

Hi Des O'Reilly,
For many years Des I Have been a great fan of yours now for the sixties music since the mid seventies and still going stong.
The Chart hits of the sixties as follows.
1960
1 Apache The Shadows Columbia DB 4484
2 Shakin' All Over Johnny Kidd & The Pirates HMV POP 753
3 Made You Adam Faith Parlophone R 4665
1961
1 Please Don't Bring Me Down Johnny Kidd & The Pirates HMV POP 919
2 Now's The Time to Fall in Love Cliff Richard & The Shadows Columbia DB 4667
3 Five Foot Two Eyes of Blue Shane Fenton & The Fentones Parlophone R 4827
1962
1 She's Not You Elvis Presley RCA 1303
2 The Breeze and I The Fentones Parlophone R 4937
3 Monster Mash Bobby Pickett & The Crirpt Kickers London 122335
1963
1 Think of Me The Swinging Blue Jeans HMV POP 1170
2 Cock A Hoop Manfred Mann HMV POP 1225
3 Rhapsody Danny Williams HMV POP 1150
1964
1 Make Love To Me John Leyton HMV POP 1264
2 What A Sweet Thing That Was Mike Sheridan & The Nightriders Columbia DB 7302
3 Hey Lulu Shane Fenton & The Fentones Parlophone R 5131
1965
1 Yes I Will The Hollies Parlophone R 5232
2 Neon City Billy J Kramer Parlophone R 5362
3 Help The Beatles Parlophone R 5305
1966
1 Witches Brew Janie Jones HMV POP 1495
2 Sandy The Swinging Blue Jeans HMV POP 1533
3 The Fool Johnny Kidd & The Pirates HMV POP 1559
1967
1 Pictures of Lily The Who Track
2 Hole in My Shoe Traffic Island
3 All My Love Cliff Richard Columbia
1968
1 My Name is Jack Manfred Mann Fontana
2 Lazy Sunday Small Faces Decca
3 Magic Bus The Who Track
1969
1 Good Old Rock'nRoll Music The Dave Clark Five Columbia
2 Sorry Suzanne The Hollies Parlophone
3 Get Back The Beatles Apple
My Top 3 Hits from the Sixties music 1960-69 great sounds indeed.
Cheers Des My Good Friend indeed.
Terry Christie
A Great Fabulous Fifties & Swinging Sixties Music.
from Sunderland

HI DES HOPE THINGS ARE OK WITH YOU. BAD NEWS ABOUT DAVE MILLEN, LAST TIME I SAW DAVE PLAY WAS IN THE EARLY 90S
AT THE SHIP IN PRESTON WITH BOB JOHNSONS BAND, HE DID THE A STEVIE WONDER NUMBER SUPERSTITION WHAT A TALENT. BOB JOHNSON AND THE BOBCATS WHAT CAN I SAY HAVE BROUGHT SO MUCH ENJOYMENT TO OUR ME AND MY
BROTHERS OVER THE YEARS SO MUCH GREAT MUSIC. I WILL BE POPPING DOWN TO SEE BOB AT THE BITTER SUITE PUB
PRESTON NEXT MONTH. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A LOOK IM ON MYSPACE MELS FAB 1960S SPECIAL IT MIGHT BRING
BACK SOME MEMORIES. ALL THE BEST MEL.

I bumped in to Paul Varley in Los Angeles International Airport in 1980summat or other, I knew him from Carberry's house in Lea and from hanging around with bands. Sorry to hear he passed on.
In 1961 or thereabouts Kim Nicholson had a club in his parents front room on the Savick, he gave us juice and a cookie for threepence and we watched him mime and dance to his dads Little Richards records!
I've lived in Los Angeles since 1981 and one of my sons is carrying on the PRESTON legacy, he plays guitar with a few local bands wearing different hats, notably Shoot It Up, who by the way claim they are crap but play rather a lot of gigs.
Favourite singles from the 1960s ?
Since this site is all about the " The Swinging Sixties " I thought it would be interesting to recollect our favourite 45 RPM singles from that most memorable decade .
For me , scores of tracks sprang almost immediately to mind , with probably more than a couple of hundred filtering through from my memory bank within a few minutes of contemplation . To add a bit of order to proceedings I decided to narrow the list down to three tracks that entered the UK singles chart in each calendar year .
It was almost impossible to stick to this restriction , but following some ruthless decision making , these are the tracks I ended up with . I hope a few other readers post their own list of favourites from the respective years .
Come on , Des -- let's see what YOUR choices are !
1960 :
Shakin' All Over - Johnny Kidd and The Pirates
Apache - The Shadows
Cathy's Clown - The Everly Brothers
1961 :
Runaway - Del Shannon
Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson
His Latest Flame - Elvis Presley
1962 :
Wonderful Land - The Shadows
The Locomotion - Little Eva
Telstar - The Tornados
1963 :
In Dreams - Roy Orbison
She Loves You - The Beatles
I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
1964 :
House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals
It's All Over Now - The Rolling Stones
You Really Got Me - The Kinks
1965 :
Mr. Tambourine Man - The Byrds
Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Look Through Any Window - The Hollies
1966 :
Paint It, Black - The Rolling Stones
Daydream - The Lovin' Spoonful
Wild Thing - The Troggs
1967 :
Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks
A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procul Harum
Pictures Of Lily - The Who
1968 :
Jumpin' Jack Flash - The Rolling Stones
All Along The Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix Experience
With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker and The Grease Band
1969 :
Something In The Air - Thunderclap Newman
Bad Moon Rising -- Creedence Clearwater Revival
Oh Well -- Fleetwood Mac

HELLO DES....a couple of things from PRESTON.......Mick Fleming rang me tonight(Friday) and we had a long chat....
Some bad news was that drummer BRIAN BULLIVANT passed away about 12 months ago,. If you don't remember Brian he played with a group called the DROVERS with BARRY LAWSON on Bass Guitar back in the 60s.Then after a bit of travelling he ended up playing at the club in Market Street (flamingo)????? as replacement for FRED KELLY.

