As one of the very first English groups to hit American shores in the wake of The British Invasion, The Robin Hoods for some unknown reason have been unjustly overlooked. Hailing from Blackpool, U.K. but making their initial mark in Chicago—where they recorded two 45-rpm singles, filmed a popular TV commercial and played the city’s top hotspots—The Robin Hoods are rarely if ever mentioned as a British Invasion group. Bassist/vocalist Pete Shelton stayed in the U.S. and later found success as a member of other U.S. hit making acts.
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| The Robin Hoods: Bill Davidson, Dougie Stewart, Joe Dutton, Brian Rayner, Pete Shelton and Mickey McGeedy |
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| Pete Shelton |
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An Interview With Pete Shelton
60s: How long was The Robin Hoods active prior to leaving Blackpool for the U.S.?
Pete Shelton (PS): Most of the guys played together at a club in Blackpool called the Picador Club. The band was called Lee Bennett & The Rockers (original, huh?). We got a gig to come to America (a two year contract) to play the Irish Ballroom circuit. We added two more members to make it six. The band evolved in Ireland from a successful recording group called Paddy McGuigan and The Big Four. I know it sounds rather confusing, but the name didn't matter as we decided to take advantage of the English fever caused by The Beatles and we were going to use a new name...The Flock.
60sgaragebands.com (60s): Here is an excerpt from an interview with Fred Glickstein, a member of The Flock. I know it's a long shot...but does it ring any bells?
Before we were The Flock we were The Exclusives but we didn't like that name and were looking for a new one. One evening there was a battle of the bands at The Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. The two bands that were battling were Chicago's own New Colony Six and a group from England called The Robin Hoods. After The Robin Hoods finished a set, I walked up to one of the members and told him that I really enjoyed his group. Then I asked him where they got the name 'Robin Hoods.' He said that they had chosen between two names,The Robin Hoods or The Flock. I then asked if there was another group using the name Flock and he said, "Not that I know of." So the name had to be imported from England and The Flock was born in Chicago, USA! That's how we got the name The Flock.
PS: It was me he talked to. I remember it vaguely. We were talking music when the question of band names came up. I told him that our manager picked the name, but I was surprised to hear it was The Robin Hoods. I wanted to call the band The Clan, but because of the KKK that was kicked into touch. We'd also discussed the name The Flock from an idea we had in England before we came to America. How the name The Robin Hoods evolved is beyond me. I thought it was an awful name.
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| Live on stage at Chicago's McCormick Place |
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60s: Why did you settle in Chicago?
PS: Chicago was the home of the agent that brought us over.
60s: What was the reception like once you arrived?
PS: We were based in Oak Lawn at the Phillips Motel Apartments. As soon as people began to find out an English group was staying there, we were besieged by hundreds of teeny boppers. It was electric. The atmosphere was incredible. The other guys in the band had no idea what this kind of admiration was like before. I'd had a lot of experience because I'd played with a big rock star from the late ‘50s early ‘60s called Marty Wilde & The Wildcats. He had his own TV show and had had a string of hits in the UK.
60s: What do you recall being the primary differences between the Blackpool rock and roll scene and the Chicago rock and roll scene?
PS: Very little really. Everyone in the USA liked rock and roll as much as we did in the UK. The big difference to us was the way we were treated. Being English and The Beatles causing the mayhem they did, we were inundated with requests from, mostly girls, to hear the way we talked. Americans seemed more interested in hearing and talking to us and wanting to know about what it was like back in the UK. In England it was just admiration in general.
60s: What type of gigs did you play in Chicago?
PS: At first we did some local hops and battle of the band things until we were picked up by the manager of the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on Rush Street. He took us under his wing and booked us to play at the Whiskey. We did a total of 16 weeks—two on and two off, with gigs out of town in Indiana, Michigan, Philadelphia and New York. (The gigs were to) mostly to promote our records. We did TV shows in all of the places with the odd gig here and there at local hops.
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| Opening night at Chicago's Whiskey-A-Go-Go |
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60s: What led to the Robin Hoods' opportunity to record at Universal Studios?
PS: Our manager got us a deal at Mercury Records. The people from Mercury came to watch us at the Whiskey. By the way, we broke all house records at the Whiskey those first two weeks. The first night I believe they took some $35,000 over the bar on drinks alone.
I think Universal was, at that point in time, the best studio available. Mercury did all of their recordings at Universal. It was a good studio, acoustically, and the technicians were very helpful. Our engineer was a guy called Bruce Swedien. He was top notch. He went on to record the Michael Jackson Album Thriller, plus other (albums by) Michael.
Our sessions were good apart from the track choices by Mercury as to the singles released. We were a powerful rock band—not balladeers.
60s: The Robin Hoods released two 45s: 'Love You So', 'Wait For The Dawn', 'Everything's Alright' and 'Baby Let Your Hair Down'. How would describe the band's sound? What were your influences?
PS: Many influences really. We all came with different ideas as to what music we should play. I can't say that we had any real music tag. We played a variety of different music. We eventually changed from a six-piece band to a four-piece band. Our manager sacked two members for problem causing. We were better as a four-piece; we rocked more.
60s: Did The Robin Hoods record any other songs? Are there any unreleased songs, or live recordings?
PS: We recorded quite a lot of tracks for Mercury. Some of it they rejected (in my opinion a very big mistake); we were a good rock band, but the production staff at Mercury thought differently. As you can hear on our first release, 'Wait For The Dawn’ and ‘Love You So'. The second release was more up-tempo, but we had better tracks in the can that they rejected (strange people at Mercury).
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| Filming the Three Musketeers Candy Bar commercial |
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60s: How did The Robin Hoods land the Three Musketeers commercial opportunity?
PS: Again it was the Whiskey. An ad agency guy from Mars Candy Products saw us and offered us the chance to do the commercials. They were a tremendous success and ran for many years...long after The Robin Hoods were no more.
60s: How long did the Robin Hoods exist? When and why did the group disband?
PS: We started our venture in February 1965 and broke up in November 1965. We decided that we weren't going anywhere. Mercury didn't understand what we were best at playing and we all decided to go our separate ways. I joined The Outsiders (‘Time Won’t Let Me’) and then went to work with The Buckinghams as a tour manager. I gave up playing to pursue my other interests—management and production.
60s: Did the rest of the band stay in the U.S. or head back to Blackpool once the group was disbanded?
PS: I was the only one who stayed.
60s: How do you best describe your experiences with The Robin Hoods?
PS: It was a brief, but enjoyable experience. The guys were really great to be with. It was a pity that we all had differing ideas on what was the best type of music. I think we were destined to eventually fail. But to add...having the chance to be in Chicago was the most incredible learning experience I've ever had. Working in America is a remarkable learning curve. The opportunities for people who are prepared to work hard are enormous.
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| The Robin Hoods: Dougie Stewart, Brian Rayner, Mickey McGeedy and Pete Shelton |
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Addendum:
Fred Glickstein of The Flock recalls that, "I don't know why I never mentioned this but, I gave my phone number to one of The Robin Hoods and was called a few days later. It seemed that they were heading out to L.A. to shoot either a movie or TV show, ala Beatles and Monkees. I was asked to go with them as they needed an extra member to pull this off. So, I actually did fly out to L.A. and met them and did an interview with the movie studio people. I had to fake a British accent and used the name Freddy Stevens. It was the coolest thing. We got to tour the studio, go on location for the shooting of the series Combat and basically got the red carpet tour of the studios."
"After returning to Chicago I learned that there would be no TV or movie deal for The Robin Hoods. Oh well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I actually snuck out to L.A. for this whole thing without telling the other Flock members."
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