Joe James was the drummer with Red Ellis and Zero Zero, two massive bands from the Glasgow area in the 70s and 80s. he played at The Loch Lomond festival in 1980, The Kelvingrove Festival and many of the main live music venues throughout the UK.

Joe was always a good support to this site through the years and his help with the Red Ellis and Zero Zero pages was invaluable and very much appreciated, this is his interview from 2007.

Sadly Joe Passed away in 2025.

RIP Joe.

JOE JAMES INTERVIEW 2007

How did the band come about?

Like most bands Red Ellis was formed by a bunch of friends who shared the same taste in music. Led Zepplin, Free, Bad Company, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple and Jimmy Hendrix were key influences. At the time both commercial punk (U2, Blondie and The Police) and new wave (Bebop Deluxe, OMD etc) were well established and from America traditional Blues (Jonny Winter) and new writers like Tom Petty and sometime E Street band guitarist Nils Lofgren had an impact on what we were listening to. we were lucky that most of these bands would come to Glasgow to play the Apollo. Alex Harvey, Frankie Miller and Nazareth were recognised internationally and we felt that AC/DC were as good as a Scottish band. Runrig were doin’ it for the more traditional audience and new bands like The Skids, Simple Minds and Big Country making some commercial success.

Who else was around the music scene?

Sound Control, the music store, came out of an association with Dunfermline bands like Big Country. In Glasgow McCormack’s were well established as the key music store in the city. Locally, The Hamilton Music Centre and Magnum Sound in Wishaw were good outlets too. For drummers Bradley’s Music was the place, and based in the Salt Market, new boys CC Music who also had a shop in Perth supported the growing scene. There was also a small number of PA hire business and Lighting riggers working in and around Glasgow. Recognition must be given to the pub owners that supported the bands, The Dial Inn, The Burns Houff and Tommy McGuinness at the Heathery bar in Wishaw. At the time it didn’t seem significant but Radio Clyde with John McCalman and Richard Park and the JD Tom Russell put a great effort into supporting local talent.

When did you start and who was in the band?

Red Ellis started in about 1976/1977 and was based in Viewpark in Uddingston. Chick McSherry on Guitar, Joe Cochrane on Vocals, David Sweet (from Hamilton) on Bass, the youngest member, drummer Joe James, was the last to join the band at age 14. After a few years Chick went off and set up La Paz with Dougie White (who later went on to sing with Rainbow?), we recruited Ian Harris from Easterhouse and our roadie Jim McCelland joined as a second guitar player. in the beginning big Mick Taylor, Benny Mulrane, Tam Dowdles and techno soundman Tommy Quinn came along to drive and roadie for the band, later John Halcrow from Cumbernauld and Davie Wilkie from Coatbridge and local boy Stef McCormack were instrumental in helping and supporting the band.

Can you remember your first gigs?

We used to rehearse at Robertson Park in the changing hut of the local football team, Thorniewood United. Apart from birthday parties and local concerts our first proper gig was in the Holy Cross School in Hamilton in about 1977/78, we did a couple of shows at Glasgow University and some other school concerts around the same time. we played many gigs in partnership with The Henry Gorman Band for some reason, Chick seemed to know Henry quite well, these including the Queens Hall in Dunoon, the Victorian Carriage in Greenock and Davie Jones Locker in Gourock. Danny Gallacher a colourful Glasgow business-man managed the band at that time. we played in and around usual haunts and we also used to go and see other bands when we had the chance. Scheme at a pub down on the clyde-side on Saturday afternoons, Wednesday nights at the Dial Inn to see wee Henry (Gorman) was the big night. I seem to recall you had to be in by about 6.30pm or you couldn’t get a seat. Many Glasgow bands would play the US Navy bases in Dunoon and up in Edzel near Aberdeen as the cash was good and you had to change your pounds into dollars to get served at the bar.

Did you play outside of Glasgow?

