From Beat Boom to ballroom –
IN October 2018 I had the good fortune to meet up with Colin Corbett, former drummer with 1960s Cannock group The Telstars.
Colin and his wife Rita live in a quiet backwater on the edge of Cannock Chase where he has his own music studio. We discussed his own life in music, as well as the couple’s eventual business partnership as professional dance teachers.
“I was seven or eight when my parents arranged for my sister and I to attend ballroom dancing lessons on Saturday mornings and music lessons on the afternoon,” Colin began.
“I studied piano accordion and my sister studied piano right up until I was thirteen. We certainly had a thorough grounding in music theory which has put me in good stead ever since. Our teacher taught only classical music, but one day she asked me to bring along a piece of music of my own choice and I chose The Railroad Runs Through The Middle Of The House – a popular 1957 upbeat country-style chart hit by Alma Cogan.
Horrified
“But the teacher was not impressed. In fact, she was so horrified with my choice she actually said that she was finished with me and that I could probably become a good jazz musician. Actually, it was the height of the skiffle era and at home we did have a tea chest bass, washboard, acoustic guitar and a set of hanging bottles tuned to different notes.
“I stuck with guitar for a while but, when I was around fourteen there was a knock at the door and two lads said ‘we hear that you’re a brilliant guitarist’ and asked me to join them (well, I could play around a dozen chords!)
“The three of us became The Sundowners and I decided to switch to drums as I had always admired my uncle Ray Hadley who was a drummer in his own dance band. The bass player’s dad cut a big marching drum down to a bass drum size and I then had a tom tom, snare drum and a set of cymbals. I bought a drum tutor book and taught myself to play by drumming along to skiffle and rock records.”
Colin’s group soon developed into the currently popular Cliff Richard and The Shadows format of singer, two guitars, drums and bass. Colin kept his extra-curricular musical activities very quiet from his classmates, so you can imagine everyone’s surprise when The Sundowners were announced on the day of the school leaving concert and Colin casually saunters up to the drum stool from the audience to join his bandmates on the stage.
“My schoolmates were really pleasantly surprised and the teachers actually said what a wonderful talent I had. We then had a booking at The Top Club – a working men’s club in Brownhills, but without transport we took a chance at the local bus company, Harper’s Bus Service.
“It went better than we thought as the conductor and two passengers helped us get our gear on to the bus. The driver drew back the trap window at the back of his cab and asked us what time would we finish and would we like a lift home. He obviously took pity at our plight and ambition and dropped us at the club car park and picked us up at 10.30pm. They even helped load and unload our gear again.”
However, The Sundowners’ actual baptism of fire was when they appeared at The Avion Cinema in Aldridge – a veritable pop music hotspot. They now had Futurama guitars and bass and 10watt Selmer and Elpico amplifiers, plus a Watkins Copycat echo unit.
Clubs
From that, they went on to appear at all local pubs, social clubs, galas and a string of wedding receptions around Cannock, Stafford, Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
The Sundowners now comprised Roger Mosedale (lead guitar), Terry Lea (rhythm guitar, later replaced by Dave Danks), Barry Peacock (bass) and Colin (drums) but they had three lead singers come and go; namely Roy Bourne, Derek Murkett and Kenny Williams. At the end of 1962 The Sundowners changed their name to Dante and The Infernos but eventually parted company a year or so later.
In early 1964 came another customary knock on Colin’s front door and there stood four lads from one of Cannock’s most popular groups, The Telstars. They were seeking to replace Micky Solom who was vacating the drumstool, and Colin’s reputation as a solid drummer led them to his door. Colin jumped at the chance to join The Telstars who now comprised George Davies (organ), Dave Jones (bass), Terry Heath (lead guitar) Ian ‘Sludge’ Lees (singer, who sadly died earlier this year) and of course, Colin Corbett.