A RAVE report on the agony and the ecstasy of being GARY TAYLOR, bass guitarist of Britain’s most popular young group, THE HERD, and currently pin-up boy in his own right of today’s rave scene.

Published in RAVE magazine August 1968

Gary Taylor: Insights into the Life of a Herd Bass Guitarist | “THEY scream at us now, because we’re the ‘In’ group to scream at, but next month it’ll be someone else.” Tall, blond and sensitively good-looking, Gary Taylor of the Herd has no illusions about the world of pop.

I met Gary in a London pub and it was soon apparent that he’s warm and generous, thoughtful even towards his parents!

When they first heard I was going into pop my parents were horror-struck. I can understand it now. I mean I was sixteen and naive. I was often out all night with my mates and they didn’t know where I was. They finally came round when we made our first hit. At least we were making some money!”

The group is now at the top of the scene but it took years of hard grind. Gary laughed when I asked him what he did with his money. “What money? I have trouble paying my milk bill! Its a fallacy that groups make so much. You know, when you start you get up to your necks in debt—literally thousands.

Transport, hotels and everything. You spend years paying it back. Still, it’ll be different when we start to get some money back on our first records. I’ve never starved, but I can imagine!”

Gary Taylor: Insights into the Life of a Herd Bass Guitarist

At twenty, Gary loves his work, and really wants to make it as a performer, but some things about the pop scene niggle him. “I mean I admit I like kids screaming it’s part of the business—and I know I often egg them on. But sometimes kids go daft.

Some bird phoned me up at three in the morning the other day. I crawled out of bed to answer the phone and when I asked if she knew what the hell the time was she just giggled and said: ‘Oh, is it that late!’ I told her, ‘Forgot it baby, bye’, and hung up. Yes, sometimes they’re inconsiderate and very fickle. It’s us now and someone else next week.”

What about drugs, did the publicity about pop groups and pot worry him?

“No, it’s died off a bit now, and when the noise was on we weren’t really on the scene so it didn’t affect us. “Some people say they need a stimulant to keep them going. Well, all I can say is if we worked so hard we felt we needed drugs then I’d say we should pack up—give it a rest for a while.

“I had a drink spiked with LSD once. I didn’t know they’d done it. God! I had hallucinations, nightmares all night. I was terrified.”

Although he’s one of a group, Gary thinks of himself very much as an individual. “I do care about the group and I want to be a success, but you know, in about three years, when we can go no further together, then I don’t really think we will hesitate about going our separate ways.

Gary Taylor: Insights into the Life of a Herd Bass Guitarist

“I live alone in my flat; I don’t think I could bear to share it, at least not with another fellow. I sometimes eat out and sometimes cook at home. I’m an expert egg boiler and can cook chickens and things. I’m no gourmet but I get along.”

Life is hectic, but Gary doesn’t look any the worse for it. Apart from the three or four nights a week spent playing there are time-consumers like recording and photograph sessions—”Ugh! How I hate having photos taken.”

Gary has a theory: You can’t have a hectic job and a hectic social life, so he tries to get a reasonable amount of sleep. He finds it a real pleasure just to sit back, relax, and watch T.V.

In his spare time he goes skating and sometimes bowling. Once a month he visits his parents. “I have a really close relationship with them. Not just since I left home, but always. You know, I never went through one of those ‘I hate parents’ phases, probably because my mother’s only twenty years older than me and she understands.”

Gary likes girls but doesn’t think it’s fair to get too serious. “I don’t think it’s right to have a steady girlfriend and expect her to sit at home pining while I have a good time flitting round the country.”

Being in a group has, its problems. Gary doesn’t like girlfriends ogling him simply because he’s in pop. “I want somebody intelligent I can talk to. It upsets me sometimes. It’s the same with blokes I was at school with. Four of us were really close and had some great times. Now we just can’t communicate.

At first they thought I was nuts going into pop, now they look at my long hair and there’s a barrier. It’s terrible. “Marriage? It all goes back to the ‘same thing. I don’t really want to marry while I’m in pop, running round the world. Still, I suppose if it happens it happens. I don’t think there’s any ideal time. just when two people fall in love.

Gary Taylor: Insights into the Life of a Herd Bass Guitarist

“Marriage worries me because of children. I want children but I don’t think I could give them the security. One is surrounded by temptation in this line.

“I don’t really think our generation will make any better parents, or will be any more broad-minded than those of the past. I know if I had a daughter I would worry about her just as much as my parents worry about my sister—it’s natural!

“If one of my kids wanted to go in for pop, really wanted to, the way I did, then I wouldn’t stop them. I know if anybody had stopped me I’d have hated them. Music was the only thing I was really good at at school. I enjoyed playing the guitar and singing—they’d have gone nuts if they had known what I was going in for!

“I did want to act—I still do. I was going to try to get into RADA, but when one of my mates, who was great, got turned down I didn’t think it was worth trying. I still like going to the theatre.

“In the near future we’re bound to make a film—one of those ghastly group films which I absolutely hate. But at least it’s a start.”

keen on fashion

Gary was dressed in a bright turquoise shirt, his mop of fair hair licking over the open neck, a super grey waisted jacket flung over his shoulders and—out of keeping with the rest of his gear—a pair of velvet trousers.

“You keen on fashion?” I asked.

“Yes and no. On stage I am. I wear things that are attractive and I think suit me. I design them myself and have them made up. Off-stage I’m an old scruff bag!”

“Why the velvet trousers?” I asked.

He laughed: “Simply because my other two pairs are at the cleaners.”

Off the scene what kind of music does he like?

“I enjoy pop very much. I don’t know, it depends on the time of day and the mood I’m in. Some jazz, but I’m not a raving jazz fan. I like Sinatra and think Scott Walker’s great. Un-obtrusive mood music at night.”

What of the future? Gary thought for a moment before replying: “Well, Ideally I’d like to be an all-round entertainer. To be able to keep several hundred people amused for an hour or two hours would be great!” (Diana Smurthwaite)

Further reading: Peter Frampton in RAVE magazine