30^th Nov 2007

The Red Suede Jacket

“The Red Suede Jacket”: Bob Hughes remembers the 1960s in Leicester. Cut into the interview is a rare track by The Farinas later to become Family, and also Country Line Special by Cyril Davies and his Rhythm and Blues All Stars (1963). The red suede jacket became a fixation for me; worn in the 1960s by John Nixon otherwise known as Jelly for reasons unknown, the jacket became emblematic of that period. Bob Hughes recalls some of the events, recorded in The Modino Cafe in Leicester which has hardly changed since the early 1960s. The Farinas were a Leicester group who later became Family. The track played here is their first and only single apart from an incredibly rare demo disc and features the harmonica playing of James King. My elder brother Jack took me to see The Farinas at The Pit which was a club underneath the notorious Bond Street Cafe in Leicester City Centre. I was probably eleven years old, still in short trousers. The Farinas were playing rhythm and blues and memorably a track about a train, with harmonica by Jim King.