LYNDA HARRISON - MANDY AND THE GIRLFRIENDS

DAVE WINDASS: Welcome, I’m Dave Windass and this is Reveal Hull, a Mutiny project for Visit Hull and East Yorkshire. My first interview for Reveal Hull was with Lynda Harrison, a member of Mandy and the Girlfriends back in the 1960s. This got us off to a great start with our interviews, as Lynda humorously describes what it was like to be in a ‘girl band’ in the ‘60s, including getting permission from her dad…

LYNDA HARRISON: My name is Linda Harrison and I was one of the founder members of Mandy and the Girlfriends. That would be 53, 54 years ago now, and I'm here to talk a little bit of how it all began in 1965 and how different it was for girls then.

We weren't called a band, there was no such thing as bands then, it was groups. Bands were brass bands. There was a female band, Ivy Naylor, but she had a big band. I think she had about 20 odd piece band.

So we were a group. None of us were really musicians but we had that teenager’s dream, all because all of us used to go and dance or bop to our favorite groups on a Saturday night. And obviously all boy groups, and we all wished that we'd been born boys so that we could be part of a boy group, that's true that.

It actually happened for me and my friend Karen, who was the organ player, purely by accident. Two other girls, Lesley and Hillary, they used to go to Hull's night spots and watch their bands that they loved. They were groupies actually, groupies of the time and we didn't know them at all. They had a dream like we did to be in a group, even though we couldn't, we had no talent, we couldn't play an instrument, couldn't sing that we knew of.

It happened that there was a group called Mandy and the Moon Rakers. And Mandy, she fronted the group. Hillary and Lesley, one night, collared her in the toilet of the Sombrero Club and they said to her, "Have you ever thought of having an all girl group?" and she didn't seem to respond. I think she wanted them to get out of the way, she just wanted a pee and wash her hands and they were blocking her entrance to the toilet, I think.

It was about three or four weeks after that, that there was an ad that appeared in the paper, and the ad said "female members for all female group wanted". Hillary rang the number and found out it was Mandy of Mandy and the Moon Rakers. She was a little put out by this because obviously it was her idea, well her and Lesley's idea. Lesley and Hillary got the job, but they couldn't play an instrument. I mean how ridiculous is that? We didn't know any of this, we found this out later.

They obviously met with Mandy and her family because, the group Mandy and the Moon Rakers was run by her family. Her brother played bass in the group. Their mother managed the group. They were asked to choose an instrument that they liked and go away and learn it - on the proviso that if they learned it, their instrument, they would be part of the group.

So that was that. That was Leslie and Hillary. But Karen, my friend, answered the advertisement. Now she could play a bit of piano and also she was part of a choir called the Marry Garth Singers. Now Marry had an excellent reputation. She was really really good and Karen was very good at harmonies. Karen and I used to mess about in her front room, her playing the piano - not very well. She would teach me harmonies and we would sing songs, pop songs of the time.

Karen said, I'm going to answer this ad, she was my best friend. I'm going to answer this advertisement. Why don't you? I said well for one thing I can't do anything, for a second thing my dad would never allow it. Me singing in pubs and clubs and things like that he just wouldn't. He was very authoritarian.

Karen, my best friend, she answered and she got the job. And I was absolutely crest-fallen. Mandy comes around to Karen's house and they rehearse so I go around and I keep time. I've always been good at keeping time. So I kept time, playing the tambourine. Because Karen had taught me harmonies so well, I would just throw in a few harmonies to the songs and that was that. I just used to go to the rehearsals because I was Karen's best friend. Because Mandy and the Moon Rakers had disbanded until they could join up with Hilary and Lesley it was suggested that Mandy go into the clubs with Karen backing her on piano and doing backing vocals as well. This would earn them some money while they were waiting for Hilary and Lesley to learn their instruments.

What happened next was that Mrs Smith (Mrs Smith is Mandy's mother) Mandy was called Mandy Smith. Mandy's mother, she was the manager of the group. She came round to Karen's one afternoon with Mandy. She said this is what I've decided to do.

You and Linda and Mandy can go on in the clubs. Nowadays we see it on the road. So then you can actually be called a girl group because there's three of you and that will, you know, set the scene for when Hilary and Lesley have learned their instruments and can join you. I said I can't because, my dad won't let me - and Mrs Smith said it'll be alright, and I said no he won't let me, he absolutely will not let me. This would have been a Wednesday.

