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The Tremeloes
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The Tremeloes are an English rock and roll band, founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex. The Tremeloes are one of the longest surviving, still playing regularly more than 50 years after the group's founding. They had fourteen UK and two U.S. Top 20 hit singles. They were the first south of England group to top the chart in the beat boom era.
band first got together in 1958, when the original members were all in their teens.
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The Tremeloes are an English rock and roll band, founded in 1958 in Dagenham, Essex. The Tremeloes are one of the longest surviving, still playing regularly more than 50 years after the group's founding. They had fourteen UK and two U.S. Top 20 hit singles. They were the first south of England group to top the chart in the beat boom era.
Career
Early days
The band first got together in 1958, when the original members were all in their teens. They were closer in years and background to early British beat bands like The Shadows than to the British Invasion bands with which they subsequently became associated. The original line-up of Brian Poole (vocals, guitar), Alan Blakley (drums), Alan Howard (saxophone), and Graham Scott (guitar), had Buddy Holly's Crickets as their inspiration. This version of the band did not stay together long, however, and Blakley quickly switched to guitar (which Poole relinquished) after Dave Munden joined on the drums. Munden proved not only to be a very talented percussionist, but also a good singer. This gave the group a third vocalist, which would prove essential to their success further on in their history. Howard also switched to bass soon after Munden joined.
The band, then known as the Tremilos thanks to a misspelling, built up a following at local dances and clubs, and then broke into the U.S. Air Force base circuit. By 1961, they had turned professional, and the group's line-up changed again when Graham Scott left and was replaced by Rick West, who had previously played with Tony Rivers & the Castaways. West's arrival was key to the group's long-term success, providing the band with a classically trained guitarist. They also got a manager, Peter Walsh, who already represented such acts as The Brook Brothers, and the vocal group The Kestrels. The band's first break happened soon after when they were spotted by Jimmy Grant, the producer of the BBC's Saturday Club, who got them an audition for the BBC. This led to the group becoming regulars on radio.
On New Years Day, 1962, Decca, looking for a beat group, auditioned two promising young bands: The Tremeloes and a somewhat similar combo (also heavily influenced by Buddy Holly) from Liverpool called The Beatles. Decca executives Dick Rowe and Mike Smith were in charge of the auditions, with Rowe reportedly leaving the choice up to Smith. The latter chose the Tremeloes, based on the fact that they were based in London and, thus, would be more accessible than the Beatles. At the time, it was routine for groups to have a featured member — Cliff Richard & the Shadows being the prime example — thus, the record label insisted that the band be signed as Brian Poole & the Tremeloes. They recorded a series of records backing other artists, including The Vernons Girls and disc jockey, Jimmy Savile, on the latter's version of "Ahab the Arab". They appeared in the film, Just for Fun, but early singles of "Twist Little Sister" and "Keep on Dancing" failed to find an audience. The then line-up was lead vocalist Brian Poole, lead guitarist Ricky West, keyboardist Alan Blakely, bassist Alan Howard and drummer Dave Munden.
Chart success
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes first charted with a version of "Twist and Shout" (1963), a song ironically also recorded by the Beatles. This was followed by a chart topping cover of The Contours' U.S. million-seller "Do You Love Me" in the same year. The Tremeloes version of "Do You Love Me" sold over 250,000 copies. On 8 November 1963, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes were the opening act, alongside The Searchers and Freddie and the Dreamers, on a UK tour with Dusty Springfield.
Before they parted company with Brian Poole in 1966, their covers of Roy Orbison's B-side, "Candy Man" and The Crickets' B-side ballad, "Someone Someone" (both 1964) entered the UK Singles Chart Top Ten, with the latter peaking at number two. In 1964 they made tours of South Africa and Australia, followed by a film A Touch of Blarney.
When Poole and Howard left the band in 1966, Alan Blakely took over leadership of the group, and Len "Chip" Hawkes, father of 1990s hitmaker Chesney Hawkes, replaced Howard. Poole pursued a career as a solo artist, with little success, and soon left the music industry.
In the meantime, the now Tremeloes released a single covering the Paul Simon song "Blessed," a song that failed to chart and got the band dropped by Decca. Written off in the press, they still had three capable singers, including a new lead vocalist (Hawkes), and an underrated guitarist in West.
After switching from Decca to CBS Records, the Tremeloes started an even more successful hit run from 1967 onwards with Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby"; " Hello World " and two Italian hits translated into English, "Suddenly You Love Me" (which is Riccardo Del Turco's "Uno tranquillo" - "One Quiet Man") and "My Little Lady" (based on Orietta Berti's "Non illuderti mai" - "Never Deceive Yourself"), and their Number one recording of an old Four Seasons' B-side, "Silence is Golden". Both this last single and "Here Comes My Baby" also entered the Top Twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on CBS' co-owned Epic Records. In addition both tracks sold one million copies globally, earning gold disc status.
