PANTHERS, THE (2)

Guitar: Ron Sayer (2)Andrew Brett (3)Heath Cave

Guitar: Dale Beauchamp

Drums: Keith Massingham

"The Panthers were my highschool/jam band at Arch Farm, Westwick - 1980/82. No photos of the band have survived only a picture of the bass drum, painted by my great grandad Harry Hill and taken at our first gig at Scottow Barn supporting a band featuring my dad Richard Beauchamp named 'Somethin' Else'.

We played mostly rockabilly and Shadows covers. Stray Cats were big then, so was grease heh, hence the cat gang name, named after the panther that roamed the Norfolk countryside. Needless to say, we also dressed in black, a trend that has stuck with my bands over the years.

Keith Massingham grew up in Westwick later moved to St Louis, USA in about 2006. His last known band I know of was 'Sidewalk Crawlers', a heavy rock band in St Louis. Andrew Brett grew up in Swanton Abbot, last I knew he was in North Walsham. He later switched to bass. He's currently playing bass in High Definition. Ron Sayer was the lead guitarist at our first gig at Scottow Barn. Heath Cave played surf instros on a Hagstrom guitar when we first started playing original material mainly written by him. We played a high school talent night and at the Aldborough fete near Cromer where we met presenter, Paul Barnes. I remember grandad driving me to that one. Heath moved to Melbourne, Australia in the early '90s and became a guitar teacher and performer he also invented some battery-less guitar pedal (caves passive pedals)." DB23/03/2021

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