John Mclaughlin Joined the Band and We Took It Over

We got John McLaughlin on guitar and
That was the start of the band, yeah

And of course the Graham Bond Organisation was a training
Ground for a lot of people, as you say, like John McLaughlin
And Jack and yourselves to continue working at your art. Dick
Heckstall-Smith, did he figure in the Graham Bond Band at all?

Yeah, well, you see, after about three months with Graham after we'd

Left Alexis, we discovered my graph had plummeted down to twelve

Pounds a week again. And Graham had the nerve to tell me we were

Doing better than we were with Alexis. What he meant was that he was

Doing better than he was with Alexis, you see. So, we took the band
Over, you know, we had this big meeting and I'd written out three
Pages of foolscap of, you know, what was going wrong. And we took
The band over, it became a co-operative thing, we kept the name
Which was a mistake, but we kept the name. And, you know, it
Wasn't going that well. We were working a lot, but we weren't
Earning a lot of money. And McLaughlin was a terrible moaner
You know. He was everything... he was one of these people that
Everything that happened, you know, you get people like this. And
One day he was moaning at me. I was still struggling to get straight

And not feeling too clever and he moaned and I gave him the sack
Anyway. I said, "Oh, if you can't stand it, John, you better fuck
Off", you see. So, I sacked him and we got Dick in as a replacement
Dick was with the band for... right the way through from then '
Til it finished. He stayed with it longer than I did after that