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SIX ACROSS - A SHORT HISTORY
Six Across began life as The Blue Dominoes Skiffle Group in 1958 and, due to a change in musical direction, quickly became
known as The Heralds. By 1959 the band had become one of the best-known in and around the Derby area. They were the
first band to play at the then recently-opened Mecca Locarno dance-hall on Babington Lane [now a Chinese restaurant!].
The line-up, at that time, was Kevin Lawless [vocals], Tony Bryan [lead guitar], Graham Hinckley [rhythm guitar], Dick Clarke
[bass] and Pat Price [drums].
In 1959 the Heralds underwent major changes in band-members - Kevin Lawless was replaced by Terry Wild on
vocals, Graham Newton joined as rhythm guitarist replacing Graham Hinckley and Pat Price was replaced by Mick
Lancashire from Arthur Coyne's jazz band. By 1964 the band had both further changes to its
line-up and a second change of musical direction by bringing in a tenor-sax player by the
name of 'Kip' Wilks and a new drummer named Mick Plimmer. It gave The Heralds a chance
to break free of the many Cliff Richard and the Shadows tunes that the group performed and
prove that the band could handle a far greater range of material. This lead to the band
expanding its vocal-harmony talents and, once again, Terry, Tony, Graham and Kip rose to
the challenge. A couple of years later, in the mid-60s the band changed its name to Six
Across - by now it had become one of the premier bands in the East Midlands and was
traveling the length and breadth of the UK. It had also become one of the bands managed by
Nottingham agent Phil Smith. Nottingham became the band's adopted city. The band
continued through into the early 1970s albeit with one or two further changes in its members.
The most significant being lead guitarists, Keith Gillard followed by Mick Payne who stayed
with the band until it folded in the mid-70s. Mick still performs as a solo artist in Thailand.
It was in 2002 that their musical paths crossed again when Terry Wild called past
members to say that a band reunion was on the cards. Musicians from Six Across met up in
the Moon Hotel, Spondon in Derby to discuss the project. It was all about getting together as
many Derby groups from the 60s as possible, in order to raise cash for BBC Radio Derby's
Money Mountain charity. Terry was on the committee that organized the event. It was held at
McCluskey's in Babington Lane, Derby on Wednesday, 9th October 2002. The significance of
this choice of venue being that it was at this Mecca dance hall, formerly known as The
Locarno, where it all started for the band back in 1959. This was a mecca [no pun intended] for Derby bands in the 60s with,
on occasions, upwards of ten bands performing in one night. These specials were run on a Friday night, maybe a couple a
year, for a short while. It's a fair bet that there wasn't a band in Derby that didn't play there around that time!
Terry stayed as lead singer throughout the remaining time from 2002 - 2005. The last gig that he did was at the
Vernon Arms, Spondon on Friday 23rd December 2005. Terry suffered health problems in the last few months of his life and
died on the 20th August 2006. We, sadly, also lost our drummer around that time, Mick Erwin - he replaced Nottingham-born
drummer, Bob Bentley, who re-joined the band in the early part of the 2000s. Bob had been a member of Six Across during
the latter part of the 60s. The band decided to continue performing and the current line-up consists of Kip Wilks, Dick Clarke,
Graham Newton, Ken Cook [keyboards] and Paul Boule [drums]
Graham Newton
29 March 2013
Codnor
Derbyshire
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Back row, L to R: Graham Newton, Terry Wild, Mick Payne and Kip Wilks
Front row, L to R: Bob Bentley and Dick Clarke.
SIX ACROSS