MISSING . . .
THE DAILY MAIL offers readers a unique opportunity to re-establish contact with long-lost relatives and friends. Each week, MONICA PORTER features the story of someone trying to find a missing loved one, as well as a tale of people reunited. This column is produced in conjunction with the voluntary tracing service, Searching For A Memory, run by Gill and John Whitley. ‘BACK in the early Sixties, I played lead guitar in a fourpiece group called the Toledos,’ writes Tom Terry, who lives in Nuneaton, in Warwickshire.
‘We all went to William Penn Comprehensive on Red Post Hill in Dulwich, South East London. The photo shows John Needham (bass guitar), Brian Epsom (rhythm guitar), Martin Booth on drums and me.
‘We played tunes by The Shadows and The Ventures in pubs and at weddings, and we were the support to Screaming Lord Sutch And The Savages, and Brian Poole & The Tremeloes at the Savoy in Catford and the Pavilion Ballroom in Gillingham, Kent.
‘We all had day jobs: I worked as a documents clerk for W. Weddel & Co, meat importers in Smithfield.
‘We hired a manager, who got us a series of gigs with a view to going to Hamburg, but nothing came of it.
‘One gig was at the 2i’s Coffee Bar in Soho, made famous by Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard.
‘I lost contact with John and Brian in 1963, when the group broke up, and last saw Martin at my wedding in 1966.
‘My wife Linda and I have celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary and we have two children and three grandchildren. I would dearly love to get together again with my old bandmates after so long.’