TONY SHERIDAN

Norwich / London / Germany

 

It would be difficult to sum up Tony Sheridan’s life in full! So, for this volume, we will cover his introduction to music, his early playing career, the 2i’s and the months leading up to his departure for Germany [1]. Born Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity at 38 Glenmore Gardens, Norwich, on 21 May 1940 to father Alphonsus McGinnity, [2] and mother Audrey Josephine Mary Mann. A childhood of wartime upheaval, which included a traumatic spell at a home in Macclesfield, followed by a precarious relationship with his stepfather, had left Sheridan a rebellious and sometimes volatile young man. Author and boyhood friend, Alan Mann, published the biography The Teacher - The Tony Sheridan Story shortly after his death in 2013, and that publication covers more in-depth details of Sheridan’s thoughts and feelings during his youth. Sheridan’s long-time band collaborator and friend Colin Crawley, aka Colin Melander, also produced a book entitled Tony Sheridan – The One The Beatles Called The Teacher in 2015, and these memoirs capture the wilder and sometimes darker side of living and working with him on a day to day basis. He also introduces us to many new versions of events, such as how the trip to Germany comes about. We would also add to Sheridan’s important reading list a visit to Spencer Leigh’s website: www.spencerleigh.co.uk; and searching out issue 219 (Nov97) of the Record Collector. Sheridan would become an enigma to the music world for many years and, despite these books, probably remains so, although much of that mystery was created by himself in an unwillingness to trust the burgeoning music press. He maintained throughout his career, “My private life is sacrosanct.” And on his visit to Norwich in 1997, he told Derek James of the local Evening News that journalists were just “purveyors of piffle.”

 

Sheridan attended the City of Norwich Boys’ Grammar School, often referred to as CNS. An above-average student, he showed a flair for music and art from an early age but also a complete disregard for rules and authority, which would eventually aid his fall from grace in his final school years. His mother Audrey played classical piano and sang, and Sheridan became proficient on the violin, taking lessons from Elsie Edmunds in the Cathedral Close, Nch. He was also a key member of the choir and a regular performer in school opera productions. “When I was young, I was only involved in classical and sacred music. I played classical violin in youth orchestras as well as singing in madrigal societies, choirs, anything my mother permitted for ten years. Pop music on the radio and TV was taboo.” [3]

Around 1953 and during his final years of school, Sheridan’s family moved from York Street on the south side of Norwich to Thorpe St Andrew on the north side, a move that further disrupted him as he now had to endure a long daily commute.

 

Like most teenagers, Sheridan’s life was turned on its head in November 1955 with the release of Lonnie Donegan’s Rock Island Line and was further fuelled by seeing him live at Norwich’s Theatre Royal in February 1957. [4] Although it was Buddy Holly that inspired him to want to play the guitar and sing at the same time. However, ultimately he confessed to Record Collector in 1997 that it was the pulsating sounds of the rock’n’roll coming from the jukeboxes of the pubs on Prince of Wales Road, Nch, that tempted him to turn criminal and pawn a clarinet, stolen from the school’s music room to purchase his first guitar.[4] He was caught and reprimanded by the police, although the punishment at school was very lenient, with the principal simply contacting his parents and recommending that they buy him a guitar! Sheridan later put this down to the possibility of a shortage of good musicians in the school orchestra.

 

It was while in Thorpe that Sheridan, now armed with a guitar, formed his first group, The Saints, in 1956. The boys started to rehearse at the Thorpe Teenage Club, but only after Sheridan had been banned from the Thorpe Hamlet Youth Club for being disruptive. Given this and the stolen clarinet, the irony of the band’s name, whether intentional or not, is not lost. Sheridan was a popular addition to the emerging Norwich music scene. Known as Mac or sometimes Big Mac to his friends, he was soon a step ahead technically, and inspired many local wannabes, and although described as being a bit of a ‘hot head’ [5], he still encouraged the lesser musicians. “Even in those early days, when you watched him play, you’d think Mac had been playing for years,” said friend and occasional Saints participant Alan Callf. The Archive first sees the band playing with The Mustard City Stompers Trad Jazz Band in August 1956, and after this, Sheridan was pictured with the group in an article about the Thorpe Teenage Club in May 1957. One month later, the group won Norwich’s first-ever skiffle contest at the Norwich Industries Club. Sheridan was by now studying at Norwich Art School, although his tenure was brief. The Saints, or sometimes Mac & The Saints, as they were advertised, had decided to try their luck in London and in November 1957 put on two farewell performances, and after the 18 November 1957, The Saints were no more.

 

A11 Norwich to London

The search for fame and fortune in the capital was at best a debacle, with almost all the band soon returning to Norwich, including Sheridan. He told Mann why he thought the band would do better in London, “It seemed at the time that everyone was against our music. Being a skiffle or rock’n’roll man in the Norwich of the late fifties was akin to being one of the Kray Twins.” Although Sheridan overstates his case, he was referring to the fact that rock'n'roll was considered socially unacceptable. There is a notion that the permanent move to London was planned and attempted before 18 November, but too many diary dates have been found of the band performing locally to suggest these were anything more than poorly organised day trips. Sheridan’s reasoning for leaving Norwich was sound; Soho and London’s West End were certainly the hub of the breaking teenage music scene, although putting some distance between himself and his family may have helped fuel his decision. Crawley’s version of Sheridan’s departure from Norwich has him leaving a note and sneaking out to catch the milk train to London to avoid his mother, who would have tried to prevent him from leaving, and the band (The Saints) sleeping on park benches. Billy Bragg’s Root, Radicals and Rockers, published by Faber & Faber in 2017, also has a similar version of events, but Sheridan does not relay this to Mann at any point. Sources have not been quoted, so it has been hard to pinpoint their origins or verify them. Either way, by 1958, The Saints’ guitarists, Packwood and Sheridan, finally ended up permanently in London. Packwood was taken on by promoter Larry Parnes and became one of Marty Wilde’s Wildcats, as well as later joining Oh Boy’s [6] resident band Lord Rockingham’s XI. According to Ulf Kruger’s research [7], he also joined Sheridan in Germany for a brief stint with the Mk1 Beat Brothers, and Sheridan says Packwood later joined the Royal Marines as a bandsman. Parnes was not interested in Sheridan, ‘the solo performer’, but knew he was an excellent musician and offered him work backing his growing stable of stars. Sheridan conceded in several interviews that as a musician if you did not work for Parnes, you would starve! This vagabond troubadour lifestyle has made it hard to collate an accurate timeline for Sheridan. From here, he found a job moving crates for a brewery during the day and was a resident at The 2i’s Coffee Bar in the evenings.

 

Tony Sheridan’s - 60’s band timeline:

The Saints M56-L57 - see separate section

 

2i’s Coffee-Bar Resident Singer E58-May59

While Sheridan was at The 2i’s as a resident solo performer, he also played in many pick-up outfits, made guest appearances with other bands, and performed at other venues, including numerous Soho bars and West End nightclubs. An early audition for The City Ramblers Skiffle Group fell by the wayside, but he soon settled into the pace and noise of sleazy London life.

