Scunny Groups Page 1

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If you have any old 60s, 70s or 80s Scunthorpe group photos (scans), titbits, stories or general information,they would be most welcome.

The 1960s was ablaze with local groups, most of them playing locally, most working men’s club had a live act on. The pubs were packed on group nights, the main pubs for entertainment were The Sherpa; The Open Hearth; The Queen Bess; The Comet; The Priory; The Friendship Inn (Keadby); The Queens; The Brown Cow; The Berkeley Hotel; The Cocked Hat and The Crosby. Besides the clubs and pubs we had the Youth Centre and the Baths, (now sadly gone). In addition to these were St Pauls Church Hall at Ashby, the Jazz Workshop, the Drill Hall, (terrible acoustics, but no-one seemed to bother) and on two occasions my old group, The 4 of Clubs even played at the Old Showground at half-time, on match day. That was an experience, I can tell you. The music was still reverberating off the corrugated sheeting, 5 minutes after we finished playing. I met up with Dave Churchman later, who had been working in the Crosby area that day, and he said, he had heard us in Sheffield Street. He didn't comment on how it sounded though.

The picture below is Lenny Tombstone and the Skeletons, group members were, Colin Hatton (drums), John Hill (lead guitar), Rod Clark (Bass Guitar),

Lenny Radley (vocals) and Hugh Gourley (Rhythm Guitar). The pic was taken at the Friendship Inn at Keadby early 1960s.

The Friendship Inn was very popular in those days, and the Skeletons played there on a regular basis. Unfortunately it was next to the canal, and not a good place

to have too much to drink, unless you were a good swimmer, as a few of us found out, to much discomfort.

The Skeletons would later become The Classics, Ian King who was vocalist for The Jesters, joined the Classics and the group was renamed Ian King and the Classics. The Classics played for many years at the Priory Hotel Scunthorpe, where they had a massive following. Ian was a very popular vocalist, and being a good looking guy, attracted the ladies. Lead guitarists with the classics over the years included, John Castell (Robinson), John Hill, Les Goddard and Eddie Ashworth. Mal Turner later joined the group, on vocals. Ian King moved on to form Assortment with Martin Danks & Paddy O’Connor.

The picture below is of the Classics with Arthur Goddard (lead guitar), Rod Clark (bass guitar), Hugh Gourley (rhythm Guitar), Ian King (vocalist) and Colin Hatton (drums). I remember sitting in the Britannia Corner Hotel, having a drink or two with Arthur (Les) Goddard, he sold me a Bond Mini 3 wheel car, and it had been stored in a lockup garage just off Henderson Ave for a year or so. I got it home and fixed it up, it had a motorbike engine in it, but no reverse gear. To start it up, you lifted the bonnet, climbed inside and kicked it off. We lived in a cul de sac, and the car could turn in its own length, if put in full lock. The kids used to come from miles around, just to see me spin it round and set off in the morning. My brother Hugh and I used it to go on gigs, when we were working as a duo. We had a blow out on Crowle straight one night coming home. The front tyre blew, which meant the engine was actually on the road, we were doing about 50mph, with no steering and finished up, upside down in the ditch, amps, mics an guitars everywhere. Happy days.

Ian King & The Classics, Les Goddard, Rod Clarke, Hugh Gourley, Ian King and Colin Hatton.

Les (Arthur) Goddard sang with The Jesters for a short spell. He had a good voice but had a Jonathan Ross problem with his R's. One of the songs he sang was Rambling Rose, which came over as Wambling Wose, and then there was Sweet little Wock & Woller. All and all, he covered it up pretty well and not a lot noticed. On one occasion Les and I were travelling to catch the ferry to Hull. We were on his Lambretta scooter, just past Winterton we had a blow out on the front tyre, Les tried to keep control, but we finished up flying through the air and landing on the freshly laid tarmac.This was the days before crash helmets, and being summer, we only had light clothing on. Les landed nose first on the road and I finished up beside him. We had bits of gravel stuck in us all over. Les's nose had taken the blunt of it, and was in a sorry state. When we called in Britiannia snug the following day, we looked like war casalities. When asked what happened, Les with his usual dryness, replied, "I cut myself shaving". We were playing that same night, goodness knows what the audience thought of us.

