Chip Hawkes

Leonard Donald Stanley "Chip" Hawkes (born 2 November 1945) is an English musician. He is best known for being a member of the Tremeloes and for being the father of Chesney Hawkes.

Leonard Donald Stanley Hawkes was born on 2 November 1945. When he left school, he became a carpenter's apprentice, alongside which he would play local gigs; his nickname, Chip, was a consequence of him sometimes turning up to gigs still covered in wood shavings.

He formed a band called The Horizons, that featured Rod Evans as their lead vocalist. Evans would go on to form and front the band Deep Purple in 1968. The Horizons toured Hamburg, Germany during the early to mid 1960s.

In 1966, he joined The Tremeloes, previously Brian Poole and The Tremeloes before Brian Poole's and bassist Alan Howard's departure earlier that year, first as bassist, and then also as co-lead vocalist; while he was a member, the band entered the UK Singles Chart with "Here Comes My Baby" (No. 4), "Silence Is Golden" (No. 1), "Even the Bad Times are Good" (No. 4), "Be Mine" (No. 39), "Suddenly You Love Me" (No. 6), "Helule Helule" (No. 14), "My Little Lady" (No. 6), "I Shall Be Released" (No. 29), "Hello World" (No. 14), "(Call Me) Number One" (No. 2), "By the Way" (No. 35), "Me and My Life" (No. 4), and "Hello Buddy" (No. 32).

Hawkes left the band in 1974 after being injured in a car crash, before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, and releasing The Nashville Life in 1977, which flopped. He returned to England in 1979, reformed The Tremeloes, and entered the UK Singles Chart with "Words" (No. 90); he left in 1988 to manage Chesney's career. In 1992, he began touring as a solo artist.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.