THE DELMONTS
This photograph shows the original Delmonts with Mac Booth on rhythm guitar, Colin Draper on Fenton Weil Bass, Leo McCreaton on drums, vocalist Tony Sidgwick with Ron Taylor on lead guitar. The photograph was taken at Middlesbrough Empire Theatre in 1961 and was used in Hamilton's shop window, in Middlesbrough, showing gig dates.
This photograph of The Delmonts shows Nev Henderson the lead guitarist, John McCormick - lead vocalist sitting on the floor - Colin Draper on bass guitar, Harry Simpson on drums and John Prest on rhythm. This photo, as most of the others below, was taken at the Swan Hotel, in Redcar, with four groups playing on that night on a 2 up 2 down basis.
Colin, Nev, John McCormick, Harry and John Prest.
Spending some time at the bar but not drinking, of course, because they had a show to do. This shows John McCormick, Harry Simpson, Nev Henderson, Colin Draper and John Prest.
In a serious mood - John Prest, Colin, John Mc, Harry and Nev.
Messing about - professional posers says Colin!
Don't we look nice!
This is in the Pier Ballroom in Redcar, March 1963, with new singer John McCormack, from The Plainsmen.
The Delmonts between 1965 and 1970 with Barry Grimwood, Mickey Peacock, Ivan Thompson and Nev Henderson.
On the staircase with Barry Grimwood and Mickey Peacock at the rear with Ivan Thompson and Neville Henderson at the front.
Neville, Ivan and Barry with Mickey seated.
The Delmonts circa 1964/5 are Barry Grimwood, Ivan Thompson, Mickey Peacock and Neville Henderson.
The Delmonts supported John Mayall's Blues Breakers at Redcar Jazz Cub on Sunday, May 21st, 1967. Thanks to Colin Burns for the Redcar Jazz Club flyer which can be viewed larger by clicking on it.
This photograph of The Delmonts, which came to us from the collection of Neville Henderson, was taken at Redcar Jazz Club sometime between 1969 and 1971 and shows Neville Henderson and Barry Grimwood on guitars. It was during a show they did with The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
This was also at Redcar Jazz Club at the same show as above but this time with John Feldman on bass and Mike Walls on drums.
Barry Grimwood, John Feldman and Mickey Peacock at a Christmas show.
Somebody wake up Nev - it's time to put the cigarettes out and go on stage!
Mickey doing his Winston Churchill impression during a sound check.
The line-up has changed somewhat since this was written but "The Rockers Are Still In Town" said this headline from the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough on January 12th, 2010. Click on the image to view it in a larger size.
The Delmonts bass player Colin Draper recently bought a Fender Telecaster bass to give a bit of a new sound when he plays at home. It's butterscotch blond, as you can see, with twin hum buckers and not a bad effort to reintroduce an old/new bass by Fender. As from October 2013 Colin returned to the band after 45 years.
The Delmonts on stage, left to right, are Ray Brown on rhythm guitar, Norman Craggs lead vocalist, Kevin Tierney on drums, Colin Draper on bass guitar with Ron Taylor on lead guitar. The photographs, directly above and the one below, are copyright © IRB Photography. Ron Taylor has since left The Delmonts and retired from the group scene and has been replaced with guitarist Steve Farrow.
Thanks to Colin Draper and John Feldman for their contribution to this page and sharing their collection of old photographs and memories. As from mid-July 2016 Norman Craggs left the band.
This page is dedicated to Baz Nawton who sadly passed away on April 20th, 2014, to Harry Simpson who died on August 8th, 2014, Ray Brown who sadly left us on August 29th, 2022, aged 76 and to Barry Grimwood who sadly left us on September 10th, 2024, aged 86.
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Bands
The Delmonts
A brief history of The Delmonts by Colin Draper.
