Ian Howe's Story - A Liverpool Beat Special Feature

Ian Howe drummer with The Delrenas and The Motifs tell his story of those crazy times. Pictured below is a rare photo of over 100 Liverpool bands pictured outside St Georges Hall in Liverpool. A German TV programme was in Liverpool to make a documentary on the MerseyBeat and offered a £1 for every muso that turned up. It obviously wasn't enough as the other 200 didn't bother to turn up. If you look closely you can see Ian complete with The Motifs bass drum on the extreme left of the picture. See if you can spot Rory Storm.

Ian's Story - Delrenas Days...

When I was about 18 and much to the surprise of my parents I bought a set of drums they arrived home one afternoon to find a kit set up in the lounge. At the time I was serving my time as a toolmaker at the English Electric Company.

I don’t remember how I came to meet Tony Waddington & Georgie Spruce (Earl Preston) but ended up playing in a band with them. I remember playing at a club in Berry Street also at the Lowlands Club near to the Casbah club in West Derby owned by Mrs Best (Pete Best’s mother)

Then my girlfriend at the time heard that the Del Renas needed a drummer so I went to see them at St Johns Hall in Bootle. They were appearing with the Searchers but when the Del Renas came on I was more impressed with the sound they made. Four of the members sang including the piano player who also had a claviolene (organ). They did a lot of Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and Jerry Lee Lewis.

When the record Telstar by the Tornadoes came out the Del Renas were the only group to have an organ, Bob Wooler gave the Del Renas 42 bookings for the Cavern on the strength of it more bookings he said than he had given any other group including the Beatles in one go.

The members of the group were:

Terry (Tex) Fisher lead guitar, Derek Green rhythm guitar, Brian James piano & clavione, Jonny Whithey bass, Brian Dean drums.

 I went for an audition and much to my surprise got the job. We played all the usual places including the Cavern, The Tower Ballroom and New Brighton Tower with The Beatles.

We also appeared at the Mersey Beat award night at the Majestic Ballroom in Birkenhead. It started at midnight as the Beatles had to travel from London. We had already done three bookings that night at the Iron Door, Cavern and the Odd Spot Club in Bold Street. We started the show and the Beatles arriving later with Ringo using my drums. The event finished at about 5 in the morning and we had a booking in the afternoon and three in the evening. Brian James, the pianist, went to work in the morning but fell asleep over the piano on the last booking of the night.

One night we were playing in Port Sunlight when a fight broke out, my brother Herbert (of Shampoo fame) decided that the best place to avoid being hit would be to roll himself in the curtains on stage standing bolt upright, imagine our surprise when we couldn’t find him only for him to appear from unwinding the curtain.

On one occasion Tony Waddington phoned and asked me to stand in for Pete Best in his band The Pete Best Allstars, as Pete was going on the Ed Sullivan show to talk about his time with The Beatles and they didn’t want to cancel the show or let anybody know he had gone to America. I went along in my nice white van only to find it covered in lipstick when we had finished playing. Tony Waddington along with Wayne Bickerton went on to form a song writing team having many hits.

The Del Renas also played in Manchester and won an award as the best group on the club circuit, the award presented to them by Ken Dodd at a show in Belle Vue attended by the Lord Mayor. The Del Renas performed that night and received good reviews in the Sunday Express. The Del Renas attended an audition in Manchester and were offered a contract to go to Germany. Brian James and Johnny Whithy were the two Del Renas along with Brian Dene (the drummer I originally replaced) and Johnny Fallon who appeared on “This is your MerseyBeat” album produced by Oriole.

The Motifs

Derek Green, Terry Fisher and myself all had good jobs (as a skilled toolmaker I earned £25 a week which was good money in those days) so we decided not to go to Germany and I bought the Trixon drums (which I still have) from the group for £40. We formed a group called the Motifs playing mostly in Southport at Kingsway Casino, usually twice a week. We also appeared at the Cavern, one night with the Hollies and Alexis Korner’s Blues Band. We also appeared with Tom Jones a couple of times, including one night as Dave Williams reminds me, Derek had the cheek to sing “It’s Not Unusual” half an hour after Tom Jones (a brave man indeed). Other groups including Sounds Incorporated and Gene Vincent and a group called Them from Ireland on what I think was their first appearance in England – little did we know that one member of the group was Van Morrison.

The Motifs won a competition in Southport beating 30 other groups, first prize was £40 plus a recording audition with Tony Hatch and a TV audition. None of which came to anything as Tony Hatch said he needed groups who wrote their own material.

On the 21/8/2003 The Del Renas appeared at the Cavern with Kingsize Taylor, The Undertakers, Dale Roberts and the Jaywalkers and other bands. This was the first time all five Del Renas had appeared together for 41 years and we played to support The MerseyCats, a children’s charity.

I’m now retired, having owned Susis Card Shop in Church St, Liverpool (run by my wife) since 1968.

(Editors Note). Ian has also recently restored one of the iconic emblems of the era the E type Jag which is pictured below outside Herbert's House in Liverpool.

Ian Howe November 2009.