Robb Storme and the Whispers

ROBB STORME & THE WHISPERS Another band from The Top Twenty’s dark, dim past. Despite some reports suggesting that they were yet another band from Birmingham, they were in fact from Hornsey, London N8 having been assembled by a guy called John F. Eddowes who acted as their mentor and general representative. The wonderfully named Robb Storme (real name - Robert Scales) released, either as a solo artist or with The Whispers, at least 10 singles during the first half of the 60’s and appears to have had more record contracts (Pye, Piccadilly, Decca, Columbia)

Apart from Mr.Storme, the only other members of the band that we know of were drummer Pete Wilson, and guitarists Kenny Street & Norman Shapiro. The latter joined as a fresh-faced 17 year-old in 1960 but by the following year had already flown the nest eventually joining Gene Vincent's backing band. Singles released include 1961's “Music” which obviously bears no relation to the awful John Miles chart-topper of the same name, a "memorable" (according to one journalist) cover version of Phil Spector’s classic tear-jerker “To Know Him Is To Love Him” for Piccadilly in January 1964, “Where Is My Girl?” from 1965, a song that bears the distinction of being ripped off by Pete Townshend and a version of The Beach Boys “Here Today” from Brian Wilson's masterpiece “Pet Sounds” which “outdoes” the original version (according to another reviewer) As for Townshend’s steal, the Chris Charlesworth book on The Who states the following; “Pete had heard “Where Is My Girl?” a little known 1965 single during a “Melody Maker” interview. That song very conveniently provided the melody during the verses of “Substitute”” In January 1963 they travelled to Germany, where they held down the obligatory residency at The Top Ten Club in Hamburg. They also appeared as the backing band for both Colin Hicks (Tommy Steele's brother - with whom they toured Italy) and in June 1963 Italian pop singer Rita Pavone, re-naming themselves The Rokes in the process. So there you have it. The band, to their credit, did make an attempt, albeit unsuccessfully, to change with the times and after a period as “The Robb Storme Group” re-emerged in 1967 as the overtly psychedelic “Orange Bicycle”. They released a few singles of which their first, “Hyacinth Threads” is also their most treasured. They performed at the Isle of Wight music festival on August 31st 1968 wearing matching black and orange suits (nice!) Significant ex-members of “Orange Bicycle” include keyboardist and Iron Maiden producer Will Malone and future Supertramp drummer Kevin Currie. As for manager John Eddowes, he eventually became the victim of the fickle world of pop business, not once but twice. Having secured the band's recording contract with Decca, his talents were almost immediately dispensed with in favour of some "professional" management, a situation that had also befallen Eddowes after he had "discovered" the singer Emile Ford at Paddington Tech. (picture kindly supplied by Dierdre Nicholls, John Eddowes sister.)ROBB STORME & THE WHISPERS - To Know Her Is To Love Her (1964) From The Top Twenty Club by  Dave Edney