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~ The Foursights ~
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[My Page] [Family History] [Memories of Glen Hills School][Memories of Sheringham] [Family Tree][Foursights Rock Group 1964] [Foundry Rock Group 1971] |
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Circa 1964 |
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That's me, the goofy-looking one. No, not that one, the other goofy one - oh to hell with it, we all looked goofy. Let's start again - that's me, lower left. This is the original publicity photo for the record release and it is courtesy of EMI. The photo was taken outside of EMI's Manchester Square Building, London. |
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From Page 20 of the book "End Of Innocence" (see below): "...from the pictures in this collection, we can see the way some of the other groups on EMI tried to create trademark looks for themselves. There's the four members of the [Foursights] with their four pairs of Buddy Holly/Hank Marvin/John Lennon glasses." John Lennon? - I don't think so. |
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The Foursights first record (and last) and number one hit (in Glen Hills and Blaby) "And I Cry." |
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The other characters are: Bill Coleman (centre left) leader, founder, lead guitarist, keyboards and all-round musician of great talent. He had a wonderful ear for music and could play any music he heard right away - either on keyboard or guitar. Later Bill was a member of the Leicester rock group Brass Foundry, and later still, the Barron Knights; a group that is still going strong, albeit with several changes over the years among its members. Bill now lives in Nottingham and is still professionally involved in music. |
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Doug Abbott (centre right) rhythm guitar, keyboards, vocals. Like all the other group members, Doug grew up in Glen Hills, and attended the primary school there. The group used to rehearse in the large kitchen of the Abbott's bungalow on The Bridle every Sunday afternoon, breaking only for one of Doug's Mum's excellent cups of tea and occasionally to watch the Goon Show (puppet version). Doug went on to graduate from Loughborough University and later he emigrated to LA in the early seventies; now resides in North Carolina, where he has a successful furniture design business. |
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David Lyndsey (centre rear) was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Foursights. He was a year younger than the rest of us who had all been in the same year (and soccer team) at Glen Hills. David had a fine voice and loved to do songs by Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers and the Beatles. David, like myself, was motorcycle mad in those days. I unfortunately have not heard from David since about 1974, so I don't know what he is up to these days or even if he is still living in Leicester. |
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The copy of the original photo used for this page was reproduced from the following Publication (seen below): "The End Of Innocence: Photographs from the decades that defined pop" by Liz Jobey. Published by Scalo, 1st Ed. 1997, ISBN 3-931141-47-0. The Foursights can be found on page 82 right after pictures of Helen Shapiro, The Hollies and Billy J. Kramer. The book can be found in "Chapters" (in North America anyway). |
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The following was reproduced from the back cover (with one insertion): |
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Cliff Richard || Chubby Checker || Nat King Cole || Shirley Basset || Dion || Quincy Jones || Alma Cogan || Matt Monro || Adam Faith || The Beatles || Duke Ellington || The Beverley Sisters || Helen Shapiro || The Hollies || Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas || The Foursights || Carl and the Cheetahs || Julie Driscoll || The Vernon Girls || The Swinging Blue Jeans || Brian Epstein || George Martin || Georgie Fame || Cilla Black || Jess Conrad || The Animals || Peter and Gordon || Ella Fitzgerald || The Dave Clark Five || Mary Wells || The Shadows || The Yardbirds || Eric Clapton || The Supremes || The Beach Boys || Marttha and the Vandellas || The Miracles || Marvin Gaye || Gene Pitney || Beau Brummel || P.J. Proby || Long John Baldry || Graham Bond || Smokey Robinson || Stevie Wonder || Gerry and the Pacemakers || Peter Noone || Elkie Brooks || Burt Bacharach || Brian Auger || Astrud Gilberto || Dizzy Gillespie || Eartha Kit || Sonny and Cher || David Bowie || Rod Stewart || Cilla Black || Liza Minelli || Little Richard || Lee Dorsey || Pink Floyd || Lulu || The Pretty Things || Joe Cocker || Ron Wood || Liberace || Spencer Davis || Barclay James Harvest || Edgar Broughton || Steppenwolf || Deep Purple || Syd Barrett || Mama Cass || Kevin Ayers || Mike Oldfield || Sweet || CCS || Marc Bowlan ||Michael Jackson || Between the late 1950s and the early 1970s, a revolution took place that changed what it meant to be a teenager for ever. Pop music swept across Britain and America, bringing with it a new language, a new way of dressing, a new attitude, a new culture all its own. In the vanguard was EMI Records, whose groups and singers would define the times, from Nat King Cole and Cliff Richard, to the Beatles, the Supremes, the Beach Boys and Pink Floyd. Now EMI has opened up its archives, and many of the photographs in this book have been printed for the first time. They tell the story of pop's formative years: how Chubby Checker introduced Britain to the twist; what the Beatles looked like at their first recording session; just why it was called the "Tamla Motown Invasion" when the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas and the Miracles brought the Detroit sound to every dancefloor in the land. Here are the groups that followed the Beatles into the hit parade: Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Hollies, the Swinging Blue Jeans, the Animals, the Yardbirds, the Dave Clarke Five. Here are today's megastars - David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Cher, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson - as they looked when they were just starting out. Here are the artists whose music survives the generations: Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Eartha Kit and Quincy Jones. In the background details lies the story of a changing era: in the haircuts and the handbags, the make-up and the shoes, the cocktail frocks in triplicate and the mohair suits in sets of four. What is implicit in the photographs is the understanding the music industry came to have of the power of the image: how to control it; when to use it to maximum effect. In little over a decade another, more subtle revolution had occurred. What you feel when you look at these photographsis the sense of innocence being lost ... Gordon Burn. |
