The Tornadoes
(Read about The Tornadoes after the video)
The Tornados were an English instrumental group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the UK and U.S. #1 "Telstar" (named after the satellite and composed and produced by Meek), the first U.S. #1 single by a British
group. The Tornados (Dave Watts version) still perform concerts around
the UK and Europe; the band consists of Dave Watts (keyboards), Shaun
Corrigan on guitar for '60s band the Symbols ("The Best Part of Breaking
Op"), Pete Gill on bass from '60s band The Rebounds, Jamie Thurston
(vocals/guitar from ITV Heartbeat tour, "ITVtheRoyal") and Tristan Long
on drums (performed with Gareth Gates, Deacon Blue, Midge Ure, SKIN,
Halloween, Foundations, Fortunes, etc.).
Career
From January 1962-August 1963 The Tornados were the backing band for Billy Fury (as well as recording and performing as an act in their own right); they toured and recorded with Fury as The Tornados.[1] Their recordings with Fury were produced by Mike Smith and Ivor Raymonde.
The Tornados made a scopitone film (an early form of music video)
for "Telstar" and another for their chart hit "Robot" featuring members
of the group walking around a woodland dressed in appropriate headgear
with their guitars, flirting with various young women and being finally arrested by policemen after lighting a campfire.
For a time The Tornados were considered serious rivals to The Shadows. The Tornados' single "Globetrotter" made it to #5 in the UK Singles Chart.
However, pop instrumentals began to lose popularity with British
audiences during the course of 1963 as the "Mersey Sound", most notably The Beatles, became more and more popular. In the summer of 1963 Joe Meek induced The Tornados' bassist Heinz Burt
to start a solo career, as The Tornados' chart success as an
instrumental outfit waned, and from that point onwards The Tornados
began to fall apart. By 1965 none of the original lineup remained.
On some promotional items, later lineups were credited as Tornados '65 and The New Tornados,
but these names were never used on The Tornados' releases. In the
mid-'60s The Tornados backed Billy Fury again, with Dave Watts on
keyboards, Robby Gale on guitar and John Davies on drums. In 1968, in
Israel to perform in Mandy Rice-Davies'
night club "Mandys", the band stayed for a ten-week tour after which
they disbanded, leaving Watts and Huxley in Israel, playing with The
Lions of Judea and The Churchills respectively.
Later years
After drummer and bandleader Clem Cattini left The Tornados in 1965 he became a successful session musician, playing on recording sessions for other artists, and was featured in Cliff Richard's backing bands. He holds the record for appearing the most times on UK #1 singles.
Rhythm guitarist George Bellamy is the father of Matthew Bellamy, the front man for British alternative rock band Muse.
They re-formed as The New Tornados in the early 1970s as the backing group for Marty Wilde, Billy Fury
and others on a year-long UK Rock n Roll Tour. They continued for
another few years with lead guitarist Tony Cowell and drummer Jon
Werrell touring with original members Norman Hale and Heinz Burt, plus "The King Of Rock Roll" Carl Simmons. The group was often part of a '60s package with other artists, including Wee Willie Harris and Screaming Lord Sutch.
It was Jon Werrell who loaned his Silver Premier drum kit to John Bonham when Led Zeppelin played their famous impromptu December 1975 gig at Behans St Helier while tax exiles in Jersey.
In 1975 Clem Cattini, Roger LaVern, Heinz Burt and George Bellamy reunited and released a version of "Telstar" as the Original Tornados. In the 1970s Billy Fury formed a new backing band called Fury's Tornados with a completely unrelated line-up. They also recorded and released a version of "Telstar" in the mid 1970s.
In 1996 Ray Randall wrote and recorded a three-track CD with Bryan Irwin and Stuart Taylor, using the band name Ray Randall's Tornados,
as a tribute to the late Joe Meek, 30 years after Meek's death. Randall
has since recorded a solo album entitled "Polly Swallow" (1997).
Panda Bear sampled two Tornados songs on his album Person Pitch.
"Do You Come Here Often?"
The B-side of the final single that the group released, in 1966, "Do You Come Here Often?", was the first openly "gay" pop record release by a UK major label.[2]
It started off as a standard organ-inspired instrumental, but Joe Meek
decided that the organ playing was a little too jazzy for the style of
the group. So, about two-thirds in, a casual conversation between what
appears to be two gay men (Dave Watts playing keyboards and Rob Gale
playing guitar) was overdubbed.[3] The song was featured, along with other gay-flavoured releases, on a 2006 compilation CD, Queer Noises.[3]
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