The Hunters were a British

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

band from the late 1950s to early 1960s. Originating from the

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

area of Hertfordshire and formed from the remnants of The Parker Royal Five, The Hunters found work as a backing group for touring US stars such as

Bobby Rydell Robert Louis Ridarelli (April 26, 1942 – April 5, 2022), known by the stage name Bobby Rydell, was an American singer and actor who mainly performed rock and roll and traditional pop music. In the early 1960s he was considered a teen idol. His ...

, Jimmy Jones in the UK, and British-based artists

The Allisons The Allisons were an English pop duo consisting of Bob Day (born Bernard Colin Day; 2 February 1941 – 25 November 2013) and John Alford (born Brian Henry John Alford, 31 December 1939). They were marketed as being brothers, using the surname o ...

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and Michael Cox. Their first major hit was "Sweet Dreams" on the Columbia label as the backing band to singer

Dave Sampson David John Bernard Sampson (9 January 1941 – 5 March 2014) was an English people, English rock music, rock singer who released a number of singles in the early 1960s on Columbia Records. Life and career Sampson was born in Uttoxeter, Stafford ...

, which reached No. 29 in May 1960. Sampson had written the song whilst at the ''Curry Bazaar Indian Restaurant'' in Wardour Street, London West End in October 1959 with friend and neighbour

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in mind but record producer

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thought that the song would suit Sampson more. They followed up with a release of their first track "Teen Scene" on the Fontana label in the same year, although it did not actually

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

. Further releases followed backing Dave Sampson and also without him as instrumentalists in a dual career that spanned 1960 and 1961. Though not denting the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, the band's singles sold enough for Fontana to grant them an album release in 1961 followed by a second the next year. The band in total released four singles and one EP with Dave Sampson on Columbia Records and five singles (one uncredited) plus two albums on Fontana between 1960 and 1964. The Dutch rock band

Golden Earring Golden Earring (originally known as The Tornados) was a Dutch rock band, founded in 1961 in The Hague as The Golden Earrings. They achieved worldwide fame with their international hit songs "Radar Love" in 1973, which went to number one on th ...

was named after their single "Golden Earrings" which was most likely inspired by the spy-fi movie from 1947 with the same title. The band also appeared behind Cliff Richard (a contemporary from Cheshunt) as

The Shadows The Shadows (originally known as the Drifters) were an English instrumental rock group, who dominated the British popular music charts in the late 1950s and early 1960s, in the pre- Beatles era. They served as the backing band for Cliff Richard ...

, when the latter were unavailable due to a car accident, including an appearance on the ''Sunday Night at the London Palladium'' TV show in 1958 and the ''NME Poll Winners Concert'' at Wembley Empire Pool in 1959. Instrumental tracks from the band have often been mistaken as that of The Shadows and retrospectively people have often wrongly assumed that The Hunters were copyists. In truth, there were a number of instrumental bands around in the very late 1950s and early 1960s, who played in a similar style and their sound was more a product of the guitars and equipment available at the time. After The Hunters, lead guitarist Brian Parker, bass guitarist John Rogers, and rhythm guitarist Norman Stracey were in

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(though not all at the same time), a band that was employed as the backing group to singer

Adam Faith Terence Nelhams Wright (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), known as Adam Faith, was an English singer, actor, and financial journalist. A teen idol, he scored consecutive No. 1 hits on the UK Singles Chart with "What Do You Want?" (1959) and "Poo ...

. Parker quickly moved on and with friend Buster Meikle from The Parker Royal Five, his earlier band from Cheshunt, went on to found and have a No. 1 chart success with the band

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. Drummer Norman Sheffield went on to launch

Trident Studios Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...

with his brother in London, used by many famous recording artists of the late sixties and seventies most notably

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, whom Sheffield managed in the early years of their career, leading to their first chart success. More recently, The Hunters found new success when their instrumental track "Teen Scene" featured in the 2009 movie ''

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''.

Band members

The Hunters *

Norman Sheffield Norman Sheffield (25 September 1939 – 20 June 2014) was a music and advertising industry figure, most noted for his music industry recording and management roles, ownership of the former Trident Studios, and being the original manager of the ...

– Drums, percussion (b. Norman J. Sheffield, 25 September 1939, Enfield, Middlesex – d. 20 June 2014,

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

) * Norman Stracey – Rhythm Guitar, songwriter (b. Norman Henry Stracey, 1941, Ware, Hertfordshire) * Brian Parker – Lead Guitar, songwriter (b. Brian William Parker, 7 December 1939,

, Hertfordshire – d. 17 February 2001, Cheshunt) * John Rogers – Bass guitar (b. John Rogers, 1941, Hertfordshire – d. 27 May 1963, Lincolnshire, from injuries sustained in car crash) * Billy Kuy – Bass Guitar on reunions after John Rogers death in May 1963 (b. William John Kuy Junior, 12 December 1940) Dave Sampson and The Hunters *

– lead vocals (b. David John Bernard Sampson 9 January 1941, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire – d. 5 March 2014)

Discography

Singles / EPs

;As Dave Sampson and The Hunters: *"Sweet Dreams" / "It's Lonesome" – Columbia DB 4449 May 1960 *"See You Around" / "If You Need Me" – Columbia DB 4502 Sep 1960 *"Why The Chicken?" / "1999" (Dave Sampson) – Columbia DB 4597 Mar 1961 *"Easy To Dream / "That's All" – Columbia DB 4625 Apr 1961 *EP "Dave" – "Talkin' In My Sleep" / "Goodbye Twelve, Hello Teens" / "Little Girl of Mine" / "Walking To Heaven" – Columbia SEG 8095 1961 ;As The Hunters (''without Dave Sampson''): *"Teen Scene" / "Santa Monica Flyer" – Fontana H 276 Nov 1960 *"Golden Earrings" / "Tally Ho" – Fontana H 303 Mar 1961 *"The Storm" / "How's M'Chicks?" – Fontana H 323 Aug 1961 *"Teen Scene" (re-release) / "Someone Else's Baby" – Fontana TF 514 Nov 1964 ;As Dave Sampson (with accompaniment): *"Wide, Wide World" / "Since Sandy Moved Away" – Fontana H 361 Jan 1962

Albums

*''Teen Scene The Hunters play The Big Hits'' – Fontana TFL 5140 (1961) *''Hits from The Hunters'' – Fontana TFL 5175 (1962)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunters British instrumental musical groups