Thanks to my brother, who worked on a farm in Aberdeenshire, we got some early gigs at The Boar’s Head (AKA the Whore’s Bed) in Laurencekirk, The Royal Hotel in Wick and we also played a lot up in Thurso and Dornoch, this must have been about 1978/79. These were just the best times, I would finish school and we would leave Glasgow in the afternoon and would roll up to The Boars Head at about 6pm. We’d set-up and sound check, quick bite to eat wash and change and then Party Time! Because not many bands would travel we were looked upon as close friends and so the once a month gigs were just a blast. The folk that would come along would be mostly from a farming background or from the base at RAF Edzell, they worked hard and didn’t want any prissy, pretentious stuff, they just wanted a good old rock and roll show – and that’s what we did. There would be lots of girls, lots of beer, local wives and girlfriends would arrange to have hen nights on the nights we played, I’m sure there must have been drugs as well but I was a bit young. we would play two sets of an hour and a half and that after a break we would get back up and play long into the night we loved it. Because it was a small village the Police would kind of know everyone, there was never any trouble. On the Saturday and Sunday afternoons there would sometimes be a jam-session where local musicians would come and join us for a song or two. I’m not making this bit up...  I recently had a look on line to see if I could find out if the Hotel is still there or to get some images and on the news page of www.laurencekirk.info I found the following: “New coffee shop - open! - 01/05/2007. Recently a coffee shopped opened it's doors to the public. The shop is called ‘Muffins’ I believe. To quote a friend, ".. it is sooooo good..". Same bunch of folk but ‘Muffins in Laurencekirk’, I guess has a more mature meaning these days!

ocally we built up a small following of bikers. We played in “The Tower’ and ‘The Salmon Leap’ in East Kilbride, a biker pub, and as a result people like Russell ‘Flem’ Fleming and Ian ‘Gassy’ Gaston and their mates use to travel to see us and use it as an opportunity to take their bikes out for a run.

You played some festivals and supported Frankie Miller and Thin Lizzy- tell me about that?

In 1980 Red Ellis opened at the Loch Lomond Rock Concert. The complete bill was - on the New Wave show on the 21st June (in no particular order) was: The Chords, Bad Manners, The Cuban Heals, The Only Ones, Ra Bears, The Regents, Stiff Little Fingers, The Tourists and The Jam The, 22nd was the Rock Day and featured: Red Ellis, Henry Gorman Band, Wilde Horses, Lindisfarne, Ian Gillan Band, Krokus, The Denny Laine Band, Saxon and Wishbone Ash. Unlike festivals today when groups helicopter in to play their set and are off to do another gig at night, all the bands just hung about backstage, shootin’ the breeze, drinking and catchin’ up. Because we were a young band we were drawn to the other Scots, particularly Jimmy Bain and Brian Robertson who were happy to chat.  I recall that on the Monday morning after the Lomond, our singer wee Joe Cochrane was walking through Central Station going back to his work. There, he bumped into a group of a dozen or so fans who were getting autographs and talking to Jimmy Bain and Brian Robertson (who were going up north to visit some family), they recognised the wee man, and much to the amazement of the fans, called him over and chatted for a while. At that time there was no 24hr McDonalds and at 7.30am Robbo, Jimmy and their Girlfriends were looking for something to eat, Joe was happy to oblige and left them with his lunch, two pieces and cheese, two of corn beef and a coupe of kit-kats kept them going for a bit.

It might be my memory but we got on really well with Frankie Miller and his band. We supported them quite a few times and they were a good bunch of blokes, YouTube provides the opportunity to look back, I think Frankie is one of the most talented singer/songwriters Scotland has ever produced. Not many folk know he had co-written ‘ Still in love with You’ the Thin Lizzy standard as well as ton of other R’n’B Classics. In his band at that time was a young Irish guitar player called Ed Deane he was a remarkable talent for such a young guy. He was left handed but also had his strings upside down as if he had just spun a normal right handed guitar around when he was learning to play and stuck with it!

In 1981 we had the opportunity to open for Thin Lizzy on about 4 or 5 dates on a low-key UK Tour. Phil Lynott was everything you would hope he would be. We also got involved in an enormous fight between some locals at ‘The Café’ youth club in Gourock. I remember playing ‘Rock n Dole’ concerts at Govan and Partick Town Halls, and I think at the time you could get dole money paid as Enterprise Allowance if you were involved in a band. In mid 1982 we did a tour of about 25-30 dates back-to-back all across Scotland, on reflection not a bad effort all in all. We spent some cash and had some tee shirts made up, and was pretty pissed off that they sold out at the first show. I recall we opened for Glam Band ‘Mud’ at a holiday park called ‘Grannie's Heilan' Hame’ a Holiday Park in Dornoch, it was June or July and I’ll always remember the lead singer Les Gray saying “…Merry Christmas darlin’ wherever you are” at the end of Lonely This Christmas. – You couldn’t make it up. We did some recording and produced a single ‘Pretty Polly / Urban Life’ with Henry Gorman acting as Producer and seem to remember Duncan from Sneeky Pete helping out on the technical side.

