Mersey Beat - Earl Preston & The TT's

Earl Preston

Earl Preston was born George Spruce on the 22nd of December 1942 and had been a part of the Liverpool music scene from the dawn of the 1960s when, working in Sayers, he made his first public appearance at the age of 16 at Clubmoor Picture House playing tea chest bass in a group who didn't have a name. At Sayers he met fellow worker Tony Waddington who played guitar and asked George to form a group with him, 'The Comets'. When he joined the group he had changed his name to Gene Day so they changed the group name to 'Gene Day & The Django Beats' and he remained with them for 18 months playing regularly at the Casbah and The Lowlands.
In 1961 he got into conversation with Bob Wooler at the Cavern who, when he found that he wasn’t working with a group, placed him with the 'The Tempest Tornadoes', taking over from Faron Ruffley, who had split from the band, as lead singer. Faron went on and formed 'Faron's Flamingos'. Gene Day, now known as Earl Preston, shortened the name to 'Earl Preston & The TT's' and they played on bills with 'The Beatles' in the early 1960s including several 'Operation Big Beat' events at the Tower Ballroom, New Brighton with the likes of 'The Beatles', 'Rory Storm & the Hurricanes', 'Gerry & the Pacemakers', 'The Remo Four' and 'Faron's Flamingos'.

The group included Lance Railton on guitar, Cy Tucker (Thomas Thornton) on guitar and vocals, Wally Shepherd on bass, Ritchie Galvin (Richard Hughes) on drums. They soon built up a strong local following and earl Preston was now performing his own songs with the 'TTs' even before John Lennon and Paul McCartney performed their own with 'The Beatles'. He recalls coming off the Cavern stage after performing some of his own compositions when he exchanged a few words with the nervous singer preparing to go on. " He said how good they were." and I said, "Have you written any yourself?" He said, "We have, but they're not that good." recalls Joey (Earl), laughing. "They told me that they wished they had the confidence to do that." That young man was Paul McCartney. 

Earl Preston & The TT's in 1962

 

The 'TT's' cut hard rocking singles of 'Hurt' and 'Thumbin' A Ride' for the Oriole label (later bought up by Columbia Records in America, to serve as the core of British CBS) and those songs later showed up on the vinyl compilation LP, 'This Is Merseybeat Vol. 1'.
After touring US air bases in France in 1962, through Bill Harry, they had recorded contributions for the Oriole album 'This Is Mersey Beat' at the Rialto Ballroom in Liverpool before obtaining their own recording contract for Fontana Records along with 'The Merseybeats' and Wayne Fontana. Smartly dressed in suits for their session, they cut a single, 'I Know Something' c/w 'Watch Your Step', but their only chart success was sharing the billing with Eden Kane on his hit, 'Boys Cry' also backing him on 'Like I Love You'.
The group split at the end of 1963 and Cy Tucker set up his own band, 'Cy Tucker And The Friars'.

In February 1964, Earl put a new group together, 'Earl Preston's Realms' who also played The Cavern, and their repertory again included originals by Earl as well as covers of recent hits by Marvin Gaye, 'I'll Be Doggone' and standards by Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew, 'Blue Monday'. Having already recorded some of his original compositions, he made his television debut on the AR-TV documentary 'Beat City'. Their biggest moment of fame came when Ember Records released three live cuts by the band on the album, 'Liverpool Today-Where It All Began', released in the U.S. on Capitol, in conjunction with the Richmond Group and the Michael Allen Group.

see also - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/02/lee-curtis-all-stars.html