Musical memories of the dapper Deltas

Barry Hawkins of Wem read with interest our recent spotlight on The Van-Dels, a pop group who for a time in the 1960s were the resident Saturday night band at one of Shropshire's top nightspots, Terry Heath's Town House in Wellington.

In their regular spot at the venue The Van-Dels were fronted by a local schoolgirl, Lesley Whitehouse, who went on to become a successful professional under the name Louisa Jane White.

Barry got in touch to say: "In the mid-1960s there was a group called The Deltas that also had a spell as resident group on a Saturday night. It would be interesting to know what became of them."

Well, we'll come to that.

Barry reflected on the buzzing local pop scene in those heady days as part of a book of his memories published last November.

"In Wellington there was the Majestic, which was a bit of a dive, but also the fabulous Terry Heath's Town House and coffee bar. This really was ahead of its time," he recalled.

"It was run by Terry Heath and his wife. The resident group was The Deltas and we would often be there on a Saturday night. Geoff Burden would pick us up in Loppington in an Austin A60, which were very reliable and popular cars at that time, and afterwards we would head back to Shrewsbury for fish and chips at Jack's in Coleham."

The Deltas, who dressed smartly in the manner of The Shadows, had built up a strong local following and were to have a particular claim to fame as they supported The Beatles when the fab four, who had just released their debut single Love Me Do and were still not well known outside Liverpool, played Shrewsbury Music Hall on December 14, 1962.

The Deltas were a Shrewsbury band and their line-up that night was Tony Wiseman (bass), Roger Francis (rhythm guitar and vocals), Bernard Lewis (vocals), drummer Bob Partridge, and Barry Udy on lead guitar.

Singer Bernard's first meeting with John Lennon was when they crossed on the stairs, with Lennon asking him gruffly: “Where’s the bog, wack?” (Bernard's answer was “It’s at the top of the stairs and turn right.”)

As for the Town House, Bernard, who hailed from the county town, recalled in memoirs published on the internet that the Saturday night residency was a fantastic experience, giving him lots of opportunity to perform in front of a live audience at floor level.

"There wasn’t a stage, it was a long modern room with tables and chairs around the perimeter and people could have a meal and drinks during our performances.

"I remember singing Cliff Richard’s Bachelor Boy when a young girl, about 20 years of age, approached me mid-song, carrying a pint of beer on a round silver tray. She was smiling and I thought someone had bought me a drink.

"She stopped in front of me and poured the drink over my head and walked off. My choice was to stop or carry on singing, so I carried on as if nothing had happened. She must have been a Cliff fan."

And what became of The Deltas?

Bernard painfully recalls being told he was no longer needed as singer, and says not long afterwards he heard the group had broken up. He moved to London in 1970 and worked as a guitar teacher.

As it happens we were able to catch up with Tony Wiseman, and Roger Francis of Arleston, in 2018.

David Wiseman – he called himself Tony Wiseman with the group as he felt Tony sounded cooler – told us at that time: “I’m playing the guitar again now in Bognor Regis, near where I live. I’m playing bass guitar in a classical guitar group. Of The Deltas, Barry, the lead guitarist, is not with us any more, and the drummer has gone to Australia. So there’s only us two, me and Roger, left.”

Incidentally David's verdict on The Beatles that 1962 night was that they were a scruffy lot unlikely to go far.

"I was not terribly impressed with them. They were very good musicians, but I thought they looked rather untidy because the fashion then was to be quite well dressed, even in pop groups."