Zoot Money's Big Roll Band
 The
most fondly remembered London club act of the 1960s was, perhaps,
Zoot Money's Big Roll Band whose Big Time Operator was
their only Top 30 entry.
George Bruno Money acquired his stage name at his Dorset
secondary school through his verbose worship of saxophonist Zoot
Sims.
However, his jazz purity polluted by rock 'n' roll, young Money
became a fixture at pop presentations at the Pavilion on
Bournemouth pier as the South Coast answer to Elvis - though
reports suggest he had more in common with the Big Bopper.
An excellent showman, his outrage often extended after hours.
Dave Dee once witnessed him ritually hurling a faulty amplifier
into the sea after one gremlin-plagued performance.
The Big Roll Band that Zoot took to London in 1964 included
future Police guitarist Andy Summers, Johnny Almond on baritone
sax, drummer Colin Allen and bass player/second vocalist Paul
Williams.
With a blues and soul set stretching from Marvin Gaye
smoothness through James Brown panic to Rufus Thomas clowning,
keyboard pumping Zoot and his band were better live entertainers
than Georgie Fame, Geno Washington and other draws at The Flamingo
where their management, the Gunnell Brothers, established them.
Zoot's stage presence, however, has been described as being
like "a psychotic Bud Flannagan" with face-pulling,
trouser-dropping, dressing up and comedy routines (like Zoot's
Sermon and Self-Discipline) which lost him the
credibility of a Georgie Fame or Geno Washington. Zoot was a
laugh, but he wasn't cool.
When the Big Roll Band disbanded in 1967, Money and Summers
formed Dantalian's Chariot and recorded the psychedelic classic, Madman
Running Through The Fields - which was re-recorded by
Eric Burdon's New Animals which both Summers and Money joined the
following year.
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