The Tornados

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This article is about the British band The Tornados. For the American surf band, see The Tornadoes.
The Tornados.net
Also known as The Tornados.net (in UK, Dave Watts version in 2015 touring. )
Original Tornados (1975 reunion)
Tornados 65, The New Tornados
Origin London, England
Genres Pop, instrumental rock, surf rock, beat
Years active 1960–1967, 1975 current www.thetornados.net ( Dave Watts version )
Labels Decca, Columbia (EMI) (UK)
London (US and Canada)
Associated acts The Saxons, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Billy Fury (1962), The Churchills
Website the-tornados.com
Past members Former members
Notable instruments
Clavioline

The Tornados were an English instrumental group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the UK and U.S. Number One "Telstar" (named after the satellite and composed and produced by Meek), the first U.S. No.1 single by a British group.

Career

From January 1962 to August 1963, The Tornados were the backing band of Billy Fury (as well as recording and performing as an act in their own right); they toured and recorded with Fury as The Tornados.[1] Their recordings with Fury were produced by Mike Smith and Ivor Raymonde.

The Tornados made a scopitone film (an early form of music video) for "Telstar" and another for their chart hit "Robot" featuring members of the group walking around woodland dressed in appropriate headgear with their guitars, flirting with various young women and being finally arrested by policemen after lighting a campfire.

For a time the Tornados were considered serious rivals to The Shadows. The Tornados single "Globetrotter" made it to No.5 in the UK Singles Chart. However, pop instrumentals began to lose popularity with British audiences during the course of 1963 as the 'Mersey Sound', most notably The Beatles, became more and more popular. In the summer of 1963, Joe Meek induced The Tornados' bassist Heinz Burt to start a solo career, as The Tornados' chart success as an instrumental outfit waned, and from that point onwards The Tornados began to fall apart. By 1965 none of the original lineup remained.

On some promotional items, later lineups were credited as Tornados '65 and The New Tornados, but these names were never used on The Tornados' releases. In the mid-'sixties The Tornados backed Billy Fury again, with Dave Watts on keyboards, Robby Gale on guitar and John Davies on drums. In 1968, in Israel to perform in Mandy Rice-Davies' night club "Mandys", the band stayed for a ten-week tour after which they disbanded, leaving Watts and Huxley in Israel, playing with The Lions of Judea and The Churchills respectively.

Later years

After drummer and bandleader Clem Cattini left The Tornados in 1965 he became a successful session musician, playing on recording sessions for other artists, and was featured in Cliff Richard's backing bands. He holds the record for appearing the most times on UK No.1 singles.

Rhythm guitarist George Bellamy is the father of Matthew Bellamy, the front man for British alternative rock band Muse.

Reformed as The New Tornados in the early 1970s as the backing group for Marty Wilde, Billy Fury and others on a year long UK Rock n Roll Tour. They continued for another few years with Lead Guitarist Tony Cowell and Drummer Jon Werrell touring with original members Norman Hale and Heinz Burt plus "The King Of Rock Roll" Carl Simmons. The group were often part of a '60s package with other artists including Wee Willie Harris and Screaming Lord Sutch.

It was Jon Werrell who loaned his Silver Premier drum kit to John Bonham when Led Zeppelin played their famous impromptu December 1975 gig at Behans St Helier whilst tax exiles in Jersey.

In 1975 Clem Cattini, Roger LaVern, Heinz Burt and George Bellamy reunited and released a version of "Telstar" as the Original Tornados. In the 1970s Billy Fury formed a new backing band called Fury's Tornados with a completely unrelated line-up. They also recorded and released a version of "Telstar" in the mid 1970s.

In 1996 Ray Randall wrote and recorded a 3-track CD with Bryan Irwin and Stuart Taylor, using the band name Ray Randall's Tornados, as a tribute to the late Joe Meek, 30 years after Meek's death. Randall has since recorded a solo album entitled "Polly Swallow" (1997).

Panda Bear sampled two Tornados songs on his album Person Pitch.

"Do You Come Here Often?"

The B-side of the final single that the group released, in 1966, "Do You Come Here Often?", was the first openly "gay" pop record release by a UK major label.[2] It started off as a standard organ-inspired instrumental, but Joe Meek decided that the organ playing was a little too jazzy for the style of the group. So, about two-thirds in, a casual conversation between what appears to be two gay men (Dave Watts playing keyboards and Rob Gale playing guitar) was overdubbed.[3] The song was featured, along with other gay-flavoured releases, on a 2006 compilation CD, Queer Noises.[3]

Former members

  • Clem Cattini (born 28 August 1938, Stoke Newington, London) - drums (1960-1965)
  • Heinz Burt (born Heinz Henry Georg Schwartze[citation needed], 24 July 1942, Detmold, Germany — died 7 April 2000, Weston, Hampshire) - bass guitar (1960-1963)
  • Stuart Taylor (born 23 October 1944, in London - died 18 April 2005) - lead guitar (1964-1965)
  • Jimmy O'Brien - keyboards (1964-1965)
  • George Bellamy (born 8 October 1941, Sunderland, County Durham) - rhythm guitar (1962-1965)
  • Alan Caddy (born 2 February 1940, Chelsea, London — died 16 August 2000) - lead guitar (1962-1965)
  • Norman Hale - keyboards (1962)
  • Roger LaVern (born Roger Jackson, 11 November 1938, Kidderminster, Worcestershire — died 15 June 2013)[4] - keyboards (1962-1964)
  • Tab Martin (born Alan Raymond Brearley, 24 December 1944, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland) - bass guitar (1963)
  • Brian Gregg (born 31 January 1939, London) - bass guitar (1963)
  • Ray Randall (born 7 November 1944, Bushey, Hertfordshire) - bass guitar (1963-1966)
  • Dave Watts - keyboards (1965-1967)
  • Bryan Irwin - rhythm guitar (1965-1966)
  • Dave Cameron - lead guitar (1965-1966)
  • Tony Marsh - keyboards (1965)
  • Peter Adams - drums (1965-1966)
  • Roger Warwick - tenor saxophone (1965-1966)
  • John Davies - Drums (1966-1967)
  • Robb Huxley - lead guitar (1966-1967)
  • Pete Holder -Lead Guitar Vocals (1966-1967)
  • Roger Holder - bass guitar (1966-1967)
  • Jon Werrell - Drums (1973-1974)The New Tornados with original members Heinz Burt and pianist Norman Hale
  • Tony Cowell - Lead Guitar (1972-1974)The New Tornados backing Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Heinz Burt, Norman Hale etc

