The Escorts were a
Merseybeat band
Band or BAND may refer to:
Places
*Bánd, a village in Hungary
*Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania
*Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...
formed in October 1962 in
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, by three classmates who had just left the Morrison School for Boys in Rose Lane,
Allerton — Mike Gregory, Terry Sylvester and John Kinrade. In 1963, they were voted the ninth most popular group in Liverpool by readers of ''
Mersey Beat
''Mersey Beat'' was a music publication in Liverpool, England in the early 1960s. It was founded by Bill Harry, who was one of John Lennon's classmates at Liverpool Art College. The paper carried news about all the local Liverpool bands, and s ...
''
magazine from a competitive field of several dozen popular Liverpool bands of the time.
Career
They originally consisted of:
*
Terry Sylvester
Terence Sylvester (born 8 January 1947) is an English musician and songwriter. He is a former member of the Escorts, the Swinging Blue Jeans (1966–1969), and the Hollies. In the latter role, he took on the high parts formerly sung by Graham ...
—
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
/
lead vocals (born Terence Sylvester, 8 January 1947, Allerton, Liverpool)
*John Kinrade — lead guitar/vocals (born John Knowles, 25 June 1946, Southport, Lancashire)
*Mike Gregory —
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
/vocals (born Michael Gregory, 7 November 1946, Liverpool Maternity Hospital, Kensington, Liverpool)
*Ray Walker —
lead vocals
*Johnny Foster —
drums; replaced by Pete Clarke (born Peter Gaskell, 1946); replaced by Kenny Goodlass from The Kirkbys; replaced by Pete Clarke; replaced by Tommy Kelly of Earl Preston's Realms; replaced by Paul Comerford of
The Cryin' Shames.
Terry Sylvester was replaced by Frank Townsend from The Easybeats (1962–65) and the Beachwoods, who was later to become a member of
Tony Rivers and the Castaways
Tony Rivers (born Douglas Anthony Thompson, 21 December 1940, Shildon, County Durham, England) is an English singer, best known for singing with the groups Tony Rivers and the Castaways and Harmony Grass. Additionally, Rivers sang on albums by ...
.
Paddy Chambers
Paddy may refer to:
People
*Paddy (given name), a list of people with the given name or nickname
*An ethnic slur for an Irishman
Birds
*Paddy (pigeon), a Second World War carrier pigeon
*Snowy sheathbill or paddy, a bird species
*Black-faced sh ...
(ex-
Faron's Flamingos and
The Big Three) subsequently replaced Townsend. Sylvester left to join
The Swinging Blue Jeans
The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four-piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hit singles with the HMV label: " Hippy Hippy Shake", " Good Golly Miss Molly", and " You're No Good", issued in 1964. Subsequent singles released tha ...
in 1966, before replacing
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...
in
The Hollies
The Hollies are a British pop rock band, formed in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Allan Clarke and Graham Nash founded the band ...
.
He now lives in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
and travels all over the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
playing
concert
A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...
s with artists such as
Billy J. Kramer
William Howard Ashton (born 19 August 1943), known professionally as Billy J. Kramer, is an English pop singer. With The Dakotas, Kramer was managed by Brian Epstein during the 1960s and scored hits with several Lennon–McCartney composition ...
,
Peter Noone
Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born 5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits.
Early life
Noone was born in Davyhulme, Lancashir ...
,
Joey Molland
Joseph Charles Molland (born 21 June 1947, Edge Hill, Liverpool) is an English songwriter and rock guitarist whose recording career spans five decades. He is best known as a member of Badfinger, the most successful of the acts he performed wi ...
and other
British Invasion
The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of British culture became popular in the United States and significant to the rising "counterculture" on ...
acts. Sylvester also does a
one-man show
A solo performance, sometimes referred to as a one-man show or one-woman show, features a single person telling a story for an audience, typically for the purpose of entertainment. This type of performance comes in many varieties, including auto ...
.
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
played
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
on their last
record, "From Head to Toe" in 1966.
John Kinrade stopped playing after The Escorts split up in 1967, sold his
Gretsch guitar and became a
hairdresser
A hairdresser is a person whose occupation is to cut or style hair in order to change or maintain a person's image. This is achieved using a combination of hair coloring, haircutting, and hair texturing techniques. A Hairdresser may also be re ...
with two
salons.
Mike Gregory would also leave The Escorts in 1967 to join The Swinging Blue Jeans, and stayed until 1973, whereupon after leaving and doing sessions for a couple of years, he formed a group with
Johnny Goodison of the original
Brotherhood of Man
Brotherhood of Man are a British pop group who achieved success in the 1970s. They won the 1976 Eurovision Song Contest with " Save Your Kisses for Me".
Created in 1969 by songwriter and record producer Tony Hiller, Brotherhood of Man was initi ...
called
Big John's Rock 'n' Roll Circus in 1975. Gregory stayed in 'The Circus' until its demise in 2005, and is now a
solo
Solo or SOLO may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Comics
* ''Solo'' (DC Comics), a DC comics series
* Solo, a 1996 mini-series from Dark Horse Comics
Characters
* Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character
* Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''S ...
artist.