A massively popular group in the late 1950s and early 60s were, Tony and the Cadillacs. The picture below is of The Cadillacs with Keith Harrison (bass guitar),

Tony Borrell (rhythm Guitar) John Hill ( lead guitar) and Dave Edwards (drums). The Cadillacs played for many years at the Sherpa Hotel, Bottesford, and always packed the place.

Johnnie Dobbs would later become their lead vocalist.

The Cadillacs recorded a demo record in the mid 1960's. The record was produced in Sheffield at the UNIT NINETEEN Studios.

The song was called 'To Sleep Perchance to Dream'

The performers were Tony Borrell - Guitar and Vocals; Alan Harsley - Guitar; Martin Danks - Piano/Keyboards;

Keith Harrison - Bass; Dave Edwards - Drums.

David Birkett and Tony Dixon wrote the song 'To Sleep Perchance to Dream' for Tony and the Cadillacs.

They were local boys and big fans of the Cadillacs, They had been writing songs at David's parents

house in Victoria road and decided to offer Tony Borrell the song at the end of one of the Cadillacs

gigs at the Sherpa. To the guys delight, the band decided to record the song, it sold a few hundred

copies locally, but unfortunately was not a major hit. The signwriting duo continued until David

went to university, when they dissolved the partnership. David and Tony Dixon both played guitars

and were taught by local guitar music teacher Rex Cottam, Rex also taught Tony Borrells to play

guitar. Rex was reckoned to be the best guitar teacher in N. Lincs. I have very little information

on Rex Cottam, so if anybody can help fill in a few blanks, it would be a great help.

Tony Dixon, one of the co-writer of Perchance to Dream, sent in the following information on Rex Cottam,

He taught me for years but despite this I can’t tell you a lot about him. He lived and taught at 86 Axholme Road where he lived with his wife Chrissie. He had a son called Peter who was a good bass guitarist. Rex was a smart looking fellow with slicked back hair and a moustache and played a Hofner President. Although he was in demand and much admired as a teacher by local rock musicians he wasn’t a rock man himself. Dance band and big band music was really his passion and he was a wizard on the theory of harmony. He concocted phenomenal chord sequences which he played with a running commentary explaining the various intervals he was using, minor sixths, flattened 9ths etc. What I know about harmony I learned from Rex but I could never absorb everything he knew. A lot of it didn’t have much application in rock music. He died in the early 1970s after a short illness.

Below, an early shot of The Cadillacs, with Keith Harrison, Dave Edwards, Martin Danks, Alan Harsley and Tony Borrell

“Tony & The Cadillacs” Back Row l-r Mal Evans, John Robinson, Frank Coult. Front Row l-r Tony Borrell, John Dobbs

Tony Borrell is still fronting The Cadillacs up to the present day. Tony lives and plays with the group in Majorca.

The present lineup is Mark Harskins, Tony Borrell, Seb Nadal and Dave Valintine.

Another premiere group of the time were The Imps

The Imps Chris Ellerton - drums; Craig Austin - lead guitar and vocals;

Bill Gibson - rhythm guitar; Fred Havercroft - vocals;

Bottom left John Ancliffe - bass guitar and vocals

The Imps played Chuck Berry,Hollies etc. music. They formed in 1964 and played together until 1966. The group featured Chris Ellerton, drums; John 'Boot' Ancliffe, bass; Bill Gibson, rhythm; Craig Austen, lead; and Fred Havercroft, vocals. Craig Austen replaced John Ancliffe on bass and and Greg Tomilson took over on lead guitar.The group played all the usual Scunthorpe pubs and clubs, including the Jazz Workshop in Ashby. The name was taken from the famous Lincoln Imp. Ian Mathews took over from Fred Havercroft on vocals, Ian would go on to have a successful recording contract with Mathews Southern Comfort.

