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THE VICTORS

The Victors

Another band from the Teesside area - the Victors on stage at the Billingham Arms Hotel. They are, left to right, Trevor Davis on bass, Dennis Howe on vocals, Billy Cockerill lead guitarist and George Kitching on rhythm guitar. The drummer, hidden behind singer Dennis, is Eric Whitfield who was kind enough to provide us with the names of the bands personnel.

Perry and the Victors on stage at the Astoria Ballroom in Middlesbrough. This photograph, from the collection of Eric Whitfield, came from the Middlesbrough Evening Gazette Bands' Competition on Monday, March 23rd, 1964. The photograph shows a large crowd dancing to the band - Brian Flounders on bass, Mike Smith on rhythm guitar, Norman Parry on lead vocals, Billy Cockerill on lead with Eric Whitfield on drums.

George Kitching, rhythm guitarist with both the The Victors and The Kalvins, is pictured here at the Astoria Ballroom, in Middlesbrough in 1963.

Perry and The Victors

The Evening Gazette, in Middlesbrough, had a 20-page souvenir supplement in their Saturday night edition of March 7th, 1964 which was dedicated to the bands of that era. The headline read "Fabulous focus on your local beat groups - pages and pages of pics and personalities" and all for just 4d! One of the many photographs in that special edition was this one of Perry and The Victors with Michael Anthony Smith, from Stockton on rhythm guitar, Norman John Parry, from Billingham on vocals, Eric George Whitfield from Thornaby on drums and Brian Thomas Flounders on bass.

A rare picture of Perry & The Victors taken during a practise session - possibly during 1964. The photograph shows from left to right: Tommy Campbell (Rhythm), Billy Cockerill (Lead), Eric Whitfield (Drums), Brian Flounders (Bass) and Norman Parry (Vocals).

This photograph shows Billy Cockerill (lead guitar) and Eric Whitfield (drummer) of The Victors. It was taken in 1964 in one of those passport booths during an interval of one of the band's gigs at the Rainbow Coffee Bar, in Seaton Carew. Eric tells us "The look of surprise on Billy's face is due to the fact that I was pulling the back of his hair to stop him obscuring my view of the camera."

"I remember the night well," says Eric. "It was in the days before we had our own transport and used to rely on friends (or even Bob's Buses) to take our gear to the gigs. "This particular evening there wasn't enough room for the two of us in our friends' transport, so we had to dash to catch the bus from Seaton to the Transporter Bridge at Port Clarence. "Unfortunately we missed the last bus and, as we were walking, it started to rain heavily. "We must have looked like a couple of desperadoes as we attempted to hitch a lift from the passing cars. "Eventually a kind motorist took pity on us and dropped us off near to home. "What we had to do in those days for the sale of our art!"

This picture compilation, by Eric Whitfield, shows the original line-up of Perry and the Victors in 1964. Prior to this, the band were practising as The Premiers and had an occasional gig with Colleen Walker on vocals and Ralph Chapman on bass. Over a period of time several changes occurred and other musicians who have, at sometime played with the band, included Tommy Campbell on rhythm guitar, John McWilliams on lead and Bob Dale on rhythm. The final line-up, in 1965, was Billy Cockerill on lead, George Kitching on rhythm guitar, Trevor Davis on bass, Eric Whitfield on drums with Dennis Howe on vocals.

The Victors drummer, Eric Whitfield, as he is today - not using the same kit as he was using back in the 1960's which was a Premier Black Pearl outfit with Avedis Zildjian Cymbals.

The two little pieces of nostalgia above, from 1964, were supplied to us by Eric Whitfield, the drummer with The Victors who explains a little behind the name: "Perry was the name I gave to our singer Norman Parry - just changed the a to e. It seemed fashionable at the time, and I thought a little unusual. We only kept it because I had submitted our group under that name into the Evening Gazette competition in 1964. I eventually came to dislike the name and we began calling ourselves The Victors."

The Victors business cards, also from Eric Whitfield who says: "During the 60's we had our Business Card, along with many of the other local groups, on display in Hamilton's Music Shop window in Middlesbrough. "One day I noticed two well dressed and official looking men writing the details on the cards into a notebook. "I thought to myself - this looks promising, we could be in for some bookings here. "A short while later, the contact on our card received a letter from the Inland Revenue asking for the names and address of everyone in the band. We had to appear before the Tax Inspector and plead our case. Luckily we were let off without any fines or demands, since I had kept receipts and could prove our bookings, minus our expenses for instruments and travel etc, was not enough to warrant a tax payment."

A press cutting from the Billingham Express regarding the Open-Air concerts that used to occur on a Saturday, in Billingham Town Centre in 1964.

An advert from the Evening Gazette prior to Perry and The Victors performing at the Astoria Ballroom in the Gazette Competition - also in 1964.

This page is dedicated to the memory of Mike Smith

My thanks to George Kitching & Eric Whitfield for their contributions to this page and sharing their collection of photographs

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