Nottingham group 1960. 1st Line up, April to August

Featuring Alvin Lee, this was the very first line up what would eventually become The Jaybirds. Alvin had already played in two groups before this, Alan Upton and the Jailbreakers and Vince Marshall and the Square Caps in the late nineteen fifties but this outfit can be seen as Alvin’s first group with guys his own age and with a similar outlook. Alvin, of course, would go on to fame with Ten Years After in the late sixties and through the seventies.

Ivan Jaye and the Jayemen were formed at the beginning of April 1960 by John Clifton a nineteen year old Basford hairdresser. Ostensibly a Nottingham group, John Clifton played rhythm guitar and he asked Graham Barnes to play lead guitar. Graham’s cousin Max played bass and Alan McKennon played drums. As was the tradition in early sixties groups a lead vocalist, fair haired Ivan Jaye, was the front man and the group would nearly always be named after that lead singer. Graham Barnes, while only fifteen years old was already professional and made a living from playing guitar.

Ivan Jaye and the Jayemen started playing weekly shows at All Souls Church Hall, Ilkeston Road, Nottingham. Soon appearing at the Locarno Ballroom at the bottom of St Anns Road they then secured a weekly spot at the Commodore Ballroom, Aspley. In an inspired move they managed to persuade Tito Burns, the London agent who handled Cliff Richard, to give them an audition and they travelled down to London on Saturday 21st May 1960. For a group that was only two months old it was a big step in getting themselves known to a wider public.

Line up: April – June 1960

Ivan Jaye: Lead Vocals
John Clifton: Rhythm guitar
Graham Barnes: Lead guitar.
Max Barnes: Bass
Alan McKennon: Drums.

In August 1960 this line up broke up and Alvin Lee answered an advertisement for a guitarist with Mansfield group The Atomites. He took the job only two weeks after future sparring partner bass guitarist Leo Lyons had joined. Alvin Lee introduced Ivan Jaye to them as a lead vocalist and they decided to use the “Ivan Jaye and the Jayemen” band name before modifying it to “Ivan Jaye and the Jaycats” by November 1960.

Although only short lived this group was an important step in the evolution of The Jaybirds. Also on the circuit in those few months were Nottingham groups, The Beatmen and Farren Kristy’s Sapphires. Alvin would later cross paths with Farren Kristy when he joined The Jaybirds as lead vocalist for a few months from December 1961 to May 1962. John Clifton would, in 1963, introduce Loraine Burgon to Alvin Lee who became partners through those heady years of Ten Years After fame. Alvin’s cousin Max Barnes would join local Nottingham group The Silhouettes.

By November 1960 they changed from being the Jayemen to the Jaycats and most likely this was a new line up with ex Phantoms player Leo Lyons. More about that line up later.