Pop oddballs Stavely Makepeace formed around Rob Woodward and Nigel Fletcher, two Joe Meek-obsessed eccentrics whose first collaborations dated to the early 1960s. Woodward later achieved modest solo success recording as Shel Naylor and eventually staged a one-man cabaret act, whereas Fletcher passed the middle of the decade in the British Merchant Navy before returning to London after his discharge in 1967. Late in 1968 the pair revived their partnership, moving into Woodward’s mother Hilda’s Coventry house and converting her living room into a makeshift studio. They christened the venture Stavely Makepeace, recruited bassist Pete Fisher and drummer Don Ker, and issued their first single, “I Wanna Love You Like a Mad Dog,” on Pyramid Records in mid-1969.
Rough electronics, conventional and scavenged instruments, and tape manipulation quickly set Stavely Makepeace apart on the British pop scene, earning them a cult audience and the nickname “the Scrap Iron Band.” When their second Pyramid single, “Reggae Denny,” was abruptly withdrawn for unexplained reasons, guitarist and woodwind player Steve Tayton joined in early 1970; after Fisher departed, Steve Johnson took over on bass. The revised lineup debuted on the Concord label with “Edna,” a modest hit that secured an appearance on Top of the Pops. “Smokey Mountain Rhythm Revue” followed, its B-side “Rampant on the Rage” prompting Woodward and Fletcher to launch the instrumental offshoot Lieutenant Pigeon, whose personnel matched Stavely Makepeace except for the addition of Hilda Woodward on piano.
Stavely Makepeace’s 1971 single “Give Me That Pistol” vanished without impact, yet Lieutenant Pigeon’s 1972 debut “Mouldy Old Dough” became the year’s top-selling U.K. single and earned its creators the Ivor Novello Songwriting Award. The two groups operated in tandem for several more years; violinist Owen John replaced Tayton in time for Stavely Makepeace’s 1972 Spark Records release “Walking Through the Blue Grass.” “Slippery Rock 70s” came next, and after 1973’s “Prima Donna” the band sought another label, landing at Deram for “Cajun Band.” Continued public indifference led Woodward and Fletcher to shelve Stavely Makepeace after 1974’s “Runaround Sue” so they could concentrate on Lieutenant Pigeon.
Unigram Records finally issued the previously unreleased “Baby Blue Eyes” in 1977, and Barn Records followed suit the next year with “No Regrets”; neither single charted, yet both convinced the duo to revive Stavely Makepeace full-time. The 1980 Hammer Records outing “Songs of Yesterday” also failed, and after one final self-released single, “Just Tell Her Fred Said Goodbye,” in 1983, the project ended. Lieutenant Pigeon, by contrast, kept touring into the following century, while Woodward and Fletcher sustained their partnership as jingle and voice-over producers and published the joint memoir When Show Business Is No Business in 2001. Three years later RPM assembled the band’s singles on the compilation The Scrap Iron Rhythm Revue.
