KETAS, THE

Lead Vocals: Pete Twitchett am

Guitar: Roger Lambourne

Guitar: Steve Sadler (2)Julian Keeble

Keys: Cliff Barker (2)Terry Bishop

Sax: Alan Snell

Sax, Fl: John Snell

Tpt: Joe Freezer am

Bs: Barry Sturman (2)Keith Armstrong (3)Mike Ellis + Vox

Drums: Brian Snell (2)Johnny Footer

Founder member John Snell was inspired to start playing after watching his older brother Alan playing washboard in The Black Zombies SG. “Alan then bought a secondhand alto saxophone,” says Brian. “Soon after, I bought a tenor saxophone, and my mum then got my younger brother Brian a set of drums through her Freemans club book. We were a very hard-up family with six children under ten at one stage. Mum gave us the contacts to create the band. She knew the parents of the young guys that had been sent to piano lessons. They had long given up but still retained some of the knowledge. So, within a few weeks, we had the makings of a band. We rehearsed in our front room, and it took several months of continuous rehearsals to put together enough songs to go public. The girlfriend of a band member suggested the name Ketas, and to this day, nobody knows what it means!”

Geoff Cunnington took on the management of the band after he was less than complimentary about one of their early performances at The Exning Road Club, Newmarket, the same venue at which the band had made their debut.
“As far as the band was concerned, he had some great ideas, and thanks to him, we won several competitions, as well as auditions for the very popular ‘Opportunity Knocks’,” adds John.

One moment etched in John’s mind is the 7 January 1966, the day the band could have come to an abrupt end. They were travelling through the village of Weasenham St Peter, Nfk, on their way to Fakenham when their van was involved in a collision. John and the driver Ivor were hospitalised, but the rest escaped with cuts and bruises. “The band continued without me for a while but were soon back on the road,” says John. That summer the band won the Station Hotel Open Air Beat Comp The judges were especially impressed with the group’s final number, a rendition of Georgie Fame’s Get Away. They won future gigs at the hotel, and although it was announced that the winning band would get a test session with EMI, John points out that they are still waiting for that.

The band recruited keyboard player Cliff Barker. “Cliff was the son of a music teacher and had what we call perfect pitch. He wrote several original songs we put into the set. The group played a fete that DJ Pete Murray opened; on chatting with our manager, Pete suggested we needed to get a demo disc. We soon headed for a studio in Dunstable and recorded some of our own tracks as well as some Cliff Richard covers. In 1971, we came into contact with a guy called Barry Young, who was the local Labour representative. He suggested the name change to Nelson’s Column, which was followed by the production of some handouts with stories about individual members, along with the slogan ‘You don’t have to go to London to see Nelson’s Column’. I called it a day with the band in 1974 as my health was deteriorating,” adds John.

The Black Zombies SG <> Nelsons Column