The live music sessions at the Beverley Rocks Motel contained an amazing melting pot of talent. I have been living in the UK since 1981 and, in all that time, I have never once discovered anything remotely approaching the Beverley Rocks scene for spread and depth of musical styles. Those like Clem (Tholet) who ran it were fantastic as they encouraged all-comers – not just the good ones. Many people, like me, cut their performing teeth on Sunday nights at Beverley Rocks. The atmosphere was incredible, too during the war years and the place just buzzed. I can still see and feel those occasions when Paddy and I – and others – would quickly rehearse outside the room near the huge granite boulders, before going on stage. Bruce Pentreath and his wife, Janelle, myself and my sister, Debs, got together and did many numbers together. Our favourite was James Taylor’s “Carolina On My Mind” – imagine what a buzz it was for me in 1998, 20 years later, to organise a James Taylor open air concert in Tatton, Cheshire!
Some of the many talented people I remember from those days and whom I had the pleasure of performing with include:
Clem Tholet
Paddy Rocks
Ray & Les Griffin
Dave Walmsley
Bruce & Janelle Pentreath
Stu Dawson
Dave Wendon
Sol Levy
Sheila Taylor
Iris Jones
Colin Shamley (from the RSA)
Daphne Figenschou
The Beverley Rocks folk scene has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/427226850697814/
~ Julian Pellatt