I’m sure like for many parents and grandparents this week has been a series of mixed emotions. Thursday meant a trip at lunch time to pick up one set of grand children as they left nursery for the last time before returning in September to full time school in reception. That afternoon I was there to cheer on another as she left the Infants department as next year she will be in the juniors.
The afternoon pick up was even more emotional as the whole school had turned out to provide a ‘guard of honour’ for those leaving for the final time as they headed for secondary school next term. The sun was shining, there was party music playing and as the ‘Leavers 2026’ ran through the crowd of younger kids, wearing their school polo shirts covered in scribbled names and well wishes, some of the teachers let off confetti bombs. The kids’ faces were a picture. Smiling, laughing and enjoying this rite of passage.
I don’t think I was the only ‘grown up’ having trouble keeping it all together. When you see people every day it’s hard to notice the subtle changes taking place. We do our best to keep some sort of record.
We mark their height on door frames, we keep clothes that once fitted perfectly but that now look tiny when held up against the child. Once we got home we looked through pictures of years gone by to see how the children had changed over time. We want them to grow strong and learn and develop but we still hanker for the days when they were small and needed us more.
For me there was another moment that underlined the passing of time. It was back on 17th July 1973 that my life changed forever. That was the day my first session was broadcast on the John Peel Top Gear Show on BBC Radio 1. It wasn’t long before the wheels started turning and I was signed to Elton John’s Rocket Record Company.
It was during the school summer holidays that John Peel’s Producer John Walters came to Swansea accompanied by Steve Brown who ran Rocket Records. Steve wanted to record all of my songs to date but couldn’t find a recording studio in the area. In the end he brought a Revox Reel To Reel Tape Recorder which we set up in a make shift classroom at my dad’s School in Cwmbwrla.
Steve came armed with all of the Elton John albums to date and the most precious of them all was the eponymously titles album ‘Elton John’. On the back sleeve there was a line-up of some of the people instrumental in bringing the record to life. On the far right was Steve Brown. Standing next to him was the exotically named Caleb Quaye. As I worked my way through the catalogue I devoured the credits and time and time again Caleb’s name stood out.
Over the years I would meet so many of Caleb’s friends and colleagues. Most worked at Rocket Records, but I never met him. The closest I got was the Cardiff Capitol on 3rd June 1976. Elton had put together a new bigger band and brought Caleb into the line-up. He was exceptional that night. As we waited for the post show meet and greet it soon became clear that Caleb had already left the building. When that Elton John band came to an end I would see Caleb’s name turn up playing for other super groups including ‘Hall and Oates’ but then he seemed to disappear.
This week I finally managed to have that chat. Caleb’s life has taken many twists and turns, and that journey has now been documented in a film of his life, ‘A Voice Louder than Rock’.
Our zoom call was booked for late afternoon as these days Caleb lives as he has done for 20 odd years in Southern California. These days he’s still playing in bands and recording sessions, that’s when he’s not acting as pastor or worship leader in his local church!!!
For the first part of the interview we went back in time. Caleb’s relationship with his father had been strained. Cab Quaye had been a famous musician performing with the Billy Cotton Big Band. It would appear that Cab’s career was all consuming. He had a collection of instruments that no one was allowed to touch.
Caleb recounted an annual story when around his birthday his father would ask him what he wanted as a present. Every year he would say a guitar. Year on year he would end up disappointed. Finally his father relented and took him to a second hand store in London where he bought the cheapest guitar they could find. When they got home his dad showed him some chards and told him from then on he was on his own. Within a few weeks Cab Quaye had left the family home forever.
Caleb left school as soon as possible and got a job delivering sheet music in Tin Pan Alley. Someone mentioned that Dick James, the Beatles Publisher, was looking for an office boy. He went for an interview. Once Dick James recognise the unusual surname the doors swung open. Dick had worked with Cab Quaye and that meant the job was Caleb’s.
Caleb was soon running the DJM Studios and that was where he met Reg Dwight. In our interview he described Reg as a ‘Billy Bunter’ character who wanted to be a star. Reg soon change his name to Elton John. Caleb was there for him recording his early demos even playing guitar live in those early Elton gigs.
Caleb shared stories of those exciting days in the music business through the 60’s and 70’s working with the likes of Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. By the 1980’s Caleb was on top of the world and completely lost. He recounted the story of how the band he was playing with at the time burst into his room with a birthday cake and drugs. As the party ended and sitting alone in his room he heard a voice telling him…
“Caleb, it’s time for you to come home to me today. I have a new life for you.”
It took some time for Caleb to work out exactly what those words meant but as I looked at Caleb on screen I saw a man at peace with himself.
Years later, as the pastor of a church, he got a call from Amsterdam. It was his father telling him that he had been diagnosed with cancer and was essentially saying goodbye. Caleb said he would get the whole church to pray for him and within weeks his dad had entered remission. A little while later Cab travelled to be reconciled with his son and after finding faith himself Caleb told me he had the honour of baptising his own father, the man he and his family used to call the monster.
Caleb is still busy and spends a lot of his time promoting his award winning film ‘A Voice Louder Than Rock’ which is available on all good streaming platforms. The podcast we recorded is also available online.