Jimmy Marsh – lead vocals
Allen Bevan – lead guitar
Tony Rowland – bass
Malcolm Tomlinson – drums
Lead singer Jimmy Marsh (b. 9 April 1941, Salem, Carmarthenshire, Wales; d. 13 April 2020) had started out around 1961 with Fulham band, The Fairlanes, comprising lead guitarist Allen Grey, rhythm guitarist David Beach, bass player Terry Gore and drummer John Warwick. The band played US air bases and sometimes backed cabaret acts like Kathy Kirby and Vince Hill.
During 1962, Marsh formed the first Del Mar Trio with lead guitarist Allen Bevan, who worked at Sound City on Shaftesbury Avenue, rhythm guitarist Terry Toatal, plus a bass player and a drummer. On 1 June 1963, the musicians backed Jimmy Marsh on the “Rock Twist Jive Channel Crossing”, a rock extravaganza that took place on-board the Channel ferry, the M V Royal Daffodil, which sailed from Southend, Essex to Boulogne, and also featured Jeff Curtis & The Flames, whose drummer was Malcolm Tomlinson (b. 16 June 1946, Isleworth, Middlesex; d. 2 April 2016).
Bevan and Tomlinson ran into each other again while working at Sound City and around late June 1964 the drummer left The Flames to join Marsh’s band. Tony Rowland, who hailed from Doncaster, completed the second version of The Del Mar Trio, which was formed around the early summer.
After rehearsing between the occasional gig, the quartet headed to the south coast and found work with Bob Gaitley’s Beat, Ballad and Blues agency, working his clubs, the Top Hat in Littlehampton and the Mexican Hat in Worthing.
In January 1965, the group headed to Cornwall for a short tour, which included St Austell and Penzance.
The band also played along the southcoast, including in Brighton, appearing there after the Cornish gigs.
Gaitley was impressed enough with Marsh’s singing to arrange for an audition at Abbey Road, which led to the recording of four tracks – “You Know How”, “Pocket Full of Rainbows”, “Like A Baby” and “Haunting Me”, with producer, the late Bob Barrett in February 1965, and listed under the name James Deene & The Del Mar Trio.
The band continued to gig around the London area, including in Northwood with The Mark Four and a show at the Pilgrim, Haywards Heath, West Sussex.
When nothing happened to the tracks, the band signed up for a tour of West Germany and headed off in late April/early May 1965.
Over the next year, the band, working as James Deene & The London Cats, underwent various personnel changes, including seeing another former Jeff Curtis & The Flames member, lead guitarist Louis McKelvey join briefly, and would ultimately see all of the members return home except Jimmy Marsh who found work on a US air force base outside Munich.
Around May/June 1966, Marsh was contacted (via the British Consulate) by bass player Bryan Stevens, a former member of Johnny Devlin & The Detours, which had shared the bill with The Del Mar Trio at one of Gaitley’s clubs on the south coast, to join a new version of Stevens’ latest band, The Noblemen. Marsh accepted and recommended Malcolm Tomlison as a drummer. The pair stuck with The Noblemen from June until November 1966 when the band changed name to The Motivation. Working under the new name, The Motivation headed to Rome in late March 1967 and worked at the famous Piper Club but Marsh became ill and returned home.
Tomlinson remained with The Motivation until August when the revised line up changed name again to The Penny Peep Show/Penny Peeps. The band recorded two singles for Liberty in 1968 – “Little Man With A Stick” c/w “Model Village” and “I See The Morning” c/w “Curly, The Knight of The Road”, before becoming blues band Gethsemane in August of that year. After splitting in December 1968, Tomlinson reunited with Louis McKelvey, who’d returned from Canada in July of that year and the pair relocated to Canada in January 1969 where they formed Milkwood.
In 1973, Tomlinson recorded an unreleased album with Rick James & The Stone City Band and two solo albums, issued on the A&M label in the late 1970s.
Many thanks to Jimmy Marsh and Malcolm Tomlinson for information.
Hi , I’m Terry Gore, the original bass player with the Fairlanes, I formed and named the band after previously playing with another band The Bellairs, the names we’re american cars and sounded cool,Johnny warrick had been the drummer and when it disbanded we were good mates and started to look for another group, it was about 1960/61,we heard about some musicians rehearsing at a school in Fulham and went along to check them out, they were Jimmy Marsh, Johnny Grey(guitar) and another not very competent guitarist who’s name I can’t remember, we agreed to get together and it turned out to be a pretty good band, I switched to bass and we brought in another guitarist Reg ( can’t remember his surename) but he left and a guitarist Dave Beach joined , we played untold gigs in and around London including many USAF air bases up and down the country backing many big stars,we broke up after a couple of years, and Johnny warrick and I went on to start another band with a guitarist Ricky Fountain and a great vocalist George ,we called it the Trekkers, we recruited a fantastic Jamaican sax player and played many of the club circuits in and around London, the Trekkers finally disbanded due to conflicting musical direction, Johnny Warrick and I formed another band and called it The Cast and again played many gigs on various circuits in and around London,we proved to be very successful , we engaged a manager Pete Wickens, who got us a recording contract with CBS and we changed our name to Tangerine Peel, we had a lot of success releasing records, radio gigs, TV shows and playing gigs with many world stars, bee gees , love affair, the who etc etc, after about 3 years 1969,the band broke up due to not having a hit record , our singer Mike Chapman went on to be very famous as the writer of all of “The Sweets”hits, Smoky and various other acts, including Tina Turners “Simply the Best, I went on to get married and start my own business enjoying a normal life after all the showbiz glitz and I am now semi retired. I hope this was informative, regards Terry Gore.
Hi Terry
This is great stuff. Jimmy Marsh lives near Chiswick
Dug out an email that Malcolm Tomlinson sent me on 20 December 2014. He said that James Deane & The London Cats spent a year in southern Germany playing in Munich, Nuremburg, Furth and a few other places.
Sounds like in early 1966, he worked with a German band for about three months before returning to England.
Not sure if Jimmy Marsh’s group played any of these clubs in Munich but the Western Scene which covers Bristol area groups lists some clubs in Munich that local bands played at. These are:
The New Cracker Box
Palais de Dance
Dullu Bar