Why do you think you didn’t make it?

As a band I didn’t think we were particularly talented writers, nor did we feel we understood that it was the Music Business, record deals, albums and stuff, we were just a wee bunch of mates who having a lot of practice and rehearsing we could put on a bit of a show. We could make quite a racket with just bass, drums and one guitar. Chick was a really talented guitar player and had the look, dead slim, corkscrew Bolan/T-rex type hair. Wee Joe was a good lookin’ fella, he looked like a rock star, on stage he acted the part as well and would not have looked out of place fronting Free, Bad Company or Rainbow (he was the same height as Dio I think!), Davie the bass player and I became a really tight rhythm section and I could count to 4 and then count to 4 again so I suppose I could drum a bit. As we got into playing then so did the folk that would come alone to watch – I think that early gigs up in Laurencekirk helped us to cut our teeth and we were comfortable getting up and doing our thing towards the end I guess we must have been pretty good to watch. I don’t recall that the band ended in an enormous flash of light, bust up or fall-out , we just dropped every one off after a gig one night and that was kind’ it.

Do you still see anyone from Red Ellis?

I haven’t seen Chick for years, Joe Cochrane and I meet once a year or so and share a laugh and Davie Sweet is about to become a Grandfather so he’ll be back in Scotland more often and we’ll will catch up a bit more then I hope. It seems a pity that I lost touch with Ian Harris and with Jim McCelland after we split, I think Jim moved to England although I did see a post from him on the Glasband80 forum a while ago, glad to hear he is still about.

ZERO ZERO… Tell me about Zero Zero?

With Red Ellis I had played a number of shows opening for The Frankie Miller Band in 1980/81 and later with Zero Zero we were invited to play at an Ill-fated festival in Skye in about 1982/83. The rain was pissing down for days and at about 12 o’clock on the day of the gig the promoter (Chris Rainbow I think was his name) pulled the plug. Just as he was making the announcement the sun came out and the site cleared up, but there were thousands and thousands of music fans knocking about the island with not a lot to do. One or two of the headline acts, including Frankie left straight away but the rest of us just wanted to play. That night a number of the bands and road crews decided to raise some cash for the promoter and put on a show for the fans. A local town/school hall was quickly sorted out and the PA was a mixture of the backlines from the bands who had stayed on.

I recall H20 did a set, Zero Zero also played, as did a number of other bands. Craig and Charlie Reid from The Proclaimers were there but I can’t remember if they stayed on for the night time show. There was a punk band who played (I don’t recall their name) and they did a cracking version of ‘Maggie’ - you may know the song ... I have wandered today through the hills, Maggie dedicated to Maggie Thatcher and their final song which has stuck with me included the line “... I really thought I loved you , but I only needed a shite !” - different class.

Danusha Zareeba, who is now a vocal coach, and her pal Marsha helped us out some times. They were called Warm Leatherette you can see them in the photos and video from Kelvingrove that’s up on YouTube.

Tell me how Zero Zero started?

Not quite sure, I think I got a call from Andy McCafferty who was a mate of Rab Getty (Punky Mendoza from Heavy Pettin’) we met up and rehearsed a couple of times, Steve Docherty came along to jam at Chow Studios at Charing Cross and the new band took shape. I seem to be a bit blank about the time when Duncan and Davie were with the band (sorry boys!) although I did see Duncan’s myspace on the back of some footage his boy posted on YouTube. After the line up changed and John McMillan from Cumnock, the brother of James McMillan - the Scottish composer, joined the band – I think John was at the same school/class as Loraine MacIntosh from Deacon Blue. we spent a lot of time rehearsing in Coatbridge (Steve’s home town) where Hue and Cry, The Big Dish and other Art School type bands used the same studio in Monklands.

The Evening Times band competition provided the opportunity to record at CAVA studios in Glasgow where we also worked with the Radio Clyde DJ Bill Padley. Bill went on to form the music production company Wise Buddha with Mark Goodyear and as a writer Bill produced the UK Number One hits ‘Whole Again’ for Atomic Kitten and along with some co-writers produced ‘That’s My Goal’  for the winner of Pop Idol winner Shane Ward.