Early London relationships included bass player Brian ‘Liquorice’ Locking (1938-2020), who had also first encountered The 2i’s in around 1958, when his group The Vagabond Skiffle Group from Grantham, Lincolnshire, had moved to London after coming second in the World Skiffle Championship competition; the final of which took place at The Locarno Ballroom, Streatham and was televised. The group’s lead singer Vince Eager (Roy Taylor 1940- ) told Adam Coxon of Pennyblackmusic in 2020, “The next day we drove to The 2i’s and told the bar manager Tommy Littlewood, we had come second in the competition that had been on TV the previous day and within minutes he had a sign up saying who we were. We played four sets that day, and he offered us a residency.” The band had caught the tail end of the skiffle boom with their success, which tempted Decca Records into putting out an EP. The Vagabonds soon disintegrated when the £20 per week offered turned out to be for the whole band and not per person. Eager was quickly picked up by promoter Parnes, who roped in Sheridan on guitar for a tour with Marty Wilde & The Wildcats. In Darryl W Bullock’s The Velvet Mafia, published by Omnibus Press in 2021, he explained that Eager, not Parnes, brought Sheridan into The Vagabonds. Sheridan told Spencer Leigh this was his first professional paid music job. Locking at this point considered moving back home. In Andrew Ings’ book Rockin’ At The 2i’s Coffee Bar, published by Book Guild in 2010, he says he then got a call from British rocker Terry Dene who needed a bass player, so he headed up to Scotland to join the band. Although, when interviewed in 2020, he told Coxon that Dene’s manager came into The 2i’s to find him when Dene’s bassist was taken ill. After the tour, Locking returned to The 2i’s with drummer Brian Bennett, who he had met while in Scotland. Locking said they then hooked up with Sheridan and played as The Tony Sheridan Trio.

 

The Tony Sheridan Trio   L59-M60 [unconfirmed]

LVox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan / Bs: Brian Locking / Drums: Brian Bennett    

                       

When Russ Sainty (Alfred Sainty 1936-1921) arrived at The 2i’s, manager Tommy Littlewood quickly teamed him up with Tony Sheridan. According to Ings’ 2010 book, Sainty claims to have been at the 2i’s every night from around July 1958 to spring 1959 and that Sheridan backed him most nights with Liquorice Locking on bass and Tony Meehan on drums. If Sheridan was away, Big Jim Sullivan, Hank Marvin or sometimes Bruce Welch would play instead. Sir Cliff Richard (Harry Webb 1940- ) also comments in Ings’ book saying, “By September 1958 Hank was very well known at The 2i’s, along with Tony Sheridan – they were a great team.” There are numerous inferences that Sheridan was offered the position of guitarist with Cliff’s backing band, The Drifters, later to become The Shadows; however, it transpires despite being the man they wanted, he couldn’t be found, so he lost out to Hank Marvin. It is clear from the texts of Mann and Crawley that if Sheridan was not interested in something, he would become antagonistic or, as Sheridan would put it, ‘a nuisance’; but if he was ever dropped or fired, it was his decision, nobody else’s. However, this attitude did get him dropped, and he gained a reputation within the industry. Sheridan’s talent was admired and appreciated by many, but he often failed to make the shortlist because he was unreliable and could not be managed. To go off point here, it is important to note that the rise of the teenage scene was new to the record labels, talent agencies, TV producers, and the show business world in general - was it a flash in the pan? No one could say. While this was the case, there was a phase of trying to make it all fit together. Early on, it was forced into what had existed previously, the variety show circuit; no one ever envisaged a time where people would pay to watch a whole show by one band, as we do today. Sheridan’s rebellious nature refused to swallow even one spoonful of this show business medicine if he thought it would infringe his integrity as a performer, and it is clear he thought little of those who would. Crawley points out in his book that even promoters like Don Arden (Harry Levy 1926-2007), who had Sheridan’s respect, would not manage him because, as Sheridan put it to Crawley many times, he was a loose cannon.

In mid to late 1958, skiffle was on the skids, as the Melody Maker put it, and a new wave of fresh-faced teens backed by their rhythm groups were now all the craze, and The 2i’s was at the forefront of this pop twist as well. Sheridan told Mann that he had already backed Cliff Richard with Bennett and Locking at The 2i’s, and as you can see from the name checks above, the whole of what would become The Shadows[?] were all regular performers at the coffee bar.

 

Vince Taylor & The Playboys Dec 58-59

LVox: Vince Taylor / Vox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan / Gtr: Tony Harvey / Bs: Brian Liquorice Locking / Drums: Brian Bennett

 

Locking told Leigh that the band, that was essentially playing as The Tony Sheridan Trio at The 2i’s, became the first line-up of Vince Taylor’s backing band, The Playboys, with the addition of Tony Harvey playing second guitar. “We were on when Vince Taylor walked in with his American manager. They were looking for a group to back him, and they chose Tony, Brian, and me. We added Tony Harvey on rhythm guitar and became Vince Taylor’s Playboys.” Taylor (Brian Maurice Holden 1939-1991) was part of the Parnes’ stable of stars. Sheridan added to Leigh’s account, “I was in the Playboys reluctantly, very reluctantly. Larry Parnes controlled the whole business in Britain, and if you didn’t work for him, you starved, and so I had to be one of the Playboys with Vince Taylor for a while.” On Taylor’s Wikipedia page it comes together somewhat differently; it says that in the summer of 1958, Taylor was in London and went to The 2i’s Coffee Bar, where Tommy Steele was playing. There he met drummer Tony Meehan (Daniel Meehan 1943-2005) and bass player Tex Makins (Anthony Makins, 1940-), and from there, they formed The Playboys.” We could find no information that a previous line-up of the band had existed before the one that recorded his first single, although we note details given by Susan Moore nee Calvert that Vince played for promoter Reg Calvert in 1959, touring dance halls across southern England. The name of his band is not given, but Calvert says it was not The Playboys at that time. Taylor’s first record Right Behind You Baby was released in December 1958 on Parlophone records; however, credited on the label as Vince Taylor with Rhythm Accompaniment and not as The Playboys. Talking to Leigh, Locking said, “We did ‘Right Behind You Baby’ on the first take. I was expecting just one 12-bar solo from Tony Sheridan, but he took two, and the second one was awe-inspiring. It lifted the track off the ground.” Sheridan remarked, “Everything’s all right on ‘Right Behind You Baby’ except the singer!” Taylor first appeared on Oh Boy on 20 December 1958 and then again on 27 December 1958, track details are unavailable, but it would be hard to believe considering the timing that he did not perform this single, possibly with The Playboys? We are still searching for details. Unimpressed with Taylor and unreliable for gigs, Sheridan was soon replaced by Joe Moretti (1938-2012).

 

In a Record Collector interview: issue 219 in 1997, Sheridan said that he was down to be the first artist to record for the new Top Rank record label to be launched in January 1959. Leigh revealed that Record Mirror published an article in January 1959; however, the deal fell through with Sheridan saying there was some confusion over his age (him being only 17 and not 18, the legal requirement to sign a contract). Leigh added that Sheridan's acting agent Tommy Littlewood, who was at the time managing The 2i’s Coffee Bar, was asking too much in the way of an advance. “I was to record a version of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen,” Sheridan told RC. It is believed that Dick Rowe (1921-1986) [8] was the man who finally turned down the deal and signed Craig Douglas instead. Sheridan told RC it was probably a wise move. However, in Mann’s book, he curses Craig Douglas (Terrance Perkins 1941- ), whose only UK top ten hit was a cover of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen. The Record Mirror article talks about a Bill Compton, Sheridan co-written track Why (Can’t You Love Me Again) also being a possible contender for the never to be debut single.

