Trevor Oakes | Official Showaddywaddy Web Site

Trevor Oakes - Guitars - 1973 to December 2008

Trevor Oakes was one of Showaddywaddy's founder members, being with the band since its inception in 1973. He was originally a member of Choise, one of the bands that merged with the Golden Hammers to form Showaddywaddy. He was a sheet metal worker by day and musician by night. Trevor was a prolific songwriter with Choise and wrote a number of songs that they performed in their live set.

When Showaddywaddy formed, he continued his songwriting prowess and contributed a number of the band's own songs. Showaddywaddy's own songs were always credited to all eight members, but they were mainly written by Trevor and/or Dave Bartram, with Geoff Betts (Al James) chipping in with a handful. Trevor is known to have written "Rock 'n' Roll Lady", "Lookin' Back", "I Don't Want To Dream Anymore" - his favourite self-penned song being "That's Alright With Me" which the band wanted to release as a single in 1979 instead of “A Night At Daddy Gee’s”.

Left: Performing at the Swap Shop Rock Garden Party, Jubilee Gardens in London, Spring Bank Holiday 29th May 1978. Picture copyright of Peter Lane and courtesy of www.saturdaymornings.co.uk

He also wrote and sang lead vocals on "Sympathy", a track recorded around 1986 but not released until 1990 (b-side to Rockin' & Rollin' With Santa Claus).

Trevor also performed lead on "Route 66" in the '90s, a song written by Bobby Troup but perhaps best known as being a cover by the Rolling Stones in 1964, and also covered by Chuck Berry in 1961.

Another song written by Trevor was 1981's "I Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll No More", which was released as a single by Burglar's Dog in the same year, a band featuring Bill Gask, Geoff Betts and Malcolm Allured - the song being credited to "Oakes" on the label.

As a musician, Trev played mainly rhythm guitar with the band. He also played lead on a number of tracks including "Feelin'" and the first solo in "Rock 'n' Roll Music". In the live set, he played bass on "Dancin' Party", but not on the studio version.

Trev is a supporter of Leicester City and was a keen a footballer, often playing in showbiz XIs in the '70s, '80s & '90s. Such was Trev's passion for the game, two of his sons became professional footballers (Stefan and Scott).

Left: Trev in his Choise days.

On Saturday 20th December 2008 unbeknown to Showaddywaddy fans and the rest of the band, Trevor was to play his last gig with the band at the Cheese & Grain in Frome, Somerset. This gig goes down in Showaddywaddy's history as it was also Geoff Betts' last gig before his retirement.

Early in 2009, Trevor decided to take a break from the band due to ill health. His place was taken by Leicester-based guitarist Paul Dixon, initially on a temporary basis pending Trev's return. However, it was announced that Trevor had officially retired on 1st May 2009, aged 62, 5 months after the gig in Frome and Paul Dixon became a permanent member.

Thanks for the memories Trev! Showaddywaddy fans wish you a long, happy and healthy retirement.

Catch Up with Trev - October 2014

It is approaching six years since founding member and one of the band’s main songwriters, Trevor Oakes, left Showaddywaddy, his last gig being in December 2008. I caught up with Trevor on 1st October 2014 to see how life has been since leaving the band.

“I’m very well at the moment, and living in Devon with my partner Caroline and daughter Anna. I’m still playing guitar and have done some sessions with a local band called Knocked Out Loaded. I don’t play with them regularly but do other jamming sessions in Devon”.

Turning onto Showaddywaddy:
“I was a press knife maker by trade before becoming a professional musician, which is where I met Geoff Betts. It wasn’t a hard decision to give up Choise for Showaddywaddy, but it was important to me that Showaddywaddy signed with a label that allowed us to write our own songs. I don’t remember the band’s early gigs such as Margate Ballroom or the David Cassidy tour, but I have fond memories of Glasgow Apollo – it was huge and had such a great audience. I also have good memories of playing in Cyprus at a large open-air gig at night. Top Of The Pops was hard work for everyone for just three minutes on stage. TV presenters that stick in my mind from years gone by were Noel Edmonds and Chris Tarrant – they were great presenters. I don’t listen to the band’s recordings any more but I’ve kept a lot of footage of the band from over the years – I sometimes watch it with Anna but she thinks it’s daft. I played drums on couple of TV performances – I wasn’t great, I just got by.

I played a lot of football over the years in Celebrity XI’s. I remember the actor Jesse Conrad was a good goalie. I also drove American cars during the band’s heyday, and had a Chevrolet Camaro and Cadilliac Eldorado.

I’m proud of all the songs I wrote, but some of the b-sides were a bit dicey. I didn’t write songs with a particular vocalist in mind, but I wrote Trocadero for Dave and Bill to sing together so they could both share the glory. I had a good partnership with Russ, but I played most of the rhythm. However I played the solos in “Feelin’” and Malc and Geoff’s “King Of The Jive”.

My favourite recorded SWW tracks are, “Hey Rock And Roll”, “Dancin’ Party”, “Trocadero” and “I’m Yours”, and my least favourite is “Rock ‘n’ Roll Man”. I never chose any of the covers we did. My favourite LP was “Trocadero” but I don’t really have a worst. The Sun Album was alright too wasn’t it?

I liked playing the well-known hits at gigs as everyone would dance and sing along to them, but it would have been nice to play a bit more album material. I sang lead vocals on Sympathy [b-side recorded in 1986, released in 1990], but was never really interested in singing more lead. But, I sing vocals at gigs I do now and really enjoy it. I sing “I Don’t Like Rock ‘n’ Roll No More” when I get a spot in town – this should have been a single at the time.

My high point with the band was shaking hands with the Queen Mother, but I don’t have a low point.

At the end of my time in the band, I felt I’d had enough of all the travelling and wanted to settle down and be happy with Caroline and Anna, and to be there for her as she is growing up. I don’t miss playing with the band but have lots of great memories and no bad points.

I’d like to thank all the fans for all their support over the years – love Trev”.