Until my article in Shindig! Magazine (issue 84 of October 2018), the story of the early days of The Roulettes had never – that’s never – been told correctly. By erroneously starting the group’s story in May 1962, websites and encyclopaedia conveniently argue that The Roulettes were put together to provide Adam Faith with a new sound to cope with ‘the dawn of The Beatles’ (‘The Guinness Encyclopedia of Sixties Music’s website),  ‘in order for him to compete with the beat bands then merging from Merseyside’ (Wikipedia), or ‘to compete with the beat artists about to overtake the British music scene’ (45cat.com). In actual fact, The Roulettes first hit the stage with Adam Faith on 17th September 1961 – that’s seven months earlier. At that time, Merseybeat was a local underground phenomenon at best and The Beatles pleased the German crowds with ‘La Bamba’ and ‘When The Saints Go Marching In’.

 

The first line-up rehearsing with Faith for their first gig on 17 Sept. 1961: .l. to r.: John Roberts, Martin Blackwell, Tony Burgess, Peter Thorp, Adam Faith (picture courtey Peter Thorp, All RIghts Reserved)

Guitarist Peter Thorp tells us what really happened: 

Musical Background

“Dad was a very good violinist who passed an entry to one of the philharmonic orchestra’s, only to be released after admitting he had deafness problems - which didn’t affect him at the time but would eventually lead to a hearing aid. He was gutted, but was full of encouragement for me when my opportunity came up although my mother was rather sceptical. Mum incidentally played piano, so we were quite a musical family. However, with three different styles - dad very much classical, Mum more middle of the road and my rock n roll influences  - we would never make a trio.

I had piano lessons when I was about 12 years old and achieved a couple of grades until the teacher realised I was doing most of my playing by “ear” and occasionally referring to the tabs. She suggested I stopped having lessons as such and dismissed me. Ouch.  I still hardly read any music and have always had a good ear for keys, notes etc. ( like most early rock and rollers!).

As with most early guitarists, I was well into Scotty Moore, James Burton, Chet Atkins, etc. And of course Hank and the Shadsn who were to influence a lot my band “The Strangers”. I was also very keen on the finger-style of Chet and collected numerous albums, etc.

The Strangers

I was born and raised in Merton Park, London SW19, and after primary school went to Sutton High School for Boys where other pupils included jazzer Keith Morrisey and the ultra successful producer Glyn Johns.

It was here that I started playing together with various friends and eventually -  at  sixteen, just about to leave school - that “The Strangers” were formed. We started to play more and more youth clubs, outdoor fetes, etc. And then we got a regular Saturday night spot with the Ron Davis Orchestra or Band in the ballroom upstairs at the Granada in Sutton.

In the meantime, I had landed a job as a trainee salesperson for the General Electric Company (GEC) in Kingsway, London, and this being only a short walk through Covent Garden I used to spend most lunch hours in Charing Cross Road, Denmark Street etc. around the music shops. Incidentally, on one of these sworrays I heard this guitar sound coming from a basement behind Shaftesbury Avenue and gingerly went down the steps only to find The Shadows rehearsing. They were really friendly and allowed me to listen until I had to hot foot it back to Kingsway.

The Strangers comprised of myself on lead guitar with a Grazioso Futurama guitar (a Strat copy), a Watkins Westminster amplifier and a copy cat echo machine later upgraded to a 15 Watt Vox amp; Martin Blackwell on Fender Jazz bass, Tony Burgess on rhythm with what we think was a Fender Esquire, and Ron Cosgrove on drums.

Cliff and Adam

We became friendly with the Granada’s manager and used to play about three numbers at “Saturday morning” picture show. We had also met up with Cliff’s PR agent , Lesley Perrin, and suggested he came to take a look at us one Saturday evening -  which he duly did, introduced himself and that was that for a while. However, in May ’61 Leslie came to see us with a record acetate called “Well I ask you” and said it was a definite hit record that no-one else had heard and suggested we make a demo, which we did on 20th May 1961 at RG Jones studio in Morden Park (where incidentally I made frequent visits to for demos with several bands, and also Chris Andrews who at the time was living in Wimbledon and then moved to Motspur Park, but I digress).
Yep, Eden Kane recorded and released it in one week, so there went our recording chance.

Lesley was then approached by Eve Taylor and Colin Berlin to find a touring band for Adam Faith as the John Barry 7 were so committed due to his and their success. He put our name forward and we duly auditioned on Friday 14th August 1961 at Regent Sound Studios in Denmark Street, London. Those present were Adam, Eve Taylor, Colin Berlin and song-writer extraordinaire Johnny Worth (aka Les Vandycke). We were told not to wander far as they would be making a quick decision. Adam’s brother Dennis found us around the corner in Shaftesbury Avenue and told us we had passed the audition and to meet for suit fittings at Robbie Stanford’s in Shepherds Bush and Adam’s friend Eddie for haircuts on the Saturday. Ron Cosgrove, our drummer,  did not want to take the chance of becoming a professional musician as he had a promising career ahead of him in electronics, so he quit. We were told of another local drummer from New Malden called John Roberts so we auditioned him at the Granada on 26th August. We got along well and he was up for it, so we went back for our final suit fittings at Robbie Standford’s, rehearsed Adam’s songs in the empty ballroom at the Granda and did other gigs we had already lined up, including Glastonbury Youth Club in a large open air fete at St. Mary’s in Merton. Our last gig as The Strangers was on Sat 16th September 1961 at Sutton Public Hall and then on Sunday 17th September 1961 we became The Roulettes backing Adam Faith at The Royal Albert Hall. Quite a jump!

We then prepared for our first one night stand tour starting on 1st October till 16th October 1961”... 

 © As told to Eddy Bonte by Peter Thorp.