The Carols

Sixties Harmony Group recalls 'Sister’s hit parade heyday!'
In an interview with one part of ‘The Carols’ named Carolyne, she told me how her and her sisters – twin Helen and Marion, one year younger – sang backing vocals on a number of Hits during the sixties including many reggae acts. “We started singing when we were about seven or eight,” she said. “Being sisters we had a natural harmony. Dad was a pianist and rehearsed us all the time and used to enter us into the Butlin talent competitions. At one stage we sang the Beatles song 'something' which then qualified us into the Grand Final at the London Palladium” which also featured Bobby Crush and Mike Ried. After that we answered an advert in The Stage magazine for harmony singers, we then started working with Vic Keary who was an independent record producer and owned a recording studio in Chalk Farm, London. One of the most well-known records featuring the sisters was Joe Cocker’s ‘With a little help from my friends’ – perhaps the only Beatles cover better then the original. Other titles the sisters helped into the hit parade included ‘Let Your Yeah be Yeah’ by The Pioneers (number 5, 1971), ‘Young Gifted and Black and Pied Piper’ by Bob and Marcia (numbers 5 and 11 in 1970), ‘Love of the Common People’ by Nicky Thomas (number 9 1970), and Dandy Livingstone’s ‘Suzanne Beware of the Devil’ (number 14, 1972). “It was very poorly paid,” Caroyine said. “We made about enough to cover our expenses.” They sang on stage with Desmond Decker, and toured the country as backing to PJ Proby and Tony Christie. When not touring, they would sing at local venues. “Jim Proby was very much a prima donna,” she remembers. “He was about 28, and had an American girlfriend called Angela. “He was magic. He had a super voice”. “Tony Christie was a gentleman and one year we spent Christmas at his house. The girls, eager to record under their own name, organised an audition for musicians at the Queen’s Head, a pub that used to be near The Peahen in St Albans. “We auditioned many musicians including Mick Taylor before he joined the Rolling Stones, and turned him down,” she said. They then released a single, written by Carolyne, called “Love made a Fool out of me’, but it wasn’t a hit. “We didn’t market it or push hard enough,” she regrets. “I felt we weren’t getting anywhere, and emigrated to South Africa for 22 years”. Carolyne's subsequent musical career took off in South Africa and included writing the B side to 'Substitute', a number 2 single in Britain recorded by a South African group called Clout, and work with singer Mutt Lange who now is married to Shania Twain. After she returned to Britain ‘The Carols’ were reunited, and got to the semi-finals of 'Stars in their Eyes' as the Beverley Sisters. We may not have heard the last of ‘The Carols’ –- Carolyne is planning to work as a harmony group again and she is also currently in the Studio writing new material with her son who is an up and coming producer. Universal Records are releasing a compilation album of sixties girl singers featuring The Carols 'Love made a Fool of me' as one of the tracks. Release date will be June 2008 so look out for it![LOVEMYFLASH]