THIS group of likely lads is the Gosport based skiffle band Ron Coe and the Coe-horts pictured here in 1959.
Guitarists Don Laming, on the left, now lives in Sheffield, but he wonders what happened to the rest of the band?
Don wrote to say: 'For a short time at the end of the 1950s, skiffle was the main feature of the pop scene - not only Lonnie Donegan but such bands as The Vipers.
The other members of the band were dockyard apprentices and Ron, centre, was the lead singer.
We gained experience by singing at local venues. We had a distinctive dress and earned, I believe, about 10 shillings (50p) a performance.
The high point of our brief musical time together was competing in the All England Skiffle Contest.
We reached the semi-finals, held in the Mecca Ballroom, Oxford Street, London.
We practised diligently a song called The Wabash Cannonball confident of success.
However, we were shattered when at the audition, the show's compere said we couldn't perform that number because he himself was scheduled to perform it.
'We were compelled to choose another entry at short notice and we didn't win.'
Apart from Don and Ron the other lads were: Bernard Jones (washboard), Alan Munn (string bass) and Roger Meakin (percussion), pictured here playing a sieve.
Don says the band did make a record.
One track was a song entitled Three Miles from
Home written by Ron himself.
The other side was a spiritual Where Could I Go But
to the Lord?
'I wonder, if anybody has this record?'
Ron Coe and the CoehortsGosport skiffle group Ron Coe and the Coe-Horts in action in 1959. Guitarist Don Laming, on the left, now lives in Sheffield, but he wonders what happened to the rest of the band? Don said: 'We gained experience by singing at local venues.
We had a distinctive dress and earned, I believe, about 10 shillings (50p) a performance.' Well, if you were one of the lads or indeed know of their whereabouts, please let me know. Thanks go to John Morgan for the picture.
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