In the
Beginning, somewhere between the
silencing of the 1945 bombs and the discovery of Elvis, Colin James Reece
was born in a South London Hospital
opposite Clapham South underground station. To be precise, 6.00am, Sunday, 28 September 1947.
An average childhood took
him through Mitcham's Links Road Primary School and the grammar
stream of Rowan Road Secondary Modern to the tender age of 14
when, along with the discovery of girls, his schoolwork started
to plummet. Quite correctly one of the comments on his last
school report stated that "his mind is not on academic
things". Such a pity they failed to spot and encourage the
fact that he had come top of his class in music for the previous
three years. Despite
Colin's keen and, along with his pimples, ever growing interest
in the fairer sex, like many boys of this era, his first love was
not, in fact, the girl next door. Or, before you get any ideas,
the boy next door either. Indeed not. It was Hank
Marvin's red Fender Stratocaster guitar. This was
Colin's number one, five-tissue fantasy.
He
practiced for hours in front of the mirror on his Mum's tennis
racquet, and, having got all the steps and moves right, still
felt a little disappointed in the fact that you couldn't get much
of a tune out of a tennis racquet. Colin's father, ever sensitive
to problems within the family, decided something had to be done.
Whether he saw the problem as his son's need for a proper guitar
or his wife's continual moaning that her tennis game appeared to
be going out the window is still up for debate. However, two
pounds, ten shillings and sixpence and a second hand guitar from
the local jumble sale produced a smiling teenager and peace and
harmony back to the Reece household.
Battling
his way through the "It makes me fingers hurt" stage,
Colin managed to pick out such complicated tunes as 'The Harry
Lime Theme', 'Peter Gunn', 'Pipeline' by the Chantays and The Surfaris' 'Wipe-out'. Anyone who knows these tunes will be fully
aware of the dexterity required in the playing of these classics.
It was around this time that Colin decided that
school held absolutely nothing for him, and that, rather than sit
his GCEs and risk failing them all, the best thing to do was head
on out to the big, wide world and find something else that held
absolutely nothing for him.
It
was now the summer of 1963 and very soon after starting his first
job with the British Post Office, Colin met up with two brothers Jim
and John Yardley from Dunfermline in Fife. Their common
interest in the current British beat boom was obvious and when
they learned that all three of them played guitar, they decided
to get together and explore the possibilities of forming a group.
Colin played his versions of 'The Harry Lime Theme', 'Peter Gunn', 'Pipeline' and 'Wipe-out' and stood back to hear what the
Yardley Brothers had to offer. The two lads lifted up their Levin
Guitars, stuck their heads together and launched into the most
amazing impression of The Everly Brothers
singing Bird Dog he had ever heard. This was a turning point in
Colin's young life as he made yet another startling musical
discovery. He was crap!!! What impressed him more than anything
was the fact that, rather than pick out single notes on the
guitar, they hit all six strings at the same time. Colin had
discovered chords!!!
It
was obvious that, if they were to form a band, then the guitarist
shoes were going to be filled by the Yardleys. Desperate not to
be excluded, Colin picked up a pair of his mother's knitting
needles and began beating out a fairly tidy rhythm on the back of
the armchair. The group had found their drummer!
However, this presented a further problem to Colin's
father who, having sorted out the difficulties of the failing
tennis game, felt pretty sure that, unless Mrs Reece got her
knitting needles back, there would be no tightly knitted jumper
under the Christmas tree this year . A scour through the second
hand columns of the evening newspaper and one hundred and fifty
pounds later, the knitting needles were clacking out a new scarf
in time to a smiling teenager practicing on his new drum kit.
The threesome
added two other members to the line-up, namely, Roger
Bluck on lead guitar and Dave
Howard
on bass. Both Roger and Dave were former Kingbees of
Davie
Jones and The Kingbees fame. Anyone who knows anything
about that period of pop music will know that Davie Jones of The
Kingbees went on to become one David Bowie.
The group
called themselves The Spectrum and, although
they didn't make any great waves within the swinging sixties
London scene, they gigged around with their covers of Beatles,
Beach Boys and Hollies
songs and
managed to get their photo in the Evening Standard with the
caption "Things are really swinging for them".
Impressive huh?
Another
turning point came when The Spectrum auditioned for a young
London would-be entrepreneur by the name of Kit Lambert,
who said that Hollies style groups were on the way out and that
the lads should think about becoming a bit more innovative and
outrageous with their presentation. Who did he think he was?
Hollies style groups were on the way out indeed!!! They sent Mr
Lambert packing right back to where he came from with a sound
piece of their mind. Indeed Mr Lambert went right back to where
he came from and became a multi-millionaire managing The Who.
Thus another turning point came - and went.
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