Johnny Dark and the Stormy Knights

My name is Frankie Tute,I was a wythenshawe lad that became the lead singer for the Stormy Knights to be known as Johnny Dark.The group were mainly from Moss Side.Peter Breddy lead guitar,Ian Murray Rhythm guitar,Bob Law on bass and Stan Rutter on drums,it was 1963.The musos were originally a group called ''the Hilos'' who only played instrumentals like Perfidia,Apache and the like,no lead singer.I had been something of a hacker around the pubs in and around Wythenshawe along with my mates we all liked to do a 'turn'.I had had experience in my schooldays of being in a ''group''.I formed one at my old school Baguely Hall for a christmas party and leaving school event.I had been a member of the school choir that sang in the Manchester Cathedral at one stage.I knew I could sing. My very first audition with the Then ''Hilos'' was looking like a disaster,they could not find the right key that I could sing in plus their naivety of never having to play for a singer.But it did happen by way of one little song ''Do you wanna dance''a Cliff Richard song.It took many hours and a lot of patience,especially from Ian the rythm guitarist who kept the faith and belief I was their man. We worked hard at rehearsals,in fact we were building up our own little following in Normanby street Moss Side.All the kids would gather around on our nights of practise and we would put on a show for them,happy times. Though we never made it into the higher echelons of the rock scene I do like to think we made an impression.We were a cover group but with a difference.We did a couple of songs no one else ever thought of doing like Granada and even more obscure ''If you were the only girl in the world'' which we messed around with a bit,it became one of our most requested songs. Like all of the other groups going around at that time we played every club in Wythenshawe we played most of the big clubs in Manchester,the Oasis,The twisted wheel,The railway club.We had a regular gig at the Spiders Web,we also had gigs at all the Moss Side clubs,Labour,British Legion,conservative all of them,we had pride in ourselves as a group for we were alway invited back.We played the Locarno ballroom in all our new regalia as Johnny Dark and the Stormy Knights,The ''New Romantic'' era was not to start for another twenty years but if anyone out there had seen Johnny Dark and the Stormy Knights back then they would have seen a group dressed in tight fitting corduroy pants,full leather suede boots with the pirate looking overhang and full lace up,frilly fronted white shirts with a leatherette sleeveless top that was waisted and knee length,you tell me!did we start it or what?.