 

The website beatlesfab4cities.com says that Sheridan formed a new band called ‘Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers’ in January 1959. The band featured Jimmie Nicol on drums, who Sheridan regarded as an exemplary drummer. We could only find one performance noted under the title Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers for this period, and that was for a performance on Oh Boy on 9 May 1959. [9] The website also says that the band lost out on a lucrative tour of the ballroom circuit when Larry Parnes (1929-1989) pinched Nicol to tour with The Quiet Three, the backing band at that time for Vince Eager.

 

It is uncertain when TV producer Jack Good (1931-2017) first saw Vince Taylor & The Playboys, but he was impressed enough to book not only Taylor’s Playboys but also Sheridan for solo slots on his new weekly music show Oh Boy. It is said that Sheridan appeared on the show nine times as a solo performer or with his trio or The Wreckers, although with the only remaining archives in private hands, it is hard to confirm this. One of the few full shows that remains is the 4 April 1959, and it can be found on YouTube. It features a performance of Sheridan credited to ??, but if you watch the whole show, his trio is certainly backing Chris Andrews on ??, and this is not credited; so how many other appearances are uncredited? As the fifties came to an end, Sheridan had certainly made a name for himself, although not all of it was good. Noted on one of Pete Frame’s rock family trees is a quote from future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page (1944- ), then playing with Oh Boy’s resident band Lord Rockingham’s XI, “I think the only English guitarist that was any good at the time was Tony Sheridan.” It has also been suggested that he was the first guitarist allowed to play his guitar live on TV, although this has never been confirmed.

 

In April 1959, because of Sheridan’s appearances on Oh Boy, he appeared on Cherry Weiner’s (1935-2014) single The Happy Organ. South African-born Weiner was the keyboard player with the show’s resident band Lord Rockingham’s XI, as well as a solo performer on the show. Sheridan married his girlfriend, nightclub dancer Hazel Bing in May 1959, in what he describes as a shotgun wedding as she had become pregnant. With a family on the way, and no regular income, he joined Marty Wilde for a summer season at The Blackpool Palace. Tony Sheridan’s son Anthony Sean Sheridan Jnr was born on 23 October 1959; Locking and Bennett were named as his Godfathers.

 

In late 1959, promoter Larry Parnes asked Sheridan to be the main guitarist on the forthcoming tour of US artists Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, although Crawley says the invitation was at the request of the tour’s compere Don Arden. Cochran was touring the UK for the first time. Sheridan points out that he got to perform some songs as the frontman with the rest of the band and The Tony Sheridan Trio were part of the advertised bill. The tour ended tragically on the last night in Bristol when Cochran was killed in an accident involving an unlicensed taxi taking them back to London earlier than had been planned. Details on who should or should not have been in the car are a matter of great debate. Tony remembers being asked by Eddie if he needed a lift anywhere as he was leaving but there turned out to be no room left in the cab. [10] Tony recalls, “When I heard about the accident, I bought a bottle of whisky, downed the lot and cursed life.”

 

This is where we leave Sheridan, drunk and cursing life on 16 April 1960; however, just over one month later, in June 1960, he is standing on the stage of The Kaiserkeller, [11] a small club in the Reeperbahn district of Hamburg, Germany, as part of The Jets. This moment is not only set to change to course of his life but ultimately that of the British music scene.

 

Discography:

The Tony Sheridan release discography is extensive so for space reasons this volume only covers his pre Hamburg releases. If you need a good reference source for Tony Sheridan releases with and without The Beatles you can use the Discogs website or as mentioned in the opening paragraph acquire issue 219 (Nov97) of the Record Collector.

 

AS: Vince Taylor &

7” Right Behind You Baby b/w

Parlophone records R4505 [r] ??/12/58

NB: According to bassist Locking this single was recorded at Abbey Road.

AS: Cherry Weiner

7” Happy Organ b/w Spanish Marching Song

Pye-Nixa Records 7N 15197 [r] ??/04/59

 

Tours: A selected list.

Marty Wild & His Wildecats UK Tour (20/09/58-0510/58)

John Barry Seven / Vince Eager & His Vagabonds / The Sophisticates

Rea Young / Pat Laurence

 

Eddie Cochran / Gene Vincent UK Tour (24/01/60-16/04/60)

Vince Eager / Viscounts / Tony Sheridan / The Wildcats / The Beat Boys

The support acts varied throughout the tour but included:

Billy Fury / Joe Brown / Peter Wynne / Dean Webb / Sally Kelly Georgie Fame / Johnny Gentle

compare & star of HMV Records Billy Raymond

 

Mediography:

Former Norwich choirboy on TV EEN 27/02/59

City man used forged form for £234 guitar EEN 18/11/61

Tony Sheridan RC ISSUE 219 01/11/97 (P)

TV: UK

ABC Oh Boy! 15/06/58 to 30/05/59

6 appearances: 28/02/59, 14/03/59, 21/03/59, 04/04/59

18/04/59, 09/05/59

NB: Appearances on ‘Oh Boy’ were made under various titles. Claims that he appeared on the show 9 times are unconfirmed but not impossible as he may be uncredited. Some claims that he played ad-hoc in the house band Lord Rockingham’s X1 are refuted by Sheridan in Manns book.

Scottish: Round-Up - 19/05/64 Tony Sheridan

Rediffusion The Five O’clock Club - 29/05/64 Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers

 

RESIDENCIES:

The 2i’s Coffee Bar, Old Compton St, London 58-60

 

NB: [1] A great deal of testimony is challengeable when it comes to Sheridan’s life, and it contains a great deal of inconsistency. I have approached it openly and tried to take the best supported material although we accept that different opinions and versions of this story are available. [2] In Alan Mann’s book, Tony applies for an Irish passport in the seventies and his name in the passport is Anthony Esmond O’Sheridan-MacGinnity. [3] Quote from Alan Mann’s book Tony Sheridan - The Teacher. [4] Between ?? and ?? Lonnie Donegan toured the uk and played seven nights at The Theatre Royal Norwich. [5] Hot Head was one of the more favourable and printable terms used to describe Tony Sheridan on the local music scene back in 1957 and was used by local musician Terry Wickham. [6] Quote from Alan Manns book. [7] Ulf Kruger compiled the notes for Tony Sheridan release           [8] on the local music Dick Rowe will be familiar to many Beatles fans as the man at Decca Records who famously did not sign them. Although Rowe refuted Epstein’s claim that he said ‘Guitar bands are on the way out, Mr Epstein’, he added that it was a choice between Brian Poole & The Tremeloes and The Beatles and based on nothing more than their locality to London, chose The Tremeloes. Rowe briefly left Decca Records to join Top Rank Records c1959 but soon returned to Decca Records. [9]     [10]    [11]

 

 

Bill Harry’s The Beatles Who’s Who he say’s Sheridan is Cheltenham, Glousteshire in 1940

It was reported that Tony Sheridan had been killed while entertaining troops in Vietnam. Little seemed to be made of this loss of Britains fourmost rock’n’roll legend, but luckily for us the report was incorrect and Tony had just returned home in Germany.  

Tony returned to England on 3 May 1983 and played The Little Melton Village Inn.

