The Quintessential info provider for the Soul Survivor 1ST FEB 2021 - 31ST MAR 2021 Issue 90 - The Music Aquarium Issue

Trevor Shakes Special Edition TREVORTREVORTREVORTREVORTREVORTREVOR SHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKES TREVORTREVORTREVORTREVORTREVORTREVOR SHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKESSHAKES Trevor Shakes is a name that was often mentioned as I was cutting my teeth on the club scene from my mid to late teenage years. His dancing deejay and modelling career set a precedent for future generations to pursue a career in the entertainment world, especially if you were from the aspiring African Diaspora. Coming from the first Windrush generation born in the late 1950s his legacy has been spoken about like it is folk law and his media elusiveness has added to the myth of his history, until now. Trevor has been approached by many to tell his story and declined. However we have had a close friendship since 1994 and after twelve years of trying to document him he agreed to give us an exclusive and tell us his story. It is a bitter sweet but incredible rag to riches journey much of which he achieved at such a young age. It’s a long but very worthwhile read. Enjoy. Fitzroy.

Tell us about growing up in Canning Town? unfolded when I got caught.

I was actually born in Stepney, East London and So when did you move to Silvertown? lived my early years in Mile End, 78 Eric Street to be exact. We lived next door to Bernard Bresslaw’s Mum. We first moved when I was six years old to 47 Bernard was a prominent actor in the Carry On films. Chatsworth Rd, Stratford, which was much more rat We were cramped up in a small room on the first floor. infested. I went to Maryland School. My siblings and I slept in the corner, two up, two down on a single bed while my parents had a double bed One day I came home from school and as I opened next to us which occupied the centre and most of the the door to the front room I got the shock of my life, room. There were four of us. I was the eldest, Maureen as I have never seen so many rats. I’m talking about is the second eldest, then there is Sharon followed hundreds. Someone had left the cornflakes on the by my baby Brother Leon. I remember I used to table, which they were devouring. My God the noise get knocked over a lot by cars, actually seven times they made was horrendous and they were everywhere. altogether, playing outside the house and trying to run It was a ram jam rat party and their dispersal was away from my Dad. I was first on the streets from the frightening. age of four years old, living and walking the streets, getting into fights and all kinds of rubbish. I remember A West Indian family also lived in the house upstairs wandering down Mile End Road the first time I got lost, who my parents ended up having fights with. They crying my eyes out not knowing where I was and a just could not see eye to eye and after several man took me to the Police station. Luckily I knew my confrontations, we moved on when I was eight or nine address. (Trevor laughs) to West Silvertown, 84 Cranbrook Point. We lived on the fourteenth floor and were the only black family in Why were you out on the streets at four years old? the block. I remember on my first day at Drew Road School, some guy called Frankie House took a disliking That’s how it was bro. My parents were wild. My Mum to me and said he wanted to fight me. I’ll never forget was barely a teenager. We lived in a rat infested house it. When I got home I told my Dad. He got angry and where black people occupied all the rooms. At night told me to go back and fight him. I had to do that they had Shibeen parties downstairs in the cellar, shit, and I beat him. Automatically I then became the where music and social activities would take place. best fighter in the school. Fighting wasn’t my thing People who were part of the Windrush generation but that’s what happened. Despite experiencing a lot would come from miles around. I was a curious child of racial problems, I think most people did like me. always into and up to something. I used to tiptoe I’m not going to lie eventually they accepted me. Then around the house looking through slits and keyholes when I went to Pretoria High School that was another and hiding in corners to see if I could see what was level of dealing with bullies and fighting. Again I had a going on. You can imagine all the commotion that fight on my first day and I dealt with it but in a bigger school you encounter bigger problems. (Trevor laughs) No there was Tony and Martin Bowers whose Mum, Dear oh dear. Winnie, a black woman was a close friend of my Mums. I remember my Brother Leon and I used to sleep at You mentioned the Shibeen parties earlier, so what their place once a week and them with us the next. was your memory of music? They were mixed race. Then there was Joe and Frankie Richards who lived in Dunlop Point in the other block. I remember Millie’s ‘My Boy Lollipop’ because it was Joe’s Brother Frankie was deaf and dumb but we struck such a big track but the record that influenced me up a good friendship. When I got to high school there the most back then was Bob & Marcia ‘Young Gifted was only Stephen Lewis, Chalky (whose real name was & Black’. That really influenced me to think that we Howlett Curwen) and I, to be later joined by Maurice really could be, young gifted and black and I attributed Wellington who came straight from Jamaica and Joe that to what I wanted to become, which at that time, Jules who came from up north to the school with their was a footballer. broad accents. It wasn’t easy at all bro.

Yes tell us about that. People had heard about me on the football tip because we used to get challenged during the summer holidays I’d never really played football. I remember the old at Lyle Park to play football. Them Canning Town boys fashion boots worn at the time. One day the school led by a boy called Gary Ishmail were good and always gave me a pair and threw me into a game. I was a fast beat us. However being the best player in our team, I runner but I just used to goal hang. (Trevor laughs) I had a reputation for being able to dribble past anyone would let the other players do the work and kick the and that is how they remembered me. So when I got to ball up to me and that is how I scored a goal in my first secondary school I became vice captain of the football match for my school. We won 1-0 and the headmaster team, my best mate Andy Rowland was the captain mentioned it in the assembly hall. From then on I was and I developed. into football, prior to that I wasn’t really interested. Funnily enough that is exactly how, much later, I got into dancing by being thrown into a circle. I started to learn various aspects of football but I was too greedy with the ball, trying to take everyone on. (Trevor laughs) The thing was I used to dribble and beat everybody and just as I was about to score someone else would take the ball and shoot from my effort.

I can relate to that as they used to call me glue foot at school. Once you started getting into football who was it that inspired you? Trevor with Andy Rowland

