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That's us – bigger than The Beatles!
IT was not so much Love Me Do as You Do Love Us for a Blackpool group who found themselves getting a bigger reception than The Beatles back in the early 1960s.
Prompted by recent Gazette articles on the reunion of The Dynamites, reader Mike Foy of Poulton says: "I only saw The Dynamites once as I was also playing guitar in my group Mike Foy and his Deputies.
"We were resident at the Newton Country Club, Staining, and also at the Broadwater Caravan Club and Windy Harbour Caravan Site.
"The group had a run of seven years from 1961 to 1968 and performed at most of the hotels in Blackpool and St Annes as well as the Picador Club and all the youth and rugby clubs.
"Not unlike Bobby Kingston and the Dynamites, we too reached a crossroad of decisions in 1968 and as the music scene was changing I opted to pursue a career as a bakery lecturer at Blackpool and The Fylde College.
Mike has uncovered a photograph of The Deputies taken at Newton Country Club showing, from left, Dave Knight (lead singer, guitar, piano), Dave Cookson (drums), Phil Crossley (bass) and Mike himself (lead guitar).
He says: "Phil actually worked at The Gazette as a compositor, Dave Knight was a teacher at St George's High School, Marton, and Dave Cookson worked for his father's box manufacturing company in St Annes.
"At the time this photo was taken I was actually a research and development baker at Symbol Biscuits in Layton.
"During the next 30 years I often wondered what my students would have thought of their 'rocking' lecturer had they seen me perform at the same venues as Joe Brown and the Bruvvers, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, The Rockin' Vicars and – dare I even say – The Beatles.
"Yes it was nice to think of the Dynamites getting together after all this time and it may be that some of your readers remember The Deputies from the same era.
"We once played at The Blessed Sacrement Youth Club in Preston, where The Beatles had also played two weeks previously. We were complimented for our song choices which had pleased the audience, whilst 'that other lot' as The Beatles were described were only interested in 'playing their own songs which nobody had heard of'.
"There were even complaints that, unlike us, they wouldn't even play any Chuck Berry!"
And Mike recalls that like that Preston audience, Arnold Frankit, owner of the Picador in Blackpool, also realised he had made the biggest mistake of his life by turning his back on the Fab Four.
Mike says: "Arnold cancelled a contract he had made with The Beatles for a summer season at the Picador when he heard the single Love Me Do on the radio.
"That year The Beatles hit the big time and Arnold had made the biggest mistake of his life!"
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Weather for Blackpool
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 4 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South
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Cloudy
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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