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Hi all
I have been contacted by John Baker - ex of Graduate.
You may find the following of interest.
Regards
Chris

03/05/03 Christopher, yes I am that other elusive member of Graduate. I have been looking at your site for a while and must congratulate you on a nostalgic trip for us all. I was reading some of the comments from various people and thought you might be interested in some little known facts.

Contrary to much of what has been written in the past Roland and Curt were never at school together. Curt attended Beechin Cliff School in Bath and Roland was at Culverhay with me. My friendship with Roland began because of our enthusiasm for the school music department ran by teacher John Fenning. We both sang in the choir and played in the school orchestra, me on double bass and Roland on percussion ( Timpani and side drum). These were very happy days for both of us. One day i picked up an old guitar lying around and started playing and singing Homeward Bound (Simon & Garfunkel) Roland happenned to walk in at that moment and joined in with perfect harmony vocals. He than took over on guitar. It was obvious he had been playing for some time (we were 15 then) as his skill was apparent. We started visiting each others houses and soon built a repertoire of Beatles, Everleys, Simon & Garfunkel etc all with a very close vocal harmony and decided to look for some gigs . This was never going to be easy as we were under age and looking for pub gigs but nevertheless we found a couple of pubs in Bath, The "Trowbridge House " and the "GOLDEN FLEECE" that gave us a chance. We called ourselves the "Baker Brothers" as with our flowing locks there was some similarity, and for the next year or so before we formed Graduate we had a nice little earner going.

Curt met Roland through Paul Noble who also went to school with Roland and I. Incedently Paul now plays guitar with "Gabrielle". They frequented a youth club in Bath at age 14 and formed a band called "Duckz". They played fairly heavy rock covers (Zeppelin, Deep Purple) Line up Curt Vocals, Roland -guitar, Paul-bass and Pete Howard - drums. Pete played on a "clash" album in later life. So Roland had known and been playing with Curt for a year or so before Roland hooked up with me and discarded Electric for acoustic.

A local hairdresser (Colin Wyatt) was first to spot the potential of the "Baker Brothers" and signed us to a management deal at 16 yrs old. He found us Andy Marsden and Steve Buck, changed our name to Graduate and after trying a few bass players we ended up with Curt although as he had never played bass before, Roland and I spent weeks at his flat teaching him the parts. It was also Colin who got us the deal with Tony Hatch . Unfortunately for Colin a band decision in late 1979 just before we signed with Pye saw him ousted.

I hope this has been useful, JOHN.

I asked John a few questions & his response was as follows :

Christopher, i'll send you some more in depth stuff soon but, I have some great pics of Roland & I as "the Baker brothers" when we first signed to Colin Wyatt, and some great pics of Graduate. I have pics of Roland & I in Gilbert & Sullivan operas whilst still at school. I will try to get copies done for you. Roland was quite interested in reforming for a one-off performance for my 40th birthday a couple of years ago but we never got around to it. The Meanies have had Roland guesting a couple of times on guitar . Once , I recall was in about 1993 in Dyrham village hall near Bath. We had a lot of fun. Perhaps we will finally get everyone together for my 50th! Tony Hatch was a real pro and a gentleman. We actually could have done with a more forceful and "current" producer at the time. Someone like Steve Lillywhite etc as Tony let Roland get away with too much and we were all pretty inexperienced at that time. As far as "Troubled son" is concerned. It definitely was not us. I have always thought that it was a track from the "Graduate" record label from the Midlands in the early 80's, but it has always got mixed up with us. Anyway, as I said i'll be in touch soon

07/02/04 John has been in touch again - i have not used the ‘the Baker Brothers’ photo, the photo of Roland in the production of ‘Pirates Of Penzance’ and the photo of Curt asleep on a plane trip. Some things should remain sacred. For some other marvellous shots of Graduate click the link. Thanks again, John.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTO’S