The first time I saw Peter Ham was at Gors School in the Townhill area of Swansea. He was surrounded by a group of children watching him play his mouth organ, which became a regular occurrence in the playground. Peter had the nickname "Piggy", derived from the surname "Ham". We lived quite close to each other and although I can't remember when we first met, I do remember our first practice session as a group. It was in Peter Ham's parents' house in Gwent Gardens, Townhill and, with his mother and father in the next room watching T.V, noise levels had to be given careful attention. It was a Sunday afternoon and there were just the three of us at this time, Peter, David Franklin and myself. Peter was greatly influenced by Cliff Richard's backing group, The Shadows, who had a major hit 'with "Apache", and that was the first number we put together; to be followed by any instrumental music of the day "Perfidia", "Walk Don't Run", etc. So, at this stage, we were solely an instrumental group, calling ourselves The Panthers. Our main problem was finding somewhere to practice and the only place available was David Franklin's father's garage in Gwylfa Road, Townhill, where we spent hours going over our repertoire. By now we had been joined by John Horrell, another school-friend, who played bass. We were then fortunate enough to be offered, by Brian Coffey, the use of one of the halls at Townhill Youth Club, where he was the leader This was a tremendous help to us and we started to collect a few regular fans! Brian also helped us obtain better equipment and, in fact, loaned Peter the money to buy his first solid guitar, a Fentoweil, purchased from a local musician, Tony Harris. He had a band called The Club Four, the drummer of which was Mike Gibbins!

Peter and I spent most of our time together and became close friends, either discussing music or watching other bands in the area, The Fireflies being one of our favourites, along with The Meteorites, The Bystanders etc. By now, the Mersey sound had become popular David Franklin had become involved as a D.J. at The Tower (a local dance hall) and left the band to concentrate on this. He was replaced by a good-looking David Jenkins who took over the main vocal side of things and was a great "hit" with the girls? We were now playing youth clubs, pubs etc. One pub in the Dyfatty area called "The Rock and Fountain" (since demolished) became our venue three nights a week, which attracted a large crowd. So pleased was the landlord that every half-hour, a tray of drinks was sent in for us I don't know how we got through the evening! The band at this time had changed its name to The Black Velvets.

A less happy occasion was when we entered a talent competition at a Workingmen's Club in Abercrave. There was one other group in the contest, The Jaguars, who were good friends of ours and were the resident band at the Club. Well, we did our spot and were quite pleased, until the results. The Jaguars came first, a vocalist came second and us third. Peter was devastated. I had never seen him quite so depressed as he was over that and I think he was starting to become a little impatient with our progress. This prompted another name change and now we were The Wild Ones.

Becoming disillusioned, I left the band for another; but one thing I recall from those early days was when Peter and I had a caravan holiday in Gower. We were going to have a great time, sun, beach, girls etc! But it poured with rain the whole week and we couldn't get out of the caravan; all we had was Pete's guitar and a radio. During our stay, a live Beatles concert was broadcast on the radio and, as usual, the screaming of the fans was unbelievable. Peter jokingly turned to me and said "When I hear this screaming it gives me shivers, it makes me think of my future!"