Cock Tavern in Holloway Road.

I would play bass and chord structures on the guitar, as I had some flamenco backround.   I did one summer in the mid 60's with Paco Peña learning Flamenco. They knew I wasn't going to stay permanently, and I was going to auditions.  I answered an ad I saw on the board at a music shop, Nathaniel Berry & Sons, where I purchased my Epiphone Rivera in 1968 (that is another story see below), this was Paul Christodoulou’s ad. I went to the audition, some hall in the Hornsey area, quite a few guys there, I waited till Paul called my name over the microphone and went on stage, remember plugging into Paul’s bass amp, I love bassy sounds for guitar. After doing some none stop freaky guitar, Paul wouldn't let me step down, kept on playing, I got the job. Paul’s band was MERLYN.

I was in a different line to what Merlyn was doing, I think that captured Paul, and we wandered into forming a different set up, this is where he got in touch with Tom.  Tom was hard to win over, until we went to see Nazareth at Covent Garden, it was there Tom clicked and agreed to join. Manuel "Manny" Charlton the guitarist of Nazareth is of Spanish origin, and there was a similarity with my playing, so maybe that influenced Tom. The three of us started rehearsing and searched for a vocalist, don't remember how many we auditioned until Jeff answered our Melody Maker add, he was great and joined us. We started looking for a name for this new band, after a few days I remembered the 1970 GRIT register and offered the name to the band, they liked it, and the GRIT BAND was born.

When GRIT was first formed Paul (Bass) and Tom (Drums) had already played together in different bands for some years and were in effect the “engine room”.  Frank and Jeff were also experienced musicians and, putting it all together, GRIT was moulded into hard rock. We rehearsed in a Youth Club in Kentish Town drawing up a set which included original songs and several strong rock numbers. It was not long before we were ready to take our sound to the people and we began gigging mainly on the North London pub circuit, Camden Town, Islington, Holloway, Archway, etc.  The music scene then was very vibrant and there seemed to be no limits on volume so we went for it.  We were loud. Our gigs were advertised in Melody Maker and before long we had built up a following. We were soon playing in pubs across London and also in Working Men’s Clubs and Military Bases around Britain. Up to this point we had managed ourselves so we decided to advertise in Melody Maker for a manager.  We had a number of responses, one of which was from Kon Mantas Promotions offering a contract for us to work in Greece.  Seeing this opportunity as a new adventure, we set off with our two roadies, Kos and Jimmy, and drove down through Europe to Athens where we met up with Kon Mantas, this was April 233/24th of l973. 

Kon was a nice guy but it soon became apparent that he had little or no experience as a band manager.  He booked us into an hotel, The Minion.  The gigs were few and far between for some time, then we had a residency out of town at Jimmy’s Discotheque, (not quite the Marquee) but it was pretty remote and with few customers. Then we played at a university in Athens in front of about 3,000 and later at an open air gig at the Palais des Sports Festival in Thessalonika with 7,000 in the audience.  At both of these concerts we went down really well.  We also had a number of TV appearances, twice on Top of the Pops and also on the Golden Shot. The fact that we were a rock band from England, coupled with our heavy sound and animated performances appealed to the crowds.  Sadly, lacking good management, many opportunities were lost. When Frank had to return to England as his father was seriously ill, we all decided to end our Greek Odyssey and the rest of the group returned home two weeks later and disbanded.  

PART #3 ABOUT ME - Frank "Spider" Martinez:

On a school outing to South End circa 1962, we visited an amusement arcade, there was a juke box in one corner, and someone put on the Shadows Apache, I spent part of my dinner money on putting that tune on and on, and when I got home all I could say was.."Mum!!! I want an electric guitar.!!!" Took a while till I got one, my grandad bought me my first electric, a Kay Speed Demon K571, not a top guitar but it started me off. My first public appearance with that guitar was at a local Islington music contest for local bands that a school teacher had organized, he gave me my first guitar lessons. In the contest the bands had to play one of his songs, he got me into one of the bands, don't recall the name of the band and the song we chose was "Such Things As These", which I still recall today, my band came third, well it's better than saying last, there were only three bands at the concert.

During these years mid 60's I also took flamenco lessons from Paco Peña, who lived relatively near me, he was a top flamenco player in the London, Spanish scene. I also joined a flamenco trio, to back a flamenco dancing group, I was terrible at keeping timing, and would throw them off course, so I abandoned this flamenco Idea and kept to electric guitar. Went to Joe Meeks studio at one time did some playing there, don't remember if it was recorded or not, also did some auditions there with no luck. It was 1968, and I needed a serious guitar, one morning the lead guitarist, Barry, from The Spiral, accompanied me to find a decent guitar, we arrived at Nathaniel Berrys, and there was this chap cleaning guitars and putting the price tags on. As we looked through the window, voila, there was this sparkling Epiphone Riviera for a mere £115, "Is that original?" I asked Barry, he said let’s go in and find out.

We asked the chap to show us the guitar and, looking inside the guitar body, was the green Kalamazoo, Michigan sticker, it was a real American Epiphone, not a Japanese copy. So I put a deposit on it, all the cash we had together, I think it was £10 and said we will be back later to sort out the hire purchase agreement and collect the guitar. On arriving back to Berry's that afternoon, there was a shop manager waiting for me, "Son", he said trying to be very nice, "there has been a price tag issue, the new chap mixed up the tags and put the wrong one on the Epiphone". The price tags were cards with the prices on them and placed between the guitar strings. "Oh I don't understand that" I said, (yes I did, liar), and I have my deposit receipt here, by law the guitar was now mine, sorry Berry's.

My first gig with the Epiphone was supporting PINK FLOYD at the Hampstead College of Arts, the band was formed by Kostas, bass guitarist only for that gig and we were called "GRAND UNION", FLOYD's agent wasn't very friendly and wouldn't let us use the stage, it was big enough, so we set up opposite the stage in one corner, we were really good, I think we blew the show for PINKY. Now 1969, I joined a band to do a tour in Germany, clubs and American army bases not a very good experience, although that all night playing to nearly six in the morning got my playing in shape. At one army camp at BadNauheim, we did the 6 o'clock morning call with rock music, we set up at 5 am in the camp square, and started blasting at 6 am, remember the soldiers looking out of the windows in amazement, we were rocking till 8 am. After three months of suffering we returned to UK, and the band disbanded. Really bad experience, too many hours with very low pay. GRIT officially registered 20th October 1970.

Dakota Brown