I remember watching my first world cup in 1966. I Andy was white? (Trevor: “Yeah.”) watched every game and Eusebio was my hero. I hadn’t really seen Pele because he was injured. I found a pair I’m guessing as one of very few black kids with your of Puma boots that were actually a couple of sizes too identity it was about surviving and trying to get small but I still managed to wear them and play. I acceptance amongst the majority white kids? played and was made Captain at Primary School. Yeah. I had a paper round job at primary school and Were there not a lot of black people around you? at high school I used to pull out the stalls at Rathbone Street Market with another good mate, Jed Freeman. These people accepted me like I was a Brother and I abuse at one another at knew their parents and would eat in their homes. Wow, the crossroads. However I Jed Freeman’s family, what a family. His Brothers were used to catch them one by always inside prison. I got into some naughty things one and deal with them on back then because I was young and dumb but I quickly my own or sometimes with got out of that. Birdie Michael who they used to beat up cause he hung It’s understandable when you have no role models with me. We fought together because after our tussle from your own culture and complexion. we became inseparable. His Mum became a Mum to me too as she always had time for me. She cared and That’s right. I told you Fitz I was a right coconut, I taught me things. She was a strict disciplinarian, and was more like a white guy growing up then and all everything had to have its place. I once called her my friends at the time where white. I met a white Mum in front of my natural Mum. My Mum didn’t like guy called Michael Redmond and to me he became that, but Bridie was a Mum to me. Bridie told me about my Brother, there is no two ways about it. I met him her experiences with the no blacks, no dogs, no Irish when I lived in Stratford. He accused me of doing a slogan, and I felt like we had something in common. ‘doo doo’ on some debris and we got into a fight. He was an Irish boy and I beat the hell out of him, but he So now as a teenager you are hanging with the wouldn’t give in even though I was slamming his head friends you had around you due to the environment into the concrete for at least twenty minutes. Somehow and you are into football? we became friends and when I walked him home his family, particularly his Mum, Bridie fell in love with Funnily enough our football coaches were Frank me. I was taken aback. She always said how beautiful Lampard (senior) and Harry Redknapp and it has to my eyes and lashes were and how she remembered be said that racism was rife. I do remember one of the the holes in my shoes that my toes were hanging out derogatory names I had to endure a lot was ‘Sambo’. of. That is how poor we were. Even the Grandparents It was very common back then. However saying that I liked me. I used to be round there all the time playing do have a fond memory of Harry Redknapp being kind soldiers like kids do. They included me when it was and driving me home to get my football boots that time for supper, which I liked. I used to be scared to go I’d forgotten to bring. I was at Pretoria school at the home with all the madness with my Father smashing time and there wasn’t any black professional players. up the place and beating my Mum up. I just couldn’t I played for Dagenham and Redbridge on Sundays take it. For that reason I used to wish that I was white, with Andy Rowland, Kevin Russell and Laurence Benny bro as when I was around Michael it was peaceful, full and we all went to the Fulham academy. The others of laughter and heavenly, as opposed to being at home eventually for one reason or another left so I was where I would be crying in fear, amongst the darkness. the last one standing. Fred the headman at Fulham asked if I would like to sign for the club. I had a good How old were you when you experienced this? feeling about the prospect and enjoyed it when I was there, but I wasn’t stable and had no support from my I was between five and seven. I had a lot of enemies parents, plus it was a long way to go on my own as a too. I would have to be careful because after meeting kid travelling from Silvertown to Wimbledon and back Michael, I had to pass their patch to get to where at night. Michael lived. The leader of the gang was a guy called John Hardy. I used to avoid him because he would try I remember reading a similar thing in Laurie to attack me with all of his mates, but I was too fast for Cunningham’s book about travelling on his own to them whenever they tried to get me. As soon as I made go football training. it back on my patch we would throw stones and hurl The first thing we had to do at Fulham before football that is how I met Juliette (the Mother of my daughter, training was go on a long distance run which was Kele Le Roc). I had been into reggae, going to Stratford fine for me because I was a good runner. I won long Town Hall but I was more into listening to it and distance races as a junior at school. I remember being following it than dancing to it. I also remember from puzzled when they praised me for being able to keep around a similar time slow dancing with girls to Diana up because their mentality was that black people were Ross ‘I’m Still Waiting’. I used to hang with a guy lazy and that is how they thought of us then. I’m telling named Samuel Grieson, who had a Brother named you bro. Gary. Although we were around the same age Sammy was more mature than me and identified with black So when did you start socialising and getting into the culture, which was something that I wasn’t as aware of music? at the time. I was easily led and I can’t really say he was a good influence as I started to bunk off school I remember the night and smoke cigarettes. Sammy was mixed race and a Muhammad Ali fought good looking guy, who all the girls liked. Joe Frazier in 1971. I was watching it at the youth How did you start becoming fashion conscious? club in Canning Town while we were playing Trevor With pool and pinball. My His Dog Bill mate Gary Ishmael came over and said there was a girl who wanted me to walk her home and I wasn’t really fussed. Before long the whole club knew and they were getting on my nerves egging me on and forcing me to take her home. Her name was Elaine. She was a mixed race girl. I had to ask my mate what to do when you walk a girl home. (We both burst out laughing). He said I had to give her a kiss at the end and oh man I didn’t like it. (Trevor laughs). As the only black kid I was accepted amongst the white Canning Town boys growing up, and we used to meet in a café on Barking Road. Eventually everybody got hooked up with a girlfriend, Gary Ishmael was first, followed by Jed and Andy and then I was left on my own. After my parents had another bust up when I was fourteen, I ran away from home. After a night or two of sleeping rough I bumped into a character, a black guy named How I got into the gear (meaning clothes) was through Tony McCorkel. I had seen him at the club nights in a white guy named Pat Tomlin who always wore nice Stratford Town Hall. Tony had a great personality and tonic and mohair strides (trousers) made to measure. a big smile to go with it. I didn’t really know him that well but he approached me and asked me if I was all When he was selling he would ask me if I was interested. right. I explained my situation to him and he told me to I would go and take a look as he lived upstairs from come along with him. He took me to a flat in Forest Andy Rowland in Canning Town. He had immaculate Gate and that is where I met first met Linton Beckles taste and I bought my clothes from him and that is (who later became one of the band members of Central how I started to become fashion conscious with Ben Line). Tony took me under his wing, as did Linton and Sherman shirts, and Brut aftershave (Trevor laughs). I remember crying my eyes out in the market until my him staggering and frantically pressing the lift button Mum bought me a pair of brogues and then a few days as I was going down, I think I must have taken those later my dog chewed them up. My dog was something fourteen flights of stairs in record time and luckily I else man. I remember the publicity in the local paper escaped. I then promised my Mum that I would never when my dog jumped over the viaduct into the docks come back until he had gone. So that’s when Bridie chasing pigeons during my paper round. I didn’t know took me in and started to care for me. I would have what to do and was going to jump into the life buoy to been around fifteen when I started hanging with some try and rescue him when the river police arrived and of the reggae boys but I pretended to be nineteen as got him out. The Newham Recorder’s front page read that was Juliette’s age. When she found out my age ’Dog Bill tries to fly.’j(We both laugh) and they came and that I was still at school she wasn’t happy. down to my house and took a picture of us so that was my first bit of publicity. “I“I waswas smittensmitten andand You mentioned that you met Kele’s Mum, Juliette jealousjealous becausebecause sheshe around that time? startedstarted datingdating thisthis guyguy namednamed LesterLester andand Just prior to when I met Juliette I had previously run away after seeing my Father trying to strangle sheshe wouldwould bringbring himhim my Mum. That vision along with a few others still toto thethe flat.”flat.” haunts me. I was just running anywhere and crying uncontrollably. Then I saw a police car and I noticed I was smitten and jealous because she started dating that they had seen me so I ran back to my block to find this guy named Lester and she would bring him to the my Mum outside. Her beautiful face was mashed up, flat. To be honest being immature I took on the mantel she was in her nightclothes and it was cold. When the of my Father’s abusive nature and I remember one police came to enquire and saw my Mum’s condition time putting my hands on her. She told me that if I ever they asked her if she would like to press charges did that again she would stab me and I could see she against my Dad. My Mum refused. I am not sure how was serious. I used to spend a hell of a lot of the time my siblings handled that as they never mentioned it sulking. It was around that time when Tony and Linton but they never saw what my eyes saw as I was the one who saw the situation said to me ‘Come on man let’s go that always tried to protect her from him. So having out clubbing, you can’t carry on like this.” So reluctantly run away from that situation I was now hanging I went along with them to the Ilford Palais. It quickly with my friends. We would go to a local Forest Gate dawned on me that I was missing out and apart from dance at a church and I remember meeting Juliette one time I never went back. By the time Juliette and dancing and talking to her there. My Dad was realised she had strong feelings for me it was too late looking for me and ended up finding me in Canning and I was gone. I remember having one of those sit Town. After the bus ride home he told to me to go down chats when I was reunited with my Mum when upstairs and wait until he came back from the pub. she told me that she didn’t want me having any I could see that he’d had a few drinks when he came children and so on. Literally minutes after that in and he asked me where I had been. I told him I conversation I got a phone call from Juliette to say that had been sleeping downstairs in the cellar. Of course she was pregnant by me. I was only sixteen years old he didn’t believe me. Anyway my Dad then started and it scared me. My way of dealing with that was by to throw some licks on me. He was punching me hard going to the 4 Aces club a lot where Count Shelly used continuously. Now I don’t know what made me do this to play. God bless him, as he has just passed away. I but I ended up punching him and he flew back into the actually remember we were Kung Fu crazy at the time settee. Then I ran down the passageway and out of the executing our moves on each other. I also remember door as fast as I could and took the stairs. Then I saw Linton saying that he wanted to be a singer. His first introduction to singing was at the Little Eye Club in Manor Park. Juliette got him the gig and while he was on stage performing a guy had the audacity to jump on the stage and snatch the mic off Linton and sing himself. The crowd roared, he was good but he shouldn’t have done that. I used to follow the mighty Emperor Joe and pester him to play tunes for me. Back then I used to request the same songs over and over again. I still wasn’t into dancing. I would do the rub with a girl and shuffling was a big thing back then. I used to try to shuffle which was heavy on the legs and do moves like the funky chicken. As much as I enjoyed it, dancing wasn’t really my thing. We would discover later that Rufus Thomas did the original ‘Funky Chicken’ as we only heard the reggae version first. We were quite a tight crew. Tony was with Polly, Linton was with Marvlin and I was with Juliette and we were all inseparable. Sometimes I forget how huge Tony and Linton were in my life as they made a big impression on me.

