PHOTOGRAPHS
Merle Dempsey
During May 2008 I had the pleasure of spending a few days in Ireland with Merle Dempsey - former lead guitarist with Cliff Ledger and the Country Boys. It's been quite a few years since Merle returned to Ireland but was always asking me to fly over and pay him a visit - so I did. I spent some leisure time in Maghera, Magherafelt, Coleraine, Londonderry, Portrush, Portstewart and even popped over the border to Donegal to spend some left over euros. It was also nice to meet up again with George Brendan Quinn, the uncle of Irish country music star, Brendan Quinn. For many years Mr Quinn was a resident in Middlesbrough.
Photograph by Larry Drummond
How nice it was to meet up again with former Radio Tees country music presenter, Peter John Bergg. Peter, pictured above with Hartlepool country music agent Johnny Larkin, were among invited guests at a party to help celebrate 50 years in the music business of Tyneside entertainers Leon and Tex Moat at a venue in North Shields on June 21st, 2008.
Pop singer and entertainer, Joe Brown, backstage at the Forum Theatre, Billingham on April 4th, 2008. Because of my 'overseas visit' we had not had the opportunity to meet for many years. In fact, it was 19 years ago when we last got together - and that, coincidentally, was also at the Forum Theatre, in Billingham, when he appeared in the stage play "One Careful Owner" with Lynda Baron. Joe Brown was my 'employer' between 1962 and 1966.
Tom Parker at Jackson's Wharf Restaurant in Hartlepool
Music producer, arranger and composer Tom Parker, paid a flying visit to Hartlepool during late March 2008 and enjoyed a meal at Jackson's Wharf. Although born in Scotland, he has a strong attachment to the town as his family lived in Mulgrave Road for many years. Tom has been in the music business for years and started his musical career at the age of 16 when he became the pianist in a jazz-group. Between the ages of 18 to 22 he was a member of pop-groups such as The New Animals, the Groundhogs, Jimmy James and the Vagabonds and David Bowie, and toured as keyboard player with blues legends John Lee Hooker and Jimmy Reed. At 22 he started working intensively in the London recording studios, playing with Paul Anka and Status Quo, among others, and from the age of 25 arranged a number of hit records by such artists as Mac & Katie Kissoon, Don Fardon, The Nolan Sisters and The Dooleys. In 1972 he scored a world-wide hit as artist/arranger with "Joy" from Apollo 100. The record was number 1 in the USA and several other countries. In 1979 Tom had the idea of making a "rock-opera" version of Handel's Messiah - which was backed enthusiastically by RCA records, who financed the project. The group was christened "The New London Chorale" and Tom recruited Vicki Brown, Madeline Bell, George Chandler and Steve Jerome. The Young Messiah was followed by many more hits, notably "The Young Amadeus" and "The Young Verdi" and to date the album series has sold more than 2 million copies. His current project is "Live In Concert" a DVD/CD by the New London Chorale which was recorded in Holland.
It was nice to meet up with Albert Lee on a visit to the Studio in Hartlepool, in December 2007. I had the pleasure of introducing him on stage in the 1970's during a Hank Locklin concert at the City Hall, in Newcastle. Ace picker, singer, songwriter and movie star Jerry Reed was very complimentary about Albert in my book "Chasing Fireflies" so I took a copy along for him.
The FA Cup when Sunderland won it in 1869!
On a serious note, this was taken at a club in Whitby Street, Hartlepool after Sunderland beat Leeds 1-0 in the FA Cup at Wembley in 1973. Sunderland players Ian Porterfield and Jimmy Montgomery displayed the cup at a presentation night.
BBC TV and radio personality Noel Edmonds and I at the launch of Miller Lite beer at a Yarm nightclub, near Teesside Airport.
BBC Radio 2 broadcaster Wally Whyton, British country music singer Raymond Froggatt, Metro Radio disc jockey Brian Clough and me shelter from the rain at a BBC Radio Cleveland outside broadcast at Great Aycliffe Show, near Darlington, County Durham.
