THE ESCORTS
The Escorts taken at The Kingfisher, in Dormanstown and shows Mally Hay, John Thomas and Tom Joyce. Peter Dowson is the face in the background.
Mally Hay, Tom Joyce, John Blench, Ron Taylor and Brian Whitwick. The photograph was taken by Dave Skelton in his back garden along with his two dogs.
A publicity photograph of the band with John Thomas, Tom Joyce, Brian Whitwick, Mally and Ron Taylor. It was taken by Billy Hygate in Ron Taylor's back room which was used for rehearsing.
"If You Have A Request - Name It" says the poster on the wall. This was at the Magnet Hotel in Grangetown in 1962 - and shows Tom, John, Mally, Brian (almost hidden) and Ron.
Rehearsing in Ron's back parlour. The photograph was taken by Billy Hygate who was then getting guitar lessons off Ron Taylor at the time. At the back is John and Ron and seated is Brian, Tom and Mally.
At the Zetland Hotel, in Redcar, with Ron Taylor, Mally, John Thomas, Tom Joyce and Brian Whitwick.
The Escorts with family and friends. On the top row is Kelvin Dennis, John Thomas, Sylvia Joyce, Tom Joyce, Mrs Dennis, Ron Taylor and Bill Hicks. On the bottom is Mally Hay - later to become the solo singer Mark Aynsley - Brian Whitwick and bandleader Billy Dennis. The girl sat on Billy's knee is called Sheila. The photograph was taken at Smith's Dock Social Club in Normanby, Middlesbrough.
The Escorts with Tom Joyce on rhythm guitar, Ron Taylor on lead, Keith Murray - almost hidden - on drums with John Blench on bass. The photograph was taken some time around 1963, on stage at the Maison de Dance, in Stockton just after Mally Hay and Brian Whitwick left the group.
The quality of the above photograph is far from perfect but we thought we'd include it here just the same. It came from the collection of John McCoy and was taken at The Outlook in Middlesbrough. It shows, left to right, Ron Taylor, Brian Whitwick, John Thomas, Tom Joyce and Mark Aynsley who was known as Mally Hay then.
Two old lads of pop - Mally Hay and Ron Taylor - met up again during mid April 2011 and reminisced about the 45 years when they last worked together in the Bill Sowerby Band at Middlesbrough Astoria.
Eric Barker, the first bass player with The Escorts, with Mally Hay meet again for the first time in 48 years in July, 2011.
Mark Aynsley is regularly posting on Twitter and Instagram and should any one wish to follow him his tags are: Twitter: @AynsleyHay Instagram: Mark Aynsley Hay
Also do check out his YouTube channel with a varied selection of music on there.
More historical facts about The Escorts from Paul French:
Norrie Roy didn't stay too long in the band - the paint on the van was probably still wet - and he returned to The Skyliners to be replaced by Tony Sidgwick. Mick moved to Birmingham and we brought in Eric ‘Jez' Barker on bass. When Jez left to get married John Thomas joined. He and I had a small business cleaning windows by day then playing rock'n'roll at night. Good fun with some money too. Harry left for The Delmonts and Brian Whitwick came in on drums.
Tony Sidgwick left and Mally Hay (later Mark Aynsley) came in on vocals. I think we may have played together for longer than he remembers and, when I left in 1962, I was replaced by Tom Joyce. I went to Manchester (not London) and in the first few months saw The Hollies, The Beatles ("Love Me Do" had just been released) and many of the Merseybeat groups before they became famous. They played in a very different, harder style than the ‘singer/3 guitar' lineup popular on Teesside at the time but the key differences were their harmony vocals.
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The Escorts as told by Paul French:
"We began as Norrie and His Escorts. I remember painting this 'legend' on the front of an old van in a back alley in Skelton and the group origins differ slightly from the one already posted by Mally Hay and Ron Taylor.
"Founder members were Mick Boothby on bass with Norrie Roy on vocals - both from The Skyliners. Ron Taylor on lead guitar came from The Delmonts; Harry Simpson on drums with Paul French on rhythm. Mick wanted established players so, with new suits and instruments, we emerged fully formed after brief rehearsals in an old scout hut in Dormanstowm which later mysteriously burnt down. Our manager, Bill Hicks, found us a good supply of gigs."
Pre-first gig: New suits, two Maton guitars and a Gibson ES330 with Harry Simpson, Mick Boothby, Ron Taylor, Paul French and Norrie Roy at the front.
Paul French on Harry Simpson's drum kit with an unknown band member on the left.
Publicity from The Empire Continental in Middlesbrough with Rikki Johnson, Joy Larsen, Dawn Heywood, The Escorts & The Continentals. No date on this I'm afraid but we do know it was sometime during the 1960's.
A brief history of The Escorts as written by Mark Aynsley:
"It's hard to remember the finer details of exactly what happened in 1961 when I joined the Escorts other that I was fifteen and a half years old.
"What I do remember and, combined with a little input from old friends, the original line up of musicians chosen for the Escorts were as follows Paul French, rhythm guitar formerly with The Skyliners or the Rhythm Riders, Ron Taylor former lead guitarist with the Delmonts, Harry Simpson on drums, formally the Rhythm Riders, and Mick Boothby on Bass guitar formally the Skyliners. Only recently did I find out that the original vocalist in the Escorts was Norrie Roy through a conversation I had with Paul French. When I joined the band Paul had already been accepted for University.
"I actually played about a dozen or so gigs with Paul before he left. I believe Mick had the opportunity to join a semi name group either in Liverpool or London, and Harry joined the Delmonts, this obviously left Ron Taylor without a working band."
Ron Taylor contacted me while I was attending Redcar Technical College and asked me if I would like to join his band. I said yes and suggested Eric Barker (formerly with The Night Riders) as a possible bass player.
"Enter the new line up which was myself (Mally) on vocals Eric Barker on bass, Paul French on rhythm guitar, Ron Taylor on lead guitar with Brian Whitwick on drums.
Eric Barker left the group within a few months and moved to the Staffordshire area, he was replaced by John Thomas on bass guitar. Paul French left for university and was replaced by Tom Joyce (who was to be Ron Taylor's future brother in law). This line up was to stay the same for approximately the next eighteen months. "Just before I left the group John Thomas left and was replaced on bass by John Blench. "Brian Whitwick was the next to leave and he was replaced on drums by Keith Murray, Keith, John Thomas and Keith Murray's future wife, Pauline (Robson), went on to form one of Teesside's most popular groups called the The Freelanders.
"Looking back, The Escorts were a very well organised group; we had a manager Bill Hicks. Bill was a school teacher by profession but was also very well connected in show business circles. He produced and staged production shows along with Barry Brown for local theatre. He was able to keep our diary full of quality venues as well as the compulsory pub and club gigs of the day. "We also had a road manager in Dave Skelton who came with the standard Bedford van. Before the Bedford we travelled to gigs in an old post office van. Dave was also a very competent drummer, but chose at the time to be our roadie. Dave eventually became the resident drummer at the CIU Institute situated at Eston Square."
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