THE ROULETTES PART (06)
SPRING 1963:  RUSS BALLARD AND JOHAN 'Mod' ROGAN JOIN

 

Between March and May 1963, The Roulettes would lose rhythm guitarist Henry Stracey and bass-player John Rogers. That same year would also see their final breakthrough.

Interpretations differ as to why exactly, but rhythm guitarist Henry Stracey quit shortly after the Australasian tour.
According to Adam Faith i his autobiography: ‘On that tour, things came to a head between me and The Roulettes. They weren’t really cutting it as a band. At times it seemed like they were all playing different things. It was time to read the riot act to John Rogers. After agonizing over what had to be done, we agreed it was time for a reshuffle’.
Faith’s love for hyperbole is famous, but that much is true: Stracey quit and was replaced by Russ Ballard in March 1963.

HENRY STRACEY QUITS

Bob Henrit: ‘I always felt Henry Stracey was an extremely accomplished musician. I have no evidence of this, but it was possibly felt by the management that he didn’t look right. I don’t think he’d mind me saying he wasn’t all-round material and with week-long engagements ahead in May and a summer season in Bridlington just a few months away, that’s exactly what Faith was looking for’.  
Peter Thorp: ‘Henry was a good rhythm guitar player, but he wasn’t happy with things like touring so he left the band to become a fireman . Bob and John knew someone from their  Cheshunt connection who could come in and take over on guitar and keyboards. Enter seventeen-year old Russ Ballard. As he was an excellent guitar player, it was decided that I switch to rhythm and share lead with this young ‘lad’.
Bob: ‘Russ, his brother Roy and I had been together in Buster Meikle’s Daybreakers where he played lead guitar, but he also moonlighted on piano. Tel (Adam Faith) loved Russell’s image with the dark glasses – which he had to wear those because of his eye problems. At any rate, he was hired immediately’.

JOHN ROGERS DIES

The new quartet of Thorp, Henrit, Rogers and Ballard wouldn’t be together for long, but in April they flew to Holland for a spot in Rudi Carrell’s show on the TV chain VARA where they played Ray Charles songs like ‘Leavy My Woman Alone’ and ‘Hallelujah, I Love Her So’ instead of their boss’s hits – Faith being a virtually unknown on the Continent.

The group was hardly routined when bad luck would strike real hard as bass-player extraordinaire John Rogers died in a car accident on 5th May 1963.  

Bob Henrit: ‘We were going to do a week in  variety in Sunderland and Russell, Thorpy and me we were going by train. We had a guy who drove the van, but none of us trusted him. The day before, John was in the hallway of my parents’ house saying goodbye to my sister – he was my sister’s fiancé -  and I said ‘See you in the morning at the station’ and he said ‘No, I’m going in the van’.  I said ‘You can’t go, that guy’s a lunatic’ and he said ‘I’m saving up to get married, so I’m going in the van’. They had an accident. It was terrible bad luck because one of the basses or one of the cases holding a guitar slid forward, the corner of it breaking his rib but also puncturing the lung. And that was that. The next thing we needed to do was to get ourselves together for the show that night. I can’t remember how we got through the show without John and I assume Russ took over’.

Picture above: Adam Faith (front) with (clockwise) John Rogers, Bob Henrit and Peter Thorp. Courtesy Peter Thorp, All Rights Reserved, copyright holder unknown.

JOHN 'Mod' ROGAN JOINS

 

The Hartbeats at the Maison de Dance in Stockton, with the master of ceremonies the late and great Jack Marwood. With Jack are George Hart Senior, Roly Thompson, John Rogan and George Hart. John Hart is in the background at the drum kit. Courtesy: Stan Laundon. The Hartbeats story can be found here: http://www.stanlaundon.com/harts.html. Sincere thanks to Stan. 

Obliged to fulfill a number of contracts and with the summer season just weeks away, Faith wasted no time in recruiting a replacement. Enter John George ‘Mod’ Rogan, nineteen, bass-player (amongst other things) and founder-member of the respected but otherwise only locally renowned band The Hartbeats from Hartlepool. The story is well-documented, but here’s how The Mod himself told it to Shindig!: 

John ‘Mod’ Rogan: ‘We were watching telly in my sister’s sweet shop and Adam Faith came on saying he was holding an audition to replace his bass-player who had died in a car accident. I think it was also a bit of a publicity thing too, he was like that, wasn’t he? Anyway, I thought I’d try my luck and I went to the Empire in Sunderland and the boys were on the stage and they said ‘Play something, sing something for us’. I did ‘Twist and Shout’ and they  said ‘That’s the kind of guy we want’. I had about a day and a half rehearsal, everybody helped and they sort of refined my bass-playing as much as they could. When I went on stage that first night,  it was like heaven. I was absolutely in heaven -  the most wonderful experience in my life that first show’.

The guys called him ‘Mod’ because he was a real... rocker! The newcomer thought he was engaged temporarily, but Faith and the lads kept him. After all, he had beaten all other contenders, including one John Paul Jones. Chass Hodges  - later of Chas & Dave - was in the running too, but he preferred to tour with his hero Jerry Lee Lewis.
John ‘Mod’ Rogan: ‘I was in Hartepool and that was a small community. I’d never even crossed the border. I was only nineteen and I was like in the big world. It looks normal now, but then that was pretty young for a Hartlepool chap’.  
Next thing Mod knows, he’s his way to Singapore – his first flight ever. Back home, they start a thirteen-week summer season in Bridlington on 24th June.   

FINAL LINE-UP

The line-up of May 1963 with Peter Thorp, Bob Henrit, Russ Ballard and John ‘Mod’ Rogan is the one that would remain unchanged until the break-up four years later. Apart from supporting Faith, the ’backing band’ would soon make a name for themselves as an autonomous act on record, secure their own spot when playing with Faith, gig without their boss occasionally and release eleven singles and one long-player under their own name. This is  also the line-up fans around the world remember best, if only because of the fabulous shot on the cover of  their LP  ‘Stakes and Chips’.

© 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) 

VERSION OF 4 APRIL 2017, with slight corrections, on website 09Feb2019