Sunday 29 March 2015

123 The Coal Hole Club / The Grumbleweeds



First watched :   April 1973

I  thought  these  guys  would  be  cropping up  pretty  soon. The  Grumbleweeds  were  from  Yorkshire  and  followed  a  similar  career  path  to  The  Barron  Knights, formed  as  a  conventional  beat  group  in  1962, played  in  Hamburg  with  The  Beatles  and  switched  to  comedy  although  they  wrote  their  own  material  rather  than  rely  on  parody.  They  were  Robin  Colvill, Graham  Walker, Maurice  Lee, Carl  Sutcliffe  and  Alan  Sutcliffe. An  appearance  on  Opportunity  Knocks  in  1967  boosted  their  profile. Although  never  much  loved  by  the  critics  they  were  pretty  sharp  with  Graham  in  particular  able  to  ad  lib  on  the  spot.

They  got  their  own  25  minute  variety  show  The  Coal  Hole  Club   replacing  Crackerjack   in  April   1973. The  second  and  final  series  the  following  year   was  re-branded  The  Grumbleweeds .  I  remember  it  as  being  pretty  funny  ; whether  any  of  it  survives  I  don't  know.

The  series  disappeared  but  they  didn't. They  were  regular  guest  stars  on  light  entertainment  programmes  until  well  into  the  nineties  and  had  a  long  running  radio  show  on  Radio  Two  from  1979  to  1988. From  1983  to  1987   they  had  another  TV  show  on  Granada  but  I  don't  remember  that  at  all.  Times  got  a  bit  harder after  the  radio  show  finished. The  Sutcliffes  left  the  line  up  in  1987  and  Maurice  followed  suit  in  1998  when  Graham  developed  throat  cancer.  When he  partially  recovered  he  and  Robin  soldiered  on  as  a  duo  until  his  death  a  couple  of  years  ago. Robin  decided  to  carry  on  with  a  new  partner.

   

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