From left to right...
Norman Smeddles - Joan O’Neil - Val Smeddles - Colin (Syd) Maddocks
At the end of 1969 following the break up of their band, The Pattern People, Norman and Val went into a small studio in Liverpool and recorded eight songs which Norman had written.
Val and Norman travelled to London in their tiny little Fiat 500 and pitched the songs to every record company that was prepared to listen.
Whilst they waited for answers they came back to Liverpool and, with the aim of creating an English version of the Mamas and the Papas, they recruited Colin and Joan. The band played live all over Merseyside performing their own songs and one or two covers of Mamas and Papas and Joni Mitchell songs.
In the subsequent weeks offers came in from a number of companies.
The band signed contracts with Feldmans (then Bob Dylan’s publisher) to write and record.
In the autumn of 1970 the band’s first single, "Riding a Carousel", was released on the Phillips label.
The record racked up a huge amount of radio plays although sales didn’t quite lift the record into the top 20. In those days it was called a ‘turntable hit’
The band also landed their first TV show, the prestigious "Harry Secombe Show" on the BBC and were immediately booked for the ITV's "The Jimmy Tarbuck Show" and "The Jimmy Tarbuck Christmas Show" with Lulu and the late Kenny Lynch.
Kenny even loaned the band his London house to live in whilst they were in London.
The BBC booked the band for countless radio shows such as "Country Meets Folk", "The Jimmy Young Show", "The Tony Brandon Show"" and ITV booked the band numerous times for their weekly pop chart show "Lift Off".
Another highly prestigious TV show followed when they were booked for "The Benny Hill Show", where they performed solo and also taking part in sketches with Benny Hill.
Following one of their live appearances back in Liverpool they were approached by John Gorman and Mike McCartney to appear with "The Scaffold", who were riding high in the charts with ‘Lily the Pink’ and ‘Thank You Very Much’ .
It was the beginning of a long relationship with the Scaffold which took Petticoat and Vine all over the country as part of the Scaffold’s hilarious revue show and included appearances at the Edinburgh Festival, The Library Theatre Manchester, numerous universities and a Command Performance at The Liverpool Empire in front of HM The Queen.
Roger McGough, of The Scaffold, introduced the band to the playwright John McGrath with a view to the band providing the music for a play commissioned by the Liverpool Everyman Theatre.
The result was ‘Soft Or A Girl’ the most successful musical that the Everyman has staged, with Petticoat and Vine writing and performing all the music onstage each night as an integral part of the play.
The success led to another John McGrath musical the following year ‘The Fish in the Sea’.
The plays starred some notable actors including Jonathan Pryce, Sir Anthony Sher and Alison Steadman.
Norman and Val took ‘Soft or a Girl’ to theatres across the country including Nottingham Playhouse and Sunderland Municipal.
More work with The Scaffold followed and in particular John Gorman’s "PC Plod" Comedy in which Val starred as WPC Hodges and the "Grimms" tour with Brian Patten, Zoot Money, Neil Innes and Paul Jones.
By 1974, following numerous personnel changes, Val and Norman formed a new and very different band called "Champagne" which went on to be very successful in it’s own right.
Despite this the name of Petticoat and Vine was preserved and Val and Norman have used the name for their original writing projects.
Joan continues to perform and is the proud mum of Spice Girl "Sporty Spice", aka Melanie Chisolm.
Colin (Syd) continues to perform and also established, in 2010, Grateful Fred's Americana, Roots and Acoustic Nights.
In late 2019 Val, Norman, Colin and Joan got together to rehearse for a possible live performance in early 2020 to celebrate 50 years of Petticoat and Vine.
Norman is also writing new material for possible future recording.
Norman Smeddles - Joan O’Neil - Val Smeddles - Colin (Syd) Maddocks
At the end of 1969 following the break up of their band, The Pattern People, Norman and Val went into a small studio in Liverpool and recorded eight songs which Norman had written.
Val and Norman travelled to London in their tiny little Fiat 500 and pitched the songs to every record company that was prepared to listen.
Whilst they waited for answers they came back to Liverpool and, with the aim of creating an English version of the Mamas and the Papas, they recruited Colin and Joan. The band played live all over Merseyside performing their own songs and one or two covers of Mamas and Papas and Joni Mitchell songs.
In the subsequent weeks offers came in from a number of companies.
The band signed contracts with Feldmans (then Bob Dylan’s publisher) to write and record.
In the autumn of 1970 the band’s first single, "Riding a Carousel", was released on the Phillips label.
The record racked up a huge amount of radio plays although sales didn’t quite lift the record into the top 20. In those days it was called a ‘turntable hit’
The band also landed their first TV show, the prestigious "Harry Secombe Show" on the BBC and were immediately booked for the ITV's "The Jimmy Tarbuck Show" and "The Jimmy Tarbuck Christmas Show" with Lulu and the late Kenny Lynch.
Kenny even loaned the band his London house to live in whilst they were in London.
The BBC booked the band for countless radio shows such as "Country Meets Folk", "The Jimmy Young Show", "The Tony Brandon Show"" and ITV booked the band numerous times for their weekly pop chart show "Lift Off".
Another highly prestigious TV show followed when they were booked for "The Benny Hill Show", where they performed solo and also taking part in sketches with Benny Hill.
Following one of their live appearances back in Liverpool they were approached by John Gorman and Mike McCartney to appear with "The Scaffold", who were riding high in the charts with ‘Lily the Pink’ and ‘Thank You Very Much’ .
It was the beginning of a long relationship with the Scaffold which took Petticoat and Vine all over the country as part of the Scaffold’s hilarious revue show and included appearances at the Edinburgh Festival, The Library Theatre Manchester, numerous universities and a Command Performance at The Liverpool Empire in front of HM The Queen.
Roger McGough, of The Scaffold, introduced the band to the playwright John McGrath with a view to the band providing the music for a play commissioned by the Liverpool Everyman Theatre.
The result was ‘Soft Or A Girl’ the most successful musical that the Everyman has staged, with Petticoat and Vine writing and performing all the music onstage each night as an integral part of the play.
The success led to another John McGrath musical the following year ‘The Fish in the Sea’.
The plays starred some notable actors including Jonathan Pryce, Sir Anthony Sher and Alison Steadman.
Norman and Val took ‘Soft or a Girl’ to theatres across the country including Nottingham Playhouse and Sunderland Municipal.
More work with The Scaffold followed and in particular John Gorman’s "PC Plod" Comedy in which Val starred as WPC Hodges and the "Grimms" tour with Brian Patten, Zoot Money, Neil Innes and Paul Jones.
By 1974, following numerous personnel changes, Val and Norman formed a new and very different band called "Champagne" which went on to be very successful in it’s own right.
Despite this the name of Petticoat and Vine was preserved and Val and Norman have used the name for their original writing projects.
Joan continues to perform and is the proud mum of Spice Girl "Sporty Spice", aka Melanie Chisolm.
Colin (Syd) continues to perform and also established, in 2010, Grateful Fred's Americana, Roots and Acoustic Nights.
In late 2019 Val, Norman, Colin and Joan got together to rehearse for a possible live performance in early 2020 to celebrate 50 years of Petticoat and Vine.
Norman is also writing new material for possible future recording.
