MEN IN PINK – The Delltones: Doo-Wop Days

Snippets from the archives of a bygone era

It’s been 65 years since The Delltones, who only disbanded in 2016, first graced Australian stages in 1958. I was fortunate to catch up with them in 2011 at the Glasshouse Theatre, Port Macquarie, for a picture shoot and article for CX. At the time, things were changing, with the group reverting to their original line-up of a quartet. Twelve years on, I caught up with Ian (Peewee) Wilson and his wife and group manager, Carla, to talk about the doo- wop days and if there was a chance we would again see The Delltones back in pink.

In the 2011 interview, Peewee made mention of a 1959 concert at the Sydney Stadium where The Delltones opened the show, then sang backing vocals for Johnny O’Keefe and American singer Fabian. The 1959 Stadium concert, which was a seven-camera shoot on 35mm film, was commissioned by the show’s promoter, Lee Gordon. However, due to some managerial and distribution disputes, which included Fabian’s management having the headliner’s footage removed from the film, it faded into obscurity and was thought to be lost.

I only recently learned that the film, now entitled Rock ‘n’ Roll (1959), was found in a rusty can at a Melbourne auction in March 2020, and a restored version premiered at Dendy Cinemas Newtown on May 22, 2023. The trailer for the film and a couple of short clips can be seen on various internet video channels.

“We only had about half a dozen songs when we did our first professional gig at Sydney Stadium. We auditioned for Bob Rogers, the disc jockey, in the hope that he could steer us and secure a record deal for us. He sent us down to meet Lee Gordon in the hope that we could secure a spot on the next live show,” said Peewee.

That ‘next live show’ was the 1959 Sydney Stadium Concert, which became the launch pad for The Delltones enduring career.

“When we went to Lee Gordon’s office, we met Johnny O’Keefe for the very first time, and he handed us some of his records,” said Peewee, who says The Delltones were then asked by O’Keefe if they’d learn the backing vocals for his songs.”

“I remember Lee Gordon saying, ‘You’ve got your own spot to open the show’, three songs.

‘You’ve got the backups for Johnny O’Keefe, and do the backups for Fabian’. That was our first professional encounter.”

Peewee says it was mind-blowing for the boys to come out of obscurity and find themselves in front of four thousand kids screaming their heads off.

“They’d never heard of us; we hadn’t recorded at that stage, but they went just as crazy for us as they did for all the other acts.”

There was no audition tape offered at Lee Gordon’s office. “We went into the office and did a couple of acapella songs, and it was a thumbs up from that moment on. And then he (Johnny O’Keefe) used us as his vocal backing band for his records, including ‘Shout’ and a whole bunch of other songs,” said Peewee.

Apart from hearing their hit songs on the radio, which included ‘Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands’, ‘Hangin’ Five’, and ‘Come a Little Bit Closer’, and seeing their numerous television performances, I had never seen The Delltones live until 1992, when they performed in the Starlight Room at Wentworthville. I was the house sound engineer and the employer of the lighting and follow spot guys at Wenty’s, but I didn’t get to mix the band because they brought in their own sound and lighting gear and crew.

In that era, there were a lot of acts just using the house PA and lights, not carrying their own crews or PA and lighting equipment, and if they’d had a hit song or a few television performances under their belt, they just traded on their name. That wasn’t the case with The Delltones, who put a lot of their money back into the touring gear and costumes and progressively built up a very impressive sound and lighting show, which was a far cry from the Bose system that went into a Bongo van when they were touring in the early days.

“We ended up at the peak of our career with a Meyer Sound system. It was a big system, and we had six in the crew at that time. But we wanted to get all of our own gear so we could be independent. We were fiercely independent because we knew we weren’t going to get a lot of assistance from the music industry. They were into contemporary music, and we were into doo-wop and crossover music,” says Peewee.

Towards the end of 2015, the costs of touring with a huge system and other overheads became a cause for concern. Carla was looking at ways to change the business model, but says that things just got too hard.

“We were still touring around with a huge analogue system, which was great because it was just the right system that we’d honed and perfected with Allan Griffin our sound guy, who is a legend. We were going to do some gigs in 2016, but we pulled out because it was time to pull the plug for a while. It was getting a little tedious. I thought, ‘It’s not really fun anymore if you’re always looking at the pennies and trying to make things work’. Our last show was in October 2015 at Taree.”

“We’re still mates (with Allan Griffin), and that’s the same with Steve Wright, our lighting guy. We still talk, and they say, ‘Oh, come on, Mum (they used to call me Mum), please put it together again’, but I tell them I’ve got to play in the garden for a bit longer,” says Carla.

Prior to packing my bags for the 2011 trip to Port Macquarie for the Glasshouse Theatre performance, Carla had asked me to take some press photos of the group because they were reforming as a quartet. So the pictures didn’t include lead singer Danny Mayers, who had announced his imminent departure. I was only proficient in concert photography, where you don’t set lighting, arrange posture, or direct talent because you can’t; it’s all point-and- shoot. You just make sure you have the right camera settings. However, a mate I’d worked with in the 70s used to say, ad nauseam, “When the spotlight hits you, you’ve got to dance.”

Prior to the performance, the band got dressed in their pink outfits, which reflected the theme of their 1984 album, Tickled Pink, and Peewee said, “What do you want us to do?” I went for my comfort zone and suggested that the band sing. We arranged some mics, and the guys armed themselves with instruments. The guitars and microphones were plugged in for authenticity, but nothing was turned on. As I snapped away, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing: an acappella performance with chemically sharpened harmonies. The pick of the shots (pictured) did appear on The Delltones website for a time before being replaced with a more up-to-date picture.

Reflecting on that photo some 12 years later, Carla said, “We have used that shot on numerous publicity promotions.”

The Delltones went through a number of line- up changes after the death of Noel Widerberg in a car accident in 1962. Widerberg was replaced by Col Loughnan, formerly the lead singer of The Crescents, who also appeared in the Rock ‘n’ Roll (1959) film at the Sydney Stadium. Up until 2016, some 22 members have performed in The Delltones.

2023 has been the year of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles releasing new songs highlighted by videos using restored vintage footage. And Stephen Sanchez had a huge hit in 2021 with his 50s-sounding hit, ‘Until I Found You’. In light of the fully restored footage of the 1959 Sydney Stadium show, I asked Peewee if this could be a platform for a Delltones revival.

“I haven’t seen the full movie yet, but I’m hoping to catch up with it and watch it,” said Peewee.

Although invigorated by the restoration of the 1959 Sydney Stadium footage, Peewee adds a note of caution regarding the compatibility of the genre of new material and the vintage of the artist performing that material.

“They will take a contemporary artist and give them a song, or they (the artist) can write a song or record a song that has all the flavours of the 50s or the 60s sound, but if a 50s and 60s artist does it they tend to shy away from it. It doesn’t get the same sort of attention,” said Peewee.

But Peewee hasn’t totally ruled out some kind of revival. “Whether the band reforms or not, I really don’t know. We have talked about it just briefly, but at the moment, it’s still up in the air.”