The above photo shows (left to right) Billy Fury, Jess Conrad, Gene Vincent, Joe Brown, Eddie Cochran, Adam Faith, and Marty Wilde. All 60's Rock-n-Roll legends.
My own attempt at becoming a rock-star was very short lived. I played bass in a band called 'The Darktown Strutters' (silly name), where we covered songs by Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and Buddy Holly. I have to admit that we weren't very good, and we soon focused our ambitions on other things.
The songs we chose to perform had all been big hits, and the amount of chords required to play them were minimal. Unfortunately our singer was rubbish, our drummer couldn't drum, and the bass player (me) didn't really know what he was doing. Our only decent musician was the rhythm guitarist who knew at least 7 chords, and usually managed to play them roughly in the right order.
Three steps to heaven, Summertime blues, Raining in my heart, and Maybe baby were amongst our very limited play-list. I expect we slaughtered all of them too!
It was a great era for music and it led the way for The Beatles. It was an era of good tunes and memorable lyrics. I always used to say that if The Beatles or The Stones had sung about the declension of Latin verbs, everyone would have learned them by heart.
The best of music in the the best of our days. There were so many groups and singers, a lot of one hit wonders. As for band names, how about Swinging Blue Jeans. I remember, for some strange reason, their name but have no idea what they sang. Must have a Google.
ReplyDeleteYou may not have made great music but you made great memories.
I did Google. Hippy hippy shake was their song and Golly Miss Molly.
DeleteThey were quite BIG in the 60's, especially with Hippy Hippy Shake. Good Golly was a Little Richard song, they must have done a cover version.
DeleteI saw them live at my local Palais.
ReplyDeleteLucky you. They were a very good band of their era.
DeleteA couple of our friends ( in their 70s ) play in a band . They only do about 2 " gigs" a year and they play Three Steps, Summertown Blues etc. They call themselves " Partyaintoveryet", which is also a song that they play at the end.
ReplyDeleteThat could almost have been me! Sadly we weren't even good enough to last a few months!
DeleteYou could do a reunion tour!
ReplyDeleteI'd have to find them first. They may not even be here any more!
Deletehi Cro, good memories.I remember getting some "iron on" transfers of Elvis,Cliff, Adam, Marty, with Roxy magagine. I ironed them on the legs of my pale blue jeans. Cool man!
ReplyDeleteThose were the days! These days people would probably be ashamed of having Rap Singer transfers on their jeans!
DeleteI agree that The Darktown Strutters was a silly name. A better name would have been The Magnon Meanderings or more simply - The M&Ms after those American sweeties.
ReplyDelete'M & M's' would certainly have been more memorable. I'm not at all surprised that it was used to sell uninteresting sweets.
DeleteMy goodness - all those names are familiar (with the exception of The Darktown Strutters). Shades of my youth!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if BBC Channel 4 still has some of those recordings of the 60's Top of the Pops? They show the programme on Thursdays (I think) and quite a lot of the footage is in poorly focussed black and white and looks positively ancient!
I occasionally watch old editions of TOTP, but they tend to be from the late 1990's. We spend our time saying how dreadful all the 'songs' are!
DeleteThese folk you feature were mainly 1950s legends, not 1960s. By the time the Beatles and the Stones came along they were has beens.
ReplyDeleteThey were very much heroes of mine in the early 60's.
DeleteYou did give it a go though ! When a new Beatles song came out, I recorded it on reel to reel and my friend and I would stop/start it and learn the lyrics ..... I know all of the Beatles lyrics off by heart still so you are right about Latin verbs ! XXXX
ReplyDeleteThe Beatles songs were so good that we all learned the lyrics, almost without thinking. When will that happen again? I suspect never!
DeleteThe band went nowhere but you had a good time, and that's all that matters.
ReplyDeleteIn the 60's we all spent hours listening and dancing to the Beatles.
Nobody has come close to the Beatles!
I totally agree. I can remember every time a new album was issued, every single track was wonderful. And the songs are still great today!
DeleteApart from being a LIverpudlian and of an age with the Beatles I inherited John Lennon's Maths Book in school (I sooo wish I'd kept it!) and I went to The Cavern. I remember the first time I saw a full size poster of The Beatles in Brian Epstein's music shop.
ReplyDeleteI got to know McCartney a bit in London, but I never met any of the others. We went to a 'Bootleg Beatles' concert a couple of years ago; it was fabulous.
DeleteThe older I get the mot nostalgic I get over music
ReplyDeleteThe more I dislike modern 'music'. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have lived through The Beatles era.
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