THE CRYIN’ SHAMES 1966

The band started out as THE BUMBLIES The line-up of the band was Charlie Crane, Joey Kneen, Phil Roberts, Charlie Gallagher,George Robinson and John Bennett who was replaced in the BUMBLIES line-up by Ritchie Routledge in early December 1965.
That band changed their name to THE CRYIN' SHAMES and started gigging under the new name Just Before Christmas 1965.
DECCA released the bands their first single on February 18th 1966 PLEASE STAY / Whats News Pussycat. Produced by JOE MEEK which charted in the U.K. reaching 22 on The Melody Maker chart and 26 in The N.M.E. It was a No 1 selling record on Merseyside for a very long time after it's release and it was the No 1 selling single in Scotland on radio plays alone where it's still played today as THE LAST DANCE SONG
The band only done one local T.V. date to promote PLEASE STAY that was GRANADA T.V's Scene at 6-30 which spanned an area from Stafford to Cumbria North West England. Radio Caroline , Radio Luxembourg and Radio Scotland were mostly responsible for the records success.The record gets more plays on the BBC today than it did in 1966.
The original line-up changed in May 1966 when Derek Cleary replaced George Robinson on bass and went over to Paris with the band to do some live dates and some T.V to promote the release of PLEASE STAY in Europe he also played on the second single NOBODY WAVED GOODBYE / You Produced by JOE MEEK and released in June 1966
Charlie Crane and Ritchie Routledge left the band and formed PAUL and RITCHIE and THE CRYING SHAMES with a whole new line-up Brian Norris, Mike Espie, Pete Byrne, and Paul Commerford. That line-up played on the last single they recorded with JOE MEEK. SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN / COME ON BACK. It was recorded on JULY 30th 1966 the day England won the World Cup and it was released on September 1st 1966. The following week The band done Ready Steady Go to Promote what was consided the A side at the time SEPTEMBER IN THE RAIN It reached No 40 on The Melody Maker Chart and stayed there for two weeks before dropping out of the chart. Copies of this record are changing hands for between 100 to 200 pounds on Ebay. And it's all down to COME ON BACK a Crane / Routledge composition and a whole new generation of Mod / Freakbeat fans and bands like THE HORRORS who used the guitar intro on THE HORRORS GUIDE TO LONDON video that's on YouTube. Making COME ON BACK a bigger hit than it was the first time around and it has enjoyed an amazing amount of airplay on Internet radio stations around the world for the last 10 years.
PLEASE STAY along with HAVE I THE RIGHT by THE HONEYCOMBS and TELSTAR by THE TORNADO'S are The Most Requested songs That JOE MEEK ever produced. and both of those songs were No 1 selling records. TELSTAR is still to this day the the biggest selling instrumental of all time. Some people believe that if the CRYIN' SHAMES had signed with Brian Epstein They would have had a much bigger hit than it was. And there might be some truth in that.The truth sometimes is stranger than fiction. JOE MEEK wanted the band to sign with BRIAN EPSTEIN and so did i. After all i was already working for him. I WAS A JUNIOR REPORTER WORKING FOR MERSEY BEAT / MUSIC ECHO. AND I WAS THERE WHEN BRIAN EPSTEIN BOUGHT THE PAPER FROM BILL HARRY. AT THE SAME TIME I WAS PLAYING SEMI-PRO WITH THE AZTECS BEFORE I JOINED THE BUMBLIES, WHO THEN CHANGED THEIR NAME TO THE CRYIN' SHAMES. BUT WHAT DOES A 16 YEAR OLD KNOW RIGHT ?
Ritchie . 2008