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Foursights' Highlights |
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While working as an apprentice at the EEC in 1963, I met up with three old friends from my Glen Hills Primary and Junior days: Bill Coleman, Douglas Abbott and David Lindsey. Together, we formed a moderately successful pop group called the "Foursights" (originally the "Primates"). My first time on stage was at the Lutterworth Working Man's Club where just Bill and I played a handful of songs to a handful of people. I remember us doing "Walk Right In." However, the group's first booking was at the Dunton Basset community hall. Over the next couple of years we mostly played at the community or other small halls in the surrounding area villages. These included such bright lights as Glen Parva, Aylestone, Blaby, Countesthorpe Ratby, and of course, the popular "Monday Night Rock and Roll" at Whetstone. The really big time was at Hinckley, Lutterworth, Market Harborough and Rugby. During our "fifteen minutes of fame" we had some moderate success and one or two memorable experiences: We won a competition for best Leicester band at the "Palais de Danse" with our rendition of "Walk on By," and later went on to the East Midlands finals in Nottingham; however, we became the victim of a "fix" as two Nottingham bands were tied for first place and both went on to the national finals. One of the groups was quite good, but the other definitely wasn't. A record for EMI on the Columbia label called "And I Cry" was also made at about the same time. The record was written by Bill's sister Bess in collaboration with Bill, and it was also promoted by Bess. The record was played every night for a month on one of the few popular music stations of that time; maybe it was Radio Luxembourg or perhaps an early BBC attempt at popular music programming. Later, and also as part of the promotion for the record, we went to London and had the above photo taken (just one of many taken that day). That same day (must have been a Friday) during the evening, we appeared on a live BBC Radio programme called "Friday Night Spectacular" along with the Americans Gene Pitney (Twenty four hours from Tulsa) and Bobby Vee (The night has a thousand eyes) also the British recording artist Jess Conrad. We were introduced to these established stars in the dressing room area before the show, and I remember that Bobby Vee was very friendly, and that Gene Pitney was not. My memory of Russ Conrad was one of him kissing the hostess of the show back-stage just before the curtains were opened for us to perform and lip-sink our song. An interview followed during which I mumbled something incomprehensible. When the Beatles came to Leicester in 1963 as part of their first tour, Doug, Bill Dave and I all went as a group to the De-Mont to see then play. We had really good seats - front row centre, 1st balcony - and as an interesting aside, the Beatles were third on the billing. The were behind (and in small print) Chris Montez and another American whose name I can never recall; his hit at the time was "Sweet Little Sheila (you'll know her if you see her)." Tommy Roe, that was his name. During these years, one of our greatest coups was to have access to the Beatles' "demos" before their records were released; in this way, we could play a particular Beatles' song at a local dance the same day that it had been aired for the first time, and before it had even been released to the general public. We obtained these demos through Bill Coleman's sister Bess who was press secretary (I think) for the Beatles or for EMI or something like that, I can't quite remember the details - well it was 35 years ago. We used to astound the crowd at a dance by playing a Beatles' new release a couple of hours after they had heard it for the first time on "Top of The Pops" or some such programme. On a couple of other notable occasions we opened for the "Fourmost" at a dance in Rugby and for the "Kinks" at the Corn Exchange in the Marketplace for a Leicester University dance. At the Corn Exchange, as we moved our equipment to one side to make way for the Kinks, I remember being struck by how effeminate one member of that group was. I had never heard a young man talk like that before. After the dance was finished, three of us played Bach's Fugue in D minor using two acoustic guitars and my bass guitar. It was well received by the University crowd. Bill, Doug and I were beginning to tire of the "scene" and we were starting to experiment with others kinds of music, including folk, and, as already mentioned, classical. David was not keen on this; after all, playing drums to Bach is a bit of a stretch. Before we did wind down the group in early 1965, we played one more interesting gig - Leicester Prison, a booking we shared with a "Big Band" type orchestra.
The BBC's Top 100 Hits of 1964 Based on a progressive point system applied to the weekly Billboard and Cash Box pop charts. A record whose chart run straddled the end of one year and the beginning of the next was given full credit for all its weeks and included with the year in which it earned a majority of its points. 1 I WANT TO
HOLD YOUR HAND - The Beatles (Capitol)
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Foundry Foundations |
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Some years later, 1969, I became involved in rock music again. This time it was in Canada and you can get a look at that group by following this link: [Foundry] |
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