Now, if  Adam Faith wasn’t considering a new sound (see part 2) , why was he on the outlook for new backing-band in the first place? Why part with his backing band, the fabulous John Barry 7?

To quote the man himself: ‘I wanted a set of musicians who answered to me and me alone’ (< Acts Of Faith). The Pizzicato King was getting increasingly frustrated with the three people who had so far successfully steered his career: Eve Taylor, Johnny Worth and John Barry. He regretted he had let himself be bullied and browbeaten by Taylor into recording the utterly schmaltz ‘Lonely Pup (In A Christmas Shop)’ –  even if the fans turned it into a no. 5 hit in December 1960. Faith wanted to be a bad boy, ‘the one the parents were frightened of’.

Manager Eve Taylor kept the golden goose in the golden pen, for instance by withholding a serious acting offer from Lyndsay Anderson  or  - unsuccessfully this time - opposing his appearance in the BBC TV's Meeting Point discussing both religious and moral issues with the Archbishop of York .
Song-writer Johnny Worth aka Van Dyke had provided hit after hit, but to Faith’s dismay was now scoring with other artists too.
 

The cornerstone of the Faith edifice, however, was called John Barry - composer, arranger, producer and leader of Faith’s backing band The John Barry 7. The man was becoming increasingly popular in various roles; he would arrange the James Bond theme in 1962 and write several Bond scores thereafter. Understandably, a man of his stature couldn’t invest all his talent in Faith alone. 

And it’s probably safe to say that a quartet of novices would be a lot cheaper than a professional seven-piece.

This time he did get his way. Enter The Roulettes.   

Peter Thorp: ‘We were called The Roulettes because Faith manager Eve Taylor and her business partner Colin Berlin had a passion: roulette! They used to play it all the time’. Not that the name was really original. Bob Henrit: ‘Coming up thirteen in 1956, a few mates and I formed a skiffle group that we called The Roulettes after the record label’.  
 

© Eddy Bonte, based on research and my group interview with Roulettes Peter Thorp, Bob Henrit, Russ Ballard and John ‘Mod’ Rogan conducted at Russ Ballard’s home on Thursday 15th December 2016. My article on The Roulettes appeared in Shindig! Magazine no. 84 of October 2018 (as edited by Andy Morten)