So it was mostly reggae with the odd soul tune thrown in? Being honest I was introduced to Tamla Motown at school by a white guy and teammate I played football with named Gary Etherden. We used to call him Ethel. He was into the music and had a big collection of records. Around 1970-1971 at Stratford Town Hall they played all types of music. White pop like ‘Ride A White Swan’, by T Rex who I was big on. Reggae wise I do remember Alton Ellis performing live there a few times. I remember the first time I heard James Brown being played when Whylie, Donald Pitters, Rozman and all the boys came in with their gear and shoulder bags looking cool, and their dancing impressed me, but it didn’t stay with me. They were all in one line dancing to ‘Superbad’ looking superfly. At that time I in tatters and I just threw it away. I met Bess Mosby went out with a lot of white girls and I can remember upstairs at Ronnie Scotts and she was living in Ilford at a blond girl named Carol who was one of those girls the time. One night I didn’t have enough money to get I used to see at school but I didn’t notice her or any the night bus home and she offered to pay for me. She of them as I wasn’t into looks. I didn’t know anything travelled back with Dez and I who sat next to her on about myself because I was into sports and literally the bus. When I got off at Forest Gate to my surprise everything but girls. I couldn’t even kiss properly. Dez carried on accompanying Bess to Ilford. That union I really liked this Spanish Latin looking girl named led to them having two children and working together Sharon Brisco and I kissed her. It went around that I on the Rare compilations, so it turned out to be one of couldn’t kiss and it was so embarrassing. I remember the best things that ever happened to Dez as far as I’m my friend Clifford Adams telling me that I had to kiss concerned. like a fish because all I knew was how they kissed with closed lips like they did on TV. So what lead you into the west end of London?

So when did you meet Dez Parkes? It was going to Wardour Street with Dez and I knew Desmond from way back when we used to before that hanging represent our schools yearly at Terence McMillan with Sammy Grieson. I Stadium. We always made it to the final in the 100 was living a naughty metres. street life partaking in criminal activities and I He used to finish third and I used to finish fifth because Trevor Shakes, was on the verge of Chester Brown and Theo Davis would come first and Deon Parkes & going to jail. It was Dez Dez Parkes second every year. Desmond was fast man. that took me to Ronnie Scotts. Walking in the first person I noticed was Leon I used to play football against him and we beat them Herbert because of how he was dressed. You couldn’t every time and that is how Dez knows I was good at help but notice him. He was dancing with James football. I think we started to see each other more Lammie. James Lammie went on to become the when the boys in Canning Town left me on my own and principal dancer of a German ballet company, and he I was caught between both the white and black culture was a tremendous dancer. Like I’ve stated I wasn’t worlds, and going back and forth. I started to go down dancing but I was observing. What led to me to want to to Upton Park and congregate outside this pub called start dancing was when I met a girl named Carol Blair The Queens by the market on Green Street. It scared at Ronnies. One night we both went to Lacy Lady’s in me at first as I had never seen so many black youths Ilford and that was the first time I saw Travis Edwards. in one place hanging together like that. I remember Man I’m telling you this guy excited me. I couldn’t help when some skinheads came down with a gun and fired but watch him dance. He was a handsome guy, well shots at us and we had to scatter. We would go and dressed with acrobatics in his repertoire and he was watch Kung Fu movies down Wardour Street in Soho, running things. I said to Carol that I wanted be able to London and I remember afterwards bumping into dance like that and that I wanted to start dancing from Flash and Dez who asked me to go with them but I said today. Travis was incredible, he had a white collarless that I was going home. Dez was very streetwise, he shirt on with flared jeans and danced in a pair of clogs. started hanging around the West End with his dancing Clogs you know!. When I went back to Ronnie Scotts partner Flash, in my brand new brown leather trench there was a dance competition on and I was watching coat that he borrowed from me, which was too tight the likes of Leon Herbert and Fitzroy Gaines having for him. I remember a few years later Desmond even dance offs in heats. All of a sudden Carol pushed me in had the cheek to give the coat back to me, which was to the mix and I went berserk Fitzroy. I didn’t even know what I was doing (Trevor laughs). Then the long time friend Michael Taylor and the rest of their deejay picked me to go through to the next round. That black crew, helped to nurture my sense of belonging was the start of me wanting to learn and become a to our culture. If I’m honest the first person who also dancer real quick. I remember Jeff Davis because he inspired me dancing wise was my Mum, because she was dancing to Carl Douglas’s ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and was always smiling and in a zone and did these quirky he is actually in the song's music video. Paul Robinson’s little moves. When I first started dancing I didn’t think dancing inspired me but can’t really say that I was as I was that good, other people may have thought so but inspired by Dez or Flash. We did try and do a group I wasn’t that confident. together, which was with Dez, Noel, Greg, Roger, Lionel, Flash and I, there was about seven or eight of What was your next move? us in total. We were in the Dance Centre and an old black guy came in with his sons and pretended to make Approaching the mid 1970s I had some notable dance a phone call to the News Of The World newspaper. He partners and I had two clashes with Fitzroy Gaines, made sure that we could all hear him saying he has which was instrumental in me rising to the top at Ronnie these eight black boy dancers. He wanted to be our Scotts. It had to happen because he was the champ manager and tried to include his sons, who were no and the main man who won the competition. That good, so nothing came of it. competition shuffled the pack and rank amongst us. I must say Leon Herbert influenced a lot of us especially with fashion. We used to run down to Laurence Corner to get the sailor jackets, the white sailor shoes and buy second hand clothes from Portobello Road market. However we discovered that Leon got his influence from the gay clubs and we later found out that is where his dance moves came from. Some of my dance partners included Sam ‘the music man’ who couldn’t handle the pace but had style. Then I met Gregory Craig and Roger Delves who were the Caribbean Showboat dance troop. They were excellent and they both did a move called the apache. Greg and I were together for a long time and we were like gunslingers and used to go out hunting and itching for a showdown with Leon and his side kick James. Greg was my best So how old were you when you were going to Ronnies? dance partner. He was a natural who had his own style. One night Leon came down to Hunters in West About fifteen or sixteen, around the same time that I Kensington and we danced together and Greg who was met Juliette. I obviously graduated dancing wise during loyal didn’t like that and ultimately it split the dance my time at Ronnies and had several dance partners. partnership between Greg and I up. I must give Greg’s One thing I’ll say about Dez, the man was light on his sister Carol Craig a mention, as she was such a good feet and I remember he would arch his back and do dancer and the best of the females at that time. Big barrel turns incredibly well for someone so short and love also to Mikey Craig who became the bass player stocky. I remember the first move I created as part of of Culture Club. The Craigs are a very talented family. choreography was to ‘Skin Tight’ by The Ohio Players When I was reigning on the dance floor at Ronnies I and when I showed it to Desmond(Dez Parkes), he didn’t actually realise it at the time to be honest. I had laughed. Being around Dez you can’t help but learn clashes with Fitzroy, who was a tremendous dancer in some steps from him in the beginning when I had his own right and he had his own style, but according to less rhythm. I must also add being around him, my the crowd, who decided these matters, I was victorious. I remember him sitting on the stage being upset with You said earlier that you saw Travis working in himself for losing out to me but I didn’t take too much another branch of Toppers in the Kings Road? notice. I was buzzing on the euphoria for sure and enjoying the dance floor. Leon was not really coming to Ronnies around that time. He’d pop in from time to time and do his little party piece and after the night had ended he would go off on his own and tell me I couldn’t come with him. Being honest he wouldn’t have been able to cope with the pace at Ronnies because we were dancing at pace all night long. When you got people like Horace Carter on you all the time wanting to take your crown, you had to have your A game on bro. There’s no way Leon could take that pace, no way, not all night. The thing was when I was able to dance at that pace I didn’t know what I was doing, Fitzroy. I was just lost until it was time to go home. (Trevor laughs). I ended up being able to nurture getting lost in Travis Edwards (left hand side) myself. I used to see a little figure in the atmosphere in space from my minds eye doing its thing and it would Yeah I actually met Norris his Brother before I met translate to me and I would interpret it, I swear to Travis. Norris and I worked together in the same shop. God. It was my secret that I always kept and this was I saw him walk past the shop once and that vision is what made me go into my zone not knowing what I iconic for me. Being honest I was kind of star struck. was doing. I used to close my eyes and do that same One thing I’ll say about Travis and Leon is that when I dynamic and focus at Maunkberrys. first met them they hardly ever said a word. First time

