Gary Boyle – guitar/vocals
Roger Sutton – bass/vocals
Ray Deville – organ/vocals
Ron Foster – saxophone
Clive Thacker – drums
Lead guitarist Gary Boyle, bass player Roger Sutton, keyboard player Ray Deville, drummer Clive Thacker and sax players Dave Quincy and Ian Thomas had backed singer Brian Bentley as Brian Bentley & The Kingsmen during 1962.
In early 1963, the remaining members (minus Quincy and Thomas) became The Five Embers after ditching Brian Bentley and recruiting sax player Ron Foster. Initially, the musicians played under their own name and then in March 1964 started backing Jamaican singer Millie.
Notable gigs as The Five Embers:
22 March 1964 – Star & Garter, Windsor, Berkshire
24 March 1964 – Café Des Artistes, Fulham, London
Notable gigs with Millie Small:
25 March 1964 – Bromley Court Hotel, Bromley, Kent
28 March 1964 – Café Des Artistes, Fulham, London
29 March 1964 – Star & Garter, Windsor, Berkshire
31 March 1964 – Peter’s Club, High Wycombe, Bucks
5-11 April 1964 – Cavern, Liverpool
16 May 1964 – City Hall, Salisbury, Wiltshire with The Initials
17 May 1964 – Blackpool ABC, Blackpool, Lancashire
18 May 1964 – Scarborough Futurist, Scarborough with others
5 June 1964 – Palace Ballroom, Maryport, Cumbria with The Defenders
16 June 1964 – Locarno, Swindon, Wiltshire with The Soul Agents
27 August 1964 – ABC Theatre, Plymouth, Cornwall with Rolling Stones and others
After splitting with Millie, The Five Embers continued to gig into 1965 before breaking up that spring and at some point backed Barry St John.
In August 1966, Clive Thacker joined Julie Driscol, Brian Auger & The Trinity and was joined two months later by Roger Sutton.
While Thacker remained with Brian Auger and Julie Driscol throughout the late 1960s, Sutton left in May 1967 and played with several groups before briefly joining The Krew in August 1968.
Roger Sutton subsequently played with a number of notable bands, including The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, Nucleus, Mark-Almond and Riff Raff.
Gary Boyle initially played with Lulu’s backing band during 1965. Then, in 1966, he worked with Dusty Springfield’s support group, The Echoes before reuniting with Roger Sutton and Clive Thacker in Julie Driscol, Brian Auger and The Trinity in January 1967.
After leaving in November of that year, Boyle subsequently played with Eclection in March 1969 and then returned to Julie Driscol and The Brian Auger Trinity that June.
Ray Deville meanwhile joined The Missing Links in February 1966 and stayed with this band when it took on the name, The All Night Workers in October 1967. He left in January 1968 and is rumoured to have worked with Dusty Springfield. Deville died in 2013.
Please note: this is a very brief overview of the band and its history. Garage Hangover would welcome any additional material and corrections.
Mike Collins’s interviews with Roger Sutton and Gary Boyle were really useful resources. Please see above links to his work.
Hi Nick
Loads of info on the My Boy Lollipop site as detailed below .
http://www.myboylollipop.co.uk – check out the interviews with Gary Boyle & Roger Sutton. If you can’t find them, let me know and I’ll send copies.
Also the 22/03.64 gig at Windsor (Star & Garter) was the Ricky Tick Club. They also played there the following Sunday (29) before touring with Millie.
I also have the first line up after Brian Bentley (early 63) as- Boyle / Sutton / Deville / plus Randy Jones (drums) / Alan Bown (trumpet) & Ray Edmunds (sax) Edmunds had been in a RAF band with Bown, Bown left to join John Barry 7 before forming his own band
By the summer of 63, Bown, Edmunds & Jones had left and Thacker & Willie Garnett (sax) had joined. I have no record of Ron Foster ever being a member.
Ron Foster is my Dad and I confirm he was a member of the 5 Embers and toured with them and Millie. Not Sure why you have no record of him
Sarah. I was great friends with Ray Deville keyboard player with the five embers. We worked together for the same company. Ray passed in 2013.
Hi Gary
After my Dad,Ron,left the 5 Embers he played in the band at the Dorchester and then we moved to Bermuda where he continued his music career. With the 5 Embers he was the saxophonist,but later in his career he played keyboards and did vocals.
Dad passed away on August 9th 2021.
Hi Sarah, I worked with your dad in the 1980s and remember him telling me about backing Millie, We may have even met once as I remember Ron bringing in his daughter to our workplace. Ron was a lovely man and I was very sorry to here of his passing.
Hi Neil
Thanks. I am his only daughter so it must have been me. Where did you work with him? Coral Island Hotel?
Best
Sarah
No, it was at Hall & Hall (Hallite) in Hampton, after he came back from Bermuda
Yes, found info on Willie Garnett in Boyfriend Magazine. He joined The Next Five in July 1964 – the band also featured Rod Freeman and Dave Golding (ex-Flinstones and Blue Men), Ken Rankine (ex-Art Wood Combo) and US musician Gary Bell.
Few more missing ones:
16 April 1964 – Flamingo, Soho (Melody Maker)
26 June 1964 – Wimbledon Palais (Streatham News)
According to Bucks Free Press, the gig at Pete’s Club on 31/3/64 was actually at High Wycombe Town Hall unless they played both venues on the same date which is possible
Another big gig from Bucks Free Press:
Adelphi, Slough on 19 November 1964 with the following:
Lulu & The Luvvers
Beat Merchants
Gene Vincent
Honeycombs
Applejacks
According to Tottenham Weekly Herald, Millie & The Five Embers played the Continental Dancing Club in Edmonton on 14 June 1964
In Alan Bown’s biography he mentions Clive Thacker joining The John Barry Seven in 1965:
“I recruited Clive Thacker, who had been in The Embers after me, to replace Ernie Cox. He was more of a jazz drummer and found it difficult to provide the volume we needed for the seven-piece band. There was no mic-ing up the drum kits in those days so the drummer really had to be prominent. I kept asking Clive to play louder and after one or two gigs, he had large blood blisters on all of his fingers. During one set they burst, covering the snare drum and torn-toms with blood. It was an awful sight and the audience must have thought it was some bizarre part of the act. A vampire on the drums! Sadly, Clive had to admit the gig was not his scene and gave me his notice.”
However another JB7 member says that Thacker never joined the band and the drummer that replaced Cox was Dave Elvin.
Bearing in mind the above account, is it possible that Elvin was also once a member of The Five Embers, and Bown simply mixed up the two? I must say that looking at Thacker’s history you wouldn’t think he would have had a problem playing loud. 🙂
Hey, I remember the Five Embers at the Cafe´, Redcliff Gardens, SW5, in the 60s. Great. Played ‘Keep on Running’. Wow, Fab.