JOHN E BROOME AND THE HANDELS

John E Broome and the Handels. OK! What can you say about a group with such a "dorky" name? Well to start they were formed by Kevin Peek, one of Australia's most impressive guitarists, that's what! Not only that, but the band's line-up was a distinguished one. The Handels' bassist Alan Tarney was later in the James Taylor Move and the Tarney-Spencer Band. After that, he was with The Shadows for a while, and he wrote and produced for Cliff Richard and wrote and played for Olivia Newton-John. Laurie Pryor, the drummer, famously joined The Twilights, and later played with Healing Force, Genesis (Oz) and Chain. Guitarist Kevin Peek formed the James Taylor Move in 1967, but he is best known for being in the pop-classical fusion group Sky with John Williams. As for John E Broome, his name was actually Dave Reekes-Parsons and he went on to produce The Vibrants, among others.

The majority of the members hailed from the northern suburbs of Adelaide and the band performed at The Octagon and the Salisbury Youth Centre weekly in Elizabeth during the mid-sixties. The tracks ''Do's And Dont's / Didn't Know Her Name'' were released in 1964 on the W&G label. They were recorded at Visound Recording Studio's situated at 202 Hindley Street, Adelaide. Both of these songs were written by guitarist Frank Tarney. The song reached #41 in 5DN's Big 60 for four weeks. They impressed Ken Pitt who was the manager for both Manfred Mann and the Animals in 1965, and they were summoned to London to play a season at the famous Marquee Club. Laurie Pryor died in 2010. Dave Reekes-Parsons died in 2018. Kevin Peek died from cancer in 2013.

Members

John E Broome [Dave Reekes-Parsons] (vocals) Kevin Peek (guitar), Frank Tarney (guitar), Laurie Pryor (drums), Alan Tarney (bass)

SINGLES

''Do's And Don'ts / Didn't Know Her Name'' 1964 W&G