Originally billed as ‘The Reverend Black and the Rocking Vicars’, the Rocking Vickers’ career lasted less than four years, during which time the group released just four singles, the topsides of which were all cover versions. The quartet was formed in Blackpool in 1963 and their repertoire was initially similar to Merseybeat contemporaries. The group’s popularity led to a one-off single on Decca, who issued the Vicker’s version of Neil Sedaka’s ‘I Go Ape’ in 1964. Both it and the flipside, ‘Someone Like Me’, were excellent but sales proved negligible and the label dropped them. At this point, they often appeared in Manchester at the legendary ‘Oasis Club’ and had a reputation of a wild and unexpected live band, which they strenghtened by using clerical outfits as stage gear. Ian Fraser Willis (the son of a vicar!), better-known today as Lemmy Kilmister, was impressed by the band’s rebelious attitude, something aking to his own personality. So he jumped at the chance to become their new guitarist. After this arrival, the Vickers undertook a tour of Lapland and recorded eight songs, second single included, purely for the Finnish market. This inspired the new idea of wearing Finnish national costumes on publicity photos. ‘Zing! Went The String’s Of My heart’ c/w ‘Stella’ was also issued in the Irish Republic but not in the UK. It was an odd choice for a song, possibly a further attempt by the band to achieve chart success. The Rockin’ Vickers also had the dubious distinction of being one of the first British groups to tour behind the Iron Curtain, traversing Yugoslavia as a part of a cultural exchange with the Red Army Orchestra. By 1966, they secured a new recording deal with CBS, while jennifer Ashley and Gail Colson , two associates of Who/Kinks producer Shel Talmy, assumed management duties. The band was encouraged to share a similar pop-art Mod sound with the Creation and the Birds, two acts signed to the same agency. Talmy’s engineer, Glyn Jones, produced the third single ‘It’s Allright’ c/w ‘Stay By Me’. The ‘A’ side was an excellent Pete Townshend song (wich after reworking became ‘The Kids Are Allright’). Following on from this, the Vickers were very ‘Who sound’ orientated, they were also friends with them and Keith Moon made some guest appearances at gigs. Keeping the association in-house, the Vickers’ last single produced by Shel Talmy was a Ray Davis song ‘Dandy’ wich came close to score them a minor chart hit. But they were beaten by a short nose to a ‘Top Of The pops’ appearance by Clinton Ford, who had also covered the song, along with Herman’s Hermits and the Kinks themselfs. By 1967, frustration pulled the band apart. It was left to Lemmy to carry the torch. Well, I guess you already know. An interesting thing is, that there was also another group titled as Reverend Black and the Rocking Vicars. Dave Rossall, previously a guitarist with the UK Reverend Black and the Rocking Vicars, left England and emigrated to Australia. There he joined a band called The Finks as vocalist and re-styled the band as Reverend Black and The Rocking Vicars, taking the role as Reverend Black himself. Unsurprisingly, they adopted the clerical outfits of the UK band. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.