We rehearsed a lot at the Berkley Studios in Glasgow where we were helped by John McCalman from Jammy Records who also worked at Radio Clyde. Later Ian McCaig from Edinburgh took to managing the band. Also from Edinburgh Big John Ramsey (the front of house engineer for Simple Minds) worked with us for a while and friend Joe Gormley (Wolfie) also from Edinburgh used to roadie (he now works around the world as a specialist road manager/guitar tech). Local boys John-Joe O’Neil and big Stef McCormack did a lot of work with the band at that time too.

We played at the ‘OilAid’ festival with Runrig and Wet Wet Wet, a kind of Live Aid for the oil industry in Aberdeen. Zero Zero went on to sign to a London management co. where we moved to London for a time playing showcase gigs including a few nights at the Marquee. We made a couple of promotional Videos produced by Douglas Gray at Mirage TV in Edinburgh. Ian McCaig was looking after the management site and we did a weeks worth of shows back-to-back at the Jailhouse during the Edinburgh Festival in about 1984. While in Zero Zero Steve Docherty was offered to front, for I think, either Uriah Heep or Black Sabbath and I think he also auditioned for AC/DC. As you know he joined SAHB for a time after we split, not sure what he is up to now.

Do you still meet up with any of your mates from the band days?

After we split I did some photographic work for Ricky Warwick when he was forming a new band, they needed a bass player and Andy McCafferty (now called Tantrum) from Zero Zero subsequently went on to join The Almighty as the lead guitarist. He toured and played on a couple of albums I think. (There was a surprise 40th for him in Glasgow some years back and John, Andy and I got up and gave it a belt). My partner and I are friends with Joolz and Dante Gizzi who played in the Glasgow Band Blind Allez that later became GUN. They used to run the family Pizza restaurant in Cambridge St in Glasgow, don’t know if they still do. More recently Dante has been seen as the front-man of Glasgow Pop/rock combo El-Presidente. http://www.el-presidente.co.uk

The venue map from Glasband 80 shows what a hub for music was at that time, I forgot about playing at the lunchtime Concerts at the Custom House Bandstand in Clyde Street and there was also the ‘Bungalow Bar’ in Paisley, the Heathery in Wishaw and the Iron Maiden Pub in Bellshill. We also did some gigs with ‘Robbie the Pict’ up north and played at a number of ‘Rock  and Dole’ type shows for the unemployed.

What was your best memory of that time?

Having a laugh with some good pals I suppose and as a 15 year old heading off for the weekend to play at being a rock star while my school mates were hanging about the local park getting blasted on White Lightning and Thunderbird. Meeting big Phil Lynott is up there of course but for me a highlight was a local show that we played at the Hamilton Park Racecourse in about 1980. There must have been 500 or 600 people squeezed into a big marquee to see the show, it was filmed and I understand there is an old HVS copy kicking about somewhere – I hope to see it on YouTube some time.

…And Kelvingrove?

I now only go to Kelvingrove to watch my son practice his kick-flips and ollies at the skate-park, the bandstand is in a hell of a mess – bit sad looking back.

Any Final Thoughts?

Just to say that we had a great time and didn’t take it too seriously, we had some good support from the folk of Viewpark and I still meet people in the town who remember me being in the band, makes you cringe some times. Within a couple of miles there was a whole range of musical talent developing at that time. Just Google Patrick ‘Pat’ Doyle the Hollywood composer who grew up in Viewpark in the 70’s/80’s and be blown away. Imeet Harry Travers now and again, Harry played drums for Hipsway who signed to Mercury in the mid 1980’s. I said hello to Paul Quinn in Bellshill a couple of weeks back, Paul (who went to my old school) played drums with The Soup Dragons and Teenage Fanclub and the BMX Bandits also came from Bellshill. For me the most talented player was Stuart Kerr who came from ‘the gas flats’ in Viewpark, Stuart was a great drummer who played and toured the world with a number of bands including Love and Money, Friends Again, Texas and GUN.

Cheers Joe.

A Logo Joe designed and sent to us way back in 2008 when we were thinking of adding music to Glasband 80.

Photo by Sue Ashcroft.