He holds the record for appearing the most times on UK #1 singles. 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.Īfter drummer and bandleader Clem Cattini left The Tornados in 1965, he became a successful session musician, playing on recording sessions for other artists, and was featured in Cliff Richard's backing bands. In the mid-1960s The Tornados backed Billy Fury again, with Dave Watts on keyboards, Robby Gale on guitar and John Davies on drums. 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. By 1965 none of the original line-up remained. 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. 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. The Tornados' single "Globetrotter" made it to #5 in the UK Singles Chart. 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.įor a time The Tornados were considered serious rivals to The Shadows. Their recordings with Fury were produced by Mike Smith and Ivor Raymonde. 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.
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.
The Tornados were formed in 1961 as a session band for Joe Meek, although the name did not come until early 1962. Today Dave Watts has his own version of the band. 1 " Telstar" (named after the satellite and composed and produced by Meek), the first US No. They enjoyed several chart hits in their own right, including the UK and US No. The Tornados ( The Tornadoes in North America) 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.
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