The next time I went professional was in 1976 with Rusty Douch’s Wild Bunch on bass and vocals, touring the country circuit in Britain and making the Please be with Me Vinyl Album in Castle Caereinion, Wales.

I don’t have a list of the full itinerary that the Wild Bunch performed at while I was with them, although the most likely place in which the venues were recorded would be a diary for 1976, if I can only locate it. I do recall that the Wild Bunch tours included American airbases in East Anglia & a whole string of BCM (British Country Music) clubs in Devon, the Southeast, the Midlands & Yorkshire. These gigs were held in venues ranging from modest-sized local social-club halls to whacking great theatre-sized establishments.

We backed several US Country Artistes during that year including the talented Texan journalist turned songwriter, Eddie Noack, photos of whom can be seen with the Wild Bunch on the archive page of the Rusty Douch website, although simply googling his name will bring up a whole page of entries and images for Eddie Noack. a day in the life of a fool sung by Rusty on the 1976 Please Be With Me album is one of Eddie’s previously recorded songs, although Eddie flourished earlier with his popular 1950s song hit these hands, which has also been recorded by various other artistes such as George Jones in 1972.

This was followed by a year, also on bass and vocal in the New Frontier. Later in 1980 at the invitation of Rusty Douch I had another six-month touring engagement with the Wild Bunch, a publicity photo of which, is the featured image for the Wild Bunch page.