PETE DUCE
Pete came over from Preston with Dave Millen, David John and Fred Kelly - the original Thundermother. Mike was introduced to them by a guy who's mother lived next door, at 4 Cass Yard. Her kitchen was the other side of the studio wall. Luckily she loved the music! Her son, known as Duke, was friends with people from Preston. Mike remembers one day going over to Pete Duce's house where Pete supplied the coffee, and Mike painted a huge poster - "Holyground Records, Recording Live" for the first Clarence Park concert. It can be seen in photos, stuck to the front of the stage. While at Pete Duce's house Mike was taken for the smoothest ride you can get, in a Rolls Royce which belonged to Roy Harper, another of Pete's friends. Pete took some of the most atmospheric of the photos of Holyground. They can be found on Astral Navigations, Gagalactyca, and others of "Holygound - The Works" series.

Pete Duce writes : Ahh! Mike, what a task you ask. Wakefield and Bread Street and Cass Yard in the early ‘70’s . . . I seem to remember that you were in transition from one to t’other. It was a place to be for the Preston lads. I had a car and was available: taxi driver and music lover - end of my story. Oh! I took a few snaps –ahhh—the magnificent Leica IIIc.

It’s a bit difficult being asked to recall what we were all doing around 40 years ago. There‘s also a certain kind of fog that had drifted from our West Indian brethren in Liverpool. I’ve never forgotten those days though. We guys from Preston were all into ‘our’ sort of music, about 1963-4. We followed the line that stemmed from the blues of the Delta; Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, to the Chicago blues of Buddy Guy and the likes.

Hey, I got lucky, my girlfriend worked in a record shop. My mates, some of them the guys that wound up recording at Cass Yard, and I, used to spend hours poring over the catalogues looking for releases from Artists with ‘strange’ names. That’s how we found Howling Wolf and Muddy Waters amongst many others.

Dunno how the guys found you, but when they did, they found a home with you where they could actually hear themselves on decent playback for the first time.

That’s what made a difference.

You, my friend, were the one that made a difference to many musical lives.