In 1960, some pupils from the Sutton High-School For Boys (South London) formed their very own group: The Senators. According to the late Peter Thorp, they ‘convened’ in his parents’ garden, but did not actually play, just ‘strum along’ a little.

Things became more serious when The Fenders were put together shortly afterwards. Former Senators Rick Tyrell (drums) and Peter Thorpe (lead guitar) teamed up with Martin Blackwell (bass, also from Sutton High School) and Tony Burgess (rhythm guitar). When Tyrell switched to vocals, Ron Cosgrove became their drummer. They changed their name to The Strangers, had business cards printed and soon expanded their local fan base.They were approached by Cliff Richard’s PR man Leslie Perrin. Not pure coincidence, as Leslie Perrin’s niece used to go out with The Stranger’s singer.
As explained elsewhere, The Strangers recorded a two-sided demo in May 1961, with Tyrell singing lead on A-side ‘Well, I Ask You’, which was subsequently recorded by Eden Kane who took it to the no. 2 position in the charts.

Demo of The Presidents' single on Decca. B-Side 'Candy Man' 

 

Can you sing something?

It’s not entirely clear what happened next, but when The Strangers auditioned for Adam Faith on 14 August 1961, Tyrell was no longer with them. According to the late Peter Thorp, Tyrell left because he wasn’t needed for the audition since Adam Faith wasn’t looking for a lead singer.
Rick Tyrell himself, however, tells a different story and that’s where The Presidents come in. 

Rick Tyrell: ‘We were called The Fenders after the guitar brand, except nobody could afford a Fender so it was a much cheaper Futurama! We were all into The Shadows, everybody wanted to be in an instrumental band like The Shadows. I originally started playing the drums, then one night a bloke came up and said ‘Can you sing something?’. So I went to the microphone with my brushes and  sang ’Living Doll’ and after that we had a new drummer, Ron Cosgrove. I had been a choir boy, but I’d never sung in a group. We made a demo [see above – EB]  in a small IBC studio run by Glyn Johns, who had also attended Suttin High School. I left The Strangers because I wasn’t happy with the sort of music we were playing and The Presidents asked me as their singer’.

Enter The Presidents

Didn’t The Strangers leave a musical impression on their lead singer?

Rick Tyrell: ‘Not really, that’s why I went to play the music I liked with The Presidents, because I preferred their style of music. The split was a bit acrimonious because The Strangers thought that I was letting them down. When The Strangers came in contact with Adam Faith I had already left and they had another singer for that short while. However, with The Presidents we released a record on Decca and played with most of the top groups of that time such as Georgie Fame, The Animals, The Who, The Stones, The Nashville Teens and Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers - as well as doing some session work at the IBC studios with Glyn Johns, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Tony Meehan, Jet Harris and other session musicians. That one and a half years I enjoyed it. The group I enjoyed playing with most was Georgie Fame and the Blues Flames. They were incredible. You see, there wasn’t that yearning to become something, we turned things down that other groups would not have turned down. We were a strange lot, maybe because of our private school background, making music just for enjoying the music. Generally, I don’t have any regrets about not becoming top, because the way some people treated the girls, I didn’t approve of that. I’m not narrow-minded, I’m extremely broad-minded, but especially someone like Jagger… Generally, I didn’t like the scene, it wasn’t for me. That’s why I left. I genuinely don’t have any regrets’. 

Robin Mayhew

Robin Mayhew, co-founder, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of The Presidents:
‘‘I know when we got Rick to join The Presidents that he had been singing but I have to say I don't remember The Strangers. Here's a bit of general background -  I had a rock band in the 1960s called The Presidents and we were signed to Decca in 1964 when they heard our recording of ‘Candy Man’. Sadly, Decca played our version to their top band of the day, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes who also cut it forcing us to release it as a B-side. Our singer Rick Tyrrell and rhythm guitarist Tony Finch left as they were disgusted with the treatment and I took over singing and Martin Cowtan joined playing lead. We recorded a follow-up titled ‘She Said Yeah’ and were later told that the acetate had been lost. Strangely, our friends The Rolling Stones who were also signed to Decca released their version on their ‘Out Of Our Heads’ album in 1965! But in 2018 I got an email from Los Angeles saying the acetate was found and it was released in June that. The Presidents disbanded in late ‘65’.

© Eddy Bonte, 07 April 2022. FIrst published on this site.   

NOTES
Based on the author’s telephone conversations and email correspondence with Robin Mayhew and Rick Tyrell in late 2020 and early 2021. One paragraph was published in part 1 of my three-part Roulettes feature in Ugly Things magazine, issue 57, Summer 2021.
The full story of The Presidents, a discography and sound bits can be found here http://www.the-presidents.org.uk/index.htm
Thanks to Robin Mayhew, Rick Tyrell,Gina Way of the Eel Pie Club and Bruce Welsh (author of ‘What About Us? A Rocklopaedia of Britain’s Other  Recording Groups, 1962-1966’).

+ + +