The Delmonts came in to being when Ron Taylor and Colin Draper decided that rock and roll was the only thing that mattered in life and you just had to be in there doing it. Ron was an accomplished guitarist for his day and had played guitar for many years in his skiffle group "The Red Rays" from the 1950's so he was off to a flying start jumping from his Hofner committee to a Futurama with three pick ups and looking like a Fender Strat. I didn't play anything except euphonium in Grangetown Boys Club band, what a start as a rock and roller. Ron asked me to purchase a bass guitar and he would start me on the road to fame and fortune and off we went looking for others to join. As we were ICI apprentices we had a lot of guys doing the same as us. John Prest and Macca Booth, from the Red Rays, were early members, along with Leo McCreaton all from Grangetown, but others who I recall drifted in and out included Eric Boone, Johnny Rocco, Howard Flately and others who I can't remember. Macca emigrated to Australia.
In later years other members of the band were John McCormack, Harry Simpson, John Thomas, Nev Henderson, Barry Grimwood and Dave Brown, but I left in 1965. Others followed and the band reformed, as bands do, and I lost touch with them as I took off for Saudi Arabia and the far east to get rich. I came back years later with the Delmonts defunked and interest in bands dead. By now we were all married with kids and so on, and had the brilliant idea to do it all again (yeah don't we all) and after a long pause and with drummer Dave Hopwood, guitarist Ron Taylor, Dave Brown and me back on bass, it started again - but once again I left and went back to the middle east, and now with Barry Grimwood on bass the band went on to greater things. It is still a rock and roll force as a 60's tribute band with old Ron Taylor doing the biz as the only original Delmont, and can be found on the web if you look. I have a million stories about the Teesside bands and I still have the gear to jam with so if any oldies want to try yet again, let me in on it!
The Delmonts enjoying a day out at Butlins just before they played a show at Whitby Pavilion. A new face in the Delmonts was Vivian Dye, she is the girl with the long hair at the front left. John McCormack is behind her, Kath Swatman - now Colin's wife - is next in line, John Prest is towering above all at the back with Nev and his girlfriend, Marg, near the railings.
This photo didn't stand the test of time - but worth including anyway. It shows Colin in Flatts Lane, Normanby around 1963. The Fender bass number is 74223 and he wonders whether anyone on Teesside still has it? He sold it in 1966 to get married!
The band celebrating Christmas and the engagement of Colin Draper to Kath Swatman, who are right at the back of the photograph. The girl in the front of the happy couple, in the green, is Marg Turner - now Mrs Nev Henderson. The young lady holding Mickey Peacock's hand is Maureen Crapper - the sister of Barney who ran the Normanby Pub in Normanby, near Middlesbrough, which was a great venue for bands in the latter years. Leo McCreaton is with an unknown girl on the extreme left and John McCormack, the vocalist, is with Vivien Dye. The last young lady is also called Kath and her brother, Tony Hargan, worked in Fearnley's Music Store in Middlesbrough.
The Delmonts on stage at the James Finegan Hall, in Eston when they were support band to The Real McCoy.
The Delmonts (1966-71) as told by Neville Henderson:
Ronny Taylor founded the Delmonts in 1959. In 1962 he left and I joined the remaining original members - Colin Draper, Leo McCreaton, Mac Boothe and Tony Sidgwick - doing all the local pub and club venues of the early `60`s. Over the next 3 or 4 years people left and others joined for various reasons but by 1966 the band comprised myself on guitar and vocals, Barry Grimwood on guitar and vocals, Mickey Peacock on drums and vocals and our newest “signing” John Feldman on bass and vocals. Again, we played all the local pubs, clubs and dance halls doing mostly the pop music of the day. We felt that we wanted to have some sort of direction so we began to do a lot of Tamla Motown songs. This worked quite well for a while but we always felt that we needed a brass section if we were to continue down that road so we decided to look for a change of focus.
