CHELFONT LINE

Chelfont Line 1967

The Chelfont Line from late 1967 with Mickey Rowe on bass, Norman Smith on drums, next to Norman is Barry Robinson on keyboards and Wally Latheron on guitar. In the front row is John Taylor on trumpet, Paul Cattermole on vocals and Rob Atkinson on tenor sax.

The Band 1969

Thanks to Dave Struke (Stukey) of the Chelfont Line for this photograph which shows, in the back row, Wally Latheron on guitar, Mike Rowe on bass (ex-Psycho 67 with Colin Bradley), Tony Relph on drums (Tony went on to play with the Eric Delaney Band and became a session drummer and married Lesley Judd the former Blue Peter presenter. Sadly Tony is no longer with us), George Trigg on tenor sax, (ex-Denmen) and Barry Robinson on keyboards (ex- Elastic Band).

In the front row is Stuky on vocals and frontman clown (ex-Those Responsible and Psycho 67 with Colin Bradley). Stukey went on to become Comedian Jim Davidson’s Batman and Road Manager), Paul Rhucroft on tenor sax and alto sax (ex-Denmen) completes the line up.

This photograph was after John Taylor left in 1969 to join a band called Harvest with Rod Millgate - the infamous 'jock' keyboard player, says John.

Chelfont Line

Two more old photographs of the Chelfont Line which came to us courtesy of Margaret Atkinson in New Zealand. John Taylor has kindly provided the line up which shows, left to right, Tony Relph on drums, Mick Rowe on bass, tenor sax player George Trigg, Dave "Stuky" Struke on vocals, Wally Latheron on guitar, Barry Robinson the keyboard player with Paul "Rookie" Rhucroft on baritone & alto sax.

Brass section

This photograph of the Chelfont Line has Mickey Rowe on the far left on bass guitar, Rob Atkinson on tenor sax and John Taylor on trumpet. Just out of the picture is vocalist Paul Cattermole.

John Taylor

Trumpeter John Taylor in a loud shirt - taken about 1967. The band were fashion icons in those days!

Teespop 68

This poster, designed by Chris Bailey, goes back a few years - to 1968 actually. The North's Greatest Festival! Teespop 68 with an impressive list of star studded names including Traffic, Ben E. King, Joe Cocker and Long John Baldry with local bands in support including Tramline, Rivers Invitation and, of course, Chelfont Line. Not bad for a quid!

Chris Bailey, the poster designer, says: "I think I was about 20 years old when I worked on that publicity material. In those days it was all hand-drawn artwork, with 'overlays' for colour. My mother's dining room table was occupied for about a week when the large 20" x 30" poster was being designed. Sadly, the last copy of the poster I had (in Purple & Silver ink/ silkscreen), I loaned to a friend - you can possibly guess the rest."

Teespop 68 - Teesside's Forgotten Pop Festival? They say if you can remember the sixties then you can't have been there, but Woodstock '69 and the Isle of Wight '69, were the classic rock and pop festivals that can surely never be forgotten. But who remembers Teespop 68? It seems incredible now but at the height of the swinging sixties, Teesside held its very own Rock Festival. The year was 1968 and the event, named "Teespop" was organised by a young impresario called John McCoy with a line-up that included some of the most famous names on the music scene at that time. Yet hardly anyone seems to have been aware of it and very few people can remember it. Perhaps it was Teesside's forgotten rock festival.

This page is dedicated to the memory of Wally Latheron (11.9.2023), Tony Relph and Paul Rhucroft.

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Bands

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Chelfont Line

The Chelfont Line, another band from Teeeside, that were operating from 1967 to about 1970. The photograph above shows The Chelfont Line taken round about 1969/70 outside the Red Lion in Redcar with Paul Rhucroft at the bottom of the stairs, Tony Relph, Dave Struke, George Trigg, Barry Robinson, Wally Latheron, Mick Rowe to the right of Stukey.

The band's first gig as The Chelfont Line having changed their name from Soul Supply.

A newspaper cutting from the Evening Gazette in 1968 which says "Paul Cattermole puts in the vocal with the Chelfont Line at Redcar's marathon Saturday night pop feast."

A Harvest business card, dating to 1969, which was found at John Taylor's father's house.

The original poster advertising Teespop 68 in suitably psychedelic style.

Teespop68 is also mentioned in this article by Gillian Samples which appeared in the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette "Nostalgia - Remember When" column on March 21st, 2015.

Some background information on the Chelfont Line as told by trumpeter, John Taylor:

The Chelfont Line came after the breakup of a band known as Soul Supply mid-1967. Soul Supply members were Paul Cattermole on vocals, myself, John Taylor, on trumpet, Rob Atkinson on tenor sax, Ray Johns on organ (Ray later joined Rivers Invitation), Mick Martin on guitar, Al Todd on bass and John Collins on drums. These three got together with David Coverdale to form the band Denver Mule.

On the breakup of Soul Supply we advertised for a guitarist, bassist, drummer and keyboard player. The Milestones had just split and we were contacted by bassist John Nimmo and drummer Norman Smith of the Milestones. I drafted in a keyboard player, Barry Robinson, from a previous band the Elastic Band (not the New Elastic Band). The original Elastic Band was fronted by Eugene McCoy, John’s younger brother and was an eight piece band of fifteen and sixteen year olds. The band card was designed by a young Chris Bailey.

The Chelfont Line auditioned guitarists and we went for a talented young lad who had not played in a previous band - Wally Latheron. The bass player John Nimmo, from the Milestones, decided the type of music we wanted to play was not for him so we auditioned Mike Rowe from a Billingham band Psycho 67 of which the guitarist was our old friend Colin Bradley.