Tony Meehan the second of five children, was born in New End Hospital Hampstead on 2
March 1943 and he grew up in West Hampstead. His father Daniel Meehan was born
in Tipperary, and his mother Mary (May) Donnelly was from Carlingford Lough.
They came to London and were living at 142 Iverson Road in West Hampstead when
a V2 rocket landed at 4pm on 8 Jan 1945 behind No.114.
The huge explosion resulted in
four deaths and 64 people went to hospital. The Ham and High has a story about
the incident:
The rocket badly damaged
152 houses and caused minor damage to about 1,600. The
Meehans’ house was one of those damaged but not destroyed. John their oldest
son, suffered a wound from the blast and they had moved to No.1 Cavendish
Mansions in Mill Lane by 1948. At this time Tony went to Beckford School, and joined the local Hampstead Scouts.
 |
| Tony in the 11th Hampstead Scouts |
Next, the family moved
to the newly built Sidney Boyd Court council flats further down West End Lane and
they were at Flat 18 by 1952. Tony transferred to Kingsgate primary school
which is where Dick Weindling met him. School friends remember Tony as a quiet
thoughtful boy, who was always drumming on things, such as the dustbins outside
the school. After two years in Kingsgate Juniors Tony moved to Regents Park
Central School in Lisson Grove, which is now Gateway Academy.
 |
| A young Tony with his drum kit |
He got his first drum
kit from Blanks music store on the Kilburn High Road. Tony began drumming in
bands and playing at pubs in Kilburn, Willesden and Paddington. He also played
semi-professionally in Irish clubs, such as Shannon’s in Belsize Road. Tony left
secondary school early and became a professional musician at 15. He was earning
around £10 a week (worth about £230 today), playing in the house band at the
2i’s coffee bar in Old Compton Street Soho and with the skiffle group The
Vipers. He was also the drummer with the popular Vince Taylor and the Playboys.
In the summer of 1958 Tony
asked if he could sit in with Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Jet Harris when they
were playing at the 2i’s. They were impressed by Tony’s drumming and he joined
them. This group, which did not have a name, played there for several weeks. Then
Jet and Tony joined Wally Whyton and the Vipers on tour and recorded ‘Summertime
Blues’ with George Martin at Abbey Road.
In October 1958, Hank
and Bruce who were school friends from Chester-le- Street County Durham, joined
Cliff Richard’s band The Drifters on tour. His record ‘Move It’, was written by
guitarist Ian Samwell on top of a bus, and recorded at EMI studios on 2 July
1958, with producer Norrie Paramor. It was released on Columbia Records on 29
Aug 1958 and reached number 2 in the charts.
Cliff asked Jet to join
the band soon after they began the tour. Jet recommended that Tony should
replace drummer Terry Smart who left the band, and the classic line up of Hank,
Bruce, Jet and Tony played with Cliff in January 1959 at the Free Trade Hall in
Manchester. The show was compered by a young Liverpool comedian called Jimmy
Tarbuck. Tony was so anxious to please that he knocked over his drum kit and
had to keep up a steady rhythm with one hand while he picked up the cymbals and
drums with the other. After finding out there was an existing American band
called The Drifters, they changed their name to The Shadows.
There is another West
Hampstead link as Bruce Welch visited Dennington Park Road when he was seeing
Olivia Newton John who lived in a top floor flat at number 9 about 1965.
Personal life
In 1960, while he was with The Shadows, Tony married Bridget
De Mare by license at the Hampstead Registry Office. They were both 17. His
address at the time was 51 Southview Avenue Neasden NW10. Tony’s father Daniel
is shown as a garment worker. Bridget lived at 13 Netherhall Gardens NW3. She
was born in Wells Somerset in July 1942, the daughter of Patrick De Mare. He
lived in Netherhall Gardens and then Redington Road Hampstead. During the War, Pat
worked as a psychiatrist at Northfield Hospital in Birmingham with soldiers
suffering with psychiatric problems such as shellshock or battle trauma, now
called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). After the War he was a consultant
at St George’s Hospital and became a leading authority on group psychotherapy.
He had a love of music and played his accordion at bars and cafés in Hampstead.
He died in Febuary 2008 and the Camden New Journal obit is here:
Tony and Bridget had
five children: Kieron born in 1960, Katherine b.1963, Declan b.1964, Shane b.1965,
and Siobhan b.1967.
 |
| Cliff and The Shadows at the beach. Tony in the front, with baby Kieron at the back held by his mother Bridget. |
In January 1962 Tony and
Bridget were living at 7 Frognal. Andrew Oldham the Rolling Stones manager also
lived in Frognal and was a friend of Tony’s. By 1965 Tony and Bridget were
living at 65 The Vale NW11, off the Hendon Way near Child’s Hill Park. Kieron
says this is where the family grew up.
Tony and Bridget
separated about 1971/2, and in 1980 Tony secondly married Suellen (Sue), the
daughter of Australian actor Ray Barrett and had a second family with two sons,
Ruari, and Lorcan.