The Imps kicked off in 1963, the original lineup was

Craig Austen, lead guitar; Bill Gibson, rhythm guitar; John Ancliffe, bass;

Chris Ellerton, drums; Fred Havercroft, vocals.

Fred Havercroft left and Ian Mathews took over vocals. John Ancliffe left to join The Dimples

Craig Austen took over on bass. Greg Tomilson, took over on lead guitar

In late 1965 Greg Tomilson and Craig Austen left to also join The Dimples

Johnny (Castell) Robinson (below)

Johnny Robinson (left) used the stage name of Johnny Castell, he worked as head gardener at Normanby Hall for many years before leaving Scunthorpe for Peterborough in the early 1970's.

He was an excellent guitarist and his rendering of Chuck Berry numbers, were probably the best in the area at the time. He played in several Scunthorpe groups in the sixties,

among them were Ian King and the Classics & The Mel Oliver Band, and many more.

A little titbit from John Hill.

Johnny Robinson had and possibly still has a Hofner Club 40 or 50 guitar. He used to regularly change the appearance of his guitar by stripping down and sticking Fablon over it.

He would leave practice one night, go home and re-cover the guitar, learn a new song and turn up the next night raring to go again. He used to move the pickups regularly as well,

to get a different sound and apparently there were so many screw holes on the frontof it, that it was only the Fablon that stopped a big chunk of the guitar falling out. Sound a bit like Willie Nelson's guitar.

Above, Johnny Robinson with his famous Hofner Club guitar

Nicky James and the 4 Cents were another late 50s early 60s group. I

never got to see them perform, but was told they were very good. Nicky James came along on one of the Jesters (my old group) bookings, he got up and sang several songs with us.

I remember one of the songs was, Presley's 'One Night With You'. He stole the show, he was an excellent singer, great voice.

After leaving Scunthorpe, Nicky moved back to Birmingham where he had a successful recording and songwritting career

Nicky James and the Four Cents late 1950's

Line up, Mel Oliver on piano, Paddy Oconnor on guitar, Toyne Tomilson on drums

Nicky James on vocals and Tony Davis on bass

A short memo by Mel Oliver ( pictured left) on Nicky James & The 4 Cents

Back in the 1960’s I was 16 years old and playing in a local Band which was led by the Guitarist, Paddy O’Connor and we suddenly found ourselves with a number of arranged gigs but without a Vocalist. Our headquarters was the local Scunthorpe Youth Centre and we used to use one of the rooms to generally meet and rehearse in (as did other local Bands at that time.) Paddy happened to walk into the Youth Centre Dance Hall where he saw Nick (who had apparently just moved from Birmingham to Scunthorpe) dancing. Thinking that he looked to be a ‘cool mover’ he tapped him on the shoulder and asked him whether he could sing as well as he could dance and within a short space of time we were all rehearsing in the Youth Centre and then very quickly ‘on the road’.

The Band name came from Paddy who took the surname (Nicholls) and converted it into Nicky. Toyne recalls that in the Youth Centre practice Room there were a couple of toy guns which someone was playing with and somehow the famous outlaw Jesse James was mentioned which ultimately probably led to Nick’s stage surname. Apparently in American currency one Nickel (Nicholl) equals 4 Cents and this is where the Band name came from ‘Nicky James and the Four Cents’. Nick developed fast and was soon an ideal front man being a good Vocalist with good looks and he was also a good mover. Many of the numbers in our set were by Elvis who was a favourite of Nicks’ at that time. What I am not sure about is how long the Band was together although I seem to think it may have been 3 to 4 years at which point Nick moved back to Birmingham and I believe he joined ‘Denny Laine and the Diplomats’ but I suspect you know the story from there. One of the things that Nick was well known for and which he never lost was his broad Birmingham ‘Brum’ accent. We played the dance hall and club circuits in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire and appeared at most of the ‘larger’ venues at the various Towns such as Town Halls etc. often supporting some of the big names at that time, such as:-

‘Nero & The Gladiators’ ‘Shane Fenton & the Fentones’ (He was later to become Alvin Stardust) ‘Vince Taylor & The Playboys’

‘The John Barry Seven’ ‘Don Lang & His Famous Five’ The Band used to go down very well with the crowds and this was of course primarily due to our front man, Nick.

