I’ve included this page so I could mention some of the musicians and bands that were around in Sunderland while I was still at school. A couple of noteworthy ex-pupils from my own school, Bede Grammar School for Boys, are Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Don Airey. Don has had a distinguished career as a keyboard player with Rainbow, the Ozzy Osbourne band and more recently, Deep Purple. An ex-pupil from my primary school who I knew at the time was Bob Marshall who went on to play for a top Sunderland Band in the early sixties – Chris Warren and the Strangers. Bob later joined the John Miles Set – remember ‘Music (is my first love)’? Chris Warren later joined Pickettywitch who had chart success with That Same Old Feeling.
The sax wasn’t the first instrument I learned. My first instrument was the violin and my first experience of playing with other musicians was in the school orchestra at Bede Grammar School. My first public appearance outside of the orchestra was at the age of fifteen at a school concert playing Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”. The scratch band for the occasion was called the Guthrie Quartet after the drummer, Graham Guthrie. The others in the band were a Scots lad called Jimmy Wilson on upright bass, Donald Airey on piano plus me on alto sax.
When I was learning to play music, the Singles charts were dominated by American performers. A lot were solo singers such as Pat Boone, Bobby Darrin, Johnny Tillotson, Bobby Vee and of course, Elvis. There were also a few instrumentalists like Duane Eddy and Johnny & the Hurricanes. In the UK, the Shadows were the number one instrumental group and the musicians that most youngsters were trying to emulate. At this point in time a lot of local groups started springing up, at first covering the music of the Shadows and then expanding their repertoire to include current chart hits. The first band I ever saw live was Paul Ryan and the Streaks in South Hylton. They had a great sax player called Bernie. I was just learning to play at the time and listening to the Streaks made me realise that I had a long, long way to go.
Paul Ryan and the Streaks – photo kindly supplied by Bernie Walsh
While I was still at school, Graham Guthrie and I started up a group called the Katians named after a couple of girls he fancied at the time. By this time I had changed over to tenor sax. The Katians had a line up of two saxophones, organ, guitar, bass and drums. The group played instrumental covers of tunes by Johnny and the Hurricanes, the Rocking Rebels, Jet Harris and Duane Eddy. The Katians never really got any further than a couple of concerts at a church hall in South Hylton. During the this period, I was also playing second tenor sax in a fifteen piece dance band run by some students at the local teachers training college.
The Katians – left to right: Roger Smith (tenor sax), Graham Guthrie (drums), Peewee Milburn (guitar), Alan Joynes (alto sax). Kate and Gillian – after who the Katians were named – (vocals) .
By this time the Beatles were starting to establish themselves as a household name. The ‘Liverpool Sound’ was born and dozens of other Merseyside performers achieved chart success following in the Beatles wake: Bands such as the Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, Freddie and the Dreamers to name but a few. So why not a ‘North East Sound”? The Animals had charted with House of the Rising Sun and had proved that the Newcastle had a lot to offer. Could they start an avalanche of North East bands the same as the Beatles had done in the North West? In 1964 I went to the Sunderland Empire to see a show called the Geordie Sound featuring a number of North East bands; Kim & the Kinetics, the VIPs, The Delemares and Paul Ryan & the Streaks (mentioned above). In addition the show featured the up and coming Joe Cocker. Unfortunately the show was a bit of a flop outside of the North East and failed to establish Newcastle as the “new” Liverpool.
Souvenir booklet from the Geordie Sound tour (kindly supplied by Bernie Walsh) – see more below
Graham Guthrie and I played together in a couple more bands before moving on to the Conrads with a lead guitarist, bass player and vocalist/rhythm guitarist who all lived quite near to me. We played a lot of the current chart material – Beatles, Kinks, Dave Clark Five and the like.
The Conrads business card
Apart from the odd wedding reception and party, our only regular gig was at a youth club dance at St Barnabus church hall in Sunderland where we always shared the stage with another young band called the Fireflies. The drummer in the Fireflies was Nigel Olsson who I would later play with in the Jazzboard and James South. The Fireflies guitarist was Mick Grabham who was a member of Plastic Penny with Nigel and later went on to play with Cochise and Procol Harum.
The Conrads performing at a wedding reception in 1964
The Conrads didn’t last that long. David Snowdon, the lead guitarist joined a gigging band and started to play working men’s clubs on a regular basis. He later went on to play with the Up North Combine. Peter Watson, the bass player, joined a band called the Quandowns and eventually went to Hamburg as a professional musician. In later years I would play again with both David and Peter in separate bands.
The Conrads at St Barnabus Church Hall in Hendon, Sunderland in 1964
The Conrads at St Barnabus Church Hall. Left to right; Alan Wharton (vocals/guitar), Peter Watson (bass), Roger Smith (tenor sax), Graham Guthrie (drums) and David Snowdon (lead guitar)