What about Crackers with Mark Roman? “First“First timetime II metmet LeonLeon waswas whenwhen II workedworked inin Around that time I was living with Bridie and she told Vivienne Westwood’s me that as much as she loved me she couldn’t afford Vivienne Westwood’s to keep me and that I would have to go. It hurt me but SexSex ShopShop inin thethe I had to get a job so I could stay with her. Eventually I KingsKings Road”Road” landed a job as a junior at Toppers shoe shop in Kings Road, Chelsea. Ironically the first day I was working I met Leon was when I worked in Vivienne Westwood’s there I saw Travis Edwards walk past in his cream jump Sex Shop in the Kings Road and Leon used to come in. suit, as he worked at the other Toppers shop further I had the zoot suits and pointed shoes so I was well up down and across the road. It was around that time on the fashion. I remember that both Leon and Travis’s that I was going to Crackers. I learned a lot there and best moments were when they danced rather than that was my apprenticeship before I graduated at when they chatted. Travis’s dance thing started with Ronnie Scotts. I would bunk off school to go there in shuffling which physically takes a lot out of you. Leon the beginning. It really was a hundred miles an hour says he used to dance with Travis but I can’t imagine dancing, Fitzroy. When Mark Roman left I didn’t like they were in the same league as Travis who was so George Power at Crackers at first. We got used to him dynamic would do somersaults and all different kinds in the end but he wasn’t as good as Mark Roman, no of splits. I’ve seen Leon shuffle, he’s a stylist and has a way. I ended up leaving Bridie and went back to my good basic background for that. I’m not a shuffler, Mum because my Dad was no longer there. although I can do it. I would love to have seen that generation how they the time when I first went to Maunkberrys nightclub translated the reggae shuffling into the soul dancing in Jermyn Street, London, and the first person I saw back then in the early to mid 1970s. there was Marc Bolan. Claude pushed him out of his way when we were walking through the club saying, Well you could forget about me in that period. I was “Get out of my way you cxxt.”“in his French accent. more of a slow dance with a girl. When the funky There were so many famous people who I recognised it chicken dance came out and I saw the bigger boys was incredible and it freaked me out. During that time dancing to James Brown with their Superfly look with of hanging with Claude Benamou at Maunkberrys, shoulder bags, Toppers shoes and patchwork boots all if he had something to do or somewhere to pop off dancing in a line together it was fantastic. to he would ask me to deejay until he got back. He was an incredible deejay that could take people on a Dez dropped out of the scene around 1976 because journey and he would demonstrate it by pointing out he had become a Father. He too said that he used the people who would get up and dance before he to dip in and out of Crackers and preferred Mark played a record. It developed that I ended up doing Roman as far superior to George Power. So when did one night a week for him as he was the resident deejay the deejaying start for you? for the club. One day he got fired and the lady gave me his deejay job. I was seventeen or eighteen. I used That started when Leon took me to a party in West to do the tapes for Browns and Woodhouse clothes Kensington and there was some guy looking for shops, and I got to learn the knowledge of the music models, which appealed to me. So ultimately I ended of who played bass, trumpet and drums on the albums, up meeting Felix Gomez and Claude Benamou and I as I had developed a mind like that. Claude Benamou was watching Felix dance. He was an incredible deejay was definitely my influence and this helped me to gain and a fantastic dancer. This was the first time that I confidence in myself and being in that environment heard funky jazz tunes from Donald Byrd and The helped me to get into modelling. Blackbyrds. (Fitzroy: “So we are talking 75-76?”) Yes, tunes like Donald Byrd’s ‘Wind Parade’ and The How did you actually end up modelling? Blackbyrds, which was all new material, as at Ronnie Scotts we would only hear ‘Gut Level’ and when that came on we used to go mad. The Blackbyrds had refined themselves to this incredible funky jazz sound with ‘Happy Music’ and ‘Rock Creek Park’. Felix personified this music and he was probably with his concept, one of the best dancers I’ve ever seen in my life, as it was so fresh. I started to see where Leon was getting his influence from. However I just took that concept and after I got it, I left Felix standing. The two people that influenced me greatly are Travis Edwards and Felix Gomez. The music was starting to resonate with me. One day I went to find Leon but his Mum said he wasn’t around so I wondered to myself where could he be. I went to Notting Hill Gate to where Felix Gomez , Ali and Claude Benamou were living, as I remembered the address. I knocked and asked for Leon who wasn't there but Claude invited me in and I ended up staying there for at least a month, before Leon showed up (Trevor laughs). That was around Trevor Modelling For Cerruti One day Paul Armstrong a deejay and a good friend dancing on skates and was so acrobatic. His dancing told me that a Japanese lady named Yuki was looking was based on shuffling and throwing acrobatics around for a black model who could dance to go to Japan. I like somersaults into splits and then back flips. He was didn’t have any photos of myself so she arranged to a handsome dude no two ways about it. He had a great meet me at Notting Hill Gate train station at nine in the physique and incredible hair too. Me and Leon had no morning. The train station had a passport photo booth chance to shine but we could hang with him and we and she wanted me to take photos to see if I was were just star struck witnessing all this adulation he photogenic. I eventually landed the job in Japan. I was receiving. Through Travis’s eldest sister Adrienne wanted to stay in Japan as they treated me like a star who was one of The Claudettes (the backing singers of and loved my dancing. When I came back I thought it Claude Francoise) the whole family went out there to was just a one off. I’d taken a lot of photos whilst I was live in Paris and create music. They were going to do a out there and a guy called Xavier who was in Black TV series on his family because they were all stunning Boys modelling agency showed the photos to Sarah looking (Fitzroy: “Ok a bit like the Kardashians Cape and she wanted to meet me. I was so naive as to now.”) ”Yeah but this was in the 1970s. I swear to how this whole modelling thing worked but I ultimately God it was no joke, he was that popular. Unfortunately got taken on. Trevor Thomas, Emanuel Armah, Reggie Travis spoilt the whole thing by continuously going out Tsiboe (who took over from Bobby Farrell as male and partying. vocalist of Boney M) were on the agency and he was one of the top models with David Clay who were the How did you end up choreographing for the fashion most influential black models. We would go to David shows? Clay’s hairdresser, Mac’s in Fulham Broadway to get our hair cut like him. He had a pointed shape at the Leon and I auditioned for The Criss Cross Look and we back of his hair and that style actually made Mac’s spent the whole week watching Christine Pearce and hairdressers popular. That is how I got into modelling, Rosina Joubert who were ex Café de Paris showgirls, just that simple, right place, right time. rehearse two groups of personnel for shows. We watched on as Travis and Freddie Stracham (who What led to you and Leon Herbert teaming up on was in Sheila B Devotion), singer Roddy Julien and modelling assignments? Leroy Gomez (from the group Santa Esmeralda) were being put through their paces. We were fed up and Leon went to Paris on vacation and happened to do a bored sitting around for days and finally when we fashion show whilst he was there. He invited me over were able to do our thing at the end she gave us a and before we went he asked me to make up a routine, few minutes and dashed. In those few minutes though which I did, and we practiced. Whilst we were in Paris we completely destroyed the place and left our mark. we met Travis and that was the first time I really hung Those moves we did ended up being the moves that around with him. Fitzroy, Travis owned Paris, they everyone else started to take on and we were doing absolutely adored him. As soon as he walked in a our routines in the shows so she ended up using us. club there was a bottle and free drinks on the table When we came back to the UK we would execute the for him. He was treated like a film star and we just moves in the clubs as a practice run. Doing the routines couldn’t believe all the attention he was commanding. over and over again gave us some consistency. Once we We were well and truly put in our place as he was in got on that train we were doing the same exhibitions a completely different zone. Everywhere we went he as Travis, not necessarily the same shows but then we was treated as a king, like in the African Club Cur ultimately all ended up working together. Samba. He had created a name for himself dancing and modelling and everybody loved him. This is late What countries were you working in then? 70s 1977 -1978 at venues like Elysee Martinon, Club 69, La Palace, Castelle and Club Prive. Travis was also France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, just imagine how elated I was. I said, ‘Man you do not Japan, Canada and America. know who you are to me.” and then I said that I’d put on the full works for them after spotting them in the Tell us about meeting The Nicholas Brothers in the audience. They couldn't stop saying thank you or stop USA? praising us.

