Our gig list compiled from the internet etc. for the period is fairly full, up until March 64. There is then a gap in the gig list, so I am guessing that March 64 was Hamburg.
At some point that year we recorded spots for radio programmes – for Radio Luxembourg, (the only commercial radio station at the time) and BBC Radio, but my memory fails as to exactly when we recorded them or when they were broadcast.
For most of April and part of May we were touring in a stage show headlined by Adam Faith, with Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, The Searchers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Eden Kane, Dave Berry and others. This was something really different for us – sit-down stage shows instead of dance halls, and instead of being crammed into a Dormobile van, we were on a tour bus! We opened the show with our own spot and also backed a girl singer on the tour – Lorraine Gray.
Roy was certainly Drummer with us for the Adam Faith tour but left as some point after that and we replaced him with a guy named Kenny Gough. Kenny was with a band called Del Rio 4 for the ’63 season at Butlins – in the Crazy Horse Saloon/Pig and Whistle Bar – and as we were there that season we must have remembered and recruited him after Roy left.
Kenny came from Bradford and in his former career he was a post-mortem technician. Some of his stories were hair-raising although I cannot now recall them – which is maybe for the best! He drove a 3 wheel Reliant Robin and stayed with me at St Osyth when we were not touring. I can recall one occasion on the way home from Clacton when we overtook a bus and had to pull in quickly to avoid an oncoming car. The Reliant went up on 2 of it’s 3 wheels and the door sill (fibre glass) scraped along the road – we were lucky not to roll over!
During the 64 summer season we did Sunday stage show gigs at the Futurist Theatre, Scarborough, for 12 weeks throughout the summer, supporting major acts, with two shows a night. We had our own spot and also backed another artist so we had to get there in the afternoons, in time to rehearse regardless of where we were the night before! One of those artistes was Kiki Dee, before she made it big. I can remember that ‘How Glad I Am’ was one of her numbers, and which released initially in that year, although it didn’t become a hit until it was re-released in the 70s.
We occasionally got roped in to do publicity gigs – below is a full double page spread from the Jackie Magazines fashion pages. – our “modelling” days! The quality of the article is not good, I am afraid, but if you zoom in on the prices of the dresses mentioned in the articles you can see as teenage fashions go they were not particularly cheap (mainly between £5 & £6) – bearing in mind this was around 1964 and represented about half the average weekly wage at that time.
We did stints at the Pigalle Club, Hamburg and the Storyville Club, Frankfurt – Jack has some vague recollection of us smuggling Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix’s drummer into Germany under the seat of the van, but I have no memory of that! (or which time that was…) I do not recall the Pigalle Club in Hamburg as being particularly great – it was some distance away from the Reeperbahn where the main clubs like the Star Club – where the Beatles and many other bands appeared – were located.
Frankfurt was a hellish gig. A mix of youngsters enjoying the music, American servicemen, and various low life – pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers – all carrying out their trade in the club, 7 hours every night (8pm – 3am) except Saturdays – 12 hours (3pm – 3am) and no day off! The clientele rotated throughout the evenings so we were thankfully able to repeat our repertoire – they were probably too drunk to notice anyway!
Kenny was our drummer during our time in Frankfurt. Jack remembers him as a scruffy bugger, and one night we made his clothes into a dummy and hung it by the neck out from our flat window (we lived in a flat above a restaurant just up the road from the club). We got raided by the Politzei, who thought it was for real! They were not happy…..!
Kenny was also our drummer on the US record we made. This US release was recorded in late ’64 (but released in ’65) – Que Sera/How I Cry – the B side being written by Dave. Kenny had a drum kit failure during the recording – his bass drum pedal broke – so that part was over-dubbed by Kenny, laying on the floor playing his bass drum by hand!
I return to the subject of ‘crooked’ fiddles in the music business. It was only when after years of searching I eventually found a copy of our US record on-line on a California collector’s website and bought it, that I saw the writing credits for the B side were given – not to Dave who had actually written it, but to Peter Walsh, publisher Peter Walsh Music Ltd – he was head of our agents!
(Page last updated on 21st May 2021)