Karen was a dental receptionist and she had Wednesday afternoons off. So Mandy would go around on a Wednesday afternoon, so this would have been Wednesday afternoon. On the Friday, I was a hairdresser. We all worked in shops, we were all shop workers. I got home from work. We worked until late that night.

I got home about eight o'clock and I lived in Gypsyville then. I went into the kitchen as I always did and I could hear somebody talking to my dad. I looked through the crack in the kitchen door and it was Mrs Smith, Mandy's mum, the manager of the group. She had a turban on and no teeth in, and my dad hated that, hated women to look like that, you know women had to look presentable.

I thought, how the Hell has she got across the threshold? And how is she talking to my dad? Anyway I listened for a bit and I could hear my name being mentioned, and I took a deep breath, did the sign of the cross and I walked in.

My dad said it looks like you'd better go upstairs and get changed, it looks like you're singing at The Bar Room pub tonight. So I didn't wait, I ran up the stairs two by two and thought this isn't happening, honestly that's what I thought, I just thought this isn't happening I must be dreaming.

Anyhow later in Mrs Smith's van, she was taking me to the Bar Room now she drove a van because she had a florist's business during the day. In those days women did not have, in our community, their own small businesses. They didn't drive and had their own vehicle. Maybe that was what impressed my dad - I don't know.

She changed all of our lives, and driving there I said to her what did you say? She said it was alright, as if what I told her about him was all wrong. I wondered afterwards if it was the fact that his daughter would be on some sort of a stage albeit in a pub or a club, and he was alright with that. 1965 you know as you can imagine.

I think it was a couple of years after that that Lillian Balocca raised her then… I mean I have great admiration for her but you know I mean in our house because my dad worked on the docks he thought she was dreadful. She shouldn't have been doing what she was doing.

Men said she should be at home looking after the family. What’s she doing fighting for these rights that have nothing to do with women, what's it got to do with women?

Politically that's what was going on at that sort of time, but we didn't take an interest in that we were young teenage girls so it didn't rub off on us. I think then, men ruled the roost in the homes. So when you went out of your house you took those beliefs with you naturally because you didn't know any difference. So when we heard of a woman activist you know, it was - what is she doing? she should not be doing that?

I mean the clubs where we worked, although we didn't drink we were too young to drink but we did want an orange juice or a lemonade or something we couldn't even go to the bar and buy that. Because there would be men-only bars in the clubs then.

Dennis, who was Mandy's brother drove us about, he would have to go and buy our drinks for us. We just weren't allowed to go into the men's bar. We were all 16, all of us. We did about 15 to 20 minute spot that was our launch at the Bar Room. I only remember one song that we sang and in those days they had comperes and everything. We sang ‘Trains and Boats and Planes’ - Burt Bacharach, because Karen and I had got the harmonies bang on for that. Mandy sang lead of course, so that's how I remember singing that sounded really nice.

But I remember it was light nights, and the curtains were open so the concert room wasn't in darkness and I just stared out the window the whole time. I couldn't look at anybody in the audience. When we'd finished we got a great accolade, and I remember the compere was called Kenny Nicholls. He’s still about now. Brilliant singer and brilliant brilliant voice and I remember him saying to me - you can sing you you should sing more.

And that was the beginning. Well I didn't believe it, I mean I just didn't. To me I was on the stage. I remember him saying that, but the thing that mattered to me more was that I was standing on a stage. I remember afterwards thinking, I've got to come to terms with this, I've got to look at the audience, you know I've got to engage with them.

That was our launch but you couldn't then work in the Hull clubs or the region’s clubs if you weren't in the Variety Artists Association. So we had to go and audition at the Embassy Club on Holderness Road. They had their audition nights on a Wednesday once a month. So the three of us went to do that. Now when the other two joined us eventually, which we didn't know when that would be, we would have to do it, the five of us again. Because you registered as how many of you there are. So anyway, the three of us went in for the VA audition. We had outfits made and my mam and dad came to see us. My dad wasn't he wasn't tactile or expressive or emotional. He wasn't like that, he was very authoritarian as I said earlier. But I could tell he was really really proud! So I'd done something good. We just went really well. So we bonded. We were three girls, all the concert secretaries you used to go. If you passed the audition and the concert secretaries liked you, the chances are that they would book you for their club. So afterwards there was a queue of about 20 to 30 concert secretaries waiting to book us - that was after our audition. So we actually were never ever short of work.

