Jay Spearman and the Javelins

Sent in by Chris Brooker: When Pete Smith and I turned pro in 1962 we went by the name The Javelins. We mainly played instrumentals as the change over from 'Shadows' type bands to 'vocal' bands just starting to take place. (At that time there were no portable P.A. systems and all venues had house systems which the bands had to use.) In 1962 we moved to Bolton where we stayed with my older brother who was living there. We were able to get some gigs for Danny Betesh, the manager of Freddy and the Dreamers (and later Herman's Hermits), who owned a club called the 'Three Coins' on Fountain Street in Manchester. Without enough work to support the band, he put us together with Deke Rivers (Derek Rivers I think), as Deke Rivers and the Big Three. We lived in Levenshulme, but were not particularly successful and after a couple of months, due to lack of funds and no transportation, were forced to give up playing professionally.(I couldn't keep up the payments on my Gibson bass.) While at the bus stop heading for the railway station, I was approached by Wayne Fontana, who we knew and who lived nearby. He asked me to join his band as he needed a bass player, but I had to decline, being broke.