By Nick Warburton
West London R&B band Jeff Curtis & The Flames were regulars at the famous Ealing Club in the early 1960s where they rubbed shoulders with the nascent Rolling Stones. After recording unsuccessfully for Joe Meek on several occasions and briefly backing Johnny Kidd, they ultimately morphed in The Kool in 1967.
Jeff Curtis & The Flames, late 1964/early 1965, left to right: Louis McKelvey, Jeff Curtis, Dave Wiggington, Pete Burt (drums), Jeff Lake and Malcolm Tagg-Randall (soon to be replaced by George Russell)
Individual members later toured and played in such far flung places as Germany, Italy, Romania, Sweden, South Africa, Canada and the United States and worked with such notable bands as The A-Cads, Influence, The Penny Peeps, Manchester’s Playboys, Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and The Army.
In the second part of an exhaustive history, Nick Warburton tells the story of one of the UK’s long forgotten bands:
