JANET and the THREE SPIRES
circa 1964
Line up: Janet Wale – Lead singer. Roy Wale – guitar, Cliff Emms rhythm guitar Keith Frost – Drums
From Broadgate Gnome and Pete Chambers Godiva Rocked to a Backbeat.
Based in Bedworth and Nuneaton. From October 1963 to April 1964 – 6 months they had an amazing 38 bookings. Gigs included the Tollbar in Coventry – an all male audience.
Janet and Spires keep it in the family;
BACKBEAT: 1963: BECAUSE THEY DON’T MAKE MUSIC LIKE THEY USED TO!
Pete Chambers – Backbeat Cov Telegraph
IN the early 60s Warwickshire, like the rest of the country, was waking up to pop music, most bands towed the line and allied themselves to various booking agents and promoters. Bedworth and Nuneaton-based Janet and the Three Spires, however, stayed independent, running the whole thing like a family business not an easy path for a young group to take. PETE CHAMBERS investigates.
IT’S no surprise that the group was run as a family business when you realise that’s what it indeed was.
The lead singer was Janet Wale. There was her brother Roy Wale on guitar, their cousin Cliff Emms played rhythm guitar and Keith Frost (who was no relation to the others) played the drums.
With an age span of 14 to 20 they were about to make a big impact on those early concerts of the 60s.
Keith Frost explains, “I joined the group in 1963, it was the most brilliant time, playing at all those venues, we had so many bookings.
“You see this is how successful we were as an independent group, keeping away from promoters and agents. It was just a family-run outfit.”
Janet was very much the focal and vocal point of the band. Attractive, blue-eyed and blonde, she stood out from the crowd. While Cliff was apparently speedway mad and a 16-year-old apprentice hairdresser based in the Stoke area of Coventry.
Although they became based in Bedworth and Nuneaton they called themselves Janet and the Three Spires because of their connections with Coventry from where they all originally came.
From October 1963 to April 1964, a time span of just six months, they had an amazing 38 bookings.
Places such as The New Inn, Longford, The Hare and Hounds, Keresley, The Barras Green WMC and Woodlands WMC in Bedworth were all covered.
Their parents played a big part in their success, with all the bookings being handled by Cliff’s mother Millie Emms. She also made certain that she travelled along with them on all their dates. Not a bad idea for a group so young.
She believed that the band’s success was down to their ability to adapt to different audiences wherever they played.
One of the most memorable gigs was at The Tollbar in Coventry. “We were playing to an all-male audience,” Keith says. “They absolutely loved us. When we came out though, it got really frightening, they mobbed our van, banging on the roof and windows and nearly tipped it over.
“For a moment we knew how the Beatles felt, and what it was like to be that popular.”
The band became so popular, in fact, that a group of fans began to organise a petition in the hope of getting them a spot on ITV’s For Teenagers Only, a TV show based in Birmingham.
History tells us it never happened, but like many bands of the time they had a true belief in themselves and their dream was to write that elusive hit and establish themselves as a top pop group in the area.
Keith left the band after just six months, with “musical differences” being the main factor.
“It was hard being the only non-family member of the group,” admits Keith. “Sometimes you felt you didn’t fit in, but I loved those days, and I wouldn’t have missed them for the world”.
The band continued for a while, Janet went on to have a high-profile wedding when she married fellow musician Malcolm Watts who was with the Stringbeats and had previously been a member of Tony Martin’s Echo Four.
The press covered the day with a photo of the happy couple in a guitar guard of honour pose.
The couple would eventually move to Australia, as did her brother Roy who became a hotel manager there.
As for Keith well he had this to say: “When I left I toyed with the idea of forming a band, I recruited Colin Armstrong in on guitar, but it never happened.
“Though I’m glad I was part of Janet and the Three Spires, I would recommend any youngster have a go at it. You never know until you try”.
Music is still important to Keith, but in a slightly different way. He collects antique gramophones and by all accounts has quite a collection.
.jpg)
.jpg)
