top of page

Spyke 1967 - 1973

Following the break-up of the Confederates, Terry Chedzoy went off to the "out-back" of East Sussex to play with a "hot, heavy and loud" band which forced him to start singing, a good move as we'll hear later.

Peter Millington happily settled into his new role with Paul Burton and Chris Sayer, (former founder member of the Talismen and recently with Dave Curtis and the Tremours) and concentrated on Country/Folk based numbers. Peter did however, miss having a drummer in the group but Chris was the "boss" and wanted to avoid becoming too "Poppie".

The name "SPYKE" was selected by drawing names-out-of-a-hat. Not sure who put SPYKE into the hat but out it came and history was written!

SPYKE also suffered from changing faces and sadly Paul Burton decided to leave and concentrate on his golf swing and his full time job in Housing and Estate Management.  Chris and Peter continued as a duo and played caravan parks, night clubs and social clubs for about 12 months.

However, it became clear that a drummer was necessary to give the duo a bit more "punch" for dancing audiences and Peter suggested that Terry Chedzoy, (formerly of the Confederates) would fit in nicely. Chris agreed with the proviso that he use a very modist kit (only Snare drum and Hi-Hat).

Chris wasn't keen to let the band become too loud so Terry and Peter had to "scheme" to import more drums over a period of time. It took about 3 months to get up to a full kit and it worked.

Terry also started to sing with Chris and Peter and hasn't stopped since, a great voice!

In 1970 Chris introduced Ian Williams into the band who brought with him a list of singers/bands who recorded stuff that was just right for SPYKE e.g. Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, Jerry Reed and Waylon Jennings.
He had an AKAI tape recorder which was well ahead of what was locally available at that time, which was put to good use in listening to how the four sounded.

 

This became the most successful period for SPYKE between 1969 and 1972. Three nights a week at the Alexandra Hotel of solid country/rock with Star Trek on the other two nights, who could ask for more?

Some of the pictures on the right were taken at the White Rock Theatre, Hastings in 1969 to 1971. The top 5 were the original SPYKE - Chris, Paul and Peter in 1968 and the one below, also at the White Rock in 1969 was following the departure of Paul and the addition of Terry after his very modest drum kit had grown a bit.

The colour pictures on the right are the only colour photos of the first SPYKE gigs taken at the Regent Hotel in early 1968. The two below were the after Ian Williams joined.

Following the departure of Chris Sayer in 1972 SPYKE continued for a short time as a trio but really did miss Chris' vocals and guitar.

After a few months the 3 decided to "call it a day" and in the Summer of 1972 Peter moved to join another very prominent local harmony group SUSPECT (later to be called CENTRE PAGE). This lasted for about 9 months and when SUSPECT lost their keyboard player, (Rev Stockdale), Peter decided to depart.

Recorded in 1971 into one microphone in Ian's front room. Drum was a stick on an excercise book

Fire and Rain -
00:00 / 00:00
bottom of page