From Hucknall circa 1961/64
Johnny La Verne – Lead Vocals – (real name John Palmer)
Arnold J. West – Drums
Malcolm Heenan – Bass
Richard (Wicky) Morley or Morby – Rhythm, Vocals
Alan (Tex) Turner – Lead Guitar, Vocals
Johnny La Verne, whose real name was John Palmer from Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, had been the lead vocalist in a band called “Johnny La Verne and the Strangers” in 1961 but by 1963 fronted a group called the “Comanches”. It is possible they were the same group but with a name change.
The Comanches, all from Hucknall, got their name when one of the guitarists was looking through a magazine and came across the Indian name. In 1963 they had two big breaks which gave them a boost. They managed to get a spot on the ATV programme “Up and Doing” winning the date over 24 other groups. This was later described as a TV audition in Midland Beat newspaper which “went down well with the small select audience“.
They also had a publishing company accept a demonstration record of one of their own compositions called “That Ain’t All”, hoping it might lead to a commercial recording.
They played the dances and the clubs in the region often turning out in patriotic red, white and blue suits. They wrote and arranged some 50 vocal and instrumental numbers including “That Ain’t All”, “The End of Time” and “Crawlin'”. Playing the Nottingham and Mansfield regions they also secured engagements in Loughborough, Melton Mowbray and the Birmingham area. Vince Eager payed a visit to one show and was interested enough to book them an audition for possible work in the Grantham area but by 1964 the Comanches time was up and they folded.
Notes about the time period. These apply to all the groups up and down the country at the time.
1 Many groups in the fifties and sixties rarely strayed from their local area. This wasn’t because they couldn’t travel further afield it’s just they didn’t need to. There was so many live venues close to home they could make a comfortable living without looking elsewhere. Of course, if the opportunity should arise, they would, but for most of the small groups this was fairly rare.
2 A demonstration record was just that. A one off demo record, an acetate, just to hawk around. Sometimes this “record” may have been a tape but the journalistic terminology was a “demo record”.
3 The “spot on the ATV programme” mentioned in the Evening Post above is later referred to as “A TV audition” in Midland Beat newspaper and the likelihood is they never actually appeared on TV. In the same way that groups like The Beatles would have to audition at Decca or Parlophone just to see if they were worth signing up it was probably the same with these TV appearances. It was just an audition to see whether they get on. The excitement of the group and the journalistic bravado often made it sound like they had been on or were about to be on when a clue in the Evening Post article is “they are waiting excitedly for the appearance date. It probably never happened.
4 Although a well known fact, Johnny La Verne and the Comanches is a perfect example of the way groups were named in the late fifties and early sixties. A lead singer and his group. Once The Beatles had established the “group name” as all you need, most followed this trend and by the psychedelic explosion of 1967 most of the old names had died away, in the British rock scene anyway. Only in the “working men’s clubs” scene did the old vocalist and his group moniker survive.
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