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THE OLYMPICS
Groovy Kind:
Wigan
1964 -1967
Ocean Room - Blackpool
Paul Beasley: Bass Guitar.John McNamara: Lead Vocal. Drums: John Bass.
Tony Hughes: Rythmn Guitar. Dave Riley: Lead Guitar.
"We played all the main local venues plus The Las Vegas Cluband The Mask serving our time hacking it in the youth clubs like St Georges Hall etc before moving on to the Wellfield Hotel every Friday night. We even rehearsed in The Court Hall Ballroom and The Crawford Rooms dressing rooms which are in the same building. Most unusual was our three weeks residency at The Room At The Top. We played Mon - Wed - Fri - Sat - Sun afternoon sessions; brilliant days they were.
At The Casino Club Bolton - again resident for but this time for three months - we played with The Merseybeats and Dave Dee, Dozy. Beaky, Mick & Titch. At The Beachcomber Club, also in Bolton - 'we never got to play at Wigan Beachcomber' - I watched Pete Townsend of The Who smash his guitar into the ceiling for fun.
At Walkden Civic Hall near Manchester we played with The Moody Blues in 1965 and at the USAA Air Force Base Burtonwood we were asked by two GI's to smuggle them out of the Base for the night. They sneeked inside the back of the van with the equipment then two strippers joined them who had been performing on the same bill that night!"
Paul Beasley: January 2011
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Signed by the band.. John Bass - Paul Beasley - Tony Hughes - Dave Riley and plain ole' 'Mac' was John McMamara's - R-I-P - moniker.
Pics: John Bass: July 2012
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**Pic courtesy Tony Hughes
GROOVY KIND
Don Perry: Drums.
Dave Riley: Tony Hughes (Later Winston): Paul Beasley: John McNamara:
"The Olympics changed name to The Groovy Kind. Johnny Bass was the drummer with The Olympics before he joined Ipso Facto and Don Perry replaced him in The Groovy Kind.
One little snippet you might like is that I and my friends used to hang out - as they called it in those days - with Tony Hughes and Dave Riley and Tony and I became an item. We would meet in the Blue Star cafe close to the market square in Wigan. After a few weeks Tony took me to meet his Mum and Dad and as we chatted it became clear that Tony's Dad and my Mum were cousins. When I told my own dad he said, 'well you wont be seeing him again Lady! It's bordering on bloody incest.' So that was the end of that! As you will gather, our parents were very strict in those days and kept a firm grip on our comings and goings; not a bad thing and we could do with a bit more of it these days with todays youth. There you go I am definitely getting old!"
Jennifer Gorton: November 2012
Pics by Tony Hughes | | 