Leon, Travis and I were working together for the first Wow! Did you get a picture with them? time for HCC Ski Company. We were in the Las Vegas exhibition centre doing the last show for the day Yes, not at that particular time as Faynard had a when all of a sudden I noticed The Nicholas Brothers walking stick but Harold invited us to a show he was in the front row watching me. I was doing a solo and starring in called Sophisticated Ladies and that’s where it was only me that had noticed that they were there. we took a lot of pictures with him and the cast. I told I told Travis and Leon while I was changing into my him that he still had it and that he was still the best next outfit backstage and boy you want to see how and he said, “Nah there’s this new cat called Gregory things stepped up man. (Trevor laughs) We had to Hines, he’s very good.” Harold is a lovely person. After throw it down properly! After the show The Nicholas meeting him we spoke about his life with Dorothy Brothers presented themselves to us and man you can Dandridge and man could you imagine being with a woman like that, are you crazy or what? (Trevor point view, I was his boy in the way that I always had laughs) his back. I had made a pact with Leon that we would do everything together, well that’s what I thought, but Leon who always played the big Brother role with me, made the decision of going into business with Whylie on the fashion tip. I didn’t like it and had to remind him that we were supposed to be doing this ourselves but he did not listen to me. I always had his back in every which way, but he never did have mine. I always thought he knew better and felt what he did was selfish. We had everything in the palm of our hands with the connections with the fashion and the following we had. People were practically begging us to do shit. Unfortunately in the long run it didn’t work out for him and a year later Christine also let him go and it felt strange at first doing the shows without him.

Left to right Trevor Shakes, Harold Nicholas, Leon Herbert & Travis Edwards

So when you came back to the UK, bringing the fashion and the moves, you were also experiencing music from abroad that was left field? Trevor Shakes & Leon Herbert Yeah that happened in Paris. We went to the famous Club Set (7). I had attended Club (7) in London with When Leon and I were doing the fashion shows in Claude and Whylie but I had always heard about Club Munich around 1982 we witnessed the performance Set in Paris, so we went and it was fantastic. We also of an incredibly talented guy called Eddie ‘The Snake’ went to the Bain Douche when it first opened and that who worked for Nike. Eddie would do a one-man was an experience that I couldn’t believe. Everyone in show that attracted everybody to rush to see his show, attendance made an effort. The dancing was different which was always rammed. Performing to songs like and refreshing and all the clothes styles were wow, an ‘Planet Rock’ by Soul Sonic Force and ‘Buffalo Girls’ incredible sight for one to behold! It was like being in by Malcolm McLaren & The Supreme Team, Eddie was another world. Everybody was on a weird but delightful showcasing the latest new genre of electro boogaloo, tip with the fashion and the hairstyles and we were robotics, body popping, pop locking and breakdancing impressed. We ended up buying what we could get moves. Now that style changed the game for future our hands on and came back to the UK with the whole fashion shows and they now wanted to incorporate package of the new wave fashion. that style into their own shows. I learned and became proficient in that entire new dance phenomenon. I remember Fitzroy in your interview with Leon that When I got back to London I remember executing he stated that I was his boy. To clarify that from my the moves at our night at Spats. However that style Horace Carter, Trevor Shakes & Danny John Jules did not go down well with the boogie purist dancers. happen, nothing materialised. I was fed up of asking They didn’t like it at all. In fact the only other person and then one day a mate of mine, a white guy named I observed doing that style at Spats was John Reilly Lee Wickins drove me down to Spats, as I had decided and that was how I met him. He was much smaller in that I wasn’t waiting anymore for Leon and Whylie. height to me but he had power in his movement. We Lee heard me speaking with the man in charge of the did have a few dance tussles at Spats. That was how venue and he showed me that he was interested in our relationship formulated and I eventually took him getting involved. So right there and then I thought that under my wing and taught him everything he knows. he and I should do the club together. John looked up to me like a God/Guru, and I must say that John possesses an incredible amount of talent “When“When wewe firstfirst startedstarted but his temperament has been his worst enemy. He is Spats it was a hard slog an amazing writer. The best I’ve ever worked with in Spats it was a hard slog creating music. We recorded an incredible song with andand tooktook agesages toto getget the Harlem Gospel singers namely ‘Angels With Afros’ goinggoing butbut wewe persevered”persevered” that never came out. (Fitzroy: “That explains why he gives you maximum props by stating that he is your When we first started Spats it was a hard slog and took number one student in his You Tube video of him ages to get going but we persevered and I used it as a dancing to ‘Candidate For Love’ by TS Monk.”) form of escapism to play some music and boogie, because I had stopped going out to clubs after So how did the Spats nights start in the early 1980s Maunkberrys had closed down. Dez Parkes came down as you were travelling back and forth from your initially to escape and shake a leg, as at the time he modelling trips abroad? was experiencing life as a father. Then he ended up being one of the doormen with Roy Fontaine and my I started to move with Leon and Whylie who were Brother Leon. He wanted to deejay so I gave him the selling clothes from a place in Oxford Street. Whylie last hour of the night so that I could have a good was a great influence to Leon. Whylie could dance boogie. Dez became the resident deejay when I went and would run a loud commentary (hype) when he away modelling. The atmosphere was on another level was dancing. They kept telling me they were going it was electric and using different records old and new. to get a club and this talk went on for years with me I applied the same ethos as what I had learned from getting on their nerves asking when it was going to Claude Benamou taking people to different heights deejaying. Funnily enough when I used to come back from an assignment Paul didn’t want me to come on. (Trevor laughs) He was so into mixing and was artistic with it so I let him do his thing. I do remember Paul more for dancing in Crackers when we were going at it one hundred miles an hour. Back then we were all inventive in our dancing to that funky jazz and you’d be lucky if you could dance all night long at that fast pace but we just used to be in the zone. Back then I started to have some form because I used to go to Sombrero which Leon had introduced me to and that and levels. Everybody was there at Spats and I mean is where I heard all the Philly stuff and I fell in love everybody, John Barnes, Chris Houghton, Chris Whyte, with it. I used to pester the deejay to play ‘Bad Luck’ Tim Westwood, Bobby & Steve etc. and lots of deejays by Harold Melvin & the Bluenotes every half hour and came down including Norman J. Norman who would met other dancers like Ronnie, Mark and Ali (that put my name on his flyers for his gigs without my Leon eventually talked about) and they were fantastic knowledge asked me to give him a slot and eventually dancers. That is where I really went into overdrive with I did. When Norman played no one was dancing and dance and my imagination started to run wild. Leon Dez insisted that Norman had to come off. Dez was and I would put moves together and do routines to gain protective of the night and I guess he didn’t want some structure. someone to come in and upset the vibe, as he likes to keep a tight ship. I didn’t like doing that and imagine How did Torso Start? much later when I had a tune and had to check out the record companies. I had to speak with Norman J down at London Records. Even though he couldn’t help me Norman shared that I had inspired him to be in his current position of A&R, because he played every tune I played in the order that I played them in. Hearing him tell me that made me revisit the moment I took him off at Spats years earlier.

Both you and Dez I see as deejay dancers. Was Claude like that as well?

Yeah actually he was, as was Felix Gomez. I was already dancing before I was deejaying so it wasn’t going to stop me dancing just because I put the records on and I have done that always during my time.

