04/11/12 -

This very sad news has rocked me to my foundations. Please thank Mart Rodger for letting us all know via your site. Word of mouth doesn't necessarily work nowadays, as there isn't a joined-up scene, as in the good-old-days, except when we all meet up on such sad occasions as this, to see our dearly departed friends off. I haven't a great deal to write here. I never knew anything about his private life or about his family, but always thought the world of Pete Staples as a warm, friendly person, a great Jazz mate and a fabulously inventive and all-round drummer. He could be utterly unintrusive when the Jazz mood demanded it, or as brash or as large as life when that mood presented itself in the music. But, in my estimation, he was a top-flight performer with highly professional approach to his finely tuned craft. I'll try to say as much as I can muster off the top of my head.

Pete was the sort of person you expect will live forever; always jovial, full of jokes, and forever giving the impression that he didn't have a care in the world; although, of course, everyone realised that he cared a great deal about his Jazz and his drumming, and people. I first came across Pete, in the late 50s and early 60s. He was with the Red River Jazz Band then. Then for a long time during the 60s and 70s he was with the various Gordon Robinson outfits, helping Gordon to win Jazz awards up and down Britain and in Montreux, Switzerland. One very amusing incident occurred when the band was at the Montreux Jazz Festival. One of the Swiss organisers, who was liaising with the sound engineers, arranging the continuity between bands, asked Pete at what point Gordon's band was going to be ready to step out on stage. Pete replied, in his broad Stockport brogue:

"Just give us the wire, cock!"

The Swiss organiser is probably still asking himself what this meant? To Pete, the tune "Strangers in the Night" translated as "Strangers in My Pint" and "Stranger on the Shore" became "Stranger on the Floor". There were many more.

During the mid-70s, he and the late Pete Taylor (bassist) were chosen to back blind pianist Eddie Thompson at Friday sessions at the Warren Bulkeley Hotel in Mersey Square, Stockport. Eddie won the BBC's Pianist of the Year Award during that decade, and was without a doubt one of the finest Jazz pianists in this country, featured many times in the USA Jazz circuits. His stature in Jazz was very high. It was certainly the right choice to have head-hunted these two fantastic sidemen; not just for Eddie, but for the hundreds of fans that the Trio would eventually gather in. Although Pete didn't read drum music, Eddie saw in Pete that he had an all-time winner. Of course, Pete Taylor was no slouch either, and when Eddie frequently, unexpectedly and drastically changed key in the middle of a tune - sometimes 3 or 4 times in the one tune - Pete Taylor changed key with him in a split second, even if Eddie hadn't annouced the change. The same applied to any percussion rhythm, as mentally dictated by Eddie, often giving no signals. Pete Staples would pick it up immediately. The Eddie Thompson Trio (with the two Petes) also panned out in various directions, playing at other venues mainly in the North West, sometimes augmenting to quartets, quintets and sextets, using many of us on the scene who played - dare I repeat myself? - Mainstream. Multi-instrumentalist Dave Mott, was one such men Eddie would pick; there were also John Rowland (tpt), Randy Colville (reeds), Ken Wray, and occasionally even little old me - in my case probably out of pity!

But the sessions at the Warren soon became even more frequent; Eddie being such a great crowd-puller, the two Petes also building up their own fan base. At the end of the 70s and into the 80s, the E. T. T. always with the two Pete's in tow, played frequent electrifying sessions at the Birch Hall in Lees, as the Warren sessions were coming to an end with all the architectural face-lifts going on in the Mersey Square area, which eventually produced the Merseyway Precinct. The building is still there. Although he played with many other bands and combos of varying personnel, this just about brings us up to the time when Pete joined Mart and the boys in Manchester Jazz. We all know what a great band it became and continues to be; Pete's contribution added to that great quality by immesurable amounts, year by year. Mart is the best person to fill Pete's thousands of fans in about that period.

Please pass my deepest condolences to Pete's family and his closest friends. They are surely in the thoughts and prayers of all of us at this time; please also leave them with the comforting thought that Pete Staples lives on through many a recording to be heard and admired for many years to come.

You made this world a happier place, with your musical talent and your great sense of humour. May you rest in eternal peace, old mate.

Joe Silmon-Monerri

04/11/12 -