When Gerry’s Mother realised he was serious about music, she went into Westwoods Music in John Bright Street, Birmingham and bought Gerry a Hofner Committe guitar.
Ken Smith became the bands manager, and named them Cliff Angel and The Virtues before settling on Gerry Levene and The Avengers. They started playing all the pubs in Birmingham until they landed a gig at the West End Ballroom, and ended up being the resident band every Wednesday and Saturday thereafter.
Ken then moved to Liverpool and started booking the band on the Liverpool circuit so they could play at the West End Ballroom at lunch-time and venues in Liverpool on the evening.
John Watson left the band and was replaced by Roy Wood. During this time, the band auditioned for EMI and Decca on the same day at the Plaza in Handsworth and actually had a choice of which record company to go with. They chose Decca, managed by Phil and Dorothy Solomon who also had a group called, The Batchelors.
Gerry Levene and The Avengers recorded, ‘Do You Love Me’, ‘Twist and Shout’ and ‘Dr Feelgood’, and went on to release ‘Dr Feelgood,’ while Brian Pool and The Tremeloes released the other two songs and had number one hits!
The current band line-up was working well and appeared on ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars.’ However, Roy left for Mike Sheridan and The Nightriders (see under artists) to play lead guitar and was replaced by Peter Cook, a blind keyboard player from West Bromwich. Peter left the band and went on to work for BBC2 on programmers such as Stamash. Mike and Jim also left during this time to join The Diplomats, so Gerry and Graeme went on to form a new band with Denny Laine called the M and B5 which became The Moody Blues.
Gerry left The Moody Blues following a dissagreement with Denny, Jim eventually went on to play with Raymond Froggatt and Mike Hopkins joined Magnum.
Gerry joined a band called The Chicanes which became The Avengers. Various members came and went before Gerry left himself.
Then Gerry joined The Hinge, a duo with Chris Sedgewick and recorded songs including, ‘The Village Postman’ and ‘You’d Better Go Home.’ Peter Lee Sterling (Daniel Boone – ‘Beautiful Sunday’) wrote one of the B-sides.
During this time, Gerry started recording for Pye under the solo name of David Lincoln and produced, ‘Hold Back The Daybreak’ with a 50 piece orchestra.
Gerry remained in the music industry but during the last years spent a long time fighting bowel cancer. As a result, he became involved with running shows for the Holly Trust Bowel Cancer Charity. He also plays solo gigs and runs dance nights.
Hi, I would like to thank Gerry, for not turning up one night at the West End to do a New DJ spot.
At the time I worked full time as an house electrician and when Gerry did not appear was asked to fill in.
This turned out to be the best time of my life and lasted six years until they pulled the WestEnd down, and built the MailBox.
Best Regards. DJ/GA Geoff Ashton. THANKS GERRY.
It is with great sadness to report that Gerry Levene passed away yesterday.
hi geoff I doubt very much you will remember me,i used to work at the WEST END cinema in the early 60s whenyou were the dj ,i remember gerry levene and the avengers when they were resident group for a time,another larger than life character was freddie brinklow the band leader.i just about remember fredddie and thedreamers i can’t remember whether they were resident or not.old sam one of the doormen in the ballroom was also another name i etched in my mind.i worked as a doorman alongside ken hill and eric ? johnny green(manager) madge(his secretary) and tony and ron the projectionists,happy days.
Sorry to hear about gerry, At least we had the privilege of knowing him.
I remember all of the other staff and don`t forget old George.
Tony Wood is still going! But he is a real VICTOR MELDREW. He keeps in touch once a year unless his TV breaks down.
Thanks for replying, Hope to talk to you again.