Sixties City - The Apaches - Shadows Tribute Band

Baz John

The Apaches got together due to their common interest in
'The Shadows'. All the members are seasoned musicians,
have played in bands from the 60s onwards and experienced
the early years of Rock'n'Roll at first hand.

Martyn Dave

Martyn originally came up with the idea of a Shadows tribute band and suggested this to John, knowing that he was also very much influenced by Hank B.Marvin.
They now had the 'Brian Bennett' and 'Hank Marvin' of the band and started to search for a 'Bruce Welch' and a 'Jet Harris'. It was some time later, and after trying out several guitarists, that they enlisted Dave to play rhythm. As a trio still missing a bass guitarist they eventually found and recruited Baz and the line-up was complete.

Now that the original 'Shadows' have completed their final(?) tour, 'The Apaches' are keeping the music and memories very much alive by playing a string of their hits
with a style and sound that is as close to the original as possible. If you liked 'The Shadows' you will also very much enjoy the wonderful sound of 'The Apaches'

to visit The Apaches official website for information on bookings, appearances and some great sounds to listen to and buy.
Listen to 'Theme For Young Lovers' by The Apaches

John Parkes - Sixties Music Memories

My name is John Parkes ..... and it all started back in 1962 when I was 16; I liked the sound of this English version of Elvis, on 'Oh Boy!' on the television. Good looking, too - in fact, I thought he was better than Elvis because he had this fabulous guitar sound backing him - his name was Cliff Richard and the guitarist was Hank B. Marvin from 'The Drifters' (later The Shadows). I wanted to play like that, but at that time I had never even held a guitar, so I made do (like all budding guitarists) with a cricket bat in front of mum's wardrobe mirror.

My first guitar was an old 'Levin' Spanish guitar - but only for a very short time as the neck was too wide to play what I wanted to play, a mistake made by most people buying their first guitar. I was then bought a 'Hofner Clubman' and a 'Selmer' 10watt amplifier. Now this was a real guitar, and I started to play seriously but it still did not sound the same as Hank! Why not ?? This needed looking into....

I bought all the records to play along with and I had them on auto play on the Dansette record player - you know, with the arm back - but I still could not make the same sort of sound that was on the recording. This was getting frustrating as I wanted this sound so badly. Then I found out that Hank's guitar was different from mine, and so was his amp. He even had an echo box - something I had not got.... This had to be put right!!

From 'Smedley's Music Shop' in Printing Office Street, Doncaster (the shop is still there today), I got a 'Watkins Copycat' echo box - a continuous loop tape echo - and it sounded great, but somehow it still was not the same sound produced by Hank. The search for the 'Holy Grail' of sound was now well and truly under way! There was, in those days, a wonderful place in Leeds called 'Kitchens Music that was an Aladdin's cave of musical instruments and they had one of the Fender Stratocasters that was the same type of guitar that Hank played. I bought from them a 'Fender Stratocaster Flamingo Pink' for £160 guineas (£168), a 'Vox AC30 Combo' amp (£110) and a 'Baby Binson Echo' for £110 - 5s - 0d (£110.25) - a total of over £388 which was, then, a vast amount of money.

When I got these home, plugged in and switched on - WOW! This was the sound!! I had got there at last - it was like finding a dream - the end of my rainbow was right there in the room! I joined some friends and, of course, we formed a band. I played lead guitar, Terry Hardy played rhythm guitar on a 'Futurama 3', Eric (Brun) Brown played the drums and Ben Thornton was our vocalist (we had no bass guitar player then). We called ourselves 'Steve Jackson and The Boys' (left) and we played gigs in a good few working men's clubs in and around the Doncaster area. Our manager was a guy called Ray Brooks (no, not that one!), who used to get us bookings and also drive us and all our gear round. Some of the members' interests changed from groups (bands were known as 'groups' in those days) to girls and the band eventually parted company. I began looking around for another group to play in just at the time that The 4 Deltas (above right) were looking for a guitarist so I auditioned, and was lucky enough to get the job as lead guitar. This time we used an agent for bookings or gigs; there were two, Ernie Beattie Varieties and the Robin Eldridge Agency, who seemed to have the area tied up between them, and we played the whole clubland circuit and most of the dance halls from the North East to the South Midlands.

One foggy Wednesday evening at the Doncaster Co-op Emporium (on the third floor which was a restaurant that was converted into a large dance hall every Wednesday night and known as 'Beat Night') we were booked to support a band from Liverpool. Ernie Beattie did not think they would turn up due to the foggy weather but they did, and set their gear up on stage alongside ours. They were one of many British groups occasionally working abroad and had just returned from Hamburg in Germany - yes, it was The Beatles! - and a scruffy lot they were at that time too, and not particularly well-known outside of Liverpool. During my time with The 4 Deltas (who comprised of Mick Ivinson - rhythm guitar, Jeff Clennell - bass guitar, Terry Belcher - drums, with myself on lead guitar) we played alongside such artists as The Bachelors - at The Lyric Hall, Dinnington near Rotherham, the only place for miles with electric stage curtains - our drummer Terry actually played on stage with The Bachelors as they had no drummer with them, only Connery, Deckland and John on double bass; Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders (at The De-Montfort Hall, Leicester); Johnny Kidd and The Pirates (at St James Street Baths, Doncaster); The Corvettes (recording artists from Manchester) at The Doncaster Co-op Emporium and Shane Fenton and The Fentones at Bentley Pavilion, Doncaster, a gig known as "Friday Night at The Piv".

At various venues we also appeared on the same bill with groups such as The Barron Knights, Denny and The Witchdoctors, Screaming Lord Sutch and The Savages, Jimmy Crawford and The Ravens, Ronnie Dukes and Ricky Lee. Following my stint with The 4 Deltas I also played for a short period of time with a group called The Chantons. Then came the Gap……

It was in the early 90s that some friends from work were talking about Sixties bands and how they used to play 'back in the good old days" so, what do you know, after a 30 year break from playing in public we decided to have another go at forming a band. This one was called 'Freeway' and consisted of John Parry on rhythm, Andy Stock on bass, Martyn Huskisson on drums, me on the lead guitar and two vocalists - a male singer called Malc Cousins and my wife, Ruth. This band played Rock'n'roll, Country, Standards to Dire Straits and almost anything in between.

John Parry was later replaced by Dave Thomson and eventually the band broke up due to personality clashes. Meanwhile…… Martyn and myself got together to form a 'Shadows Tribute Band' and recruited Dave Pounder to play rhythm guitar and Barry Burrows to play bass guitar so we had a line-up just like the original Shadows: Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan - and 'The Apaches' were born, circa 2005. Today I enjoy playing, with 'The Apaches', the music that started it all off for me back in the 60s. Hank B. Marvin - you've a lot to answer for!!!