All members shared vocals, though most of the songs featured either Hawkes or Munden as the lead singer. West sang lead vocal on "Silence is Golden". Their regular hits were accompanied by frequent appearances on BBC's Top of the Pops TV programme. Altogether, without Poole the group had nine UK Top 20 hits. The Tremeloes toured the U.S. just as the Summer of Love was blossoming and managed to chart their album, Here Comes the Tremeloes, on that side of the Atlantic, and the next three years saw them move from success to success in the UK and around the world. Their single release "Even the Bad Times Are Good", written by Peter Callander and Mitch Murray, was the third global million seller for the group in 1967.
Decline in fortunes
Then in 1970, the band committed a series of grave errors that started innocently enough. The members, apparently weary of being treated as a soft pop band, decided to change their sound and image.
They spent a year writing and preparing an album of music that was intended to prove they could do serious songs - the error came when the group announced their intention and, in the process, disparaged all of their past hits and dismissed the listeners they had attracted as "morons". When the smoke cleared, the group had managed to alienate most of their listeners. "Me and My Life" was a hit in 1970, but their album Master which they released a few weeks later failed to sell well, and they had no British hits at all after "Hello Buddy" in 1971. Beyond that point, the group seemed to lose their rudder, even changing their name briefly to The Trems. By the mid 1970s, the Tremeloes were playing in cabaret, a strategy similar to that of The Searchers and a few other surviving 1960s bands. They never stopped working, or were without work, however, Munden was there on drums and West stayed on guitar, and the group recorded music for DJM, Pye, and Polydor intermittently, before briefly returning to CBS in the early 1980s.
They had recorded several more singles throughout the 1970s, including "Blue Suede Tie", "Ride On", "It's OK (Say Ole If You Love Me)", and "Do I Love You", some of which received heavy airplay, particularly on Radio Luxembourg. They also released another three albums of original material, Shiner (1974), Don't Let The Music Die (1975), with some copies being credited to a group 'Space' although the Tremeloes' pictures were on the sleeve, and All For One and One For All (1992).
After the hits
Their music is still available on CD, and they quite often play concerts and are part of the pop-revival shows that constantly tour the UK. Their line-up changed several times from 1972 onwards, the first new entrants being Bob Benham and Aaron Woolley, effectively a merger with a Tremeloes-managed group called Jumbo. Munden remained the only constant member. Hawkes pursued a solo career for a while producing two albums for RCA Records in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1979 he returned to England and rejoined the Tremeloes where he remained until 1988. Hawkes left the Tremeloes to focus on managing his son, Chesney, who had a hit record entitled "The One and Only". By 1992 Hawkes was touring once again as a solo artist. Blakely produced records for other acts, including The Rubettes, Bilbo and Mungo Jerry. In 1983 the original quartet reformed and made a cover version of the Europop hit "Words", losing out to a reactivation of the original by F. R. David.
As a soloist, Poole failed to chart with subsequent records, but pursued a successful cabaret career. His daughters, Karen and Shellie, hit the charts in 1996 as Alisha's Attic. Blakely died from cancer in June 1996, leaving Munden and West to continue in concert with newer recruits Dave Fryar (bass) and Joe Gillingham (keyboards). Jeff Brown, former bass player and lead vocals for Andy Scott's Sweet, replaced Fryar in 2005.
Brian Poole, Chip Hawkes and The Tremeloes toured the UK as part of their 40th anniversary reunion in September 2006.
The Class of '64
In April 2004, at the request of The Animals who were about to do their 40th anniversary tour, Hawkes was asked to form a band to tour with The Animals. This he did, bringing together a supergroup including Mick Avory (ex-The Kinks), Eric Haydock (ex-The Hollies), who teamed up to perform as The Class of '64, also featuring guitarists, Telecaster Ted Tomlin and Graham Pollock. The band toured around the world, recorded an album of past band hits, and a new single called "She's Not My Child".
In 2007 Haydock, Tomlin, Pollock and Avory left to form a new band called Legends of the Sixties before changing their name to The Hitmen.
Band member details
- Brian Poole — born 2 November 1941, Barking, Essex — Vocalist (up to 1966).
- Alan Blakely — born Alan David Blakely, 1 April 1942, Bromley, Kent — died 10 June 1996 — Rhythm Guitarist / Keyboards / Vocalist.
- Rick West — born Richard Charles Westwood, 7 May 1943, Dagenham, Essex — Lead Guitarist / Vocalist.
- Alan Howard — born 17 October 1941, Dagenham, Essex — Bassist / Vocalist (up to 1966).
- Chip Hawkes — born Leonard Donald Hawkes, 2 November 1945, Shepherd's Bush, West London — Bassist / Vocalist (from 1965).
- Dave Munden — born David Charles Munden, 2 December 1943, Dagenham, Essex — Drummer / Vocalist.
Singles
See also
External links
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