Above are rare photos of Frankenstein & the Monsters playing at the Woodhall Spa Hockey Club dance at Coronation Hall on Saturday, March 27, 1965. Woodhall Spa is east of Sheffield & Manchester, and a few hours north of London.Likely the act was capitalizing on the horror-rock show of Screaming Lord Sutch. The article describes what it was like to be at the show:

“…the sound building up to a crescendo of cacophony and din spread over half-an-hour and with increasing tempo, subdued lighting and flashing lights, was designed, and succeeded in stirring the pulse and the imagination.”‘

Frankenstein was vocalist Ray Stuart from Manchester, the rest of the group seems to have changed frequently over the next year. This photo seems to be an early line up of the group, named in the article as:

Paul Jarvis – bass
Budg. P. Curtis – lead guitar
Andy Fearn – drums
Royce Francis – organ

Royce Francis played with the Upsetters, a group of English musicians formed in France in 1964 that toured the continent over the next several years, often with singer Pete Lancaster. The Upsetters backed Pete on two German releases, the single “Stupitidy” (sic – should read “Stupidity”) and “Baby, Baby, Baby” on Polydor International from 1966, and the LP Rhythm and Blues Show on Polydor from 1967. Anyone have good scans of those?

I’m not sure if Royce was with the Upsetters for their entire run, as this gig with Frankenstein and the Monsters would overlap.

The Upsetters included Derek Moore (bass), John C Marshall (guitar), Jim Clapper (tenor sax), Alvino Sykes (drums) and Royce Francis (organ). Also at some point, Ron Howden, who with Derek Moore would later join the Prophets before evolving into Nektar.

Andy Fearn played with the Barry Norton Four along with Pete Brown (lead guitar) and Dave Robinson (bass). I’m not sure who Budg. P. Curtis is.

Sometime after this show Ray Stuart found another backing band, the Sheffields. The Sheffields consisted of Roy Ledger, Dave Fawcett and Richard Smith, and cut legendary 45s on Pye in 1964: “It Must Be Love” / “Say Girl” (Pye 7N 15600), “Got My Mojo Working” / “Hey, Hey Lover Boy” (Pye 7N 15627), and “Bags Groove (Skat Walking)” / “Plenty of Love” (Pye 7N 15767, also Dot 45-16722 in the US).

Dave Robinson commented on the ManchesterBeat.com:

At the end of 1965 however, The Sheffields went their own way before splitting ( lead guitarist Roy Ledger joined Dave Berry’s Cruisers) and Ray Stuart approached Dave Robinson, Phil Galley and Spud West to form a ‘new’ Monsters – eventually acquiring the services of former Monster’s bass player from the 1964/5 line up, Paul Jarvis.

This was the line up for the duration of 1966 with the band proving the most popular in their home city of Sheffield.

Spud West played the part of The Mummy in the horror show and introduced the wonderful new trick of setting himself on fire as he left the coffin, until it got out of hand at Worsley Civic Hall when the fire hose had to be employed!

The band frequently appeared at The Oasis, Jung Frau, Top 20 Club at Droylsden as well as Bolton Palais and similar surrounding venues.

How do I know?  I was lead guitarist in that line up before we became the fourth generation of Dave Berry’s Cruisers.

Additional info from Obscure Bands of the 50s and 60s.

Thank you to Nick Warburton for the scan from the Lincolnshire Standard.