Description
The Wimple Winch Story starts in Huyton, Merseyside with a bunch of likely lads called Dee Fenton and The Silhouettes who were a regular fixture on the exploding Liverpool club scene in the early 1960s performing at The Cavern Club alongside their mates The Beatles.
While most Manchester musicians in the early ’60’s longed to be part of the Mersey Sound, frontman Demetrius “Dee” Christopholus felt that Liverpool had “become saturated with groups”. He made the unorthodox decision to head up the East Lancs road to sign with Kennedy Street Enterprises in Manchester who also managed Herman’s Hermits and Freddie And the Dreamers.
Along with his fellow bandmates John Kelman (lead guitar), Barrie Ashall (bass) and Lawrence “Larry” Arendes/King (drums), they became the Four Just Men and later Just Four Men. The band toured with The Rolling Stones in 1964 and released two singles recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Despite their pedigree, commercial success eluded them. Manager Ric Dixon inexplicably turned down the offer of a Bacharach and David classic ‘Trains and Boats and Planes’ which went on to be a hit for Billy J Kramer and The Dakotas in 1965.
In early 1966, Dee decided that he’d had enough of dancing to someone else’s tune and adopted a more revolutionary approach. The band took on a new name “Wimple Winch” and a change of musical direction towards a heavier psychedelic sound that became known as “freakbeat”. Dee’s new songwriting conveyed the anger, resentment and frustration he’d experienced in the music business.
In June 1966, Wimple Winch released the raw ‘Save My Soul’ on Fontana Records which has become their signature song. Almost fifty years later, the searing bass line would be sampled on ‘Cosby Sweater’, a Top 5 hit by Australian hip-hop group Hilltop Hoods, giving them their highest chart placing to date.
After an exhausting stint of playing to American soldiers in Frankfurt, Germany, Wimple Winch were offered a residency by their managers Mike Carr and Peter Robinson at The Sinking Ship club in Stockport. For Dee and Larry, this was an ideal opportunity to live and play on the same premises. It was in the sandstone caves of the club at the end of the night, that Dee wrote their next single, the epic ‘Rumble On Mersey Square South’ based on the ongoing aggro between the mods and the rockers in Stockport.
Dee became involved in the running of the club and even took on the booking of an up and coming artist – Jimi Hendrix – for the launch on 12th February 1967 with Wimple Winch playing as the support band. Less than two months later on 6th April 1967, The Sinking Ship Club was completely destroyed in a fire and Dee and Larry were very lucky to escape with their lives.
They were woken in the night by thick acrid smoke in their flat and realised the only way to escape was out of the window. They tied bedsheets together to lower themselves down out of the first-floor window as the fire brigade arrived and then Dee had to rescue the club’s guard dog Lassie who had been hiding under the bed.
The fire at the club destroyed all the band’s equipment and effectively signified the end of ‘Wimple Winch’. Years later, due to the release of ‘Freakbeat’ compilation albums including Wimple Winch material, the band’s original singles have become cult classics and highly sought after by collectors with a price tag of several thousand pounds. Dee went on to have a successful career in musical productions of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ and ‘Hair’ with his life-long partner Jacqueline.
Sixty years on a new audience are discovering the music of ‘Wimple Winch’ which are now cited as masterpieces of British psychedelia.
