Micky Harris (vocals)
Brian Collingwood (bass)
Brian Yeates (Mark Stuart) (vocals)
Johnny Beresford (saxophone)
Michael Carroll (lead guitar)
Bob Clare (drums)
Archie Edwards (rhythm guitar)
John Lodge (bass - replaced B.Collingwood)

 

 

 

 

 

For some time, Micky Harris & The Hawks had played the local pubs & clubs around Sheldon, Solihull and Acocks Green when bass player and the band’s leader Brian Collingwood invited a 16 year old Brian Yeates to join them as their fifth member, on rhythm guitar. Yeates had just acquired a new Hofner Club 60 guitar adding an exiting look and sound to their performances, securing a regular Sunday slot at the Lyndon.

 

 

 

Their repertoire up to that point had been mainly Cliff Richard covers and Yeates’ role soon developed to include popular vocal turns with songs from the likes of Eddie Cochran.

 

Lead singer Micky, who’d fallen in love, started to miss more and more bookings so Yeates duly took up the mantle on vocal duties until Collingwood announced that he was sacking singer Harris and inviting Yeates to officially take over.

 

Happy to rise to the challenge, Yeates insisted that the Cliff Richard emphasis would need to change, he brought in saxophone player Johnny Beresford, a keyboard player as well as Irish lead guitarist Mike Carroll, with Bob Clare remaining on drums. The band was renamed as Mark Stuart & The Crestas, with Yeates adopting the Mark Stuart pseudonym and honing his music/gymnastics stage act!. Archie Edwards was recruited on rhythm having had some local success previously with the Gladiators and the Modernaires.

 

The bookings expanded to include a variety of youth clubs, the Hen & Chickens (Oldbury), the Wheatsheaf, the Bull’s Head as well as larger clubs such as the Carlton, the Cedar and the Moat House. They even ventured over to Congleton and Uttoxeter to great reception.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The band was amongst 14 of Birmingham’s best known groups to feature on the legendary “Brum Beat” album on Dial records, with “St. Louis Blues” being their popular contribution. The Carlton Ballroom’s Phil Myatt approached Yeates with a proposal he’d received from M&B to sponsor a local band, but, not wishing to change their name, and with success looming on the horizon from their recent Dial recording, the offer was declined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In early 1964, Collingwood decided to vacate the bass position leaving the way open for a young John Lodge, as shown in March 1964’s pop newspaper Midland Beat. Lodge was known to the band from his time with El Riot & The Rebels who had split some time earlier, deciding not to make the trip to Germany with Ray Thomas, preferring the security of his apprenticeship at Parkinson Cowan (a stove manufacturer). Lodge stayed with the Crestas until their split within a few short months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although no further record deals transpired, the band did cut a 2-sided acetate at Domino studios in Albrighton featuring a Drifters cover of “I’ll take you home” and instrumental “Manhattan Spiritual” on the b-side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos supplied courtesy of Brian Yeates.