 

The Saints

The Vipers

 

The Jets (June-Aug 1960)

Vox, Gtr: Richard Rick Hardy

Vox, Gtr: Colin Mallander aka Colin Crawley

Bs: Peter Wharton / Vox, Keys, Drums: Jimmy Del Ward aka ?? / Vox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan

The point to note here is that history has always painted Sheridan as piecing together the first British group that initiates the Hamburg take-over in 1960. The story has always been told from Sheridan's point of view. myth is that Sheridan meets Koschmider and snags the gig by saying his band The Jets will take the gig, the point being technically there was no band and that The Jets name was made up on the spur of the moment. Hardy (1933-2006) challenges this in 2001 with the reality that it was the task of Iain Hindes who had met Bruno Koschmider at the 2i’s in late May 1960. Koschmider had travelled to the UK to procure a band for his ?? Club in Hamburg. He visited the infamous 2i’s and struck a deal with Hindes to provide a six piece band for his club. The residency was to start on the 4 June 1960. Hardy also say’s that Hindes didn’t make the original trip and joined up with them a few months later “He never gave a reason for not heading out with us but we all thought it may have been domestic” was to start almost immediately and Hindes rounded up the players he new. It’s noted by Hardy that Sheridan is reluctantly added at the last minute. “The now legendary Tony Sheridan was finally asked to come although most of us had reservations about his selection, as his punctuality and reliability had already cost him TV appearances. I suppose the fact that he was by far the best lead guitarist on the scene made up for a lot!” He wrote

 

The Beat Brothers

The Tony Sheridan Trio

 

Discography:

The full Tony Sheridan discography is far to big for this volume. I have included only the UK releases. If you are interested in seeing comprehensive lists of his releases you could try discogs website or getting hold of issue ?? [date] of the Record Collector issue

 

Chart positions: Time In Charts / Weeks In Chart / Peak Position

Germany:

7” Let’s Slop                                 03/08/63-17/08/63  3wks / #10

7” Skinny Minnie                          19/09/64-10/10/64  4wks / #6

UK:

7” My Bonnie NH66833                06/06/63-??/??/?? 1wk / #48         

USA:

7” My Bonnie MGM13213               15/02/64-??/??/64  6wks / #26

7” Why MGM13227                         18/04/64-??/??/64  1 wks / #88

7” Ain’t She Sweet ATCO6308        18/07/64-??/??/64  9 wks / #19

Selected advertised supports:

Venues: The Red Lion, St Andrews / The 2“I”s / The Star Club,Hamburg / The Top Ten Club, Hamb/Kaiserkeller,Hamburg /

Mediography & selected bibliography:

Former Norwich choirboy on TV EEN 27/02/59

City man used forged form for £234 guitar EEN 18/11/61

 

References to Tony Sheridan are so numerous and as mentioned very conflicting.                     

Tony on his days with The Beatles EEN DJ 11/12/95    (P)

Record Collector

 

Selected bibliography:

The Beatles, Who’s Who BH / Rock Family Trees -

The Teacher -The Tony Sheridan Story AM

Tony Sheridan - The One The Beatles Called The Teacher Colin Crawley

 

Supports: The Beatles / Bobby Patrick Six /

 

Venues: The Red Lion, St Andrews, Nch / The 2i's, Ldn / Kaiserkeller, Hamburg, Ger

The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, Ger / The Star Club, Hamburg, Ger

 

Discography:

German Singles

7” My Bonnie (Mein herz ist bei dir nur) b/w The Saints (When the saints go marching in) PolNH24673[ ]61 Re-issued in ‘62

7” Ich Lieb Dich So (Ecstasy) b/w Der Kiss-Me Song(An African’s prayer) PolNH24821[ ]62

7” You Are My Sunshine b/w Swanee River PolNH24849[ ]62

7” Madison Kid b/w Lets Dance PolNH24948[ ]62

7” Ruby Baby b/w What’d I Say PolNH52025[ ]63

7” Veedeboom Slop Slop b/w Let’s Slop PolNH52099[ ]63

7” My Bonnie b/w The Saints PolNH52273[ ]64

7” Cry For A Shadow b/w Why PolNH52275[ ]64

7” Jambalaya b/w Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow PolNH52315[ ]64

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w If You Love Me, Baby (Take out some insurance on me baby) PolNH52317[ ]64 re-issued in ‘64

7” Skinny Minny b/w Sweet Georgia Brown PolNH52324[ ]64

7” Sweet Georgia Brown b/w Nobody’s Child PolNH52906[ ]64

7” Do-Re-Mi b/w My Babe PolNH52936[ ]65

7” Vive L’amour b/w Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop PolInt421009[ ]65

7” Shake It Some More Baby b/w La Bamba PolInt52944[ ]65

7” Wolgalied b/w Alles Aus Liebe Zu Dir PolInt52733[ ]66

7” The Creep b/w Just You And Me PolInt421062[ ]66

7” Ich Will Bei Dir Bleiben b/w Ich Lass Dich Nie Mehr WiederGehn PolNH52834[ ]67

7” Jailhouse Rock b/w Skinny Minny PolNH52979[ ]68

7” I Believe In Love b/w Monday Morning MetM25428[ ]72

7”  Ich Glaub’An Dich b/w Monday Morning MetM25433[ ]72

7” I Was All Along b/w Come Inside MetM25529[ ]73

7” Whole Lotta Shakin’Goin’On b/w Skinny Minny MetM25551[ ]74

7” Skinny Minny b/w My Bonnie Pol2042116[ ]70’s

7” My Bonnie b/w Skinny Minny Pol2042245[ ]70’s

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2042263[ ]70’s

7” Skinny Minny b/w My Bonnie Pol2135501[ ]70’s

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2814043[ ]70’s

7” Die Grossen Vier, twin singles pack Pol2606013[ ]70’s/My Bonnie b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2801033[ ]78

7” My Bonnie(German Intro) b/w My Bonnie (English Intro) Pol8830147[ ]85

 

German EP’s

7” Ya Ya ep ~ Ya Ya Pts 1&2/Sweet Georgia Brown/Skinny Minny PolEPH21485[ ]62 re-issued in ‘64

7” Tony Sheridan With The Beatles ep ~ My Bonnie/Cry For A Shadow/The Saints/Why PolEPH21610[ ]63

7” Tony Sheridan With The Beatles ep ~ My Bonnie/Cry For A Shadow/The Saints/Why PolE76586 record club reissue of above ep released in 64 & 65 respectively

 

German LP’s

12” My Bonnie PolLPHM46612[  ]62

12” My Bonnie PolSLPHM237112[  ]62

12” Let’s Do The Madison,Twist,Locomotion,Stop,Hully Gully,Monkey                

CD Here & Now ~ Winter/What’d I Say/Get The Right Track Baby/Skinny Minnie/My Bonnie/Money Honey/Brother Sun/From A Whisper To A Shout/Get Out Of My Life Woman/On & On SS Success Records[  ]94UK

 

 

This Dicography is an edited catalogue of Sheridan releases taken from many sources including issue  of the Record Collector issue no’         ,essential collecting details have been ommitted this was compiled by the Record Collector and along with an indepth interview with Tony Sheridan about his memories of his Beatle period can be found

Discography: German Singles -

7” My Bonnie (Mein herz ist bei dir nur) b/w The Saints (When the saints go marching in)

PolNH24673 61 Re-issued in ‘62

7” Ich Lieb Dich So (Ecstasy) b/w Der Kiss-Me Song(An African’s prayer) PolNH24821 62

7” You Are My Sunshine b/w Swanee River

Polydor Records NH24849 released ??/??/62

7” Madison Kid b/w Lets Dance

PolNH24948 62

7” Ruby Baby b/w What’d I Say

PolNH52025 63

7” Veedeboom Slop Slop b/w Let’s Slop

PolNH52099 63

7” My Bonnie b/w The Saints

PolNH52273 64

7” Cry For A Shadow b/w Why

PolNH52275 64

7” Jambalaya b/w Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

PolNH52315 64

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w If You Love Me, Baby (Take out some insurance on me baby) PolNH52317 64 re-issued in ‘64

7” Skinny Minny b/w Sweet Georgia Brown PolNH52324 64

7” Sweet Georgia Brown b/w Nobody’s Child PolNH52906 64

7” Do-Re-Mi b/w My Babe PolNH52936 65

7” Vive L’amour b/w Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop PolInt421009 65

7” Shake It Some More Baby b/w La Bamba PolInt52944 65

7” Wolgalied b/w Alles Aus Liebe Zu Dir PolInt52733 66

7” The Creep b/w Just You And Me PolInt421062 66

7” Ich Will Bei Dir Bleiben b/w Ich Lass Dich Nie Mehr WiederGehn PolNH52834 67

7” Jailhouse Rock b/w Skinny Minny PolNH52979 68

7” I Believe In Love b/w Monday Morning MetM25428 72

7”  Ich Glaub’An Dich b/w Monday Morning MetM25433 72

7” I Was All Along b/w Come Inside MetM25529 73

7” Whole Lotta Shakin’Goin’On b/w Skinny Minny MetM25551 74

7” Skinny Minny b/w My Bonnie Pol2042116 70’s

7” My Bonnie b/w Skinny Minny Pol2042245 70’s

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2042263 70’s

7” Skinny Minny b/w My Bonnie Pol2135501 70’s

7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2814043 70’s

7” Die Grossen Vier, twin singles pack Pol2606013 70’s

My Bonnie b/w Cry For A Shadow Pol2801033 78

7” My Bonnie(German Intro) b/w My Bonnie (English Intro) Pol8830147 85

German EP’s - 7” Ya Ya ep ~ Ya Ya Pts 1&2/Sweet Georgia Brown/Skinny Minny PolEPH21485 62 re-issued in ‘64/7” Tony Sheridan With The Beatles ep ~ My Bonnie/Cry For A Shadow/The Saints/Why PolEPH21610 63/7” Tony Sheridan With The Beatles ep ~ My Bonnie/Cry For A Shadow/The Saints/Why PolE76586 record club reissue of above ep released in 64 & 65 respectively German LP’s - 12” My Bonnie PolLPHM46612 62/12” My Bonnie PolSLPHM237112 62/12” Let’s Do The Madison,Twist,Locomotion,Stop,Hully Gully,Monkey                CD Here & Now ~ Winter/What’d I Say/Get The Right Track Baby/Skinny Minnie/My Bonnie/Money Honey/Brother Sun/From A Whisper To A Shout/Get Out Of My Life Woman/On & On SS Success Records 94UK

 

 

Mediography:

Tony on his days with The Beatles EEN DJ 11/12/95 (P)

 

TV:

ABC: Oh Boy! 28/02/59 Hosted by Jimmy Henney: Marty Wilde / Lord Rockingham’s XI / Cherry Wainer

‘Cuddly’ Dudley / Bill Forbes / The Dallas Boys / Mike Preston / Neville Taylor & His Cutters

Red Price / The Vernons Girls / Dickie Pride / Tony Sheridan

 

ABC: Oh Boy! 14/03/59 (Broadcast from the Empire Theatre, Hackney) Hosted by Jimmy Henney

Chris Andrews / Don Lang / Cherry Wainer / The Dallas Boys / Neville Taylor & his Cutters / Red Price

Bill Forbes / Billy Fury / Peter Elliott / Tony Sheridan / Terry & Freddy / The Vernons Girls

Marty Wilde / Vince Eager

 

ABC: Oh Boy! 21/03/59 Hosted by Tony Hall / Dickie Valentine / Marino Marini

Tommy Steele (cancelled) / Lonnie Donegan / Marty Wilde / The Dallas Boys / Cherry Wainer

Neville Taylor & His Cutters / ‘Cuddly’ Dudley / Red Price / Tony Sheridan / Gerry Dorsey / The Vernons Girls

 

ABC: Oh Boy! 04/04/59 Hosted by ?? / Cherry Wainer / Don Lang / Lord Rockingham’s XI

Tommy Steele (cancelled) / Neville Taylor & His Cutters / Mike Preston / Lorie Mann / Red Price

The Vernons Girls / Dickie Pride / Tony Sheridan / Chris Andrews / Dean Webb

 

ABC: Oh Boy! 18/04/59 Hosted by Tony Hall / The Inkspots

Lonnie Donegan & His Skiffle Group - Fort Worth Jail / Cherry Wainer / The Vernons Girls

Neville Taylor & His Cutters / The Dallas Boys / Lorie Mann / Dickie Pride / Pierce Rodgers

Tony Sheridan / Red Price / Jack Good’s Lord Rockingham’s XI

 

ABC: Oh Boy! 09/05/59 Conway Twitty / Marty Wilde / Cherry Wainer / Billy Fury / Dickie Pride

‘Cuddly’ Dudley / The Dallas Boys / Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers / Maureen Kershaw

The Vernons Girls / Lord Rockingham’s XI / Red Price / Dene(Dean) Webb

 

Scottish TV: Round Up 19/05/64 Tony Sheridan

 

Rediffusion: The Five O’Clock Club 29/05/64 Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers / The Hi-Fis

Jan & Kelly (Musical Comedy Act)

 

The Saints <>

2i’s Coffee-Bar Resident Singer E58-May59
While Sheridan was at The 2i’s as a resident solo performer, he also played in many pick-up outfits, made guest appearances with other bands, and performed at other venues, including numerous Soho bars and West End nightclubs. An early audition for The City Ramblers Skiffle Group fell by the wayside, but he soon settled into the pace and noise of sleazy London life.

Early London relationships included bass player Brian ‘Liquorice’ Locking (1938-2020), who had also first encountered The 2i’s around 1958, when his group The Vagabond Skiffle Group from Grantham, Lincolnshire, had moved to London after coming second in the World Skiffle Championship competition, the final of which took place at The Locarno Ballroom, Streatham and was televised. The group’s lead singer Vince Eager (Roy Taylor 1940- ) told Adam Coxon of Pennyblackmusic in 2020, “The next day we drove to The 2i’s and told the bar manager Tommy Littlewood we had come second in the competition that had been on TV the previous day and within minutes he had a sign up saying who we were. We played four sets that day, and he offered us a residency.” The band had caught the tail end of the skiffle boom with their success, which tempted Decca Records into putting out an EP. The Vagabonds soon disintegrated when the £20 per week offered turned out to be for the whole band and not per person. Eager was quickly picked up by promoter Parnes, who roped in Sheridan on guitar for a tour with Marty Wilde & The Wildcats. In Darryl W Bullock’s The Velvet Mafia, published by Omnibus Press in 2021, he explained that Eager, not Parnes, brought Sheridan into The Vagabonds. Sheridan told Spencer Leigh this was his first professional paid music job. Locking considered moving back home. In Andrew Ings’ book Rockin’ At The 2i’s Coffee Bar, published by Book Guild in 2010, he says he then got a call from British rocker Terry Dene who needed a bass player, so he headed up to Scotland to join the band. Although, when interviewed in 2020, he told Coxon that Dene’s manager came into The 2i’s to find him when Dene’s bassist was taken ill. After the tour, Locking returned to The 2i’s with drummer Brian Bennett, who he had met while in Scotland. Locking said they then hooked up with Sheridan and played as The Tony Sheridan Trio.
The Tony Sheridan Trio   
LVox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan
Bs: Brian Lioquorice Locking
Drums: Brian Bennett
                             
Russ Sainty Jul58 - Mar59
Long before the UK had heard the name Russ Sainty & The Nu-Notes (Alfred Sainty 1936-1921), he had started singing with an outfit in his local town of Leytonstone called The Buddy Monroe Five but realised The 2i’s in Soho was the place to be; with his dad waiting in a car down the road he walked into The 2i’s and asked the manager Tommy Littlewood for an audition. Littlewood was impressed but told Sainty to lose the guitar. Referring again to Ings’ 2010 book about the Coffee Bar, Russ claims that during the audition, Littlewood went away and came back with Tony Sheridan to accompany him. “I think I was there every night from around July 1958 to spring 1959. – I don’t think I missed a night. Tony backed me most nights, but if he was away, it was Big Jim Sullivan, Hank Marvin or sometimes Bruce (Welch). Tony Meehan was usually on drums – I think he was only about sixteen at the time. ‘Liquorice’ Locking was on bass.” Sir Cliff Richard (Harry Webb 1940- ) also comments in Ings’ book saying, “By September 1958 Hank was very well known at The 2i’s along with Tony Sheridan – they were a great team.” However, he doesn’t mention the famous notion that Sheridan was offered the position of guitarist with his backing band The Drifters, later to become The Shadows. For many years it was pitched that he was offered the position but lost out to Hank by not turning up for the audition. In Mo Foster’s book British Rock Guitar, published by Northumbria Press in 2011, it is said that Sir Cliff’s first Manager John Foster (1939-2012) needed a permanent guitarist for the band after Norman Mitham had quit and they had been offered a spot on The Kalin Twins Tour. Foster looked to sort the problem by heading to The 2i’s to specifically hire Sheridan. Foster could not find Sheridan at the Coffee Bar and instead found Hank Marvin, another club resident and hired him, although yet again, this story changes depending on your source. It is clear from the texts of Mann and Crawley that if Sheridan was not interested in something, he would become antagonistic or, as he would put it ‘a nuisance’, but if he was ever dropped or fired, it was his decision, nobody else’s. However, this attitude did get him dropped, and it soon came to be known by those in the industry. Sheridan’s talent was admired and appreciated by many, but he often failed to make the shortlist because he was unreliable and could not be managed. To go off point here, it is important to note that the rise of the teenage scene was new to the record labels, talent agencies, TV producers, and the show business world in general - was it a flash in the pan? No one could say. While this was the case, there was a phase of trying to make it all fit together. Early on, it was forced into what had existed previously, the variety show circuit; no one ever envisaged a time where people would pay to watch a whole show by one band, as we do today. Sheridan’s rebellious nature refused to swallow even one spoonful of this show business medicine if he thought it would infringe his integrity as a performer, and it is clear he thought little of those who would. Crawley points out in his book that even promoters like Don Arden (Harry Levy 1926-2007), who had Sheridan’s respect, would not manage him because, as Sheridan put it to Crawley many times, he was a loose cannon.
In mid to late 1958, skiffle was on the skids, as the Melody Maker put it, and a new wave of fresh-faced teens backed by their rhythm groups were now all the craze, and The 2i’s was at the forefront of this pop twist as well. Sheridan told Mann that he had already backed Cliff Richard with Bennett and Locking at The 2i’s, and as you can see from the name checks above, the whole of what would become The Shadows[?] were all regular performers at the coffee bar.

Vince Taylor & The Playboys                Dec 58-59
LVox: Vince Taylor / Vox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan
Gtr: Tony Harvey / Bs: Brian Liquorice Locking
Drums: Brian Bennett

Locking told Leigh that the band that was essentially playing as The Tony Sheridan Trio at The 2i’s, became the first line-up of Vince Taylor’s backing band The Playboys, with the addition of Tony Harvey playing second guitar. “We were on when Vince Taylor walked in with his American manager. They were looking for a group to back him, and they chose Tony, Brian, and me. We added Tony Harvey on rhythm guitar and became Vince Taylor’s Playboys.” Taylor (Brian Maurice Holden 1939-1991) was part of the Parnes’ stable of stars. Sheridan added to Leigh’s account, “I was in the Playboys reluctantly, very reluctantly. Larry Parnes controlled the whole business in Britain, and if you didn’t work for him, you starved, and so I had to be one of the Playboys with Vince Taylor for a while.” On Taylor’s Wikipedia page it comes together somewhat differently; it says that in the summer of 1958, Taylor was in London and went to The 2i’s Coffee Bar, where Tommy Steele was playing. There he met drummer Tony Meehan (Daniel Meehan 1943-2005) and bass player Tex Makins (Anthony Makins, 1940-), and from there, they formed The Playboys.” We could find no information that a previous line-up of the band had existed before the one that recorded his first single, although we note details given by Susan Calvert that Vince played for promoter Reg Calvert in 1959, touring dance halls across England. The name of his band is not given, but Calvert says it was not The Playboys. Taylor’s first record was released in December 1958 on Parlophone records; however, credited on the label as Vince Taylor with Rhythm Accompaniment and not as The Playboys. Talking to Leigh, Locking said, “We did ‘Right Behind You Baby’ on the first take. I was expecting just one 12-bar solo from Tony Sheridan, but he took two, and the second one was awe-inspiring. It lifted the track off the ground.” Sheridan remarked, “Everything’s all right on ‘Right Behind You Baby’ except the singer!” Taylor first appeared on Oh Boy on 20 December 1958 and then again on 27 December 1958, track details are unavailable, but it would be hard to believe considering the timing that he did not perform this single, possibly with The Playboys! We are still searching for details. Unimpressed with Taylor and unreliable for gigs, Sheridan was soon replaced by Joe Moretti (1938-2012).
In a Record Collector interview: issue 219 in 1997, Tony said that he was down to be the first artist to record for the new Top Rank record label to be launched in January 1959. Leigh revealed that Record Mirror published an article in January 1959; however, the deal fell through with Sheridan saying there was some confusion over his age (him being only 17 and not 18, the legal requirement to sign a contract); but Leigh added that his acting agent Tommy Littlewood, who was at the time managing The 2i’s Coffee Bar, was asking too much in the way of an advance. “I was to record a version of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen,” Sheridan told RC. It is believed that Dick Rowe (1921-1986) [?] was the man who finally turned down the deal and signed Craig Douglas instead. Sheridan told RC it was probably a wise move. However, in Mann’s book, he curses Craig Douglas (Terrance Perkins 41- ), whose only UK top ten hit was a cover of Sam Cooke’s Only Sixteen. The Record Mirror article talks about a Bill Compton, Sheridan co-written track Why (Can’t You Love Me Again) being a possible contender for the debut single.
The website beatlesfab4cities.com says that Sheridan formed a new band called ‘Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers’ in January 1959. The band featured Jimmie Nicol on drums, who Sheridan regarded as an exemplary drummer. We could only find one performance noted under the title Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers for this period, and that was for a performance on Oh Boy on 9 May 1959. [?] The website also says that the band lost out on a lucrative tour of the ballroom circuit when Larry Parnes (1929-1989) pinched Nicol to tour with The Quiet Three, the backing band at that time for Vince Eager.
It is uncertain when TV producer Jack Good (1931-2017) first saw Vince Taylor & The Playboys, but he was impressed enough to book not only Taylor’s Playboys but also Sheridan for solo slots on his new weekly music show Oh Boy. It is said that Sheridan appeared on the show nine times as a solo performer or with his trio or The Wreckers, although with the only remaining archives in private hands, it is hard to confirm this. One of the few full shows that remains is the 4 April 1959, and it can be found on YouTube. It features a performance of Sheridan credited to ??, but if you watch the whole show, his trio is certainly backing Chris Andrews on ??, and this is not credited, so how many other appearances are uncredited? As the fifties came to an end, Sheridan had certainly made a name for himself, although not all of it was good. Noted on one of Pete Frame’s rock family trees is a quote from future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page (1944- ), then playing with Oh Boy’s resident band Lord Rockingham’s XI, “I think the only English guitarist that was any good at the time was Tony Sheridan.” It has also been suggested that he was the first guitarist allowed to play his guitar live on TV, although this has never been confirmed.
In April 1959, as a result of Sheridan’s appearances on Oh Boy, he appeared on Cherry Weiner’s (1935-2014) single The Happy Organ. South African-born Weiner was the keyboard player with the Show’s resident band Lord Rockingham’s XI, as well as a solo performer on the show. Sheridan married his girlfriend, nightclub dancer Hazel Bing in May 1959, in what he describes as a shotgun wedding as she had become pregnant. With a family on the way and no regular income, he joined Marty Wilde for a summer season at The Blackpool Palace. Tony Sheridan’s son Anthony Sean Sheridan Jnr was born on 23 October 1959; Locking and Bennett were the Godfathers.
In late 1959, promoter Larry Parnes asked Sheridan to be the main guitarist on the forthcoming tour of US artists Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent, although Crawley says the invitation was at the request of the tour’s compere Don Arden. Cochran was touring the UK for the first time. Sheridan points out that he got to perform some songs as the frontman with the rest of the band and The Tony Sheridan Trio were part of the advertised bill. The tour ended tragically on the last night in Bristol when Cochran was killed in an accident involving an unlicensed taxi taking them back to London earlier than had been planned. Details on who should or should not have been in the car are a matter of big debate. Tony remembers being asked by Eddie if he needed a lift anywhere as he was leaving but there turned out to be no room left in the cab. [?] Tony recalls, “When I heard about the accident, I bought a bottle of whisky, downed the lot and cursed life.”
This is where we leave Sheridan, drunk and cursing life on the 16 April 1960; however, just over one month later, in June 1960, he is standing on the stage of The Kaiserkeller, [?] a small club in the Reeperbahn district of Hamburg, Germany, as part of The Jets. This moment is not only set to change to course of his life but ultimately that of the British music scene.

Discography: Selected
The Tony Sheridan release discography is extensive so for space reasons this volume only covers up to and includes the first releases of My Bonnie. Good sources for release lists can be found online at Discogs or by acquiring issue 219 (Nov97) of the Record Collector. We’ve started with a separate list of his highest single chart placings.
Chart positions: Time in Charts / Weeks In Chart / Peak Position
Germany:
7” Let’s Slop 03/08/63-17/08/63 3 wks / #10
7” Skinny Minnie 19/09/64-10/10/64 4 wks / #6
* On The Beatles Anthology #1 Paul McCartney says that the My Bonnie release with Tony Sheridan reached # 5 in the German charts however, we have not been able to confirm this. In Hit Bilanz Deutsche Chart Singles 1956-1980 published by Taurus Press in 2000. It lists My Bonnies’ highest position as 32 and that the single was in the charts for 12 weeks.
Non-Sheridan credits:
Discography:
AS: Vince Taylor &
7” Right Behind You Baby b/w
Parlophone records R4505 released ??/12/58
NB: According to bassist Locking this was recorded at Abbey Road.
AS: Cherry Weiner
7” Happy Organ b/w Spanish Marching Song
Pye-Nixa Records 7N 15197 released ??/04/59
With: Brenda Lee
7” I Like Love b/w What’d I Say
UK:
7” My Bonnie NH66833 06/06/63-??/??/63 1 wk / #48         
USA:
7” My Bonnie MGM13213 15/02/64-??/??/64 6 wks / #26 released 27/01/64
7” Why MGM13227 18/04/64-??/??/64 1 wks / #88
7” Ain’t She Sweet ATCO6308 18/07/64-??/??/64 9 wks / #19

Tours: A selected list.
Marty Wild & His Wildecats UK Tour (20/09/58-0510/58)
John Barry Seven / Vince Eager & His Vagabonds / The Sophisticates
Rea Young /Pat Laurence

Eddie Cochran / Gene Vincent UK Tour (24/01/60-16/04/60)
Vince Eager / Viscounts / Tony Sheridan / The Wildcats / The Beat Boys
The support acts varied throughout the tour but included:
Billy Fury / Joe Brown / Peter Wynne / Dean Webb / Sally Kelly Georgie Fame / Johnny Gentle
compare & star of HMV Records Billy Raymond

Brenda Lee UK Tour (11/03/63-31/03/63)
Mike Berry & The Outlaws or Bert Weedon / Tony Sheridan / The Bachelors / Steve Perry
Sounds Incorporated
compare Bob Bain (compere)

Roy Orbison UK Tour (18/04/64-16/05/64)
Tony Sheridan & The Bobby Patrick Big Six / The Federals / Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders
Ezz Recco & The Launchers with Boysie Grant & Beverly / Chris Sandford & The Coronets
The Three Quarters
Special guests were Freddy & The Dreamers or Brian Poole & The Tremolows / compare Glen mason

MEDIOGRAPHY:
Former Norwich choirboy on TV EEN 27/02/59
City man used forged form for £234 guitar EEN 18/11/61
Tony Sheridan RC ISSUE219 01/11/97 (P)
UK TV:
ABC Oh Boy! 15/06/58 to 30/05/59
6 appearances: 28/02/59, 14/03/59, 21/03/59, 04/04/59
18/04/59, 09/05/59
NB: Appearances on ‘Oh Boy’ were made under various titles. Claims that he appeared on the show 9 times are unconfirmed but not impossible as he may be uncredited. Some claims that he played ad-hoc in the house band Lord Rockingham’s X1 are refuted by Sheridan in Manns book.
Scottish: Round-Up - 19/05/64 Tony Sheridan
Rediffusion The Five O’clock Club - 29/05/64 Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers

RESIDENCIES:
The 2i’s Coffee Bar, Old Compton St, London 58-60
The Kaiser Keller. Hamburg, Germany Jun60-Nov60
The Top Ten Club, Hamburg, Germany Nov60-May62
The Star Club, Hamburg, Germany May62-Aug67

NB: [1] Many versions of The 2i’s and Beatle’s stories exist. If you were to lay all the testimony side by side there is little timeline continuity. I have come at it openly and looked for the best material that gives me a timeline for Tony Sheridan. We accept that different opinions and versions of this story are available. [2] In Alan Mann’s book he has Tony’s Fathers surname as McGinnity but this spelling changes for Tony’s Irish passport to MacGinnity. [3] Quote from Alan Mann’s book Tony Sheridan - The Teacher. [4] Between ?? and ?? Lonnie Donegan toured the uk and palyed 7 nights at The Theatre Royal Norwich. [5] Hot Head was one of the more favourable and printable terms used to describe Tony Sheridan on the local music scene back in 1957 and was used by local musician Terry Wickham [6] Quote from Alan Manns Book [7] Ulf Kruger compiled the notes for tony sheridand release           [8] on the local music Dick Rowe will be familiar to many Beatles fans as the man at Decca Records who famously did not sign them. Although Rowe refuted Epstein’s claim that he said ‘Guitar bands are on the way out, Mr Epstein’ he added that it was a choice between Brian Poole & The Tremeloes and The Beatles and based on nothing more than their locality to London, chose The Tremeloes. Rowe briefly left Decca Records to join Top Rank Records c1959 but soon returned to Decca Records.
[?] Many words were used to describe Sheridan’s local days on the scene. I thought the late Terry’s Wickhams’ Hot Head was the best and most incumbent.


 Tony Sheridan quote from Ringo Starr from Beatle Anthology p58:
“It was great being out there with Tony Sheridan. I was there in 1962 backing him with Roy Young, and Lou Walters on bass. It was all very exciting. Tony was really volatile. If anyone in the club was talking to his girl he’d be punching and kicking all over the place, while we’d just keep on jamming. Then he’d come back and join us, covered in blood if he’d lost. But he was a really good player.”


The Tony Sheridan Trio                            L59-M60
LVox, Gtr: Tony Sheridan / Bs: Licorice Locking
Drums: Brian Bennett


Discography: Germany / UK / USA
Tony Sheridan’s release catoloug is extensive so we have anly include his releases up to my bonnie on the basiThis is a selected Tony Sheridan discography covering German, UK, and USA releases of the sixties starting with a seperate list of his highest single chart placings below.

Chart positions: Time In Charts / Weeks In Chart / Peak Position
Germany:
7” Let’s Slop 03/08/63-17/08/63 3 wks / #10
7” Skinny Minnie 19/09/64-10/10/64 4 wks / #6
UK:
7” My Bonnie NH66833 06/06/63-??/??/63 1 wk / #48         
USA:
7” My Bonnie MGM13213 15/02/64-??/??/64 6 wks / #26 released 27/01/64
7” Why MGM13227 18/04/64-??/??/64 1 wks / #88
7” Ain’t She Sweet ATCO6308 18/07/64-??/??/64 9 wks / #19

DISCOGRAPHY: GERMAN (D) / UK & USA
AS: Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
7” My Bonnie b/w The Saints (When The Saints Go Marching In) Polydor Ger 24 673 [] 23 Oct 1961
Tony Sheridan
7” Ich Lieb Dich so (Ecstasy) b/w Der Kiss-me Song (An African’s Prayer) Polydor Ger 24 821 [] 1962
Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
7” You Are My Sunshine b/w  Swanee River Polydor Ger 24 849 [] 1962
7” Madison Kid b/w Let’s Dance Polydor Ger 24 948[] 1962
7” My Bonnie b/w The Saints (When The Saints Go Marching In) Polydor Ger 24 673[] 5 Jan 1962
7”EP Ya Ya
Ya Ya Part 1 & 2 b/w Sweet Georgia Brown / Skinny Minny Polydor Ger 21 485 EPH[] Oct 1962
7” Ruby Baby b/w What’d I Say Polydor Ger 52 025[] Mar 1963
7” Veedeboom Slop Slop b/w Let’s Slop Polydor Ger 52 099[] Jul 1963
The Beatles With Tony Sheridan
7” My Bonnie / Cry For A Shadow b/w The Saints (When The Saints Go Marching In) / Why Atlas Ger 80 031[] 1964               EP
7” My Bonnie b/w The Saints (When The Saints Go Marching In) Polydor Ger 52 273[] Mar 1964
The Beatles / The Beatles with Tony Sheridan
7” Cry For A Shadow b/w Why (Can’t You Love Me Again) Polydor Ger 52 275[]
7” Ain’t She Sweet b/w If You Love Me Baby (Take Out Some Insurance On Me Baby)
Polydor Germany 52 317[] Apr 1964
Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
7” Skinny Minny b/w Sweet Georgia Brown Polydor Germany 52 324[] May 1964
The Beatles With Tony Sheridan
7”EP My Bonnie / Cry For A Shadow b/w The Saints (When The Saints Go Marching In) / Why
Polydor Germany E 76 586[] May 1964
Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
7” Jambalaya b/w Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow Polydor Germany 52 315 Oct 1964
The Beatles & Tony Sheridan
7”EP My Bonnie / Cry For A Shadow b/w The Saints / Why Polydor Ger 41 646[] 1965
Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
7” Do-Re-Mi b/w My Babe Polydor Ger 52 936[] Feb 1965
Tony Sheridan & The Big Six
7” Vive L’amour (Viva La Compagnie) b/w Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop Polydor International Germany 421 009[] Sep 1965
7” Shake It Some More b/w La Bamba Polydor International Germany 52 944[] Dec 1965
Tony Sheridan
7” Wolgalied b/w Alles aus Liebe zu dir Polydor Germany 52 733[] Oct 1966
7” The Creep b/w Just You And Me Polydor International Germany 421 062[] Dec 1966
7” Ich will bei dir bleiben b/w Ich lass dich nie wieder geh’n Polydor Germany 52 834[] 1967
7” Sweet Georgia Brown b/w Nobody’s Child Polydor Germany 52 906[] 1968
Tony Sheridan & The Big Six
7” Jailhouse Rock b/w Skinny Minny Polydor Germany 52 979[] Jul 1968
Tony Sheridan & The Beat Brothers
EP Ya Ya: YaYa parts 1 & 2, Sweet Georgia Brown, Skinny Minnie Polydor Germany 21485 Oct 1962
Tony Sheridan with The Beatles
EP My Bonnie, Cry For A Shadow, The Saints, Why

Selected advertised supports: see Tours

Tours:
Eddie Cochran / Gene Vincent UK Tour (24/01/60-16/04/60)
Vince Eager / Viscounts / Tony Sheridan  /  The Wildcats
The Beat Boys
The support acts varied throughout the tour but included:
Billy Fury / Joe Brown / Peter Wynne / Dean Webb / Sally Kelly Georgie Fame / Johnny Gentle
compare & star of HMV Records Billy Raymond

Brenda Lee UK Tour (11/03/63-31/03/63)
Mike Berry & The Outlaws or Bert Weedon / Tony Sheridan
The Bachelors / Steve Perry / Sounds Incorporated
compare Bob Bain (compere)

Roy Orbison UK Tour (18/04/64-16/05/64)
Tony Sheridan & The Bobby Patrick Big Six / The Federals
Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders
Ezz Recco & The Launchers with Boysie Grant & Beverly
Chris Sandford & The Coronets / The Three Quarters
Special guests were Freddy & The Dreamers or Brian Poole & The Tremolows / compare Glen mason

Mediography:
Former Norwich choirboy on TV EEN 27/02/59
City man used forged form for £234 guitar EEN 18/11/61

References to Tony Sheridan are so numerous and as mentioned very conflicting.                    
Record Collector

RESIDENCIES:
RELATED TITLES
NB:

UK TV:
ABC Oh Boy! ??/??/???? to ??/??/????
6 appearences: 28/02/59, 14/03/59, 21/03/59, 04/04/59
18/04/59, 09/05/59
NB: Appearences on ‘Oh Boy’ were made under various titles. Claims that he appeared on the show 9 times are unconfirmed but not impossible as he may be uncredited playing as part of the shows house band Lord Rockinghams XI.
 
Scottish: Round Up - 19/05/64 Tony Sheridan
Rediffusion The Five O’Clock Club - 29/05/64 Tony Sheridan & The Wreckers

Compilations
Cover	Title	Label	YoR
	RULE BRITANNIA	SPECTRUM	UNDATED
Position	Track name		Studio
A3	AIN'T SHE SWEET