Barry and I had always liked the smooth harmonies of the Beach Boys but felt it was far too complicated to emulate, but at a practice at John Feldman's house one night, on a whim we decided to give it a go. After all we always injected harmonies into whatever we did. I recall we began with an attempt at "Don't Worry Baby" but we murdered that and felt somewhat depressed. Desperation was about to set in when we decided to try "Fun, Fun, Fun" and it took off like clockwork. I can still remember how I felt as I sang it, hearing the backing harmonies and the four-part split in the choruses. We had done it ! We had made a start and we set to, to learn more. I remember the epic nine hours we spent over two nights in my dad's barber shop in Grangetown learning "Good Vibrations" - a song which was to always go down great with a very embarrassed Barry whistling the theremin part!
We would ultimately boast 37 surfing songs in our repertoire, along with a mixture of “other” material. We were often dubbed The Teesside Beach Boys and we loved it - wearing light trousers and striped or spotted shirts! My God - the memories!
Because we were so different, we were never short of work and we did a lot of support work for The Real McCoy - probably the most successful band to come out of Teesside. We worked the Bailey's Night Club circuit backing lots of professional artists of the day such as Tiny Tim, Bobby Vee, Leapy Lee, Vince Hill and Dick Emery to mention a few. We loved playing The Rink Ballroom in West Hartlepool (as it used to be) where we also worked with bands such as The Rocking Berries, The Fortunes, Wayne Fontana, Hedgehoppers Anonymous and more. We got a call out of the blue to play Manchester University with Alan Price and we had the audience 12 deep in front of us as we did "Good Vibrations" - a very memorable moment for us. We worked Redcar Jazz Club with lots of people but we always remember The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band with affection - they were just crazy!
Perhaps one of my best memories was when we played The Kirk with a band, unknown to us, called The Summer Set. I remember our bottle going when we heard them sound check. They were a surfing band and a million times better than us! Still we got on great, we used their P.A. and they sat and clapped all our songs as we chilled out and grew in confidence very quickly during our set.
Towards the end of the decade, Mickey Peacock left and for a short while we were joined by Ian Naisbitt. However, we missed the extra harmony voice so after a while Ian left and we were joined by a very young Mick Walls who soon found his feet and turned into a very good harmony singer and all around good guy.
Pete Mason was to join us for the last 18 months or so of The Delmonts life and he had a remarkably good falsetto voice. We disbanded in 1971 as John Feldman was emigrating to Canada and I was going to Teacher Training College. Before we finally finished we did make an LP at the studios of the remarkable Richard Harding of the Leeds band The Cresters. It will never go Platinum but it always reminds me of the time I spent playing with some great guys in “The Fabulous Delmonts”.
A view from the balcony at The James Finegan Hall in Eston - a venue where The Delmonts supported The Real McCoy. Note Mickey`s Trixon Telstar drum kit. It's a bit of a collector's item now and belonging to Kev Hunt. You can see The Real McCoy drum kit lower left.
A rare photograph with John Feldman, Pete Mason, Mick Walls, Nev Henderson and Barry Grimwood.
The Delmonts doing a live show in Middlesbrough with Pete Mason (with John Feldman partly hidden behind him) Neville Henderson, Mick Walls on drums and Barry Grimwood. We are not certain of the venue but Mick Walls thinks it could possibly be Acklam Steelworks Club.
Neville Henderson showing off with Barry Grimwood's Levin at The Candlelight in Thirsk.
John Feldman relaxing with Barry Grimwood`s Levin Goliath at the Candlelight Club in Thirsk.
Look what`s just popped out of that amp - it’s a John Feldman!
John posing outside his house in Redcar.
This is a photo of Macca Booth of The Delmonts in Perth, Australia, with his group Rebound in the 70's. They are, left to right, Doug Wilkinson (bass), Howard Smith (rhythm guitar), Ross Mitchell (singer), Vern Goff (drums) and Mal Booth (lead guitar).
Early Delmonts business cards with Barry Grimwood and John Dale as the contacts.
A press cutting showing The Fabulous Delmonts appearing with The Whirlwinds at a Christmas Party in the Billingham Arms Hotel on December 20th, 1964.
All photographs on this page are copyright © to their respective owners and must not be used, or copied, in any way without prior written permission.
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