Judging by an article (at right) in the Middlesex County Times and West Middlesex Gazette from 4 July 1964, The Flexmen came from the Ealing, Middlesex area. The line up comprised:
Pete Ross – guitar
Pete Carney – bass
Ken Power – sax
Bob Sellars – sax
Hans Herbert – drums
Peter Carney had started out playing rhythm guitar with Ealing band, The Krewsaders during 1962. Formed with his cousin, lead guitarist Micky Holmes, the pair added drummer John “Speedy” Keene, after coming across the young sticks man at a local youth club. Keene in turn introduced John McVie.
“Speedy said that he knew this guy who wanted to join a band and that his father would buy him a bass guitar and amp if he did,” recalls Carney on McVie’s addition to The Krewsaders.
Unfortunately, in early 1963, McVie left to join John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and his departure contributed to the group’s break up.
“John McVie lived near a guy named Cliff Barton who played with Cyril Davies and told John that John Mayall was looking for a bass player and got the gig,” remembers Carney.
With Micky Holmes and Speedy Keene forming rival Ealing band, The Second Thoughts, who became regulars at the Ealing Club, Peter Carney swapped to bass and formed a new band with lead guitarist Pete Ross, who knew and lived near The Krewsaders’ manager, Steve Horrell.
According to Keith Gardiner, rhythm guitarist with Jeff Curtis & The Flames, Pete Ross had worked with him and future Jimi Hendrix sticksman Mitch Mitchell in a rudimentary band at Tudor Rose Youth Club in Southall, Middlesex in late 1957.
As Ross recalls, his playing history did indeed go back to youth club groups in the late 1950s during which time he listened to a wide range of music – Segovia, Barney Kessel, Chet Atkins and Hank Marvin to name a few.
“I started on the ukulele and moved up to an acoustic guitar which I found in a second-hand shop – finally on to a Broadway guitar, which had a couple of pickups and a tremolo arm so I could do all those ‘Shadow-y’ things,” he says.
Thanks to an older sister who “chaperoned” him to Southall Community Centre every Sunday to catch top artists of the era like Gene Vincent, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, Ross developed a broad taste in music although he says his main focus was on US artists such as Richard Barrett.
The lead guitarist knew Steve Horrell, who lived around the corner from him and also owned a red-pillar box early Ford Transit van, which would become The Flexmen’s mode of transport. It was Horrell who linked the two Peters up.
“Pete and I immediately hit it off and realised we both wanted to play the same kind of music with him heavily into Bob Dylan, Doris Troy, and loads of other ‘obscure’ artists whose music was enlightening,” says Carney.
“We were both in awe of Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers and would go and watch them at Southall Community Centre whenever they played there so decided that this is what our band would be like.”
After scouring the local youth clubs, the pair came across sax player Kenny Power, who introduced his sax playing friend Bob Sellars. Drummer Hans Herbert completed the line up not long after. The drummer says he already knew Power through a mutual friend called “Podge”.
Herbert had first got into drumming after befriending Speedy Keene during The Krewsaders’ period. “One time after they had finished playing at a gig, he asked me if I would like to have a go on the drums,” says Herbert. “He said I was a natural and that there were plenty of bands out there looking for drummers.”
Herbert’s first band was The Raiders. After a very brief spell with another local group, The Saints, the drummer joined his first big band, The Rumours.
The band debuted at Elthorne Youth Club. According to the Middlesex County Times and West Middlesex Gazette, the band played at Ealing Town Hall on 11 September 1964 and 8 October 1964 (where The Second Thoughts, featuring Micky Holmes and Speedy Keene, also appeared on the bill).
The Flexmen also appeared at Victoria Hall, Ealing on 26 June 1964 and 24 November 1964 (sharing the bill with Jimmy Royal & The Hawks). Another gig from this period took place at Shackleton Hall in Southall on 4 December 1964. As Pete Ross points out, the band was frequently mentioned in the newspaper. “A close school friend of mine – Mike Ryder – was a journo on the Middlesex Times and gave us column inches on a regular basis.”
Sometime during this time, The Flexmen took part in a “Battle of the Bands” competition at Wimbledon Theatre where they came second. Not long after, however, Bob Sellars departed and the group recruited organ player John Carroll. “When John joined with his Vox Continental, we included songs by The Animals and other keyboard-y stuff,” remembers Ross. The band also recorded a series of demo tracks, including covers of “Fortune Teller”, “Poison Ivy” and “Reelin’ and Rockin’”.
However, around July 1965, new recruit Carroll answered an advert in New Musical Express, asking for an organist to join a band to tour Poland. The group, known as The London Beats, needed a bass player and Peter Carney passed the audition.
With Carroll and Carney out of the picture, The Flexmen splintered. Hans Herbert joined The Rumours and then The Just Four, who changed name to The Guests in 1966.
It’s not clear what Kenny Power did immediately after the band’s break up that summer. However, during late 1966 he reunited with Hans Herbert in another west London band called The All Night Workers.
After touring Poland for about three months, Peter Carney and John Carroll decided not to participate in a second tour. Carney next joined Tony Knight’s Chessmen in late 1965 but after a year he jumped ship to join Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band.
Carroll, meanwhile, worked with several other local bands before reuniting with Carney in The Chessmen. In early 1967, however, he joined Nick Simper, Mick Stewart and John Kerrison in a very short-lived version of The New Pirates (formed after Johnny Kidd’s death) and toured the UK.
Around May 1967, Carney reunited with Carroll once again and also Hans Herbert when he managed to recruit them into Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band. The reunion was short-lived, however, and both musicians were replaced before the decade was out.
Carney subsequently moved to Australia where he played with The Bullamakanka Bush Grass Band. He has since returned to the UK and currently plays with English folk band, Hawkie Chapman.
As for Pete Ross, in the summer of 1965, he signed up with a six-piece R&B band from West London called The Ray Martin Group, who were a regular fixture at the Ealing Club throughout 1965 and later at nearby Feathers. The band’s line up also included singer Ray Martin, sax player Terry Marshall (son of the famous Jim Marshall) and drummer Paul Atkinson.
Ross went on to work with a number of bands before starting up the worldwide company CP Cases along with a drummer friend who also worked in Jim Marshall’s shop in Hanwell. The Isleworth, Middlesex-based company designs and manufacturers hi-performance protective cases for transport, operation and storage of essential equipment.
Many thanks to Peter Carney, Hans Herbert and Pete Ross for helping to piece together the band’s story. Thank you Pete Ross for supplying the band photos.
Copyright © Nick Warburton. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced or transmitted in any from or by any means, without prior permission from the author.
Garage Hangover would be interested to hear from anyone who can provide more information on this band. Contact the author at Warchive@aol.com.
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pink label with a script “Satin” and no ribbon:
