John Dummer has been a local paper reporter, music business press officer, record plugger and broadcaster. In the sixties he toured with his own John Dummer Blues Band and in the seventies drummed with the hit doo-wop revival group Darts. He met his wife Helen when she was the photographer on a Darts photo-session.
After Darts Helen and John formed their own group, True Life Confessions, and also recorded as the duo, John Dummer and Helen April. John went on to manage the powerhouse rock trio the Screaming Blue Messiahs.
After three years of touring the States, burnt out from all the madness, he upped sticks with Helen and moved to France. There followed a two year sojurn living in a windmill in the Alentejo region of Portugal, and a return to France with finances much depleted. They discovered if they registered as 'brocanteurs'(French antique market traders)they could work and be covered under the excellent French health system.
It was working the French outdoor markets and the amusing and fascinating characters he met that inspired John to write his first book, SERGE BASTARDE ATE MY BAGUETTE. The sequel SON OF SERGE BASTARDE is published by Summersdale on June 4th. John and Helen now live in South West France in the middle of the Landes forest with their dog Buster and quite a lot of cats.
