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These few pages are a potted history, from my own perspective, of my formative years in a touring rock band. It is now around 60 years since it all took place and is an attempt to put down my recollections and research in some readable format before my memory (or indeed myself) fades completely and so that my grandchildren (and now great grandchildren) have an insight into a unique period of the late 50’s and early 60’s that I and so many others took part in and enjoyed immensely. My apologies in advance for the many inaccuracies and/or omissions – I am sure my fellow band members would have much to correct or add.

I had very few surviving documents and photos from the period (when we were younger, we did not really think about saving things to look back on later in life). Originally I did not even retain copies of all our recordings, although I do have them now, even if they have cost me very much more than the original store price! Jack – our lead guitarist – has provided many additional photos and some recollections, but much of what follows comes from memory or the result of many internet searches and which may not be 100% accurate. It is after all from a long time ago!

It is amazing what now exists and presumably will remain on the Internet – photos, gig lists, posters, extracts from newspaper articles, etc. It is due mainly to this information now available on-line that has enabled me to work on the project. And for no accountable reason all of our records have appeared in recent years on YouTube.

Read on, and hopefully you will find it as interesting as I did in doing my research, desperately trying to jog my memory, and putting it all together! Pause and look at each slide show (hover over a slide to pause autoplay/use the wheel or keyboard to change slides) – there are several pictures in each – listen to the music tracks and click on some of the links highlighted in blue. It provides an on-line scrap book of a period of my life that I would not have wished to miss. Apologies for the quality of some of it – most has been found hidden in boxes in the loft or downloaded from the internet!

Spike Haward – November 2022

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(Page last updated on 13th November 2022)