‘I’m originally from Teesside but have lived South of York for 10 years now. I had a marvellous time working the North East, the greatest training ground for anyone, but retired from the business when live backing started to be replaced with self-contained acts, my job was always to put on a show not just be a singer of songs’.

‘As well as all over the North East I worked in Australia and the cruise lines, I was voted male vocalist of the year twice in the ‘80s in the National Club Mirror awards’ said Peter.

‘I look at some of the talent now and feel sorry that they never experienced the Saturday night atmosphere of say, King Street club, North Shields. The club full at 7pm, great musicians to play for you led by the inimitable Micky Watson, what a buzz!’

‘Yes of course, there were poor nights when it didn’t all go according to plan, but hey the good times by far outweighed the bad times. I feel lucky to have experienced the golden age of clubland, there were some brilliant acts and musicians’.

Did you appear on radio or TV?

I did regular radio broadcasts from Manchester with the Northern Radio Orchestra, for TV, I was the first act to appear on London Weekend Television’s ‘Search for a Star’, there were more TV including two appearances on ATV’s ‘Starburst’, also two appearances on Granada’s ‘The Video Entertainers’ and a guest spot on ‘The Cannon and Ball show’ for London Weekend.

I did a national tour and two summer seasons with Cannon and Ball when they were at the height of their fame playing to thousands at Bournemouth and Scarborough.

There was lots of radio jingles at Metro radio and TFM (radio Tees) plus I wrote and recorded ‘Up the Boro’ for Middlesbrough football club which is still played 50 years later at the stadium!

Peter first got in touch after reading the recent Guardian Studio post (14 Feb 2024).

I first became aware of Guardian studios in the late ‘70s, I had been working at the Club Fiesta in Stockton as resident singer/compere and had just left to become ‘Peter Saint’ and start a solo career in the North East workingmen’s clubs.

One night I worked with a young band who began telling me about their recent experience at Guardian, they had just finished an album in there and were singing the praises of producer Terry Gavagahn.

I’d been doing some writing with the keyboard player at the Fiesta club, Pete Jackson, and we were looking for somewhere to do some demos so I gave Terry a ring and booked some dates.

Pity Me in Durham was a typical pit village, blink and you’d miss it. Basically, it was a row of terraced cottages and in the middle was Terry’s house – Guardian studios! The most unlikely place you could ever imagine a studio to be.

But inside it was like the Tardis, walls had been knocked down to make a decent sized recording area, there was a glass fronted control room at the back with an excellent recording desk and pro reel to reel machine.

Terry seemed like a nice guy and was very welcoming, more importantly he seemed to know what he was doing. If I remember correctly, he was quite an accomplished Rock guitarist and that was his main love, but he did a good job for us.

I think we had about three days there and ended up with some decent demos. Shortly after that I was told by my agency that Tyne Tees TV were looking for a theme tune for a new show called ‘Friday Live’. I put something together and sent it to them and was as surprised as anyone when they said “yes, we like it.”

I assumed they would organise the recording of it but they handed it all over to me and said “there’s a budget, go and do it”. I relied heavily on Peter Jackson as it needed arranging for a seven-piece band, that’s when we made the decision to go back to Guardian.

I think a few of the more seasoned session players were surprised when they pulled up at the terrace in Pity Me, but it didn’t get too cramped because we recorded the rhythm section first then overdubbed the brass, and finally layered the vocals.

Terry did a fine job and Tyne Tees were very happy with the finished track. I think he got some more work from them after that session. ‘Friday Live’ ran for nearly a year, I even got a guest spot on it.

I’ve since worked in many studios including Strawberry and A.I.R studios – George Martin’s place in London, but I’ll never forget Guardian.

What are you up to now Peter?

Right now, I sing for fun, I have taken a huge interest in guitar, play in a few different bands and enjoy singing in a local choir which performs an eclectic mix of music.

Alikivi   February 2024

Drop me a line at garyalikivi@yahoo.com if you have any workingmen’s club or Guardian Studio stories.