Lopez and the Waveriders

(c’79) Patrick ‘Paddy’ Carroll (bass/vocals), Clive Parker (drums), Martin Whittaker (guitar/vocals)

Parker, who’d played with rock n roll, show, and rocks bands on the Old Dean Estate, along with Carroll had both been in The Members. Carroll being Jean Marie “JC” Carroll’s brother, who’d joined The Members in ’77.

Their band, with Whittaker, started out as The Planets. On 19 May ’79, T. T. Transmission headlined at the Technical College, Farnborough and were supported by The Planets – a purposeful juxtaposition where the Waveriders’ well performed opening was incongruous to the audience’s prog-rock leanings. There was however another band going by The Planets moniker, and they had a record deal and a manager and a fruitless argument with that manager by Parker led to a change of name.

Initially thy changed to Walkies Talkies, then going by Lopez, a moniker under which they were supposed to support Thieves on 18 December ’79 at The Tumbledown Dick, Farnborough, but to the best of our knowledge Thieves didn’t show and the support became the headliner under the longer moniker Lopez and the Waveriders, with Matrix Numbers opening the show. The poster for this gig and many of the bands’ others were surreptitiously photocopied at RAE, Farnborough where Parker worked.

The band gigged across the area including Guildford, Bracknell, Farnborough, and Reading and they supported The Members and Eddie & The Hot Rods further afield. They rehearsed in the basement of Whittaker and Carroll’s rented house in Reading, a location that led to gigs at Bones Club, Reading as well as Bulmershe College, Reading and Northeast to Oxford pubs. They also rehearsed in the hall next to Cornwallis Primary School on the Old Dean Estate, nipping to the The Highwayman, Camberley after for a drink or three.

Not long after Lopez and the Waveriders dissolved, Parker joined Athletico Spizz 80. Big Country’s Stuart Adamson then auditioned Parker in ’81 at The Members’ rehearsal room in Ladbroke Grove, London. The next day he was called on to play on demos for CBS Records and subsequently joined the band. Parker was also a member of Scary Thieves, Kingfishers Catch Fire, Holy Trinity, Barra, and Marshall Star; and toured with Nik Kershaw, Pop Will Eat Itself, Crazyhead, and Living Colour. More recently, Parker has played in The Expressway with ex-Jesus and Mary Chain guitarist and drummer, John Moore. He went on to production and management, forming the Furry Records UK label. In ’92, Parker along with Oswin Falquero and Kasie Sharp wrote and produced Pulling the Strings, which became a minor dance hit. The Camberley lad now lives in East Sussex.

Gallery: