Acts / Bands Who Played The Kinema Ballroom Dunfermline

Here you will find some short biographies (biogz) of solo artists whose surname commences with this letter or bands with names commencing with this letter (omitting any commonly used prefix such as 'The').

'The Quiet Three' were:
Colin Green - guitar
Tex Makins - bass
Jimmy Nicol - drums

Vince Eager is a name synonymous with British pop. As a member of the legendary "Larry Parnes stable", along with Tommy Steele, Marty Wilde, Billy Fury and Joe Brown, Vince became a household name.

In the early days of pop, the press were reluctant to give credit to the live stage work of the members of the pop establishment. Vince was one of the few who did receive due recognition for being a true professional.

Throughout his 45 years in the entertainment industry, the consistent factor has been Vince's success as a live performer. From his cabaret and theatre appearances to his 5 year starring role in the award winning West End musical "ELVIS". Vince continues to receive the plaudits of the press, his peers and his audiences.

Vince's easy going manner, his rich powerful voice and his commanding stage presence have stood the test of time.

Anecdotes from the heady years of working with, and befriending, both Britain's and America's major stars have extended Vince's popularity to the chat show, after dinner speaking and lecture circuit. Presenters and their audiences being amongst Vince's new admirers.

Bobby Eaglesham was one of Scotland's leading folk musicians and a celebrated singer/guitarist with the influential band ‘Five Hand Reel’.

Sadly Bobby collapsed and died of a heart attack in the canteen of a Young Offenders’ Institution where he worked as an arts teacher on Saturday 14th October 2004.

During his 40 odd years whilst in the Arbroath / Dundee area Les Cameron led the East Coast Jazz Men which had a large following around Tayside. In 1960 under Andy Lothian Jnr's leadership the band won the Scottish Jazz Championship. In Arbroath around 1989 the band helped in getting the highly successful Jazz at Hospitalfield club off the ground.

In the early '60s the East Coast Jazzmen were resident band in the old Parker St Jazz Club, backing up virtually all the major bands in Britain such as Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk, Chris Barber, Bruce Turner Jump Band, Alex Welsh, Terry Lightfoot and others.

Les has reassembled the band for a new album 'Les's Jazz - with a lot of help from my friends', along with four vocalists, one from Dundee, three from the Nairn area, plus a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer.

East of Eden

Dave Arbus - violin, flute
Ron Caines - saxophone
Dave Dufont - drums
Geoff Nicholson - lead guitar
Steve York - bass
Geoff Britton - drums
Andy Sneddon - bass
David Jacks - vocals
Jim Roche - guitar
Jeff Allen - drums
Dave Weller - saxophone
Martin Fisher
Joe O'Donnell - violin
Garth Watt Roy - guitar
Les Davidson - guitar
Peter Filleul - keyboards
Dean Ford - vocals
George Howden - trumpet

A progressive band formed in Brighton in 1968 by violinist and multi-instrumentalist Dave Arbus. Their novelty hit with the instrumental 'Jig A Jig' was completely untypical of their usual musical style, progressive rock with lots of hard rock guitar and Dave Arbus' wild violin work.

The band was very popular in London's underground clubs. Their debut album came in an outstanding sleeve and was the best example of their Eastern-influenced rock. Guitarist/vocalist Nicholson left after this along with drummer Dufont and bassist York (who joined Manfred Mann's Chapter 3). 'Snafu' veered more towards jazz-rock but was their most successful album commercially, getting into the Top 30.

In 1970, they signed to Harvest, but their first album for them was rather mundane, having sacrificed their earlier Eastern influence for a country sound. 'New Leaf' was slightly better but after this, Arbus quit though he later reappeared on Roger Daltrey's self-titled solo album. The band carried on, replacing him with former Mushroom violinist Joe O'Donnell. This line-up recorded a couple of further albums that only appeared on the Continent, before they split in 1978.

Geoff Britton later played with Wings, whilst Joe O'Donnell made several solo albums in the seventies and eighties, many of which feature guest appearances by Rory Gallagher. Les Davidson ended up doing session work in London in mid-80s.

(Vernon Joynson/Tom Wilkins) From The Tapestry of Delights - The Comprehensive Guide to British Music of the Beat, R&B, Psychedelic and Progressive Eras 1963-1976, Vernon Joynson ISBN 1 899855 04 1

Stevie Wright - lead vocals
Harry Vanda - vocals, lead guitar
George Young - rhythm guitar
Dick Diamonde - bass
Tony Cahill - drums
Gordon "Snowy" Henry Fleet - drums

Often referred to as an Australian band, The Easybeats were formed by immigrants from Holland, Glasgow, Leeds and Liverpool. They had a successful chart career in Oz in 1965 and moved to England in mid 66 to record with Shel Talmy and the result, “Friday On My Mind” was one of the best pop records of the 60s which charted not only in the UK but cracked the top 20 in the USA.

Lead singer was Stevie Wright and they had a dynamite writing team in Henry Vanda and George Young.
Their second UK hit shows a completely different aspect of their ability – a big powerful ballad which was very in tune with its year of release. The band split in 1970 and were involved with producing AC/DC which featured Angus and Malcolm Young – George’s brothers.

English band formed by Edmunds & Moss after they left an early version of 'The Damned'. They released a couple of records & later added a female singer (Jane Ashley) & became 'Jane Aire & the Belvederes'.

Jon Moss would later find success as the drummer of 'Culture Club' and partner of 'Boy George'. Edmunds has also worked with 'Shriekback' and 'Public Image Ltd'.

Recorded output includes:
'Square One' (1980)
'Complete Works of The Edge' (1987)

11th April 1971

Tony Burrows - lead vocal
Ray Dorey - guitar
Dave Taylor - bass
Stuart Edwards - lead guitar
George Weyman - drums

British pop group ‘Edison Lighthouse’ was one of the most successful groups of the seventies with worldwide record sales exceeding 15 million.

They were formed from members of a band called ‘The Flying Machine’ which had a top 5 hit in America in November 1969 with ‘Smile A Little Smile For Me’. The new band was fronted by session vocalist Tony Burrows and included Tony Macaulay. The members of ‘Edison Lighthouse’ were exceptionally busy at this time as they was involved with four separate acts with top ten singles almost at the same time: ‘Edison Lighthouse’ with ‘Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes’ (#1 - January 1970), ‘White Plains' with ‘My Baby Loves Lovin' (#9 - February 1970), ‘Brotherhood Of Man' with ‘United We Stand’ (#10 - February 1970) and ‘The Pipkins' with ‘Gimme Dat Ding’ (#6 - March 1970)! In fact the first three got them a mention in the Guinness Book of Records for the most singles charted simultaneously under different group names containing the same artists. ‘Love Grows’ also peaked at #5 in the US Billboard chart and sold over 8 million copies. It was the second best selling single in the UK in 1970.

Following the success of ‘Love Grows’, Tony Burrows split, while Tony Macaulay was able to form another band under the ‘Edison Lighthouse’ moniker, as he owned the name’s copyright. However their single, ‘It's Up To You Petula’ passed by without the public taking much notice, scraping to #49 in the UK chart for one week in January 1971, one year and a week after ‘Love Grows’ peaked.

Unsurprisingly an Irish band (who were originally known as 'The People'). They released one album called 'Sunrise' which was produced by and contained a guest appearance by Jimi Hendrix with whom they toured the U.S. Their demise followed shortly thereafter. Other support duties included Pink Floyd & Soft Machine. Henry McCullough was a former member and went on to work with Wings & Joe Cocker.

‘The Elastic Oz Band’ were formed by John Lennon & Yoko Ono to promote two songs they wrote to support three editorial staff at ‘Oz’ magazine (the leading satirical underground magazine of 1960's London) who were facing an obscenity trial in the UK at the time.

The ‘A’ side of the single (‘God Save Us’/’Do The Oz’) was first demoed by John in early 1971 (as ‘God Save Oz’) and an ad-hoc group called ‘The Elastic Oz Band’ was formed to record it in June 1971 with Bill Elliot (from ‘Half Breed’) providing the lead vocal on ‘God Save Us’ while John sang the ‘b’ side ‘Do The Oz’.

John then hired ‘Half Breed’ to perform as ‘The Elastic Oz Band’ for a short promotional tour in support of the single. After the tour completed, Bill left the band to form a new outfit with Bob Purvis called ‘Splinter’, best remembered for their November 1974 #17 hit single in the UK, 'Costafine Town' on George Harrison's Dark Horse label.

John’s original demo (‘God Save Oz’) was issued on the ‘John Lennon Anthology’ album in 1998.

Ray was born to a Russian Jewish mother and an African-American father in England. He formed the Ray Ellington Quartet in 1950.

Like Max Geldray, Ray not only performed as a musician in The Goon Show but occasionally had a speaking part, usually as a African chief or native.

Ellington specialised in jazz but experimented with many other genres throughout the show's history. Ellington's band was one of the first in the UK to feature the stripped-back guitar / bass / drums / piano format that became the basis of rock'n'roll, as well as being one of the first groups in Britain to prominently feature the electric guitar. They were also reputedly the very first jazz band in the UK to use an amplified bass.

