GENTLEMEN

Circa: 1965
Home town: Salisbury
Members:

• Barry Stevenson – Lead vocals
• Pat Burke – Lead guitar

• Grahame Wright – Rhythm guitar
• Peter Wright – Bass guitar
• Dennis Jones – Drums

Subsequent personnel changes:

• Tony Winhall – Lead guitar
• John Hodgkinson – Lead guitar
• Pete Bailey – Rhythm guitar
• Clive Kluckow – Drums

 

THE GENTLEMEN were founded in early 1965 by Pat Burke and Barry Stevenson who had recently departed the ranks of Barry Taylor’s band, the INDIGOES. In the search for additional members, Graham and Pete Wright, together with Dennis Jones, were recruited. They had been members of a rock band competition winning band in Zambia, the FORTUNES. The Gentlemen’s first gig, arranged thanks to Graham Wright who worked for Radio Limited, was on the company’s stand at the Salisbury Show. They played an hour long gig each lunchtime during the Show’s season. The Gentlemen very quickly established themselves on the local scene, being placed second in the Rhodesian Rock Band Competition staged at Glamis Stadium just eight days after the trio from Zambia had joined! At the end of 1965, Pat Burke left the group to pursue a classical guitar career and his place as lead guitarist was taken by Tony Winhall who tragically died of cancer a few months later. For five years the band dominated the Saturday lunchtime and Sunday night scenes, initially at La Boheme, before moving over to Brett’s Night Club where they continued to ply their trade.

 

 

 

The Gentlemen staged a reunion in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in the United Kingdom in November, 2012.  Whilst not all the original members were available, many were.  The line-up which played that day was:

• Dennis Jones – Drums
• Pete Baillie – Guitar
• Digby Baillie – Vocals and guitar
• John Hodgkinson – Lead guitar
• Ernie Mindrey, formerly of the Executives and Holy Black, joined on bass.

The You Tube link of this historic gathering is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HAqxOltDUM

Sadly, Digby Baillie who had toured Zimbabwe with Themme Thyngs in September, 2012, passed away in January, 2013, after a long illness.   The video of the Gentlemen playing ‘Proud Mary’ was his last stage act.