Throwback Thursday - or seven degrees of separation from Scarborough in 1965 to Lowestoft in 2015 via the Kray Twins

---

Right, this is where I'm going to start a Throwback Thursday featuring seven degrees of separation that will takes us from Scarborough (England) in 1965 to the Marina Theatre Lowestoft (England) in 2015 by way of two encounters with the Kray Twins...

1. In the early 1960s, one of the most popular bands (we called them pop groups in those days) playing in and around my hometown of Scarborough was Jonty &the Moonshots (a few years later, the late Robert Palmer and his band The Mandrakes would take that crown). The Moonshots even played the floating gigs that involved live music on one of the small pleasure boats that ran cruises along the local coast. (In rough weather this was not so much rock 'n' roll as vomit as the ship rolled.)

2. Eventually the band split and two of the Moonshots teamed up with three members of another band – the York-based Tony Adams & the Viceroys. The called themselves The Shots, moved to London, got themselves a record deal and by 1965 were part of the Swinging London Scene, playing a mix of Mod/Rock/Psychedelia – think the Small Faces, 

3. They subsequently became a four piece, changed their name to The Smoke (what people in Yorkshire call London) and had 15 minutes of fame with a minor hit called My Friend Jack. Unfortunately the chorus of the song was "My Friend Jack eats sugar lumps" – and as drug-soaked sugar lumps were the way most people took LSD in those day, after a mere three weeks of airplay, the BBC had a fit of righteous moral indignation and banned the record. Well, the BBC was a paragon of virtue in those days employing such illustrious DJs as Jimmy Saville.

4. It was during this time that the band went through a string of money and management problems and, for one period, were actually managed by Reggie Kray, one of the Kray Twins who would subsequently become notorious as the leaders of a crime family that operated out of the East End of London. As for The Smoke, the Krays connection had little influence on their career and the band subsequently moved to Germany, where they enjoyed considerable success before breaking up in 1967.

5. Fast forward 50 years and last week Jane and myself headed off to the Marina Theatre in Lowestoft to see the Jasper Carrott Stand Up & Rock show. We actually went to see Jasper Carrott though I fear his humour has not aged well. (Although I did like his joke about a new model of the Stannah Stairlift called the Rapide, which was so fast it could get you to the top of the house before you'd forgotten why you wanted to go upstairs.) However it was the rock part of the show that really, really was enjoyable.

6. The musicians included Bev Bevan, who over the years has played drums with The Move, the Electric Light Orchestra/ELO and Black Sabbath. On vocals was Joy Strachan-Brain – fantastic voice – from The Quills, who have been playing Americana in the West Midlands for years. And on guitar and vocals Geoff Turton, originally with the Sixties pop group The Rockin' Berries. Unlike many Sixties/Seventies nostalgia bands, who just rehash their own hits, this line-up covered everything from The Beatles, to Dusty Springfield, to Motown, to the Phil Spector Wall of Sound and even such rarely heard covers as Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues. My favourite was their version of Jackie DeShannon's When You Walk in the Room.

7. Naturally Geoff Turton sang the Rockin' Berries' greatest hit He's In Town (No. #3 in 1964) which he has recently re-recorded for the recently released movie Legend – the film about the Kray Twins in the 1960s.