There were three of us I would say for about maybe four months, and then Lesley and Hillary joined us and then we were a proper group of five of us. We used to travel, we obviously did all of the Hull clubs and our region as well you know far flung places Scunthorpe, Sheffield Doncaster, Rotherham. There was a circuit then that all the groups did. So on a Sunday when you did a double - that was a noon and night - you would meet another group or groups in the afternoon and maybe go for a Chinese or something before you went to your booking in the evening.

We were never short of work, and we maybe got one night off a week. Honestly because we were in demand - but we were a novelty. I hate to say it, but I've got to tell the truth. I mean we just weren't that brilliant - but we were a novelty. There wasn't anybody else in the whole country.

I mean I've found this out since there were only two other all girl groups at that time that's in the 60’s. There was one from Liverpool which you can understand where the Beatles came from. And there was one in London as well. We used to go to City Hall. Karen and me idolised a group called the Tycoons who used to play on a Saturday.

I mean there was just loads of groups Johnny Patton and the Aces. John was about - I've known John for years and years.The Beatles I went to see, I was at school I was still at school and I went to see the Beatles at the ABC Theatre.

I went to Thoresby High School for girls which is actually where I met Karen, that's where we became best friends. Our form teacher, Mrs. Robinson, we said, we're going at lunchtime to get some tickets for the Beatles. she said you're not. We said we are and she said I'll go for you.

She went on her bike and she queued to get us tickets. She didn't want us to go in case we had to queue for ages. So she went, Mrs. Robinson got our tickets.

So I went to see the Beatles, it was absolutely amazing just to be in the same environment as the Beatles. Of course I was gonna marry Paul. I don't know what happened but he did marry a Linda! Amazing to be in the same room as the Beatles and amazing because you couldn't hear a thing not a thing. Everybody was screaming, so in fact that's why they stopped touring. Because they couldn't stand it, nobody was listening to them, everybody it was just girls screaming!

We were just living the dream. We were put down by our contemporaries, male contemporaries they did call us a novelty because we weren't musicians who were destined to become part of a group. We were like purely accidental. I don't think our vocals were bad, but Hillary and she wouldn't mind me saying this. I promise you she was still friends to this day, she wanted to be a drummer, why the hell I don't know because she couldn't keep time. And on all of our recordings you can tell, she wouldn't mind me saying, we did songs that the Supremes did.

It was mostly the American girl vocal groups, we did the Chiffons, the Shirelles - Needle in a Haystack. We did attempt Midnight Hour very badly. Be my baby I think that was by the Ronettes. Spector type songs but not with the wall of sound. Ours was more ‘a fence!’

I left, well I got the sack after about nine months. We did a recording. I think with all five of us.It was called an EP - an extended player which contained four songs. Two songs on each side of the vinyl record.

We did that at Fairview Studios, which then was at Great Gutter Lane in Willoughby. We recorded that this opportunity had been given. I got too big for my boots, I think people honestly were saying why don't you sing more, you know instead of doing the backing vocals.

There was a guy called Basil Kirchin, who broached Mandy and the girlfriends. He'd written a song he asked Mandy and I to sing - he just played a tune and we sang it. He said that my voice suited his song better than Mandy's but not really to put her nose out of joint he said, but remember there will be a B side to this record so if Mandy would like to sing the B side…

But that was really the beginning of the end for me, because of him choosing me. They made my life quite difficult - they were talking behind my back and even Dennis Smith did say it's our equipment she uses - they're using our facilities and everything.

So we went ahead and I would rehearse with Basil through the night because I was working all day till we got this song right and then we were due to record it, but they made my life so difficult and miserable. The day we were supposed to be recording it I said I wasn't going to do it. So the shit hit the fan then - it was just dreadful. I was treated even worse - I just didn't want to do it.

