Day: 8 March 2020

1st photo supplied by Janine Anne Hemsley, 2nd photo with Graham Bradley supplied by Len Benton.

Janine Anne Hemsley…..The girls are Carol Guyatt and Linda Upton.

Mick O’Dowd….Looks like  early Whisky Mac. Think that is Pete Horton poking in right hand, Len Benton, Ian “Mac” McGilvary, Tich Turner,Tony “Tweet Tweet” Bird & Pete Horton.+ Girls.

John Wilde…..Wow this is a great photo……but where?

Robert Searle…Another great photo. I see Mac there with Tony Bird

Joe Knight….omg!!! tony LOL

Ian McGilvray….Yeah that’s me (Mac ) with Lenny Benton on My right hand side. I’m the one with the magazine and Tich is the one with the Birds as usual.

Andre Martin…..The reflection in this is the Fine Food Supermarket at the end of Queens Pde, you can tell that by the backward spelling of the name Minimarket and the design of the brickwork. Interesting the ” I’m Backing Britain ” posters can be clearly seen on the windows of the shop in Queens Road roughly where Gamleys or Helfords used to be located. Looks as if the group were on the east side of Queens Road, and the photographer on the West side..

Mick O’Dowd….Confirmation from Pete Horton that this is in fact Deep Purple. He reckons it was taken in Canterbury where they used to play at The Beehive Club.

Tich Turner….Hi All, this photo was taken in Queen’s Rd. We had a bunch of photos taken that day, but I’m only aware of three that have surfaced. One is a great pic of us all in a line, hunched up against the cold, in front of some glass doors somewhere. The other one, is of us standing on the steps of the public toilets that used to be in the town centre, near the Carlisle and we’re poking our heads over the wall. This is definitely Deep Purple. we didn’t actually become Whisky Mac after Pete Horton left and Graham joined, as I wrote. It was later than that. It was directly after Len Benton, our Bass player left and we recruited Tim Duke on Bass. Happy Days, Tich.

Ian McGilvray….I agree Tich

Pete Horton…..Hi from Pete Horton. Sorry about thinking that the pic was taken in Canterbury. I seem to be the odd one out. I cannot remember this being taken in Queens Road, but we were all in the nearby cricket ground with a Hastings Observer photographer on Sunday 4th February, 1968.

Ken Copsey… Great picture.