Licorice Soul Records

Bob Rogers came out of the RAF after the war and spent a couple of years with Mike Daniel's Delta Jazz Band with George Melly before joining the Ted Taylor Four on the Mecca dance hall circuit. They wanted a London base and so moved into the nightclubs of the capital in the 1950s, and in between played the American air force bases around Britain, where Bob gained his first experience of early rock & roll records. In those days the guitar was a novelty instrument, and Bob cultivated his own distinctive sound by adapting the poor British made guitars that were the only ones available at the time.

Good fortune fell on the Ted Taylor Four when they landed the slot as house band on Cliff Michelmore's Tonight programme on the BBC, in residence for over two years for over 200 shows. Being a natural music reader Bob soon found himself featuring on many other TV and radio slots, such as a spell in the John Barry Seven on the pop TV showcase Six Five Special.

Session work started rolling in for Bob too, and he graced sides by the most famous names of the early 1960s, such as Adam Faith and Freddie & the Dreamers.

After years of studio work Bob again began to mix in live gigs at The Jack of Clubs in Soho, where London's stars and gangster fraternities would mingle freely in the wee small hours. Ted Taylor's departure into full time production with CBS left Bob at the helm of the band which thus became Sounds Bob Rogers. He developed it as a vocal group, and was soon in constant demand by the BBC for a wealth of radio broadcasts and a CBS recording deal beckoned, but never led to sales.

In the late 1960s, a residency at Combe Haven Caravan Park in Hastings on the south coast was commenced, playing to audiences of over one thousand happy campers. Sounds Bob Rogers proved to be a huge success and David Kenney, owner of Combe Haven, suggested and financed album sessions at Pye studios, comprising material from the regular set.

After a hard three hours' toil in the studio the engineer stated that they were just a couple of minutes short of a full album in the can and so the band (Bob Rogers on guitar, Len Clarke on drums, John Smith in organ and Ron Seabrook on bass - June Lesley featuring on vocals for the remainder of the set) busked away until the engineer told them to stop - the results of which are manifest in "Meadowbank" - an entirely spontaneous composition, with Len's shouted vocal adding a touch of levity to the proceedings.

A total of approximately three and a half thousand copies were manufactured and were exclusively available either from Combe Haven Caravan Park or at Sounds Bob Rogers gigs.

Throughout their career, Sounds Bob Rogers recorded a total of eleven albums for a variety of labels, but these were never the bands' motivation. They toured the cabaret circuit extensively throughout the 1970s, playing up to three hundred shows a year.

The demise of the cabaret circuit is far from the end of the story for Bob Rogers; out of the blue, the phone rang - a production company was seeking the oldest, most decrepit backing crew they could find and soon both he and Ron Seabrook found themselves as part of the Skinnerettes - house band to Frank Skinner on his ITV chat show.

A run of nine series since 1997 has seen Bob accompany the likes of Elton John on the show. Now in his 80s, Bob Rogers is known to millions.