Nicky recorded a record in 1963 entitled 'My Colour is Blue'.

He went on to record several more records including the excellent 'Troubodour'

The Worrying Kind 1969. A Barton on Humber based group with a huge following About 1967 the Worrying Kind morphed into the Monday Morning Glory Band.

The line up was Andy Boyd, lead guitar; Martin (Tweedy) Street, bass; Alan Beasty, drums; Dave Waterland, vocals; Bonk Johnson, keyboards; Brian Hayes, sax & flute; Rowdy ??? trumpet; Colin Baysford, trumpet. The band were on the go til approx 1970, They played Soul type music 'Blood Sweat & Tears',Georgie Fame etc. They did an audition for a Birmingham management team, which they passed with flying colours. They recorded two songs at the Marque Studios, London.

Grinning Frank

Andy Boyd left 'Monday Morning Glory Band', in 1969 to form 'Grinning Frank'

The line up was Andy Boyd, lead guitar; Martin (Tweedy) Street, bass; Jed Cox, drums; Spud Ruddock, vocals They played 'Blues Rock type music, Rory Gallagher etc. The group were together until 1971. On one occasion, they were playing at the Oswald Hotel, Scunthorpe,in 1970, unfortunatly, it was also the day England was playing West Germany in the Mexico world cup and the match was on in the Bar. Midway thru the act, someone pulled the plug out on them and told them to shut up, because they couldn't hear the match. Moral is, never get between a man and his football. Andy later moved on to join 'Roller Coaster'.

Wall Street Crash started about 1973.

The line up was, Andy Boyd, lead guitar; Mick Boyd, rhythm guitar; Pete Boyd, bass; Jed Cox, drums; Brian Gazi, vocals The band play mostly soft rock music, Status Quo, the Who,etc. They played outside the Bell & Anchor pub when it first opened in 1973 or 74. The group disbanded in 1975.Later members were Jed Cox (drums); Graham Boyd (bass); Dave Dent (guitar); Brian Hayes (flute); Keith Mullard (guitar)

The Kraakans

Dave Roe guitar/vocals; Nigel Hodgson drums; Steve Bird guitar/vocals; Cliff Chappel bass The band did harmony numbers, Everly Bros,Hollies,The Beatles and The Stones. They started in 1963 when they were 14 and 15 years old, playingThe Sherpa and The Queen Bess. They later branched out, to play all over Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. They played at the first Beat Contest at The Baths. Dave Roe left the band in 1966 to go to university, the band carried on for a short time as a trio before disbanding

The Kraakans back on the sceme again

'The Relations' with Frankie Ray were at one time considered one of the best groups in Scunthorpe. The lineup was Mac Adams and Winston Matheson on steel drums, Winston Jaffier on organ, Chester James on bass, Winston Lewis on drums and Frankie Ray as vocalist. The were star turn at The Sherpa in sept 1967.

The Peighton Checks

The Peighton Checks started up about 1965 or 1966.

The groups first booking was at the Dog and Rat at Broughton, They played mostly Mod music and Soul. They would open up with, 'Something you,ve got Babe', which I think was a Moody Blue's number. The original name of the band was Pleighton Checks, unfortunately Nick Cole got the spelling wrong on his Steelbeat column, and the new name stuck. The line up was

Eric McHutchion,drums;Mick West, vocals; Charlie Gillis, guitar; Bobby Chappel, rhythm guitar; the late Alan Tinkler,lead guitar(Alan went on to join Roger Blooms Hammer)

later members were:- John Parker, vocals; Colin McArthur, drums; Paul Spears, bass.

bass, Paul Spiers; rhythm, Charlie Gillis; lead, Alan Tinkler

vocals, John Parker and later Graham 'chalky' White

After Eric McHutchion left the group, he went freelance and session drummer playing for lots of out of town groups. He started up again with The Gloria Mayne Trio, with Hugh Gourley, and Keith Ashley on guitar. Gloria's daughter Allison played keyboards for them at a later date. Other members of the 'Gloria Mayne Trio' in 1970 were, John Vessey,drums, and Cliff Batty, guitar.John Vessey left in 1971 to form 'The Soundbreakers' with Stef Chriyinski. John rejoined the Trio in 1972.

