South Yorkshire Times, November 21, 1959

Boys Begged First Bookings

Thurnscoe Guitar Group Now Hope to “Go Places’

Becoming very popular in the area are four young men from Dearne who are hoping to make a name for themselves with their singing and guitar playing.

The four lads who call themselves the “Tremelos” are Jimmy Ford (21), miner at Hickleton Main Colliery, who lives at Thurnscoe and one of the two guitar players in the group; Ronnie Marsh (17), an apprentice butcher, also from Thurnscoe on drums; Don Morris (19), miner at Barnburgh Main Colliery, who plays guitar and Barnburgh miner, Ernie Lacey (22) from Goldthorpe who is the vocalist.

The four friends have been playing together for seven months. Said Jimmy, “We bought the guitars for amusement at first and played among ourselves.” Later, when he and Don decided to form a group they took their playing seriously and after one or two changes they arrived at their present formation.

Many Bookings

At first they had  the hard way, by going to a club and asking—and then having to give an audition. Now their booking are no trouble (they have to have turn some down) and they have appeared at clubs in Thurns Goldthorpe, Doncaster and Leeds, as well as on stage cinemas. Their latest triumph was when they appeared in “Happy Go Lucky.” a musical show at the Welfare Hall, Goldthorpe, where they were given a great ovation.

Now they are looking to bigger things. Strumming his 63 guineas guitar at his home at 35, Brunswick Street, fair haired Jimmy said, “We are hoping to have an agent soon, which will cut out all the work of giving auditions and if all things go well between now and early next year we hope to go to London to try to get an audition and make this our full time career.”

The group practice as often as shift work will allow and Jimmy has guitar lessons each week. “We don’t just play rock ‘n’ roll,” he says. “We do ballads and also some of the old songs for the people who like them.” Recently they have written their own guitar solo, but they don’t know what to call it!

Their families encourage them in playing and often go to watch them, “but they sometimes drive me mad when they are practising in the house,” said Jimmy’s sister.