We have frequently mentioned when we play, that Jerry has appeared with The Beatles, The Kinks, Marianne Faithful etc. Read about his time with The Blue Stars and appearing with The Beatles here:

Well known on the famous "Regan Circuit" of venues, The Blue Stars shared billing with The Beatles on three different occasions. The band was called The Blue Stars with Dave and Jerry.

1963 was a pivotal year for British popular music. After a 'fallow' few years for pop (or was that pap?) music, a new musical phenomenon emanating from the North of England called "The Mersey Sound" was happening with a vengeance only to be finally known throughout Britain and the rest of the world as "Beatlemania".

THE BLUE STARS from Cannock were were lucky enough to be signed with the Mary "Ma" Regan management of the top Midlands ballroom circuit.

                                                                   Jerry in the dapper black jacket

"One of the lad's dad drove us around in a Bedford van as we were all too young to drive - we were just school kids at the time!! In those early days we did not have a PA system so we ran everything (guitars, bass and microphones) through the Vox amplifiers because each amp had six inputs. Most groups did this at the time and the overall sound in pubs and social clubs was quite good."

The Blue Stars played the Regan circuit for three years (1962-1965) performing every Friday and Saturday night as well as occasionally on a Sunday. All Regan groups were required to "do a treble" ie playing three spots per night at any three of her four ballrooms. Headline acts were required to "do a double".

In order to facilitate this almost impossible task, drum kits had to be transported fully assembled in the group van in order to minimise changeover times and disruption to the revellers at each ballroom. Remember, we are talking about a time when ballrooms, town halls and civic halls were the top venues for international artists to perform because, concert arenas and associated sound systems were light years away but, The Blue Stars did more than their fair share in this respect.

Their highlight was sharing the billing with The Beatles on the three occasions.

"The Ma Regan circuit was a major breakthrough for any local group because not only did we get loads of work from her, we also got the opportunity to meet and share the billing with international stars such as, PJ Proby, Bert Weedon, Johnny and The Hurricanes, Brenda Lee, The Pretty Things, Steam Packet, Howling Wolf, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Hollies, Lovin' Spoonfull, The Big Three, Freddy and The Dreamers, The Searchers, The Rolling Stones, and, of course, The Beatles with whom we appeared on three separate occasions - once at The Plaza Old Hill and twice at The Plaza Handsworth.

This started in October 1962 at The Plaza, Old Hill when 'Love Me Do' was in the lower twenties of the chart through to 1963 to coincide with the release of their other singles; 'From Me To You', 'Please Please Me' and their first LP in 1963.

Old Hill Plaza had a very large dressing room which we shared with The Beatles. They arrived in long leather coats which they had purchased in Hamburg and were of WWII origin. We were mainly interested in chatting to John Lennon about his Rickenbacker guitar! Paul McCartney asked Jerry if he needed a shave, Jerry just said to him ‘no, you look great Paul’, John Lennon also said to him ‘there’s no point in us going on now, they've played all our songs', Jerry's reply to him was ‘they don’t play them half as good as you'. 

Another group did a forty five minute opener after which they did a twenty minutes or so spot and then we finished with another forty five minutes spot. As we we had just started our spot they walked across the front of the stage and down the fire escape.

The dressing room at the Handsworth Plaza was much smaller than Old Hill and The Beatles were now becoming much more popular. The last time we played with them they did around twenty minutes worth of numbers from their new LP and then quickly exited via a fire escape across the roof."

The Beatles were running late this day, Friday July 5, 1963 having come direct from a booking at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and now due at The Plaza Old Hill where support group Denny Laine and The Diplomats were fast running out of numbers to play.

                                           This was his other band “The Misphits”. Can anyone spot Jerry?