“The Gloria Mayne Trio”

Allison Mayne, Gloria Mayne and John Vessey

Triangle, consisted of Rod Clarke (bass), Don Lee (Drums) and Hugh Gourley (lead guitar), Roy Emmerson sang with Triangle for a while

The Alpine Trio in 1977 featured Bob Short as vocalist/comedian

Mick Harriman on guitar and Irving Brundell on bass

Tina & Tomorrow 1977

Tina & Tomorrow featured Maureen ?? on vocals; Mick Harriman on guitar

Gordon Brundell on bass and Pat Bryant on drums

Mustard 1978 Mustard featured Steve Jackson on vocals Steve Wright on guitar Gordon Brundell on bass and Roger Gammidge on drums

“The Turnabouts” (Back l-r) Mick Strangleman (Drums), Mal Turner (Gtr/Vocs), Ernie Boynton (Gtr),(Front l-r) Mick Cowling (Trpt/Vocs), Paddy O'Connor (bass).

The Turnabouts were 1960s Scunthorpe group, whose members included the legendary Paddy O’Connor (bass guitar), Ernie Boynton (lead guitar), Mick Strangleman (drums). I believe my old buddy Dave Churchman, had a spell with them. Ernie had a beautiful blonde Hofner Guitar, which I believe was a Hofner Committee and which he played exceptionly well. We (the 4 of Clubs), played in a group competition at the Baths, the winners were the Bad Ladds and the Turnabouts came third, Ernie was so disgusted, he refused the prize money, which was very unusual for him. He was known to be extremely careful with money.

Purple Sand 1971/74

Alan Harsley, lead guitar, Dave Edwards, drums and Thomas John (Cody) Cope , bass

They played their first booking was at Grafton House Lincoln on 6 Feb 1971 and their last booking at the New Inn Killingholme Haven on 5 May 1974. Purple Sand Alan Harsley and Tom (Cody) Cope met first at the Blast Furnaces on App Frod steelworks. After several

long conversations they decided to form a trio. Dave Edwards (drums) was ready for a change and was invited to join them. They started out being a run of the mill trio, playing their first gig at Grafton House Lincoln. They started doing comedy to brighten up the act, and found this went down with the audience very well. Among other things they did a very funny version of the Nancy Sinatra/ Lee Hazlewood number 'Did You Ever', with Cody doning a wig and singing in falsetto while singing some lewd lyrics to the song. They started doing the current chart numbers of the time and got very proficient at three part harmonies, with songs by the Beach Boys, like Good Vibrations.

Memo by John Hill

They formed early 70's, probably even as early as '70. The founder of the band was the late Tom (Cody) Cope, a big guy with an equally big sense of humour. He seemed to arrive from nowhere after leaving the army and was soon scouring the local area to put a band together and was adamant that it would be a brilliant band, and ambitious/confident enough to say they would soon be playing places like the Baba and Kiki clubs, Sprotborough social and the the other big Yorkshire venues. The lineup was Cody on bass and vocals, Dave Edwards on drums and vocals and Alan Harsley, guitar and vocals. They became very proficient on vocal harmonies and covered a lot of current chart material, which was going through a really commercial period with stuff like "Knock 3 times"

"Chirpy chirpy cheep cheep" and threw in a bit of comedy stuff like Benny Hill's "Ernie" and a particularly naughty take on Donovan's

