The Tornados

The Tornados were an English instrumental rock group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the 1962 song "Telstar", which became their first No. 1 hit on the UK Singles Chart and, in December 1962, the second ever No. 1 single by a British act on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.The Tornados were formed in 1961 as a session band for Joe Meek, although the name did not come until early 1962. In 1961 they provided the instrumentals for the film short The Johnny Leyton Touch, including a jazzed up version of "Taboo", originally by Margarita Lecuona. From January 1962 to August 1963, the Tornados were the backing band for Billy Fury (as well as recording and performing as an act in their own right); they toured and recorded with Fury as the Tornados. Their recordings with Fury were produced by Mike Smith and Ivor Raymonde.The Tornados made a scopitone film (an early form of music video) for "Telstar" and another for their chart hit "Robot" featuring members of the group walking around a woodland dressed in appropriate headgear with their guitars, flirting with various young women and being finally arrested by policemen after lighting a campfire.For a time the Tornados were considered serious rivals to the Shadows. The Tornados' single "Globetrotter" made it to no. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. However, pop instrumentals began to lose a following with the British audience during 1963 as the "Mersey Sound", from the Beatles and other groups, began to take root. In the summer of 1963, Joe Meek induced the Tornados' bassist Heinz Burt to start a solo career, as the Tornados' chart success as an instrumental outfit waned, and from that point onwards the Tornados began to fall apart. By 1965 none of the original line-up remained.On some promotional items, later line-ups were credited as "Tornados '65" and "The New Tornados", but these names were never used on the Tornados' releases. In the mid-1960s the Tornados backed Billy Fury again, with Dave Watts on keyboards, Robby Gale on guitar and John Davies on drums. In 1968, in Israel to perform in Mandy Rice-Davies' night club Mandys, the band stayed for a ten-week tour after which they disbanded, leaving Watts and Huxley in Israel, playing with the Lions of Judea and the Churchills, respectively.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.