What are your memories of Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson Original Torso Line Up who always sited you as his main inspiration? I started them off. I taught Torso as they secretly Paul used to deejay for us at the Embassy Club at followed us from another club down to Maunkberrys the back of Bond Street and deejayed when I wasn’t which we didn’t realise until they actually came in. around. Paul was second to none when it comes to They became frequent visitors that just used to sit around and wait to watch me dance and I told them Hoyle was who I worked with on choreography the most “Hey stop watching and start learning.” I started (more than Leon actually) and I also choreographed a teaching them before Maunkberrys opened up for the lot with Travis doing fashion shows, We did those in night sessions. There was a choreographer who was Germany for Benny Sari as we were in a group with very impressed with what I was doing with the boys John Reilly, Hoyle Baker and Bernard Henry. (Fitzroy: and he asked me a few questions one night. Leon and “Gosh I haven’t seen Bernard in over thirty years. He I went away working abroad and when I came back I was from my side, Wembley, Brent area. I saw him went to Legends in Old Burlington Street. I saw a show on the repeats of The Real McKoy on BBC IPlayer.”) going on with Torso coming out with props, which were I brought Bernard in because I saw him in his group picture frames in all these clothes dancing and doing a Shazzam and I liked his style and saw the potential. At show. I couldn’t believe the whole transformation and I first he was a bit overawed by me but he became one was in shock and thought that it was quick. That is how of my best friends, a beautiful person. it all started for them. I saw myself, my persona and everything that I’d taught them and they were doing it Who were the dancers who made up Torso? all in the show. Talk about study long and study strong. (Trevor laughs) The manager of Maunkberrys, Trevor It was Masher, Foster George, Norman and Bassey Clark used to say that they were six Trevor’s. (Trevor Walker, Dennis Elcock, Hoyle, Rommel (who I laughs) He actually ended up managing them. thought was the best) and Mohammed, who was also strong. Through Trevor Clark who used to manage Were there any mixed feelings in the way that Maunkberrys I got them their first show at one of the happened? gay clubs. I think it was Heaven and they were good.

A bit of both, obviously I was happy for them but on So when was this? the other hand they had copied what we did and were getting paid for it. Mohammed and Rommel used to be Early 1980s. in the group and I got them their first show through Trevor Clark who allowed me to use the club to teach them. I can recall going straight from rehearsal at Maunkberrys to the show and watching them perform it. Unfortunately Rommel passed away. He was such a talented individual who stood out like a sore thumb. I thought that the others in Torso left him out because he was too good. For me forget how you look it is about your talent that is what matters to me. I don’t fear anybody. If you’re good I want to work with you but egos and jealousy played a part in that scenario regarding Rommel. I ended up going back to work with them because they ran out of ideas so I choreographed them again. We were rehearsing in Embassy and I had Trevor Shakes & Travis Edwards told a guy who had impressed me in Spats (just like John Reilly had) to come and work out with us but Torso did not like the idea when he showed up and Who came up with the name? I remember Dennis Elcock voicing his opinion to me. I’m not sure. It could have been one of them or even Who else do you have memories of working with Stephanie Gluck. I used to work with her. She’s a very closely? creative woman who was more of an organiser. She Trevor Shakes & Travis Edwards

Travis Edwards, Trevor Shakes, John Reilly & Bernard Henry knew a lot of people and worked with Torso when they more. He was staying in the hotel and he told me his were under David Bell (who went under the name of inspiration for playing percussion was from watching Devon Buchanan). Yeah, he sounds like a black guy me dance. I swear he said that to me. His friend said although he was white. He claims that they were the that I used to put on a show every night. Back in those first black dance group but I’m not sure how valid that times I had stamina. I would dance from start to finish is. and I used to love to sweat, loved it. When Leon and I were abroad at the clubs we were always on the I saw old video footage where you were dancing in lookout for everything dance and fashion wise. Leon the group too. and I would always discuss before we retired to sleep what we saw. He or I would say did you see this and Yeah that was when Masher left and they must have did you see that? It could be anything we noticed and dried up creating moves and they asked me to get then we would somehow interpret it or practice until involved. It was actually quite difficult for me to adapt we made it our own, as we had that kind of mutual in the beginning. I was pivotal in getting the record psyche. deal for Torso and I remember being in the lawyer’s office when they were discussing giving us a certain I remember Leon telling me about the slow motion amount of points. I was the only one who held out dance episode. to get eight points instead of six (which the others were prepared to take) and I guess I was seen as a I was performing a slow motion move as my solo in a troublemaker. They actually made the record without show like I was running a race. That actually ended up me when I went away to work. Being honest I felt like being used in routines and footage by Torso with the there was no loyalty after all I had done for them and fighting routine. (Fitzroy: “Yeah I’ve seen that on a we did have a confrontation. I didn’t bother working few videos.”) with them after that.

When I was coming up as part of the next generation “What“What happenedhappened waswas your name was banded about so much, like as a thatthat LeonLeon andand II werewere inin aa mystique folk law figure. I never went to the clubs hotelhotel andand wewe startedstarted where you made your mark but I always wanted to doing everything see you dance because of how you were spoken about doing everything by everyone who was worth their salt as a dancer. To inin slowslow motionmotion ”” this day people still call your name. Leslie Michel said “Fitz, you just had to see him in motion.”When this is being said about you do you understand why you What happened was that Leon and I were in a hotel still resonate with so many? and we started doing everything in slow motion from in the room to walking down the stairs outside and I’ve got to be honest, you have to understand all I was giving the receptionist the hotel key all in slow motion. doing was just dancing and I got lost in the music. If (Trevor laughs) We continued the slow motion when I wanted to dance Westside Story style or dance like going into the pharmacy and the way we picked out The Nicholas Brothers I would just do it. I got to a level what we bought and gave the woman assistant the where I could do anything I wanted to, as I had no money. She responded by giving us the change back fear. I’ve jumped up and spun three times in the air in slow motion. It was incredible man. of a packed club and not touched anybody. Could you imagine that? When I was deejaying in Germany I saw Was that slow motion in the fashion show filmed? Shola who is the percussion player from Jamiroquai at the nightclub and I hadn’t seen him in a decade or Yes the show was but some of my greatest moments more. He was staying in the hotel and he told me his that have been filmed I do not have. Lindsey inspiration for playing percussion was from watching Anderson filmed me in China when I did the me dance. I swear he said that to me. His friend said Wham gig but George Michael stopped it from that I used to put on a show every night. Back in those being shown. Actually when Snowboy interviewed times I had stamina. I would dance from start to finish me for his book he told me that his Brother is in and I used to love to sweat, loved it. When Leon and charge of Lindsay Anderson’s trust and that I were abroad at the clubs we were always on the Lindsay had passed away so that maybe lookout for everything dance and fashion wise. Leon it can be recovered. I was supporting and I would always discuss before we retired to sleep Wham on my own, no group just what we saw. He or I would say did you see this and me deejaying and dancing. On one did you see that? It could be anything we noticed and occasion Jazz Summers and Simon then we would somehow interpret it or practice until Napier Bell asked me to go out into we made it our own, as we had that kind of mutual the crowd and dance. I said that I psyche. didn’t want to do that, as I was happy doing my thing from I remember Leon telling me about the slow motion the stage but they made me do it dance episode. bro and it backfired on them in a massive way. (Fitzroy: “How come?”) Remember I was performing a slow motion move as my solo in a Fitzroy, this was a historic and groundbreaking tour show like I was running a race. That actually ended up with Wham being the first western pop group to ever being used in routines and footage by Torso with the perform in China, and I went down better than the fighting routine. (Fitzroy: “Yeah I’ve seen that on a band did. I had both the managers tell me that when few videos.”) we got back to the hotel. All I remember was that I was very fatigued and weak and I had to pray to God to get “What“What happenedhappened waswas me through that show. thatthat LeonLeon andand II werewere inin aa Like I said before in this interview I didn’t know what hotelhotel andand wewe startedstarted I was doing. doingdoing everythingeverything I do remember one dignitary member of the inin slowslow motionmotion ”” audience stood up and shook my hand and everybody from right to left on this long table stood up and did the same thing by putting their hands out to shake What happened was that Leon and I were in a hotel mine. Later on in that performance I was high up in and we started doing everything in slow motion from the crowd and a guy was kind of mimicking me so we in the room to walking down the stairs outside and started dancing against each other. Then everybody giving the receptionist the hotel key all in slow motion. else stood up because I think they thought we were (Trevor laughs) We continued the slow motion when having a fight and the whole place went berserk going into the pharmacy and the way we picked out but eventually everyone realised we were dancing. what we bought and gave the woman assistant the (Trevor laughs) All that was captured on camera of me money. She responded by giving us the change back dancing for forty five minutes straight. It was such an incredible in slow motion. It was incredible man. moment. Next thing I heard in my ear was that my time was up and that I needed to get back on stage. Let me tell you when Was that slow motion in the fashion show filmed? I got backstage in the tunnel I couldn’t move for forty-five minutes, as I was completely exhausted. When we got back Yes the show was but some of my greatest moments to the hotel there was complete silence, nobody spoke to me. Everyone who had been previously friendly was This happened when you were supporting Wham in now ignoring me apart from Lindsay Anderson who China? filmed it. Then Simon Napier Bell came and told me that I went down better than the group. The promoter Yeah it was in who I was working for switched on me bro. The next Peking during the morning when I came out of the hotel there were cultural exchange fans waiting outside for me pushing and prodding in the early 1980s. me to dance for them and that didn't go down too 82 or 84 when they well with George Michael and his management. So went on tour. When for the next show they deliberately restricted me by the ‘ Wham In setting up the deejay decks in a space that I couldn’t China’ film was being cut for its final edit at Goldcrest dance in, as if I had, the records would jump. That in Wardour Street, London, the editor called me to ask is how aggrieved they were. When the tour went to me if I wanted to have a look at my dance routine America Danny John Jules and Dennis Elcock took over before he cut it out. Given that when I dance I’m in a my slot. I was later told that it was being claimed that zone and I don’t know what I’m doing, when I watched I knew what I was doing that night in China. Meaning the footage for the very first time, from what I saw, that I deliberately sought to upstage Wham. How do even if I say so myself, what I did was out of this world. they figure that out? They were the ones that had told It was one of my finest moments and I realised how me to go out there and perform! When that footage hit impactful it was and why the editor had called to me the news on CNN everyone who knew me from around to come and view it. Honestly I’m so indebted to the the world was calling me to tell me that they saw the editor who allowed me to see it because it was that clip of me dancing. It went viral. I got no coverage spectacular. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get a copy here in the UK apart from a little picture in a kid’s pop of it. I am featured for about 45 seconds dancing magazine. with people shaking my hand and hugging me in the film and credited in my mother’s maiden surname as dancer Trevor Duncan . Can you imagine how more of that footage inclusion would have elevated me? I know it sounds too fantastical but I’m telling the truth, they well and truly blocked me.