"Catch the wind" They were an excellent trio who turned pro for a period.* I reckon they must hold the record for most gigs in a day, which was a noon and nighter at a Grimsby club with a kid's Christmas party in the afternoon and the midnight spot at Oaklands country club on the way home. 4 gigs in a day ain't bad! Info by courtesy of John Hill

The Rebels

The Rebels 1963-65 featured Andy Mayers, bass, Mick Gravelling,lead, Keith Burdett, drums and Rick Laughton on vocals. They won the 1965 Battle of the Bands contest in Scunthorpe.,, They changed their name in 1966 to Moderation

Adaptation

Pete Swift, Hugh Gourley, Kip Herring, Terry Huish.

Adaptation in various formats

Pic on left, Alan Smith, Pete Swift, Len (Kip) Herring, Keith Ashley 1968/69

Dennis Lonsdale, Steve Wright, Malcolm Halsall, Trevor Mitchell & Irving Brundell. 1970

The Rock n Roll Revival Show

Lionel Sargeant, Trev Mitchell, Mally Halsall, Keith Mullard & Irving Brundell. 1969

The Rock n Roll Revival Show

Gordon “Irving” Brundell, Malcolm Halsall, Keith Mullard & Trevor Mitchell. Nov 69 enroute to Denmark

“Vince & the Velocettes”

Jim ? from Hull -Guitar/vocals, Trevor Mitchell-Drums, Dave Jackson- Bass/vocals At “The Brown Cow” about 1986

Trev Mitchell (above) during his first attempt at a world record drumming marathon in 1971

Maureen and the Freeways, popular Scunthorpe Group, member were Don Lee, Rex Garton, John Steveson, Kevin Landrick and Maureen (Goodley).

The Freeways started life as 'Little Eddie and The Freeways'. Little Eddie being Eddie Ashworth. Rex Garton joined the Group in the summer of 1964 after Nick Cole, who used to write "Steel Beat" in the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph told him that Little Eddie and the Freeways were looking for a rhythm guitarist.He auditioned with the Group one Saturday afternoon at the Teen Beat Club and they took him on. Maureen (Godley) was also joining at the same time. Soon after, (Little) Eddie left the Group and it changed its name to "The Freeways with Maureen" but that soon changed again to Maureen and the Freeways. They were weekly performers at The Sherpa and Queen Bess Hotels in front of packed audiences who used to queue up at the doors to squeeze in. Maureen's rendering of Lulu's "Shout" was guaranteed to bring the house down.

In early 1965, Don Lee left the Group and was replaced by Jack Pearson. They went from strength to strength, performing at venues throughout Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire including Sheffield City Hall, the Mecca Ballroom Grimsby, and the huge working mens' clubs in Yorkshire. The make up of the Group remained the same until around March 1966 when Rex had to take the decision to leave in order to study for and take his "A" levels.The Group have been on the same bill as the Moody Blues on 8th May 1965 and was also supporting group to Cliff Bennet and the Rebel Rousers later that year at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens. Although less well known, they also supported Tommy Quickly at Retford. John Stevenson and Maureen are brother and sister.

The Freeways playing at the Big Teen

Contest at the Baths, with a couple

of audience shots.

The Overtones

featuring Terry Pitchfork, Ann Hilder, John Cuthbert, Tony Bee and Chris Jones

In 1966 The Overtones the lineup featured

John Hicks on bass, John Cuthbert on drums, Terry Pitchfork on rhythm, Tony Bee on lead

Jimmy Ryder and the Nightriders were another major group of the late 50s and early 60s. The line-up consisted of Jimmy Ryder (lead guitar), Toyne Tomlinson (drums), Mal Turner (rhythm guitar), Pete Hornsby (bass), and Pete Fenwick (drums); Paddy O’Connor also had a spell playing bass. They later teamed up with Jimmy Crawford to become Jimmy Crawford and the Shantells. The line-up consisted of Jimmy Crawford (vocals), Jimmy Ryder (lead guitar), Mal Turner (rhythm guitar), Pete Hornsby (bass) and Pete Fenwick (drums).