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The Countdowns
There surely can’t be many bands around that have not only remained friends for over 40 years, but also organise regular re-unions along the way. One such band is The Countdowns, who were a valuable addition to the local beat scene.
The band was formed in February 1963 when friends Bob Wilson (bass) and Gary Mayo (drums) (who had played in a skiffle band in the army together) recruited Ken Smith in on rhythm guitar. The last piece in the jigsaw was lead guitarist John Harris, who was recruited via an advert in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. “Our first gig was at a place called the Bulldog pub in Whitnash Leamington,” said John Harris, “we played every Friday evening and we did 35 weeks residency there, I recall that there was four people there on the first night, but by the time we got to night 35 the place was heaving. There wasn’t even any space to step-down from the stage. Sadly there was two family fractions in Leamington The Stacks and The Turpins who didn’t see eye to eye and a fight broke out and that was the end of our residency, we were never asked to play there again”.
Though the band didn’t worry about lack of gigs in Whitnash, they had other places to play, bigger places like The Locarno, Coventry where they supported The Vernon Girls. From that they spread their wings further and began venturing out of the immediate area. John recalls on memorable night in Peterborough. “I remember going to Peterborough one night, it was driving rain. I recall seeing this motorbike in front of us, until we went around then bend and he suddenly disappeared. As we drove past, he was face down in a ditch full of water. So I jumped out the van in this torrential rain, this was one of the only times that I had travelled in my stage clothes. I slipped on the bank and ended up chest high in water. Anyway I dragged the motorcyclist out of the ditch before he drowned. Of course I had to spend the rest of the night standing on the stage dripping wet, looking like I don’t know what all for £16 between the four of us”.
They continued to spread their ‘beat’ music all over the area, at every workingman’s club and dance hall you could think of and other places like Birmingham and The Chesford Grange, where they literally played opposite Leamington band Woody Allen and The Challengers. “There were two stages there us on one and the Challengers on the other. We played with all the local bands at some point, The Sorrows, The Avengers and Tony Martin and the Echo 4. Our act consisted of a lot of Shadows and Beatles material, and all the current pop hits of the time really, we even supported the Barron Knights at Coventry Police Hall, it was Peter Nutt’s 21st Birthday, it was a brilliant night” recalls John.
The band worked as The Countdowns up until November 1965, when Bob Wilson got married, and left the group. When continuing on a permanent basis became difficult. Although John would act as stand-in for various other local bands just to keep his hand in. Good job he did, as in 1974 Gary Mayo decided it was time to have a Countdowns reunion. “It was a great night”, enthuses John, ”We had to beg, steal and borrow amplifiers, we had obviously forgotten a lot of the material, though when we hired the Holbrooks Community Centre to rehearse we came outside for a break and there were 60/70 people listing to us! It was great se see everyone and to make music again. The last reunion actually made the papers.”
The band made their reunions a regular thing, and had five reunions from 1974 to 1993. Drummer Gary suffered from osteoporosis, and gave up the drums, “He was a great drummer”, says John, “and a great guy with a tremendous sense of humour”. In 2003 John, Bob and Ken got the music bug again and played together in the band The Time Machine.
Nowadays John repairs guitars and refurbishes amplifiers, he says,” The 60’s music was quite revolutionary and it was great to be a part of it. We all had a great time, and I believe it was the best time to be into music. I really don’t think bands today have that kind of atmosphere about them. If I could do it all again I would, especially with all the new technology there is now”.
For more Backbeat information go to www.covmusic.net
Contact Pete at backbeat@covmusic.net
You can hear Pete Chambers every Friday at 3,00pm on
The Bob Brolly Show on BBC Coventry & Warwickshire.
Look out for his Novelty records feature!