Famed for their on-stage antics and a fabled tour of Germany The Mad Classix were a sextet who always lived up to their name. In 1958 Ron Smith had purchased his first guitar, and the skiffle sound of that era was now giving way to, a more sophisticated music that we would know as Rock’n’roll. …
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The Mad Classix
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The Matadors
As I go on my travels into this exciting world of local music one band that seems to get mentioned more than most is The Matadors. Yet his fine ‘Coventry’ band had a secret, they weren’t from Coventry at all, they in fact hailed from the Hinckley Town in Leicestershire. Formed out of the enter-level …
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The Mustangs
Coventry had the Sorrows, The Mighty Avengers came from Rugby, The Matadors did it for Hinckley and Kenilworth had these beat boys The Mustangs. The early fifties had been shaping up as something a bit special, and real rock icons like Presley and Little Richard had replaced pretenders like Patsie Cline and Alma Cogan. It …
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From Orchid to the Kasbah
Wind things back to the early 60’s, and the building that stands at 51 Primrose Hill Street; had just finished it time as the Majestic Ballroom, It has just become the Orchid Ballroom. To be ran by entrepreneur Larry Page. You see this building is a true time capsule in local rock music terms, it’s …
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The Orchids
Forget the Spice Girls, forget Atomic Kitten, because girl power was alive and kicking in Coventry as far back as 1964. Yes folks, Coventry had the UK’s first real girl group and they still attain cult status some forty years on! Pete Chambers investigates. It was the early sixties, and Stoke Park Grammar school girls …
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The Peeps
If I had to write a list of whom I considered local music heroes, one of the first names that would go on such a list would be Martin Cure. For five decades, Martin has been involved with the local music scene in one shape or another. Today, we look at the sixties band The …
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The Pickwicks
Did this fabulous Coventry beat group lose out on chart success because their singles were released with their B sides better than their A sides? Pete Chambers Investigates. Tony Martin and His Echo Four, had been playing the local and national circuits, including a prime show at Coventry Theatre supporting Brian Poole and The Tremeloes. …
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The Primitives
The eighties had been a good decade for Coventry music, The Specials, Selecter, Hazel O’Connor and King. As the decade came to a close, we would see the rise of yet another successful chart act that would win us over with their perfect pop sound, they were of course The Primitives. Pete Chambers investigates. In …
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The Sorrows
Despite his best efforts entrepreneur Larry Page never managed to rocket one of his Coventry artists into the coveted ‘Hit Parade’. His bid to see the ‘Coventry Sound’ rival Liverpool’s Mersey Beat or our Midlands cousins Brum Beat scene, was sadly a non-starter. It was looking a tad unlikely that a band from Coventry would …
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The Trojans
From the ashes of the Leamington/Warwick band the Jokers, up sprang a new combo, and he presto, The Trojans were born. They began as a rock n roll band, before reverting to pop and beat, with a big slice of soul and blues thrown in for good measure. I spoke to brothers Frank and John …
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