I was so upset, but that could have been massive for me. About a year later I was sitting in studio seven which was a cinema in Sheffield. At night time we'd gone to see the group and I had gone to see a film called the Shuttered Room. When the credits came up it said score by Basil Kirchin. I said my God, that guy! I didn't know that guy wrote a song for me and I never recorded it. So talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

Karen's my best friend, she was an organist you know - you got an organist you've got a start. So I talked to the others about forming our own group. What a ridiculous idea! I didn't know the fact you need a van, you need the gear, the PA. What a ridiculous idea. But I thought if I had them on my side there's the support that I needed because we were chaperoned by Mrs Smith. But by now we were heading towards 17. I think, I'm not sure, but I think we would have still needed a manager that was in their 20s or 30s. We’d need somebody to drive the van as well. So we talked about all this. I gave the Smiths who controlled everything that we did, but I understand that because we were young we used to get male fans. And we got told off for being caught snogging you know in the dressing room!

So I gave the Smiths, Mandy's family enough rope to hang me with. So I did it myself and one day - I lived in Gypsyville on Hessle Road on the front - and one Sunday I saw the van go traveling past my window and I knew they were going on a booking. I knew it. I told my mam and she said ‘No they're not no’ But I said ‘but they are because that's the way you went’

The next day I went to work and my mam said I'll go to Karen's mom, Ivy I'll go see Ivy see what she said. When I got back home that night they'd gone on a booking. So I knew that was it. I didn't get any formal notice - I didn't get any notice, and I was devastated. That was the end of the dream - the end of the dream.

Then a week later, a guy called Phil Parkman rang me, he was the manager of a boy group called the Sky Sounds. They had sax as well. They had a male singer fronting the group but they wanted a female one for a change. To cut a long story short I got the job with them and then I found out after I'd got the job that it was Mrs Smith who had recommended me to them.

She felt, probably she needed to do that to make amends. So I joined the Sky Sounds. I was with the Sky Sounds for about two years. It was a bad car crash that killed our bass player that ended my time with them which was really sad. But the Sky Sounds had bookings for the next year because they were so popular. They didn't work a lot in Hull, worked mostly Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham around there.

But then Opportunity Knocks came up that year that I joined them, and when I went to the auditions Mandy and the Girlfriends were there and we were there auditioning. I still missed them when I saw them. I still missed them and I think I didn't get over the fact that my best friend, who I trusted, had betrayed me really. But I've forgiven her and we're still friends now.

She was following her dream. 1967 I think it was, we recorded a song that was rubbish as well! We went down to London to record it. I think it took us eight hours to get to London. Because you know you have to go through Newport, Gilberdyke and all that before you join the motorway.

We were in the studio about - half an hour - well maybe an hour. The song was called Two-Timer and it was played on Radio Caroline which was a big thing at the time. That was interesting. So we're all sitting around my dad's little Dansette radio - we knew we were gonna be on at half past five on a Sunday night. I think it was David Hamilton that introduced our song.

So we sold a few, well I don't know how many we sold, but it was in the Radio Caroline charts. I worked at The Locarno with Jean Mayo. After that I joined a group called Quadrant and we did jazz. I love jazz - that's what I love, swing and I can sing that. We worked for McLeod Holden then. McLeod Holden were the biggest bookers in our region, and we did some good gigs. We worked with lots of named acts Chris Farlowe, we worked with Stevie Winwood, P.P. Arnold David Whitfield, Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd and many more.

The Peddlers brilliant band. I love the Peddlers. Do you remember the Peddlers? Google them the Peddlers brilliant jazz band. I met my brother-in-law who I introduced to my sister. He wasn't my brother-in-law then but he is now they've been married for 45 years. Pete Green - great guitarist, great jazz guitar.

So after the Quadrant who did I join then? maybe something happened in my life like having a baby or something. I think it actually did because that would be 69. I had my first illegitimate child then. There was to be one more - it's true that I don't have any secrets because I always think you get found out so I don't care. That's when I met Howard. I sang at a club called the Phoenix Club which was on Brandsholme. The Phoenix Club was actually built when the Brandsholme estate was built.

It was a beautiful club, I’ve never seen anything like it. They used to have great acts on so you know the budget was good because the people supported it readily. That's where I met Howard. I met Howard there, my husband to be then.

So I did sing at the Phoenix on my own with the resident band there. Then a band came - I don't know if it was Johnny Patts band and the drummer was called Howard Birkitt. I'd never heard his name. I knew all the muso’s in Hull. Anyway it turned out to be a young lad because he sounded like an old man to me Howard Birkitt!

