The Tornados (The Tornadoes in North America) were an English instrumental rock group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the UK and US No. 1 "Telstar" (named after the satellite and composed and produced by Meek), the first US No. 1 single by a British group. Today Dave Watts has his own version.
The Tornados were formed in 1961 as a session band for Joe Meek, although the name did not come until early 1962. In 1961 they provided the instrumentals for the film short The Johnny Leyton Touch, including a jazzed up version of "Taboo", originally by Margarita Lecuona. From January 1962 to August 1963, The Tornados were the backing band for Billy Fury (as well as recording and performing as an act in their own right); they toured and recorded with Fury as The Tornados. Their recordings with Fury were produced by Mike Smith and Ivor Raymonde.
The Tornados made a scopitone film (an early form of music video) for "Telstar" and another for their chart hit "Robot" featuring members of the group walking around a woodland dressed in appropriate headgear with their guitars, flirting with various young women and being finally arrested by policemen after lighting a campfire.
For a time The Tornados were considered serious rivals to The Shadows. The Tornados' single "Globetrotter" made it to #5 in the UK Singles Chart. However, pop instrumentals began to lose a following with the British audience during 1963 as the "Mersey Sound", from the Beatles and other groups, began to take root. In the summer of 1963, Joe Meek induced The Tornados' bassist Heinz Burt to start a solo career, as The Tornados' chart success as an instrumental outfit waned, and from that point onwards The Tornados began to fall apart. By 1965 none of the original line-up remained.
On some promotional items, later line-ups were credited as "Tornados '65" and "The New Tornados", but these names were never used on The Tornados' releases. In the mid-1960s The Tornados backed Billy Fury again, with Dave Watts on keyboards, Robby Gale on guitar and John Davies on drums. In 1968, in Israel to perform in Mandy Rice-Davies' night club "Mandys", the band stayed for a ten-week tour after which they disbanded, leaving Watts and Huxley in Israel, playing with The Lions of Judea and The Churchills, respectively.
Links to Peel[]
Peel probably more likely to have first heard of the Tornados when he was living in America during the early-mid 60's. Interestingly many of the Tornadoes music played on Peel's programmes in the UK came from the 1990's. According to available tracklistings on this site, Peel didn't seem to play any of the Tornados material between the 1960's and 1980's. Some of the Tornados music appeared on radio documentaries narrated by Peel himself.
David Hayler played Peel in the 2008 film, Telstar: The Joe Meek Story (a portrait of Joe Meek, who was heavily involved with the Tornados), as a journalist for the NME set in 1963. In reality Peel was not a journalist and was in fact working in America during the early-mid 60's as a radio broadcaster and used his original surname Ravenscroft, rather than Peel, as portrayed in the film.
Shows Played[]
- Staying Single: Telstar
- 1993
- 20 November 1993: PopEye Twist (album - Castle Masters Collection) Castle Communications
- 1996
- Beam Me Up, Scotty: Telstar / Life On Venus
- 1998
- 28 April 1998: Stingray (CD - Archive Series ) Rialto
- 07 May 1998: Dragonfly (album - Archive Series) Rialto
- 2000
- 18 April 2000: Swinging Beefeater (LP - The Original Telstar - The Sounds Of The Tornadoes) London