As well as the Goon Show, the Quartet was featured in another BBC radio show, Mr Ray and Mr Ros (Mr Ros was bandleader Edmundo Ros.) He later formed the Ray Ellington Big Band.

Alan is a respected and popular member of the British traditional jazz scene. After turning professional at the age of 19, he worked with the bands of Cy Laurie, Graham Stewart and Terry Lightfoot before becoming a bandleader in 1960. In the seventies and eighties, Alan's career received a new boost when he joined the Midnite Follies Orchestra, led by Keith Nichols and Alan Cohen. Today, Alan works around the UK and Europe as a solo artiste as well continuing to lead his band. He has worked regularly with Keith Nichols since 1977.

Mike Hugg - keyboards, vocals
Manfred Mann – keyboards
Steve York – bass
Bernie Living – saxophone
Craig Collinge – drums

‘Emanon’ served as a bridge between ‘Manfred Mann’ of the sixties and ‘Manfred Mann Chapter III’. In fact, on 1st June 1969 'Emanon' appeared at the ballroom, billed as support for the Manfreds! As the sixties ‘Manfred Mann’ line-up drew to a close in May of 1969 Manfred and Mike Hugg had already been experimenting with writing music for film soundtracks and commercials and they adopted the pseudonym ‘Emanon’ (‘no name' spelled in reverse). ‘Emanon’ produced one, now much sought-after recording; a rare one sided single entitled 'The Michelin Theme' (go radial, go Michelin) attributed to ‘Manfred Mann & Mike Hugg’.

The ‘Emanon’ project and the demise of the sixties band finally allowed Mike and Manfred to play the music that they wanted to play. The line-up was not dissimilar from that of Emanon, in fact they just added Brian Hugg on acoustic guitar, however the music was a big change from the sixties Manfreds.

The Emerald Showband were, perhaps unsurprisingly, from Ireland and recorded 'The Hucklebuck' which appears on a CD 'The Best Of Irish Showbands'. They were prize-winners on the highly popular TV talent contest 'Opportunity Knocks' (hosted by Hughie Green).

Derv Gordon - lead vocals
Lincoln Gordon - guitar
Eddy Grant - guitar
Pat Lloyd - bass guitar
John Hall - drums

The Equals racial mix was reflected in their music which although not an obvious Carribean style owed a lot to West Indian rhythms. Like many of the Merseybeat groups that preceded them the Equals were initially more popular on the continent than they were at home. Their biggest hit 'Baby Come Back' which had been written by the talented Eddy Grant, became a big seller in Germany before it was a hit in the UK.

The north London group had first come together during 1965 and had 'Baby Come Back' (PT135), their second release, issued during 1967. However the first pressing of this disc was largely ignored and they had to wait until their fourth single, 'I Get So Excited' (PT180), scraped into the bottom of the chart before they could say they had a hit. However, 'I Get So Excited' was sufficient to get them noticed and 'Baby Come Back' at last received the airplay it deserved.

The group enjoyed a string of chart entries until 1971 when Eddy Grant decided to make changes to his musical career. It took Eddy until 1979 to get his first hit on his own, but his chart successes did not then cease until the mid-1980s. Sadly, the Equals never recovered from the loss of Grant and folded a few months later.

Deon played bass & rhythm guitar for Wham! during their Club Tour (1983), World Tour (1984) and the China Tour (1985), Whamamerica! Tour (1985) and the Finale Show (1986).

When Wham! split, Deon signed a contract and in 1989 released a solo album, ‘Spell’ and a US#5 single, ‘Heaven Help Me’. Aimee Stewart sung a duet with Deon called ‘My Guy, My Girl’ and he provided bass guitar for George Michael's 1987 ‘Faith’ album and Andrew Ridgeley's solo effort ‘Son of Albert’ (1990). The professional relationship with the Wham! Boys continued when he played guitar on Michael's ‘Listen Without Prejudice’ (1990) & ‘Older’ (1996). Additionally, Deon performed on ‘Killer’/’Papa was a Rolling Stone’ & ‘Calling You’, at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Show, culminating in the ‘Five Live’ album.

Russell Burn - drums
Ian Stoddart - bass
Mike Peden - bass
Stephen Lironi - guitar, keyboards

Scottish band who released a 7"/12" EP 'Tightrope' / 'Quarter To Six' / 'When You're Young' / 'Take The Strain' (DUN17) on Do-It label in 1982. Russell Burn was ex 'Fire Engines' and later joined 'Win' with Ian Stoddart while Stephen Lironi would later turn up in 'Altered Images'.

Mike Peden later turned up in 'The Chimes' with Pauline Henry & James Locke. (They had a UK #6 hit with a cover U2's 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For'). He has also produced Daryl Hall.