Tremeloes

The group formed in 1958 as Brian Poole and the Tremoloes (the name soon being changed thanks to the spelling mistake of a local newspaper), and were initially cast in the Buddy Holly and the Crickets mould. Decca notoriously chose them over The Beatles, whom they had auditioned on the same day. They first charted with a version of "Twist and Shout" (1963), which owed much to the Beatles' version, followed by a chart topping cover of The Contours' U.S. million-seller "Do You Love Me" in the same year. Before they parted company with Brian Poole in 1966, their covers of Roy Orbison's B-side, "Candy Man" and The Crickets' B-side ballad, "Someone Someone" (both 1964) entered the UK Singles Chart Top Ten, with the latter peaking at number two. Once Poole had left, rhythm guitarist and keyboard player Alan Blakely took over leadership of the group, and Len "Chip" Hawkes, father of 1990s hitmaker Chesney Hawkes, replaced bassist Alan Howard. After switching from Decca to CBS Records, they started an even more successful hit run from 1967 onwards with Cat Stevens' "Here Comes My Baby"; "Suddenly You Love Me", "Hello World", and "My Little Lady", and their Number one recording of an old Four Seasons' B-side "Silence is Golden". Both this last single and "Here Comes My Baby" also entered the Top Twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 on CBS' co-owned Epic Records. All members shared vocals, though most of the songs featured either Hawkes or drummer Dave Munden as the lead singer. Guitarist Rick West sang lead vocal on "Silence is Golden". Their regular hits were accompanied by frequent appearances on BBC's Top of the Pops television programme. Their songs were popular with younger music fans and parents rather than rock music fans. Altogether, without Poole the group had nine UK Top Twenty hits. "Me and My Life" was a hit in 1970, but the group did themselves no favours while it was in the charts when an interview in the weekly paper Melody Maker quoted them as calling the fans who had bought their earlier singles "silly suckers". Their album Master which they released a few weeks later failed to sell well, and they had no British hits after "Hello Buddy" in 1971.