John Legg's page
The Early Years. Click on each picture below to see enlargement. The first person to identify John Legg in each photo wins a free trip to Legato Land.
John's story

I joined Swegas October 1969, answering an ad in the Melody Maker. My first meeting of the band was at Fulham Palace Road, in a basement below a café. Previous to joining the band I had been gigging with various soul bands, Irish show bands, Palais bands etc. but as soon as I heard the style of music I realised this was the right band for me - rock with jazz overtones. The band rehearsed hard and long before we got our first break then there was the opportunity to do a gig in Germany in early April 1970. I recall being apprehensive, as I was married and my daughter Susan was only 7 years old and I was the only wage earner. My ex wife Pat and I discussed at some length the pros and cons of whether I should continue with band but with influence from both Keith and Roy I decided that the risk was worthwhile. The band geared themselves up for the first overseas gig , Roy and Keith were to drive the van with instruments etc. and the rest of the band was to travel by train to the embarkation port. Unfortunately the weather was so bad all ferries were cancelled so we all went back home somewhat deflated and disappointed, but we now had the feel for life on the road and couldn’t wait for our next tour abroad which was to be a 10 week tour to Norway, Switzerland and Germany. When we first arrived in Oslo, we were still using music stands and reading from the written orchestrations but after about a week we realised that these appeared as barrier between the band and our audience, so a decision was made to scrap the stands and learn all the orchestrations to memory thus giving the band wider appeal. Whilst we were doing this tour the band got tighter and everyone was optimistic for the future. Life with Swegas was never easy financially and many times Nick, Keith, Roy and I would sleep either inside or under the vans, to save money to send home to our respective wives. Roy just stayed with us out of comradeship. I had been given an electric hot plate from someone and we cooked boiled potatoes, eggs etc. in the hotel room, many a time the thing would blow the fuses .. and the whole hotel was plunged into darkness. The second overseas tour was to commence with an open air concert at Lake Constance on the Swiss /German border and on the drive across Europe the red transit van [which had all gear, amps PA and instruments onboard got a puncture and we had to change the wheel but, instead of putting the punctured wheel back in its housing it was thrown in the back of the van. This had terrible consequences as when we arrived at Lake Constance the wheel had dropped down onto the handle of the rear doors and there was no way of opening them. This meant the bulkhead behind the driver/passenger seats had to be removed. There was lot of swearing from Mr. Truman. When we arrived it was a glorious sunny day and we were due to appear on stage the following day but the weather changed and rain threatened the continuance of the festival. However, everyone decided we had come this far so we would appear. The rain was literally hammering down as we got on stage but, like a miracle, after the first few bars of Planetarium the rain stopped and the sun shone. After the Lake Constance Festival we were back on the road making our way to Rome where we were to do a two week residency at the Titan club. As we had a few days before our commencement in Rome we took a detour along the Italian coast and someone decided to drive the red gear van [with gear still on board] onto the beach and, surprise, surprise when we went back to the van it had sunk into the sand. Once again the gear had to be unloaded and we had to dig the under the van and place boards under the wheels before we could free it. More expletives from Roy! [I think we spent more time pushing one van or the other than appeared on stage] we finally arrived in Rome and I think we were all impressed with this beautiful city. Whilst we there we appeared at an open air concert in the Baths Of Caracalla .This was a great gig. Looking down into audience everyone had candles or torches and the whole scene was quite awesome. There are many, many memorable gigs but I think that one will stay in my mind for a long, long time. The transit vans figure very strongly in Swegas stories, like the time we were returning home from Italy and the alternator sheered off from the engine and we had to tie a piece of string to the water pump/engine to get the van going again - but still we had no lights and so Roy and I had to follow the blue van all the way to Switzerland as we had no way of knowing where we were in the pitch black. The engine finally caught fire but by this time Roy and I were now in the blue van and no one dared wake roy to tell him..... I have lots of memories of my time with Swegas. I recall the bands humour ,which a lot. was based around the Peter Sellers album Songs For Swinging Sellers - getting absolutely legless on a catamaran in Oslo harbour, driving over the alps [2nd tour of Italy] drinking a bottle of neat pure alcohol [which Lennie had stolen from a hospital he had been working in] and gazing down the mountain side with a sheer drop along side completely oblivious of the consequences should we go over the side ...... as it says in the song - regrets I’ve had a few but there again too few to mention. When the band finally folded it was very sad as we had all put so much time and effort into it. I kept in touch with Roy and Keith and we did a few gigs together with Preston Hayman on drums, one particular gig we did was at the Waterboard Social Club in Surbiton, Surrey where apparently we are still held in great affection. I then joined some of the former members of the Foundations and worked with them for a while, then joined Freddie Mack’s soul extravaganza, toured them for a couple of months, then took a 3 night residency with an Irish show band at the all Irish club in Kilburn. Whilst I had been playing with Swegas I had also been doing a bit of driving for a small newly found company called Starpoint who were supplying components to the newly licensed gaming machine manufacturers. The owners of the company asked if I would consider joining them in this venture and after careful consideration of my financial situation I agreed. I was with Starpoint for about 16 years. In 1986 we sold to a large electronics company and decided to move to South Wales to start all over again. With great success - I became chairman of a group of companies and sold these in 1997 to retire. After a short while I got bored with playing golf 4 days a week and so decided to buy a restaurant/bar which I turned into a line dancing venue. This was great until we lost our entertainment licence. Business dropped off so I sold this during 2002. I have now gone back to my first love of playing music, working with many big bands and small jazz ensembles.
And still in action

He looks more hip now than in 1970!