LET'S hear it for Uncle Herman. It was his mandolin playing which inspired a six-year old Spencer Davies to explore the crazy world of popular music. By the time he was 16, the young lad from Swansea had moved to London, formed a skiffleband called TheSaints and dropped the 'e' from his surname. And by the time he was 26, Spencer was fronting the eponymous group which spawned two number one hits and hit the UK Top 40 seventimes between December 1965 and January 1968. Now 67, Spencer - and his group - make a return visit to Liverpool's Cavern Club on Wednesday, August 30, fora show which will be recorded for a future DVD release. Spencer told Your Time: "We still do the old stuff, asthat's what the crowd wants, but if all we did was stand there and play aload of old songs, you mayas well just put your money in a juke box for the original record. "We call ourselves arocking blues band who are still recording." And the influences of Swansea in the 1940s are still with the friendlyWelshman. He went on: "We've just finished a new album of 12 songs called So Far, as we're not over yet. "It's autobiographical. There's asong in there about my mum, whom I lost four years ago, and my Uncle Herman. We kept saying we had to get mandolins in there somewhere, so we did! "I wanted to write a song about the Aberfan disaster (the South Wales village which lost 116 of its children when a coal mine slag heap collapsed and engulfed the primary school) as it is 40 years in October since it happened. "There was a lot of anger about it at the time, especially when Lord Robens of the NCB (the National Coal Board) went to collect an honorary degree instead of going to the scene. "And it has aprotest song, about the closure of the Mumbles train (the world's first passenger rail service, which opened in 1807 and closed in 1960). "That won't mean anything to you unless you've been to Swansea, butI'm surelots of your readers will have holidayed there." With So Far providing at least two Welsh history lessons, is Spencer ever tempted to laydown a few tracks in his native tongue? He added: " I do sing in Welsh. I would love to aduet with Cerys Matthews, she is wonderful. "I have lived in the States since the 1970s, but I'll have to go to an Eisteddfod again one of these days, not because I feel a need to wax lyrical about my nationality, but I do feel Wales has done a good job in preserving its musical traditions." Before he makes any plans to be on stage inMold next year, thereis the small matter of his Cavern gig to clear up first. Spencer laughed: "The Cavern is such a special place. I have a brick! "Yes, a brick. It's the one they threw at me from the crowd when we played there in the Sixties. "I'm just joking. I have found it, it's the one in the wall outside the club." | 