Discography

Singles

  • "Love and Fury" (Meek) / "Popeye Twist" (Cattini) (Decca F11449, 1962)
  • "Telstar" (Meek) / "Jungle Fever" (Goddard) (Decca F11494, 1962) - UK & U.S. Number 1
  • "Globetrotter" (Meek) / "Locomotion With Me" (Peter Lawrence) (Decca F11562, 1963) - UK Number 5
  • "Robot" (Meek) / "Life On Venus" (Meek) (Decca F11606, 1963) - UK Number 19
  • "The Ice Cream Man" (Meek) / "Scales of Justice (Theme)" (Douglas) (Decca F11662, 1963) - UK Number 21
  • "Dragonfly" (Gary Asquith; Barry Gray; Brijitte West) / "Hymn For Teenagers" (Meek; Lawrence) (Decca F11745, 1963) - UK Number 41
  • "Joystick" (Lawrence) / "Hot Pot" (Meek) (Decca F11838, 1964)
  • "Monte Carlo" (Phil Tate) / "Blue, Blue Beat" (Bryan Irwin) (Decca F11889, 1964)
  • "Exodus" (Ernest Gold) / "Blackpool Rock" (Cattini; Lawrence) (Decca F11946, 1964)
  • "Granada" / "Ragunboneman" (Meek) (Columbia DB7455, 1965)
  • "Early Bird" (Meek) / "Stomping Thru The Rye" (Tornados) (Columbia DB7589, 1965)
  • "Stingray" (Gray) / "Aqua Marina" (Gray) (Columbia DB 7687, 1965)
  • "Pop-Art Goes Mozart" (Mozart arr. Meek) / "Too Much In Love To Hear" (Robb Gale [Huxley]; Pete Holder) (Columbia DB7856, 1966)
  • "Is That A Ship I Hear" (Meek) / "Do You Come Here Often?" (Tornados) (Columbia DB7894, 1966)
  • "Telstar" / "Red Rocket" (as Original Tornados, SRT 1975)[5]

EPs

  • The Sounds of The Tornados (Decca DFE 8510, 1962)

"Ridin the Wind"; "Earthy"; "Dreamin' on a Cloud" (Heinz [Burt]); "Red Roses and a Sky of Blue" (Meek)

  • Telstar (Decca DFE 8511, 1962)

"Love and Fury"; "Popeye Twist"; "Telstar"; "Jungle Fever"

  • More Sounds from The Tornados (Decca DFE 8521, 1962)

"Chasing Moonbeams"; "Theme from 'A Summer Place'"; "Swinging Beefeater"; "The Breeze and I"

  • Tornado Rock (Decca DFE 8533, 1963)

"Ready Teddy"; "My Babe"; "Blue Moon of Kentucky"; "Long Tall Sally"

Albums

  • Away from It All (album) (Decca LK4552, 1963)
  • Tornados Now (Private pressing, 1997)

"Please Stay" / "Starlight" / "Jersey Girl" / "Once We Were Friends" / "Out There Looking for Love" / "Satellite" / "Telstar Now" / "Dancing with Danger" / "Silver Bird" / "Startel" / "Nessun Dorma" / "Telstar (the mix)".

Foreign releases

  • The Original Telstar: The Sounds of the Tornadoes (U.S. 1962)

Side 1: "Telstar" / "Red Roses and a Sky of Blue" / "Chasing Moonbeams" / "Earthy" / "Swinging Beefeater" / "Theme from 'A Summer Place'" Side 2: "Love and Fury" / "Dreamin' on a Cloud" / "Ridin' the Wind" / "The Breeze and I" / "Jungle Fever" / "Popeye Twist"

New Zealand 7" Single 45 rpm.[6] Side 1: "The Twist" Side 2: "Deep in the Heart of Texas Twist"

Billy Fury

At the present time, members of Fury's Tornados act in The Billy Fury Story starring Colin Gold as Fury.[7] These are Charlie Elston, Chris Raynor, Graham Wyvill and John Raynor.

Discography

  • Billy Fury and The Tornados (Decca DFE 8525, EP, recorded 8 and 11 January, and released 30 March 1963)[8]

"Nobody's Child"; "What Did I Do"; "I Can't Help Loving You"; "Keep Away"

  • Billy Fury and The Tornados: We Want Billy! (live, recorded 30 April 1963) (Decca (S)LK4548, released October 1963)

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ HMV HR.163
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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Shuan Corrigan from the SYMBOLS on guitar, Pete Gill from the REBOUNDS on bass, Tristan Long on drums and actor Jamie Thurston on vocals and guitar.

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