I met him and we ended up working together at Tiffany's in a band called Rhyme and Reason. The band leader was called Ted Pool. So we worked six nights - it was six nights we only got Monday off. It was hard work.

Howard and I bought a hairdresser's shop. We never let the grass grow! We bought a hairdresser's shop - hairdressing during the day - singing at night. It was hard, you did perform three times three 45 minute spots during the night - and just got Monday nights off.

My first experience like I mentioned, was me looking out of the window and I knew I had to get over that if I wanted to carry on in this business. So what does it feel like even now - you never lose that fear ever. I've met people who say I don't have nerves - it doesn't bother me. Well I find that so hard to believe.

The truth of the matter is, a lot of people think because you're up on stage you're a confident person. I am the least confident person. But I can pretend that I'm confident and I think I've learned how to do that pretty well. But I'm not - I'm always the worst at whatever I'm doing. I always could have done it better.

I think when you say, what's it feel like to be up there? What does feel good is the response you get from an audience, that's what makes you feel good. If you say something that's funny and they laugh at it, that's wonderful. If you get a really good, if you get an ovation that's the best thing! Not a sitting one a standing one's much better - if you get one of those I mean you're on cloud nine!

How you feel when you're up there you've mixed emotions. I think the worst thing which I found through experience is you have to get rid of that self awareness to be self aware on a stage is dreadful. You've got to be a character I think, you've got to pretend that you're not you, that you're somebody else.

I love music, I love all music, yes I do. You know when you hear about somebody who's come from Hull. And like with Johnny Cambridge, did I mentioned that he was my boyfriend when I was young - when I was 15 actually. When you hear of Hull on the map through music it makes you feel good, so it probably hasn't been represented that well because why would it?

I don't suppose people in Liverpool feel like that because it happens all the time. So yeah we've probably been underestimated under reported about music definitely.

We had a reunion with the Girlfriends in May 2022. We did all night and we sold out at the comedy club in Hull. We had about 150 people in but we said it was our last one. Our lead guitarist who came later, Maggie because we all became friends. The two girls that joined after Karen and I left were Maggie and Merle. Through the years we all became friends and we're still friends now.

Sadly Maggie died in 2019 so you know it makes you aware of how much time you have got to keep doing these reunions. Hillary the drummer who can't keep time, she's all ‘let's do another one Linda let's do another’

Well I do organize them because I'm here in Hull. So I organise them and it's hard work as you know it's hard work organising it. You just don't know if you organise it in six months time if everybody's gonna be here - so there is that aspect to it which is sad.

But you've got to be practical haven't you? We had our parents that had been in the war and they were still dragging along. They didn't have a name for it then, what is it PTSD? They're still suffering that we knew, we were born in post World War two.

I mean the 60s that changed for everybody. Didn’t they say the 60s changed life for most people. I think I've written in an article or something that we sort of emerged from a grey era into a technicolour one - we did, so we embraced it. And at 16 what should you have to worry about anyway?

You know, not what was going on politically or it's just in hindsight that you look back and you see how repressed women were. So yes, we did, you know. I must sort of fly the flag for that. But it was all down to Mrs Smith. She's actually done it before us because she was running her own business driving her own vehicle - and she had ambition for her own daughter. Mrs Smith - she was the matriarch but she changed my life - she changed all our lives and all the girls will tell you that.

You know she gave us the opportunity to actually live a dream. I doubt wholeheartedly whether I'd have carried on entering this business of my own volition. So the 60’s was a turning point in my life. At a turning point in a teenager's life anyway you know. 16 years old you don't know what you're gonna do career-wise and it's an odd time isn't it?

So yeah she actually entered my life at the right time.

DAVE WINDASS: Many thanks to Lynda Harrison for this brilliant interview. If you enjoyed this, try another cassette from the box and tell your friends to have a listen. If you are out and about in Hull, you can take the Diamond Life sound walk around the Old Town. It takes about 1 hour and needs only a pair of headphones and a full battery on your phone. The starting point is Queen Victoria Square where you will find the orange signs.

Lynda Harrsion was interviewed by Dave Windass, April 2024, for Reveal Hull
Reveal Hull is a Mutiny project for Visit Hull and East Yorkshire.