Martin Griffiths - Beggars Opera

I was born in Newcastle upon Tyne (same City as Sting and The Animals) on October 8th, 1949. We moved because of my Dad’s job to Glasgow in 1964 and at first I was unhappy and a bit of a loner, but desperately wanted to get out of my shell and sing. There was a guy in my class who was looking for a singer and I was the last one he asked… And I said YES please! We played at parties and bowling alleys and were called The Wierdies which was the best name for a group and we didn’t get many gigs, so we changed our name to The System and played all hits of the day and a lot of Tamla Motown.

Circa: 1966 with a new name “The System” the band started to get more gigs than when they were called “The Weirdies”. Pictured here with Marshall Erskine on twelve string guitar and Peter Entwistle on rhythm guitar. The knitted tie and black nylon shirt were all part of the essential stage gear from the mid 1960’s. The spider on the microphone is a stage extra!

If you didn’t you didn’t get gigs in Glasgow in the 1960’s. The members of The System were all school mates and when I had to move with my family to London in 1968 we kept in contact and so it was Ricky Gardiner on lead guitar and Marshall Erskine also moved down to London and we decided to make a go of it professionally. We worked on building a motorway to get money for gear and moved up to Glasgow where Alan Park organ wanted to join us…

This is where it all started for Griffiths in 1965 in Glasgow with his school group “The System”. They recorded a single in 1966 called “Saturday Night at the Movies“ and “Another Saturday Night“. L-R Brian Abbey on bass. Martin Griffiths on vocals, Chris Patefield on lead guitar, Graham Diamond on drums, Peter Entwistle on Rhythm Guitar and Marshall Erskine on 12 String Guitar. Tom Green was the band’s manager.

The System circa: 1965 at Scout Hall Newton Mearns near Glasgow.

The System circa: 1966 with Grffiths on vox.

We auditioned a lot of drummers until we found Ray Wilson... The we were complete… We practiced and practiced and managed to get a residency in Burns Howff a pub/club in the city centre and played with out a name until I found, and liked the name “Beggars Opera” which I found in a crossword puzzle dictionary! The “Howff” was great for us and we built up a massive following and its there that we started to write our own stuff to try out on the audience.

Circa: 1969.

Circa: 1970.

Alan Park was classically trained and I always like classical music so I wrote the words and vocal melody to his classical arrangements… And it worked... They loved it! We started touring with the likes of Rory Gallagher and Family all over Scotland and we also had another Sunday morning residency at The Watermill in Paisley and its was here that we met Bill Martin and Phil Coulter of Eurovision song contest fame and they offered us a recording contract with Vertigo and became our producers.

Act One.

A comic strip about "Act One" from the Canadian artist Shaun Hayes Holgate.

Our first Lp was “Act One” which was basically our live act at that time. We recorded in London at De Laine Lee Studio with the legendary Martin Birch as engineer who also engineered Deep Purple. We spent three days in the studio. Day one to record the group all together as live. Day two Vocals and overdubs… And Day three to mix! It wasn’t long before Marcus Keef… Vertigo’s photographer and sleeve designer… Came up to Glasgow and we all went off to a local reservoir for the photo shoot… He was given an award for this cover!

Circa: 1971.

We worked a lot that first year of release in clubs and halls then it was time to record again so we stopped gigging and rented a farmhouse in the north of Scotland which used to be the family home of Edvard Greig and it was there that we wrote and rehearsed our second LP “Waters of Change” released in 1971. This was recorded in Command Studio in Piccadilly London at the same time that BB King was recording so we got to see all the best of Rock at that time wandering in and out of the studios. I was our kind of concept LP and great fun doing from using a megaphone to smashing a metal panel to create thunder and screaming my guts out of course.

Waters of Change.

Circa: June 4th of ‘72.

Circa: 1972.

Our engineer this time was Barry Ainsworth who later spent three weeks working with Queen on Bohemian Rhapsody! We did promotional tours with other Vertigo bands but the most memorable gig was at The First British Rock Meeting in Speyer in front of 75,000. We were sandwiched between Fleetwood Mac and Black Sabbath and were a hit...

Speyer circa: September of 1971.

It was a wonderful experience! Our third LP was “Pathfinder” this was my last LP with Beggars Opera. I developed a hernia on tour and was very disappointed how the group apart from my friend Ray treated me… But I managed to achieve my ambition to sing “MacArthur Park” that wonderful Jimmy Webb number which was a huge hit for Richard Harris… Richard was in the same publishing company and let us know that he loved our version…

Griffiths throughout the 70’s.

We were so chuffed!! After leaving the group I sold tea bags in Manchester but couldn’t keep away from the stage and worked in Working Mens Club... Which was an experience in its self! Then I moved to Germany where we were so popular and a solo career and recorded three Disco singles… Well it was the Disco Time and my single “Isrealites” was number 3 in the Disco Hitparade. I still sing and record and I’m working on a new cd of songs that were to be my solo LP for Vertigo until I left the band of course!

Dakota Brown