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KRIS RYAN
&
THE QUESTIONS
Kris Ryan & The Strangers
Preston
Tony Holgate - 'Kris Ryan': Lead Vocal. Alan Kendall: Lead Guitar.
Geoff Wills: Drums. Stuart Brown: Bass Guitar. Jimmy Jewell: Tenor Saxophone.
Singles:
'Miss Ann' / 'She Told Me Lies' (1964)
'Don't Play That Song' / 'If You Don't Come Back' (1964)
'Marie Marie' / 'I've Had Enough Of You Baby' (1965)
T'ell Me Who' / 'She Belongs To Me' (1965)
EP: 'On The Right Track' / 'Help Me' / 'You Can't Liar To A Liar' / 'Sticks And Stones' / 'You Are My Sunshine' (1965).
When the group Kris Ryan & The Strangers broke up following a traumatic gig in Chorley, two founder members, Kris Ryan (Tony Holgate) and Alan Kendall, both art students at Burnley Art College, decided to form a new group. It was the Spring of 1963. They recruited bassist Stuart Brown from The Cartwrights - later to become The Rocking Vicars - and drummer Geoff Wills. The latter was resident at Rawtenstall Jazz Club, having replaced Bobby Elliott when he left to join Shane Fenton and later The Hollies. Initially the idea was for the group to be part of the resident band at the Imperial Ballroom, Nelson, to form a John Barry-type group, but this did not come to fruition, so they reverted to being a regular group. After a competition in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph to select a name for the group, they became Kris Ryan & The Questions.
With a repertoire culled from the hinterland that lay somewhere between The Shadows and The Beatles, featuring numbers by Johnny Kidd and Nero & The Gladiators, The Questions made their debut at Huddersfield Empress on June 1st 1963, and for the next few months made the trek around Yorkshire playing Mrs. Miller-type gigs at venues like Cleckheaton Town Hall, Dewsbury Town Hall, Wakefield Crown and Anchor and Skipton Clifford Hall. They also developed a following at the Cro-Magnon Club in Leeds. Things started to change in Autumn 1963 when Geoff Wills suggested bringing into the group tenor saxist Jim Jewell, with whom he had previously worked in a group called EddieMarten & The Sabres. With the inception of Jewell, the group’s sound underwent a subtle change, with a focus on guitar/sax harmonies that produced a deceptively big sound, somewhat redolent of the groups of Georgie Fame and Zoot Money, though generated by a smaller line-up. The repertoire also began to change, with Ray Charles and James Brown numbers starting to introduce a soul/jazz flavour to the music. Kris Ryan & The Questions were an unusual phenomenon: they were fronted by a pretty-boy singer and were able to swing like a jazz group.
As the group sound changed, so did their agent and their gigging territory. Soon, Alan Arnison had them playing around Manchester at venues like the Princess and Domino Clubs, Belle Vue’s Cumberland Suite, The Jungfrau and the Rex Ballroom in Wilmslow. As 1963 gave way to 1964, they continued to extend their gigs around Manchester, while travelling south to the King’s Hall, Stoke on Trent and north to the A Gogo in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where their jazzy sound gained them new fans.
In Spring 1964 they auditioned for Marie Reidy, who owned a large record and musical instrument shop in Blackburn. Ms. Reidy, a former professional classical harpist whose brother Frank Reidy was an eminent London session musician, had recently launched the career of The Four Pennies by introducing them to her friend, Philips record producer Johnny Franz, who had worked with Dusty Springfield and The Walker Bothers.The Questions passed their audition, and in May they recorded their first single, a blue beat version of the Little Richard song Miss Ann, with Johnny Franz at Philips records. Marie Reidy became their manager. Though the record was not a hit they continued to work steadily and in June 1964 performed their first gig at Liverpool’s Cavern. The Questions became popular in Liverpool and played at the Cavern on 33 occasions. A standout gig at this time was the occasion when they supported P.J. Proby at New Brighton Tower Ballroom. Going down almost as well as Proby, they were mobbed by the crowd.
Bookings now came via the McKiernan agency and during this period, while doing a Scottish tour, the group appeared on the TV show Roundup. They also made a number of radio broadcasts, including three on the BBC’s Beat Show with the Northern Dance Orchestra, and two on Radio Luxembourg’s Sunday Night at the Cavern. Throughout 1965 they played regularly as audience warm-up group at the original BBC Top of The Pops studio in Dickenson Road, Manchester. They had a minor hit record with their version of the Ben E. King number Don’t Play That Song, and might have had a bigger hit, if a Radio Caroline DJ hadn’t kept playing the record and when Kris Ryan sang “Don’t play that song for me” he said, “OK, I won’t” and took it off.
While maintaining a steady gig schedule, both nationwide and at Manchester venues like The Oasis and Mr. Smith’s, they continued to pursue the ever-elusive hit record. The idea was concocted that Kris Ryan would record, as a solo vocal number with a big orchestral backing, a version of French singer Gilbert Becaud’s song Marie, Marie. Tenorist Jim Jewell feared that this recording would undermine the group’s concept, and, after German gigs in July 1965 at the Storyville Clubs in Cologne and Duisburg, he left. Kris Ryan & The Questions were not a success in Germany: their brand of jazzy rhythm and blues was at variance with the requirements of German audiences, who at the time craved a constant diet of Beatles and Stones numbers.
Now a four-piece, the group decided to aim for a contemporary, commercial, mod-style sound and image, and began to play numbers by Junior Walker, Lee Dorsey, Wilson Pickett and Bob Dylan. They recorded a new single, an updated version of the Buddy Holly song Tell Me Who, backed with their version of Bob Dylan’s She Belongs To Me, and continued to gig steadily, mainly in the Northwest, while building up a following in the North Staffordshire area through an association with agent Terry Blood. But by the Spring of 1966, with a lack of greater commercial success, Kris Ryan and Stuart Brown were becoming tired of the endless succession of gigs, and at that moment, quiet domesticity seemed a better option.
Kris Ryan & The Questions played their final gig at Normal College, Bangor on May 14th 1966.
Arty Davies: December 2011
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