Tony was with Cliff and
The Shadows until the end of September 1961. There are various versions of why
he left. Bruce Welch said Tony had a lackadaisical attitude and kept the band
waiting while he stayed in bed in the mornings. In an article for the New
Musical Express on 13 October 1961 Tony said he left because he did not want to
tour so much, and wanted to develop his musical knowledge by studying
arrangements and different types of music.
Tony briefly worked with
Joe Meek at his studio 304 Holloway Road, before he joined Decca as a junior
producer. They were delighted when he joined the company believing he would
bring a fresh young view of music. On 1 January 1962 he was at the now infamous audition in
Broadhurst Gardens when Decca turned down the Beatles. He showed them into
Studio 2 as Mike Smith the producer, had been delayed by snow. But Tony was not
involved in the recording session. Dick Rowe, the head of Decca A&R, later
suggested to Brian Epstein that Tony Meehan could record them for £100, but
Epstein declined the offer. After several companies turned down the Beatles
based on hearing their Decca audition tapes, they were eventually signed by
George Martin at EMI.
 |
| Tony Meehan in Decca Studio One. |
On 9 January 1962, very
soon after the Beatles audition, Dick Rowe took Tony and Bridget by plane to
New York on a prestigious business trip.
In November 1962 Tony worked with his friend Jet Harris who
had left The Shadows earlier in April, and they recorded the instrumental
‘Diamonds’ written by Jerry Lordan. Jet played a six-string Fender bass and the
group included future Led Zeppelin members, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. In
early 1963 the record went to number 1. Other hits, like ‘Scarlett O’Hara’
which went to number 2, followed and Jet and Tony were part of the Robert
Stigwood ‘All Stars’ 1963 Tour.
On 11 September 1963, a chauffeur-driven limousine was taking
Jet and his girlfriend Billie Davis from an NME awards reception at London’s Savoy Hotel to a gig of
Billie’s in Evesham when it crashed into a bus. Billie, though badly injured,
managed to drag Jet from the wreckage, unconscious and with head injuries requiring
34 stitches.
 |
| Jet Harris and Billie Davis (Getty) |
For about three months Tony carried on touring as the ‘Tony
Meehan Combo’, with Joe Moretti on lead guitar, John McLaughlin rhythm guitar, John Paul Jones bass, Chris Hughes and Glenn Hughes saxes: they were not related but dubbed themselves 'The Hughes Sisters' for laughs.
In addition to the popular hits, the group played more jazz-oriented pieces. Tony later said it was a bit like the jazz-rock material that the American bands Chicago, and Blood, Sweat and Tears played a few years later.
In addition to the popular hits, the group played more jazz-oriented pieces. Tony later said it was a bit like the jazz-rock material that the American bands Chicago, and Blood, Sweat and Tears played a few years later.
The band of exceptional musicians was clearly playing very
well. While on tour with them the American singer Del Shannon, told a journalist just
after heard Tony and the band: ‘Well, you can put it in print from me that
that guy is so talented I just don’t know where he gets it from. And that band
of his… they’re too much. In the States, he would be a sensation. You can tell
everybody that Del Shannon thinks the Tony Meehan Combo is the finest outfit he
has ever seen’. (Peter Jones, Record
Mirror, 2 Oct 1963).
But Tony’s band of talented musicians were sometimes booed
off stage as the young audience came to hear their hit singles not their
jazzier numbers.
They recorded ‘Song of Mexico’ on 29 November 1963, which
was produced by Tony. It was released by Decca on 16 January 1964 and it
reached number 39 in the charts. The Tony Meehan Combo, then with very
different members, was disbanded on 3 May 1964.
After his work at Decca, in March 1965 Tony set up his own
record production company called Kieron Music after his eldest son, for a
£1,000. The first production was for The Emeralds, ‘Don’t Listen to Your
Friends’ which was released by Decca. The website 45cat.com lists over 200
records which were produced by Tony Meehan. These included the albums ‘One of
the Boys’ by Roger Daltrey (1977) and ‘Darkness, Darkness’ by Eric Burdon
(1989).
Very sadly,
Tony died after a fall on the main staircase at his home, 34 Lauderdale
Mansions in Maida Vale on 28
November 2005. A blue plaque was unveiled there in February 2016,
which says he lived there from 1977 to 2005.
 |
| Unveiling of plaque at Lauderdale Mansions |
Tony was one of the early drummers to appear on TV and his
style influenced other young players.
There is an interesting website about Tony Meehan and The
Shadows by Ms Chris Colverson here:
We would like to acknowledge the help from Kieron Meehan and
the author Colin Harper in writing this story.
I am delighted to read all this additional and detailed information about Tony Meehan, my childhood hero! Thanks so much for posting this and for giving my website a mention, too! Many, many thanks are due to all who contributed.
ReplyDeleteChris Colverson