RUEBEN MITCHELL

"I first realised wanted to play a guitar after going to the cinema to see Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender (1956) and later Jailhouse Rock (1957). My first guitar was an acoustic. It was bought for me by my mother and brother, who bought it between them for Christmas. I was eleven years old and we didn't have a lot of money, my father thought it was all a waste of time and said i would soon be fed up with it, but it was him who later helped me progress to an electric guitar."

Notes:

In early 1968 The Tykes changed their name to the Muffin band. “This was because we all thought it sounded better as Soul music had hit the Scene,” said Mitchell. We ran as this until the band lost keyboard player John Barns. We replaced him with another guitarist Dick Macleash. He was very good at heavy blues stuff. We tended to lean towards this, but gigs were not easy to find. The agent we were with started to lose interest in us, and this led to the breakup of the band. In December 1969, we put together Pendulum, and played our first gig in Newmarket on New Year's Eve. It was myself, Dave Bignal, the bass player and vocals, and Dave Chapman on drums. We went out as a three-piece. This was the best band I had been in since the Redbeats. We were a three-part harmony. I finally left the band in 1972 when I got married. I was replaced by Peat Gill. He was the former lead guitarist with the Prowlers, as was Dave Chapman. I left Pendulum in 1972 to get married, but the marriage didn’t last. Soon after, Patrick Murphy approached me about joining a band called The Dave Newly Set, a dance band. When this eventually broke up, Patrick suggested the idea of forming another band with himself on bass, me on second guitar and Chuck Hall on lead. Dave Newman was on drums, and that was the band Portrait. Shortly after forming, Dave Newman decided he wanted to run a disco and was replaced by Dave Beale, who also sang. This made us a four-part harmony, and Dave had a great falsetto voice. The band was quite successful locally and ran until around 1983. We did our last gig at the Ely Beet sports and social club. As it was our last gig, every musician we had ever played with turned up to mark the end of an era, all on stage for a massive group photo.

Band timeline:

The Redbeats 62-65

The Tykes

The Muffin Band ??-69

Pendulum 69-72

The Dave Newly Set

Portrait