Tony Ashton
When Tony Ashton received a telegram from Brian Epstein in 1965, he automatically thought he had been recruited as the keyboardist for the Beatles. Tony Ashton began his career in a North Western English Beat group called The Executives. At the age of fifteen Tony was already an accomplished pianist, who ventured into cover versions of artists as varied as Mose Allison and Oscar Brown Junior. Two singles were released while strutting with the Executives, “March Of The Mods” / “Why Why Why” and “Strictly For The Beat” / “No Room For Squares”. By the time Tony had taken his tie off, varied sessions included playing for the Collage Boys and Mastersounds.
The Remo Four invitation came in 1965, but the group had already been performing as early as 1961 with drummer Roy Dyke. Prior to the arrival of Tony Ashton, the group had already put out two singles “Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” and Mancini’s “Peter Gunn”. The Liverpool Remo Four were graduates from the Cavern Club and proceeded to back singers like Cilla Black and Tommy Quickly. Although the Remo Four originally started out as country & western under the name Johnny Sandon & the Remo Four, the unique talent of Tony Ashton, soon dissolved any one-man show hopefuls. At that stage the line-up included Phil Rogers, bass, Colin Manley, vox/ guitar, and Roy Dyke, drums. The Remo Four became one part of the expanding Epstein Empire and were shipped off to the Star Club in Hamburg, to take over the Beatles spot.
For an arduous two years they ploughed the backstreets of Hamburg savaging their way through the half-light into the main stream of the blues without any handouts. Long sweaty evenings of pounding the blues, sometimes to an audience of less than ten, would be the lot of these die hard blues men. The fruit of these sessions yielded two infectious singles, “Live Like Lady” and Mike Settle’s “Sing Hallelujah”. Tony’s organic Hammond rumbles through this praise as if Calvary was beckoning him. Tony first heard Mike Settle’s “Sing Hallelujah” from an early live recording of Carolyn Hester when she performed it live at the Town Hall Concert. Settle would later psyche up Mickey Newbury’s “Just Dropped In” while exercising with Kenny Rogers & The Third Edition. Twenty years later it became “I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” plummeting headlong into the world of The Big Lebowski.
Their style of music was jazz and blues based, reflected in their debut album, Smile which highlighted Oscar Brown Junior standard “Brother Where Are You”, popularised by Johnny Rivers on the Realisation album. Just listen to Tony’s pump action Vox as it pounds through Chuck Berry’s “No Money Down” and Mancini’s “Peter Gunn”. At that stage Tony Played a Vox Continental organ because he could not afford a Hammond B3. Times were hard, but in Tony’s own words this was his most enjoyable period of his life. After two years in Hamburg at the height of Beatlemania, the Remo Four had the honour of backing them during their tour of Sweden and later backing Jimmy Justice. Due to this association, George Harrison of the Beatles invited the Remo Four to assist on his film Wonderwall, after which they backed Billy J Kramer.Tony would later join with Deep Purple members Jon Lord and Ian Paice for the album Malice In Wonderland, but more acutely remembered for the hit Resurrection Shuffle when operating as Ashton Gardener & Dyke.