Ron Johnson - DARK (Pt. 2)
Ron with his late father.
Rob during Primary School.
I was born in Roade near Northampton in 1951. My started a band (The Hatricks) in 1958 and I joined them in 1961 on the drums. I then took up the bass in about 1963 as the original bass player was leaving. Over the years I played bass and lead for The Hatricks. My dad sang and payed rhythm and keyboard and my mum had a beautiful voice. My elder sister played guitar and my much younger brother played guitar and keyboard and also had a great voice. I can’t sing at all, as is evident on the post DARK releases such as the cd “Sessions After DARK”.
I never went to gigs. From an early age I was always gigging two, or three nights a week and going to watch a band seemed boring to me. My inspirations were Dylan and Judy Collins, so much softer than DARK. I did love Cream, but I didn’t enjoy Clapton’s style of playing. Clapton’s grandmother live in Roade at one time, so when I cut a record, I took it down to his house for his comments, but his housekeeper said he was with George Harrison, so I never got to meet him.
Ron at age 16 circa: 1967.
I left school at age 15 and continued playing with The Hatricks until I discovered pot and grew my hair long. Playing covers and dance tunes started to be an embarrassment, so in 1971, when I saw an ad in the local paper for a bass player I applied. Just prior to applying, i had been hospitalized following a bad acid trip, so no longer used pot, or acid.
Ladies and gentlemen… DARK!
I auditioned with Steve and Clive in cellar, which was damp, smelly and had fungi growing up the walls. Steve said we’d play Maypole as it was a simple tune in D and told me to improvise. I had no idea what he meant, but soon got lost in the music and my fingers took over.
We got a few local gigs, but people didn’t seem to want our homegrown prog-rock, so after a month, or tow we decided to throw in the towel and make “DARK Round The Edges” as a farewell album. I played an old Vox bass, probably a Symphony. I still have it and will be auctioning it soon. I pushed it through a Marshall stack, but I can’t recall any details of that.
Dakota Brown
