About Me
The story of the Chords Five began In 1964 in Stratford London E15. The original line-up was Roger Stoten, Terry Bristow, Terry Holmes, Peter Ross, and the Manager Carl Holmes (Terry's Father, Carl was a great artist/painter). They were called the "Pioneers". The first gig they played was at the Poplar Civic in Bow, London, 24th June, 1965. Soon after that Lee Morrison joined the band as bass guitarist and they changed their name to The Chords Five, They continued to play in local clubs and built up a huge following in the East end of London and were in the local papers almost every week. It was in December of 1966 when they were playing at The Pastures Youth Centre in Leytonstone, Carl, the manager, had done the impossible and arranged for Jimmy Miller (Record Producer) for Island Records to come there and listen to the band. He turned up and after hearing the band he signed them on the spot.They were advertised as the youngest group in the world, four of them were 15 and Phil was only 13. They were also the youngest group to have a recording contract at that time. They were so close to becoming major recording artists, but their age blocked them in many ways. They were booked all over the world only to find out they were too young to work abroad. Terry still has one of the letters from one of the agency's at the time refusing them a visa to play in Paris because they were too young. Their first release "I Am Only Dreaming" was played at least 20 times a day on the local radio stations including Radio Caroline and Radio London (pirate stations at the time). Perhaps the worse thing that happened to them at the time was one of the biggest hits ever "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by Procol Harem was released the same week as "I Am Only Dreaming". Just after the recording session with Island Records Peter Ross had to leave the group to appear in several movies and was temporarily replaced by Joe Briscoe.The next stage of their lives was when they signed with Polydor Records in 1968, the record Producer was Andrew Black and the record company gave them a song written by Kenny Young (the same kenny young who had a hit song with "Captain Of Your Ship"). The song was called "Same Old Fat Man", they actually had a music arranger on that song. After recording it, Carl came up with the idea to search for a fat man to help advertise the song, little did they know they would finish up with the fattest man in England and maybe the world, his name was George Macaree a lovely man. They ended up in most newspapers across England, including The Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Observer to name a few. They also made a movie to go with the song for German TV (one of the first ever at that time 1968). Again all that publicity you would think they were going to the top but the record company gave them no backing, they did it all themselves, needless to say the song never charted. In late 1968 Peter Ross had rejoined the group replacing Joe Briscoe.The next chapter was when they signed with President Records (Ed Kasner) in 1969, they in turn signed them with Jayboy which was a spin off of President. The first song they recorded was for the Jayboy label in 1969, it was called "Some People" and was written by Graham Gouldman (10cc). The B side was a song written by Carl and Terry Holmes called "Hold On To Everything You've Got", it was the sixth song to be released on the new label. Again they continued to gig including the first pop group to ever gig at the Cafe Royal in London and every major D.J was a member of their fan club including Jimmy Saville, Simon Dee, Emperor Rosko, Tony Blackburn, Stuart Henry the list goes on and Terry still has the letters from them to confirm it. They also appeared on the TV shows Blue Peter and The Eamon Andrews Show.The next chapter came in 1969 when they decided to record under a different name ,they came up with the name "The Hammers" (well their local football team was West Ham United). The record company switched them to the President label, the song was "Baby And Me" written by Terry and Carl Holmes, it had, and still has a great drum beat and a great bass line and the B side was a song called "Little Butterfly". The next song they recorded for President was a double A side "Power Of Love" and "Sugar Baby", although President put Sugar Baby as the A side, they thought it was a big mistake. They again made a movie of the song lyrics to Sugar Baby but yet again it was not to be, although it got plenty of air time on the radio stations.The next and final chapter in their history was sadly in 1970 they decided to split.
The remaining members of the group have remained in music until this day.