You’ve dabbled in music recording doing backing vocals for Yazz?

Yeah Leon and I met Simon Fuller and did backing vocals for some of his artists. They were in house things for Chrysalis. I walked away from all that after I saw myself looking like a ‘jiggaboo’ performing on Top Of The Pops with Coldcut and Yazz’s ‘Doctor In The House’ and also when I did the festival Baal in Italy the second time and something didn’t feel right. Jazz Summers asked me countless times to choreograph and do the tour for the ‘Only Way Is Up’ and I said no.

Tell us about when you went to Germany for twelve years in 1997. thesoulsurvivorsmagazine.co.uk clubs, bars, concerts, studios etc. A lot of creativity was happening over there and it was great. The job I must say was very easy. It was like going into a deejay retirement plan. I would start at 10pm play for fifteen minutes then a band would come on and play a forty- five minute set then on the hour I would play another fifteen minutes and the band would play another set, we would repeat this until after the 1am or 2am set on a Saturday which was usually full and I would finish up and play until we closed at 4am. While I was at the nightclub I did after parties for Michael Jackson (who George Benson & Trevor Shakes In Germany had hundreds of fans camping outside the hotel) Snoop I went to work as a deejay in the nightclub of the Dogg & P. Diddy where I got along fantastic with Kurupt exclusive Hotel Bayerischerhof in Munich that is owned from Tha Dogg Pound. We stayed open for Lionel by the Volkhardt family. Mary McCartney who was a Ritchie who came with three people. Alicia Keys who choreographer that I worked for on a regular basis came with her crew took over the stage and performed took over the running of the club and offered me the for at least four hours. It was fantastic. job of deejay along with Emily Woods who managed the Nightclub. We started together on the same night I had just bought a Kurzweil sampler and keyboard back on May 1st 1991 and that was the first stint I and I was working with a rap duo called Gypsy and did which lasted six months. I went to London with Brothers during the infancy of German Rap. I produced the intention of coming back and never returned. Six two tracks with that duo only to find out that they years later I got a call from Emily asking if I would sold the tracks without my knowledge. That led me to like the job again and I accepted it. When I arrived, start my own Company, which I registered as ‘4Real Herre Volkhardt was there to meet me with a welcome Entertainment’. Kele unknowingly provided the name sign that had my name on it and three stars. He was as she used the term ‘for real’ all the time. I now started a wonderful person to work for and made me feel to sample records and CDs and was sampling everything special until his daughter Innegrit took over just before that made musical sense to me and built up a huge he passed away. Frau Volkhardt is a lover of Jazz library of samples and sounds and started producing music and brought notable jazz artists such as George music. After numerous setbacks where I would bring Benson, Roy Ayers, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gonzalo my equipment to a studio and record my creations Rubalcaba, Dave McMurray, Daryl Jones, Joe Sample, that the studios would end up keeping I decided that Zapp Mama and so many more to the hotel to perform was it, until I met a Nigerian guy named Ade McCrae. during my time there. When I found out that Lonnie Ade was a dancer was responsible for me meeting his Liston Smith was performing in the nightclub I went friend Jorge Moura who is today my best friend. We along and was shocked and upset to find that there did a show together and became friends, making music were only a handful of people there, I even remember and he would always say to me that I should meet his a guy bringing along the ‘Expansions’ album to ask if friend who has a studio and I kept saying no, I don’t this was who was playing. trust these people anymore they really take the p***. Until one day I accepted when I heard him say that he I got some relief one day a week when I started to was Portuguese and I went along with Ade to the studio deejay over at Kunstpark Ost which was the old of his friend Jorge Moura. exhibition centre that we used to do the fashion shows at when we first came to Munich. It became a hub for I experienced a hell of a lot of racism while I was in young people and was huge, buzzing full of restaurants, Germany. Many a time I was walking along minding Left To Right Travis & Trevor

dealt with it. The deejay announced on the mic “Don’t mess with them boys from London” (Trevor laughs). I my own business and people would whisper ‘nigger’ in would be in a zone and start off doing something very my ear. That’s how blatant it was and somehow I just simple but then I would become inventive and go off sort of got used to it. into another stratosphere. Wherever I’ve been around the world everyone thought I was from the USA. They When you went to America did you get people didn’t believe me when I told them that I came from challenging you in a club? England. Once when we were in Miami we were lucky to get out of the club alive because of the way we were Not so much but people did look on and do their thing dancing. There was one stage in my life when I thought from afar. I’ll tell you that no one has challenged I could be the best in the world because I had no fear me and beat me, nobody. I remember a particular and I felt like I’d conquered everything in my genre. challenge that had me on my toes once was when we When I watch Les Twins they remind me of me but in were in Bristol performing Alton Kumalo’s play called their genre. They are incredible the way they go about City Jungle for Temba Theatre Company with Leon and what they do and take it to another level. The best I Josephine Melville. We had just finished the play and have ever seen. When Snowboy interviewed me for his had something to eat and then we went to a club. I was on book he said he went up and down the country and the the dance floor just taking it easy when all of a sudden only dancer anyone spoke about was me. I asked him, this guy just came on me and he was pretty good. I had “Really? No one else?” and he said “No.” I said “No? to step up and I found it. He caught me unaware but I What about Travis Edwards or Leon Herbert? He said, “No, I’ve never heard of them.” I told him that they you but who did you see beneath you as the next were the ones who inspired me. generation who had potential?

Are you just a natural dancer or did you take any classes?

It’s funny because I went to Pineapple Dance Studios and took a class and the teacher told me to go and do a ballet class because he didn’t think I needed to do his class. When I was with Sarah Capes’ Black Boys agency a friend of mine Oki Wambu was also on her books and we used to hang together a lot. I took him to the dance centre and he became very balletic and carried it through, going to Ballet Rambert and he became a great dancer after he graduated. I didn’t like the way I felt doing that ballet style it was more like prancing around as opposed to dancing. Going away modelling and dancing abroad also contributed to me All the people that came through me but there are too not entering that world and because Leon and I were many to name. I loved Norman Walker, he had a nice responsible for the choreographed session. We did it style, Torso, Bernard Henry, John Reilly and the one without compromise. from the Pasadenas, Jeff Brown who I’ve known for a long time and saw him coming as he worked hard at So when it comes to spinning for example and being the great dancer he became. I saw the Pasadenas learning to spot how did you master that? do one of their first shows at the WAG and thought wow that could have been Torso if they could sing. I’m not Well when you go to dance classes especially ballet saying Torso couldn’t sing because Norman and Bassey classes and you see that you learn. can sing but I thought the Pasadenas were good and I knew they were going to make it. I was also very fond of Unknown Kwantity, Vin in particular he was “I“I reallyreally a fantastic dancer. Leslie Grant who is now a badass singer, Leslie Michel and my protégé from Pakistan, learnedlearned toto Faz Khan.

spinspin naturally.”naturally.” Who are some of the artists you met?