It's been a long time since I first saw you playing the drums on stage @ the Blessed Sacrament club one Sunday night, that's the only night of the week they had bands sorry groups on, why Sunday's & not Saturdays I don't know.
Bob Johnson was then in a group called the Dominators after that 15 watt amp made by Watkins as I recall, that only we at our level could afford.The vox ac 30 would come later. Could ramble on more but don't want to become tiresome. Wouldn't mind knowing what you think tho. Mike Fleming.

That's Cool fellas, write away !!! it's all good stuff, I admire anyone who has taken the trouble to learn an instrument, then go out and perform.So if this is one way that people can get a mention, then that's the go !! As I recall Preston has a fine musical history, maybe it's time to start up a Preston Page, I'll look into it~~Des

Kenny Jones says...
Hi Pete ,
What a pleasant surprise to see a reply so soon after first posting here !
I'd had a gut feeling that apart from Des himself , this could be well be another one of those guestbook pages that are very seldom visited , so would not really have been all that surprised to have found my messages still showing up as the last ones posted in two or three months' time from now !
So it was Steve FELL , the guitarist from Jerusalem Smith ? -- a surname that doesn't ring any bells , but thanks for that information , Pete , as I've lost count of the people I've asked about him who have just looked puzzled and said " WHO ? " then looked at me as if he and his entire existence must have been no more than imaginary by - products of my chosen recreational substances of the time :-)
So was Tams just born " Tams " then , or did he have a more conventional name , too ? :-)
I only met Paul Varley a couple of times , during his flying visits from the U.S.A . His brother Ian was a friend of mine -- also a drummer like his older brother , and sadly another one who left us too soon , as did his close buddy / bass player Paul shortly afterwards , who together briefly played in a band called Nova Scotia .
Until a few months ago at least , Greg Slater still lived in the same house in Ashton that he's resided at since 1978 .
Interesting that you also played drums with Steve and Jim Hesketh -- which I'd somehow forgotten . Was that with Crossfire ? -- with and without Eddie Entwistle and Cliff Ovenden ? I know Carl Davis played drums with them for a while , but not always , if I recall . Steve Hesketh first started coming round to our house for jam sessions when he was just 13 years old , with a red Wilson strat. copy , and he was no slouch even at that age . Sadly Steve has become even more of a recluse than myself and last I heard from his singing wife Emma , hadn't even touched a guitar in several years .
Was you also the drummer with trio Mustang then , with Eddie and Frank Whittle on bass ?
I have fond memories of Mustang and Phil Cool ( then Phil Martin ) performing at The Pear Tree in Bamber Bridge on Monday nights . Along with covering classics such as The Weight by The Band , Eddie featured a fews songs he'd written himself which I particularly liked , one called Summer Driver and the other , title not recalled but including a line about riding with Jesse James .
Dean O'Shea must have been VERY young when rehearsing with you , given that as far as I recall he was a still a teenager when his uncle Eddie died in 1993 .
Finally ( and again , I hope Des doesn't object to my ramblings here ) finding this site yesterday inspired me to look up Bob Johnson and The Bobcats , the web site of which includes a couple of musical videos / photographic montages featuring your good self , Pete , with Bob , Daz and Eddie . Most of those photos appear to have been taken from the Loon Street Gas Band / Smokey Joe in it's 4 - piece format period , sans Ginner , but set to music performed by Bush Country with Alex Leyland , Phil Wright and that bass playing policeman , whose name I never did get to know . It brought back some great memories , I can tell you . In fact you are credited with the still photography !
Anyway , great to hear from you , Peter and and hope you keep in touch here .
Kenny
Des ,
I've just re - read , with great attention to detail , all 10 chapters of your fascinating story , and hope that you haven't given up on the promised " to be continued " chapters .
One main reason for this is that looking back from this long - time fast - foward position , even though there seemed to be a brief period in the mid 60s when it was not unknown to find the likes of The Yardbirds on the same bill as the jovially rotund pianist , Mrs. Mills , the transition from supporting the likes of Bert Weedon in summertime shows at seaside theatres , to appearing at venues such as The Lancaster pub in Preston , performing songs by the likes of Cream and Jimi Hendrix seems to represent such a quantum leap , be it seen as forwards or sideways or whatever .
As I mentioned in my first message , I remember those latter occasions with great fondness , with Miffy and Kim Nicholson ( Preston's answer to Joe Cocker ! ) guesting on vocals , and even one occasion when THE Pretty Things turned up and jammed along . I remember the drummer Fred Kelly playing too .
I would be interested to know what the " master plan " , if any , was at that stage in your careers , with the formation and style of 3D ?
When was Jim replaced by Daz on bass , and for what reason ? and what became of Jim ?
From what I can recall amongst foggy memories , the 3D days seemed to end quite abruptly from my perspective , and the next time I saw Dave ( Ginner ) was back with Bob Johnson in a short - lived line - up of Smokey Joe circa 1972 , then so sadly , never again .
What did Dave do after that during all those " missing " years , and to answer a question that has intrigued me for years , how did he become to be known as " Ginner " ?
Kind regards
Kenny