TOM'S Rigg followed a series of Middleton bands to Germany to work in the beer swilling, sex crazed, dance halls. On their return to England the band split - I’m not sure if exhaustion played a part in this decision but the band rested for about 18 months.

Thanks to boredom and lead guitarist Mick Connolly, the band reformed to do more gigs in Germany, with options for work in Turkey and Italy, but the contract depended on them having a female vocalist.

They recruited an excellent singer by the name of Pat Oliver. She and Tommy blended well together and the band were well received wherever they played.

Disillusioned with the type of work they were getting and tied in to a contract they had no intensions of fulfilling the band were eager to sever all ties with their agent. This wasn’t possible because of the prohibitively expensive legal costs. Luckily for them salvation came from an very unlikely source; another agent. The plan was to tell their agent Pat Oliver had returned to England and was no longer in the band. The plan worked and the boys got the push - in the direction of their new mentor who duly handed them a map with directions south through France and Spain to work in Kenitra, Morocco.

Their van got them as far as Madrid but died on the outskirts with a last proverbial cough and a smoke-ring that rose towards the heavens. After a lot of shouting and arm waving at the locals they managed to get train tickets to Algeciras and a ferry across the Mediterranean. Once on the other side they cheekily stopped the first person with a van and after several hours of laboured conversation convinced him to run them to their new club.

Tom’s Rigg's stay in Morocco was happy and rewarding until a family tragedy forced one of them to return home. The rest of the band came home when their contract ran out (a couple of weeks later) and slipped back in to the club circuit as if they had never been away. No strangers to the clubs of the northwest Tom’s Rigg played with many well known bands, sometimes more than once.

The well established American trio the Walker Brothers shared the bill with them on many occasions. At one particular venue the Walker Brothers arrived after a long drive up from London with nothing to eat. An elderly lady who worked at the venue offered them some potato hash. The big star of the band, Scott Walker was very impressed by the filling meal and thanked the old girl for the tasty stew. "Stew! That’s not stew, it’s 'tater 'ash you cheeky young beggar."

Star or no star Scott Walker found one female who wasn’t disarmed by his boyish good looks.

As is the nature of the beast, the band separated and the lads went their separate ways. Tommy, who was still eager to perform, joined various bands including Jude Brown and a group of Middleton musicians under the name of Tamla Express. Mick Connolly moved to Spain and set up an English newspaper. Sadly Mick died there.

Ivan’s Meads

Ivan’s Meads were initially a blues band, they went through several transformations before evolving in to the successful R&B band that packed out the north’s premier soul club, the Twisted Wheel.

Casualties up to their recording début include Tony Kennedy, David Bowker, Roger Cox and the proverbial drummer with no name.

After a stint at musical chairs the group ended up without a guitarist in the line up. There was Ivan Robinson on vocals, Alan Jay (Powell) on drums, Keith Lawless on bass, Rod Mayall on organ and Pat Dempsey on sax. The line up may have been odd but it was not detrimental.

They were managed for a short time by Harvey Demmy (of the Gus Demmy bookmaking family) but after going professional they took a gamble on Mike Maxfield – lead guitarist with the Dakotas – who came up trumps for the boys with the first signing of a band to George Martin’s A.I.R. production company.

Ivan’s Meads' first single was the excellent PF Sloan number, The Sins Of The Family. Recorded at EMI’s Abbey Road studio in 1965 and released on the Parlophone label. Ivan’s melodic voice weaves its way around the twists and turns of Slone’s erratic phrasing with all the skill of an Olympic slalom skier.

The harmonica used on Slone’s original release was replaced by Hammond organ, played by Rod Mayall – half brother of John - which gave it that unforgettable sixties sound that made it such a success in the soul clubs.

Before the final chorus Ivan hits the high note and we hear a short, nervous chuckle. The producer failed to edit this out; it’s the real deal. There are no session men on this recording, unlike most records at the time.

The record got plenty of local airplay which brought in a lot more work and increased the groups following. Keith Lawless remembers the massive ego boost of being whisked away by taxi to avoid mobs of screaming girls only to come back to earth with a bump when they were dropped off at a cheap bed and breakfast frequented by overly friendly young ladies.

Their 1966 release was We’ll Talk About It Tomorrow written by Toni Wine and Carol Bayer Sager. It’s in a similar vain to the ‘conversational’ Lucky Stars, released by Dean Friedman in 1978. The producer wanted an orchestral backing so all except Ivan were redundant for the A-side.

The B-side was an instrumental. "The A-side was Ivan without the Meads," said Keith "and the B-side was the Meads without Ivan. Which seemed a fair division of labour."