I really learned to spin naturally. I actually remember I met Diana Ross whilst working at Manolo Blanic’s being with Voyd from Hot Gossip one day (Fitzroy: “I shoe shop off Kings Road. She came in asking if this knew her more from working at Starlight Express was the place where Bianca Jagger got her shoes from in the mid 1980s.”) and we were in Charring Cross and I served her. She had short hair at the time, no wig Station and I knocked out nine spins in one go. Back and asked my name. When I told her Trevor she said then we used to dance everywhere and anywhere that it was a very nice name and I got her autograph. (Fitzroy: “Yeah man, bus stops, train stations and I met Hamilton Bohannon on a Friday afternoon while platforms.) One thing I drummed into anyone who Crackers was going on. I was working at the Wardour was around me at that time was to practice non-stop. Street branch of Toppers where I served him. He bought a pair of shoes and I got his autograph. It was You spoke about Travis, Greg and Leon inspiring at Maunkberrys that I saw and met artists such as Nina Simone,Travis whoEdwards I would and run Trevor away Shakes, from as she used to daughter Kele used to say all the time. My long time always call me her baby and try to kiss me. When I met friend Greg and Craig’s youngest brother Giles would Marvin Gaye, boy I could not believe it. I was smoking come by my son Kane’s mother Ruby Zee‘s place in in the back yard and the manager who we called Spike West Kensington and work on music with me. Giles walked in with Marvin and introduced him to me. I just was responsible for helping Lemar very early on in his said, “Man, you don’t know what this means to me career. (Fitzroy: “I know Giles.”) I asked Kele what you’re my main man.” Marvin just kept saying thank she was up to singing wise and she told me that she you and then he gave me his small pipe and I smoked was working with some guy who had her singing the from it and we had a good chat out there. Spike took same song for a year. I decided to put Kele to work a picture of us. (Fitzroy: “Where is the picture please with Giles. He helped to develop Kele giving her, her Spike?”) I loved Marvin’s laid back sleazy music. It name. He was hard on her but it paid off. Kele started brought out the best in me. to blow up and people wanted to work with her in the USA. Kele eventually left Giles after some issues and Having become a father to your eldest daughter, madeKele herLe Rocmark. After Kele made ‘My Love’ she was in singer Kele Le Roc at fifteen/sixteen, you’ve limbo& Trevor and Shakestrapped in a contract that took her a while acknowledged when we’ve spoken that it hasn’t all to get out of. I give her props in the way she has come been plain sailing. How proud are you of Kele and back. She is a strong cookie because that experience her achievements? certainly hindered her career but she has always been doing gigs up and down the UK and the world. She has some new releases coming soon. Did Kele inherit the dancing genes?

Yeah, yeah. Kele was a dancer before she was a singer. She was going to May Dearman’s dance school and her Mum tried to get a grant for her to go to Italia Conti. She was a very good dancer but she sustained a knee injury. In fact all my kids can dance. My son Kane was brilliant, better than me. He’s that good. He did fashion shows as a model and was featured in ‘London Bridge’ by Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas video. My youngest child and daughter Mya-Lina was spinning on her head at two years old. There is absolutely no end to her talent, she models also.

I remember in 2009 I hooked you and the 2009 version of Torso to dance for Leroy Burgess in London. I asked him if he had any dancers and he I was still at school and I wasn’t in her life at all in told me no. I said, “Leroy c’mon man you need some the beginning. I wasn’t ready to become a Father. I dancers behind you.”So he trusted me to find some had some run-ins with Kele when she was younger dancers, hence you got the gig. How did you find which reminds me that I was never there for her. I the experience of dancing for Leroy Burgess at the remember when Kele first started singing. I still have Tabernacle? the recording of when she and her friend Kami came to the house after school. I was starting to make music It was the first time I had danced like that in years and I was impressed with her voice. I called my thing with my leg being so weak I could not climb the stairs 4Real Entertainment because it was a phrase that my when I got home but I did enjoy it. We rehearsed it for Kele Le Roc & Trevor Shakes

Trevor Shakes & Kele Le Roc

a certain period of time but Leroy got carried away gonna take you.” and I told him that it would never and we ended up dancing for longer (Trevor laughs). happen and it never did. (Trevor laughs) I remember It was a good experience with Masher Fontaine, Leslie us walking down Berwick Street market after Ronnie Michel, Norman Walker, Dennis Elcock, Foster George Scotts soaking wet. I was that confident and it was and I and Leslie Grant who recorded us. Unfortunately great memories. If there was a rivalry between North, two of the Torso dancers original members have South, East and West that changed when I reigned, as unfortunately passed away since, Dennis and Hoyle R I I united us all. I give respect to all the players and P. Fitzroy I personally think you should do a splash on characters that contributed as we had great times and Torso as they have their place. Yes Sir they did Studio some of us were fortunate to bring some consistency to 54 back in the day and I personally think if you do what we were all trying to do and express. I’ve heard some research you will find out that is where Michael people talking about dancing perfect but that is rare. Jackson saw Torso and got some London style. We all want to dance the best we can. Sometimes I did have some perfect nights and we were all searching for When it came to dancing in the clubs Dez always that. When you are in that state you notice everyone’s insists that East London had the best dancers. It’s weaknesses. Some people were one legged and could clear that the east London boogie style influenced only dance and do moves in one dimension. We would many in and out of London but did you feel the same have so many different ways to do the same move. way? Leon and I used to practice on both legs to make sure we were strong on both sides. You do a lot of Man I tell you Horace Carter was good. He used to give groundwork and movements with your hands and me trouble. He was from South London. He always eventually you just start experimenting and making wanted to do battle me. Other than Pinky and a few things up randomly, just going with the flow. I used to others Horace was almost like a dancing partner to me implement a lot of sports like I was running or playing but he was always trying to give me hell, but he never cricket or playing table tennis, kicking the football and achieved it. He did threaten me one time and said, “I’m riding a racehorse, seriously bro. Norman Walker, Foster George, Dennis Elcock, Leslie Michel, Masher, Trevor Shakes & Leslie Grant Torso 2009 Dancers For Leroy Burgess

Lastly as you have left such a legacy, not only as a very nice surprise. I am more than grateful that you model and a deejay but I’d say first and foremost as chose to acknowledge me. Leon and his wife come a dancer, I felt it was important back in 2017 that over with a cake that he’d made for my birthday with you should be acknowledged in our Soul Survivors some Rum and a box! Inside the box was the award Awards. You are considered to be a folk law legend that Leon had picked up for me! Now that I have the and I wanted to qualify further on a quote I gave award in my possession I can count this as my third in Pride Magazine December 1998. I was featured greatest achievement. Man it means so much and it is modelling clothes in a fashion shoot with the late so heartfelt. It was seeing Travis Edwards dance back in Steve Sutherland and Spoony, at the height of the the early 1970s who inspired me to want to dance, and ‘Twice As Nice’ album released on React. They were Carol Blair who pushed me into the deep end with the pitching the idea that we were these stylish superstar heavyweights of the dance floor at Ronnie’s! Without deejays and I had to state that there were legends that push I would not have discovered the freak in me. before us like you some twenty years prior. To my So I would just like to say thank you Fitzroy at The knowledge, you were the first, stylish, superstar Soul Survivors Magazine from the bottom of my heart. deejay, dancer and model I’d heard of. How did you feel about winning the award? Thanks Trevor it’s been worth the 12 years wait.

It’s amazing to think a decision you make or meeting One love Fitzroy. certain people can influence the course of your life in a negative or positive way! Receiving the Award was a