LES BLUES

Lead Vocals: Geno Washington

Guitar: Morton Lewis

Piano: Colin Gilbert

Bass: Tony Coe + DBass (2)John Game

Drums: Gerry Gillings

Although USAF PT Instructor Washington had sung with various local outfits before, Les Blues is considered his first serious band. Washington met up with Coe back in 1999 to make a documentary about those early days.

Coe tells us about the band. “The band was put together by Colin Gilbert and myself from previously playing with 'The Jazzshades, we named ourselves Les Blues after seeing Les Beatles as a headline in The Melody Maker. We recruited Gerry Gillings and Morton Lewis from Unit Four. We all wore black turtle neck jumpers, black cords, black cuban heeled boots and berets. When I left to join The Epics John Game from ?? Took my place. My reason for leaving was that with Geno still an American serviceman we were often left without a singer if he couldn't make the gig."

Les Blues
Ipswich                                                                      c64

LVox: Geno Washington / Gtr: Morton Lewis
Keys: Koll Patterson aka Colin Gilbert
Bs: Tony Coe + DBs (2)John Game
Drums: Gerry Gillings

Bentwaters and Woodbridge USAF physical training instructor Washington had sung with various short-lived local outfits and guested with visiting artists to his bases, but Les Blues are considered his first serious band. Coe tells us about the group, “The band was put together by myself and Gilbert, having both previously played with The Jazzshades. We named ourselves Les Blues after seeing the Les Beatles headline in The Melody Maker. We then recruited Gerry Gillings and Morton Lewis from The Unit 4. We all wore black turtleneck jumpers, black cords, black Cuban-heeled boots and berets. When I left to join The Epics, John Game, another ex-Unit 4 member, took my place. My reason for leaving was that with Geno still in the forces, if he couldn’t get the time off, we were left without a singer.”

NB: We are looking for confirmation of a talent contest win that took place at an open-air beat event at Holbecks Park, Hadleigh, a gig that attracted a crowd of over 500. We believe the year was 1964, but we are not sure.