Kylastrons: -
Early pictures of the Kylastrons (before I joined) from Vintage Sixties Live. You will see from the last picture that, sadly, Malcolm Langstaff (Kylastron Mac) passed away in 2007
The Del 5 were one of the north east’s top bands while I was in the Kylastrons. Bernie Watson (keyboards) joined the Del 5 after the Kylastrons split up.
Amusing anecdotes from Charlie Foskett’s biography. Charlie is another north east musician who moved to London and is now a successful record producer. This section of his biography includes a bit about Kylastron Mac and Bryan Ferry in London.
Jazzboard: -
ex-Jazzboard drummer, Nigel Olsson’s site The site has photos from Nigel’s early days in north east bands, in Plastic Penny and through to the present day as Elton John’s drummer.
Review of the Cream’s first gig at Redcar Jazz Club on 13th November 1966. Jazzboard were the support band!
ex-Jazzboard organist, Jimmy Hall performing with Frankie Miller’s full house.
Ex-Jazzboard vocalist, Bruce, is currently performing with the North East band, the Alligators. Here’s a link to the Alligators official web site and a new site about the Alligators – Mike’s Alligators. Bruce also plays harmonica with Barking Billy and the Scrapyard Dogs.
A site featuring the Graham Bond Organisation, the Jazzboard’s role models and a favourite with the mods.
The Technique: -
A fairly recent Sunderland Echo article about the Technique after they left the north east and moved to London.
Sneeze: -
Ex-Sneeze members, Tom Hill and Brian Gibson’s band Geordie.
Jim Hall (ex-Sneeze trumpeter) is currently playing in Raw Spirit.
Micky Balls, Sneeze’s ex-guitarist is still performing in North East bands – ‘the Fabulous Balls Brothers’ and ‘All Shine No Shoes’ Here’s a recent photo of Micky (in the front). This is a link to “All Shine No Shoes” info.
North East drummer, Keith Fisher performed in bands with ex-Sneeze members Tom Hill and Pierre Pedersen. Keith later went on to join Beckett. This is his account of that period.
This is a link to Lindisfarne’s site. They were gigging in the north east at the same time and at the same venues as Sneeze under the name of Brethren before hitting the big time as Lindisfarne.
Early Stuff: -
This is a link to a site featuring Don Airey. My first public performance was at Bede Grammar School, Sunderland in a jazz quartet which featured Don on piano.
Chris Warren and the Strangers were a top Sunderland band in the early to mid sixties. Bob Marshall, who is mentioned on the ‘Early Stuff’ page is second from right in the Sunderland Echo photo.
The guitarist in two of my early bands, David Snowdon is now a furniture maker in the Forest of Dean. He also makes electric upright basses in ebony and mahogany. Check out the gallery on his site.
Other Links: -
Vintage Sixties Live – the inspiration for this site!
Here’s a link to the site of the legendary Newcastle band the Junco Partners. If you want to see a photo of the band (well three of them) back in 1969, have a look at the Sneeze page. Here’s a link to their MySpace page.
Sunderland entrepreneur Geoff Docherty remembers some of the bands and north east venues he promoted in the late sixties and early seventies.
Rod Clements from Lindisfarne was interviewed in March 2008 about the North East music scene in the late sixties. Here’s a link to that interview.
Marmalade Skies is a must for anyone interested in bands from the mid to late sixties.
Here is a link to a site about Jimi Hendrix gigs in the North East. There’s also a lot about the venues and some information about some North East bands in the sixties.
I found the following site while I was searching for information about the Rex Hotel, Whitley Bay. The Steve Brown Band were around between 1973 and 1977 just after I stopped gigging in the north east. Nevertheless their site has lots of memorabilia about venues and bands in the Newcastle area in the early to mid seventies.
This is a link to my current band, Wiltshire based Carnaby Street.
Coincidentally another north east musician from the sixties, Bob Thompson is also now in a Carnaby band (in the Nottingham area) – “Carnaby Rocks”. This is his web site.
Finally, for anyone who knew me in the 60’s and wants to hear what I sound like on the sax now, here’s a fairly recent video: -