Drummer Pete Clarke managed to record a fine instrumental solo single in 1968. For a while that same year he became the in-house
session drummer for
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
Music and is notable on a couple of songs on
Jackie Lomax
John Richard Lomax (10 May 1944 – 15 September 2013) was an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his association with George Harrison, who produced Lomax's recordings for the Beatles' Apple record label in the late 1 ...
's album, ''
Is This What You Want?
''Is This What You Want?'' is the debut album by English rock and soul singer Jackie Lomax, released in 1969 on the Beatles' Apple record label. It was produced by George Harrison and features contributions from Harrison's Beatles bandmates Paul ...
''. Still wanting to be in a group, in 1969 he joined the strange poetry band,
The Liverpool Scene, and still working for Apple he did sessions for
Kiki Dee
Pauline Matthews (born 6 March 1947), better known by her stage name Kiki Dee, is an English singer. Known for her blue-eyed soul vocals, she was the first female singer from the UK to sign with Motown's Tamla Records.
Dee is best known for h ...
and
Billy Preston, and then did a brief stint in
Badfinger
Badfinger were a Welsh rock band formed in Swansea, who were active from the 1960s to the 1980s. Their best-known lineup consisted of Pete Ham (vocals, guitar), Mike Gibbins (drums), Tom Evans (bass), and Joey Molland (guitar). They are rec ...
. He is now living in the
US.
Although they never released a full
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...
during their short time together, much later (1983) at the instigation of
Elvis Costello, Edsel Records released an LP containing all twelve songs from the six singles. It was released on
CD in 1995 as EDCD 422 and entitled ''
From the Blue Angel'', as a reference to the
club
Club may refer to:
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* ''Club'' (magazine)
* Club, a '' Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character
* Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards
* Club music
* "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea''
Brands and enterprises ...
wned_by_Allan_Williams,_The_Beatles'_first_manager.html" ;"title="Allan_Williams.html" ;"title="wned by
wned_by_Allan_Williams,_The_Beatles'_first_manager">Allan_Williams.html"_;"title="wned_by_Allan_Williams">wned_by_Allan_Williams,_The_Beatles'_first_managerwhere_The_Escorts_began_performing_in_1962._Costello_also_released_a_single_which_was_a_copy_of_The_Escorts_last_sound_recording_and_reproduction.html" "title="Allan Williams">wned by Allan Williams, The Beatles' first manager">Allan_Williams.html" ;"title="wned by Allan Williams">wned by Allan Williams, The Beatles' first managerwhere The Escorts began performing in 1962. Costello also released a single which was a copy of The Escorts last sound recording and reproduction">recording
A record, recording or records may refer to:
An item or collection of data Computing
* Record (computer science), a data structure
** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity
** Boot sector or boot record, r ...
, "From Head to Toe"/"Night Time".
Discography
;Singles
* "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams) / "All I Want Is You" (Ireland/
Chilton) - Fontana Records, Fontana TF 453, April 64
* "The One to Cry" (Weiss/Schlaks) / "Tell Me Baby" (Ireland/
Chilton) - Fontana TF 474, June 64 (
UK Singles Chart, UK #49)
* "
I Don't Want to go on Without You" (
Burns/
Wexler) / "Don't Forget to Write" (Ireland/
Chilton) - Fontana TF 516, 1965
* "C'mon Home Baby" (Addrisi) / "You'll Get No Lovin' That Way" (
Jimmy Campbell/ Escorts) - Fontana TF 570, 1965
* "
Let It Be Me" (
Gilbert Bécaud
Gilbert Bécaud (, 24 October 1927 – 18 December 2001) was a French singer, composer, pianist and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are " Nathalie" and "Et maintenant", a 1961 release ...
/Mann Curtis/
Pierre Delanoë
Pierre Delanoë (16 December 1918 – 27 December 2006), born Pierre Charles Marcel Napoléon Leroyer in Paris, France, was a French lyricist who wrote thousands of songs for dozens of singers, including Dalida, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Pet ...
) / "Mad Mad World" (Osborne/Burnette) - Fontana TF 651, January 1966
* "From Head to Toe" (
Smokey Robinson) / "Night Time" (Chambers) - Columbia DB 8061, December 1966
;LPs
*''From the Blue Angel'' - EDCD 422, 1995
*# "Dizzy, Miss Lizzy" - 2:11
*# "All I Want Is You" - 1:49
*# "The One to Cry" - 1:55
*# "Tell Me Baby" - 2:16
*# "I Don't want to Go on Without You" - 2:23
*# "Don't Forget to Write" - 2:21
*# "C'Mon Home Baby" - 2:05
*# "You'll Get No Lovin' That Way" - 1:57
*# "Let It Be Me" - 2:19
*# "Mad Mad World" - 2:05
*# "From Head to Toe" - 2:32
*# "Night Time" - 2:53
References
External links
*
Allmusic.com biography
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
*
Genius profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Escorts, The
Musical groups established in 1962
English rock music groups
English pop music groups
Musical groups from Liverpool
Musical quartets
Beat groups
1962 establishments in England
Fontana Records artists