Cliff Ledger and the Country Boys - lead guitarist Merle Dempsey; Cliff Ledger, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist and bass guitarist and singer, Shay Brogan - receiving a gold disc for their album "Kentucky In The Morning" at a special presentation night at the Civic Centre, in Consett, County Durham. Mary Reeves Davis, the widow of country singer Jim Reeves, later presented the award again at a Jim Reeves Fan Club reception in Harrogate - but I did it first! On the right BBC Radio Cleveland in "live" action recording a "Country Time" session in the Cleveland Centre, Middlesbrough with Cliff Ledger and the Country Boys with their backs to the camera. Merle Dempsey is lead guitarist on the left, rhythm guitarist and lead vocalist Cliff Ledger is in the centre with Shay Brogan, on bass guitar, on the right.
© Frank Theatrical Photography
This early photograph came from the collection of Shay Brogan and shows Cliff Ledger and the Country Boys on stage at the Junior Unionists Club, Darlington.
Photograph by Gary Smurthwaite
With Merle Dempsey at the British Grand Prix, Brands Hatch, 1982. Merle, one time lead guitarist with Cliff Ledger and the Country Boys, is a big fan of Formula 1 - like myself!
Photograph by Alison Moses
A photograph of my dream car, a Lotus Europa, in Carlton-in-Cleveland. Note the 'poser' personalised registration plate!
Photograph by Shay Brogan
Sitting outside the Motel 6 during my first visit to Nashville, Tennessee in June, 1974.
This is me with Tom Laundon in North Carolina. I don't know for certain whether Tom and I are related. We have both ventured into genealogy but never managed to quite get the link between the Laundon family in England and the Laundon kinfolk in the United States. I do understand, however, that the first Laundon to go to America was from Northamptonshire in England and he settled in Ohio. He also fought in the Civil War between 1861 and 1865.
Some years ago I had the pleasure of meeting other Laundon's in the United States. I spent some time with Walt, his wife Betsy and their family in Atlanta, Georgia in the summer of 1990 and Tom brought his younger brother Bill to meet in me in Decatur, Georgia during another visit I made there.
Photograph © Brian Beckstein
This is the Thomas W. Laundon Home at 307 West Avenue, in Elyria, Ohio, which is in the National Register of Historic Buildings in the United States.
This was the Laundon Home in 1904. In those days it was the residence of E.E. Williams
The name
LAUNDON can be traced back long before the first one emigrated to
America.
A village in Lincolnshire, England called
Threekingham was originally
named Laundon back in the year 869 or 870 and only changed its name
after a bloody battle there.
There is a Laundon Road and Laundon Lane in Threekingham - also a Laundon Hall.
Two towns In Leicestershire, in England, have streets named Laundon. There is Laundon Close and Laundon Way in Groby and Laundon Way in Whetstone. There's also a Laundon Street in Elyria, Ohio. They might have asked me first!
Colin Bunyan and me, with a couple of admirers - Pat and Sue - at the British Steel Gala at Redcar Racecourse.
Photograph © Tom Mackin
I think I may have been under the influence of alcohol at the time this was taken. This was in my old den back in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough.
Photograph by Janet Kerr © - all rights reserved
The Gants Hillbillies with me on the left, John Cowling (centre) on mandolin and Lynn Lewis (right) who played Dobro and five-string banjo. This was the early 1960's when we started pickin' and singin' together at Barking Folk Club in Essex. Lynn has a wonderful website dedicated to bluegrass music. Why not pay him a visit and say hello from me!
My thanks to Joe Lanny for sending this photograph that was taken at Croft Autodrome, near Darlington, sometime around 1977 he believes. It shows Joe, leaning over his Lotus Elan, with Dennis Kerrison and me.
We were Country when Country wasn't cool
This photograph was long before those BBC days ever came along. It shows me and Billy Crallan at the Ponderosa Country Music Club which was held at the Palace Hotel, in Mainsforth Terrace, Hartlepool in 1966. We were both very tired this night as we had just travelled back from London after meeting Johnny Cash at a reception held in his honour at the Royal Garden Hotel, in Kensington. It was during this memorable visit that Billy took a selection of photographs of Cash which you can see on the Johnny Cash and More Cash pages.
I would like to thank Brian Beckstein, of Elyria, Ohio
for the photograph of the Laundon Home
You can enjoy more photographs from Brian on
Flickr
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