The ShadowMusic Web Community

http://youtu.be/JNHwkJ3aE64

Spotted this track on you-tube today. It's called "Forest Fire" and was co written by Hank Marvin. I thought that it contained a little part of a certain ground breaking instrumental released after this. See what you think ?. Incidently, what became of Peter Chester?.

"Forest Fire" is a great little track. I quite like the releases by the Pete Chester Group and Pete Chester & The Consulates - they have a certain style and charm about them. Pete Chester continued to write songs for Cliff into the early 60s. He was last heard of (I think) driving trains on the London Underground some years ago. Contemplating things now - he played quite an important part in the early Cliff / Shadows story - but has very rarely (if ever??) been interviewed about it.

Bests....Rob

The resemblance to Apache is uncanny - not just the main motif, but also the bridge. However, I see that it was released as a single in April 1961, which might explain that similarity. Apache was definitely available as an influence by then.

I don't understand the visuals, though. The Pete Chester single was nothing to do with the 1950 film "D.O.A.", was it? In any event, the credits say that the movie's music was by Dimitri "High Noon" Tiomkin...

JN

http://www.45cat.com/artist/the-pete-chester-group

I'm glad that it wasn't just me who could hear Apache in this track. I don't know why the esteemed Sir Basilde brush has connected D.O.A with this track, I suppose the mood of it fits the film.

I think Pete was a guard on the old BR Southern region, according to a newspaper cutting I have somewhere. He said that he's didn't give up music, music gave him up...

George

George Geddes wrote:I think Pete was a guard on the old BR Southern region, according to a newspaper cutting I have somewhere. He said that he's didn't give up music, music gave him up...

George

Such a familliar story. You would have thought that with his family background, Peter Chester would have stood a better chance of making it than most. In my area, Peter Jay is still working in showbusiness, it didn't hurt having a father who ran many of Great Yarmouths theatres !!!!!!.

When i lived in Folkestone,Kent about 20 years ago Pete Chester had a stall in the indoor market there. For the life of me i cannot remember what he was selling! He used to have a picture of his father hanging at the back of the stall. It's only now i wish i had approached him about his early life!

Brian.

Ten Swinging Bottles was good but B side Whole Lotta Shaking On The Range I think was much better. Both have travelled well over last 50 years

I can confirm that Pete lived in Folkestone as for many years he was a customer at my video store there. I had been playing a Cliff cd one day, Please Don`t Tease, Pete came in and said do you like that song. I said yes and he replied, good cos I wrote it! He was one of the nicest blokes you could wish to meet. Yes, he ran a stall at a local indoor market and once a week he would drive his Dad up to BBC Pebble Mill for his radio show. Charlie died in 1997 and I lost touch with Pete soon after, maybe he moved out of the town. He did sign a cd for me which included a couple of the Pete Chester group instrumentals. He never lost his love for music and helped the local band Maroondogs (best group in Kent until the unexpected death of guitarist Bob Coltart at the age of 35) They would play a charity gig at the Bandstand each year and Pete would go along and speak about his time with Bruce and Hank between numbers. I came across this article in a Melody Maker dated 12 July 1958 - CHESTER, JNR.- DISC STAR Columbia are today (Friday) issuing a record by five schoolboy jazzmen who call themselves The Chesternuts. Leading the group is Peter Chester, 16-year-old son of comedian Charlie Chester. He wrote both the tunes -`Teenage Love` and `Jean Dorothy`. The disc will be played in the deejay programme `Home Spun` on Monday and the boys will televise in `Six Five Special` tomorrow (Saturday) The disc is being flown to America. Other members of the quintet are Gerry First (amplified harmonica) Neil Johnson (Piano) Bruce Welsh and Brian Rankin (guitars and vocal harmony) "Knowing the hazards of show-business, we tried to discourage Peter" said Mrs Chester "But he wouldn`t be put off and did the whole thing alone".
Mums, don`t ya just love `em!

To add to the above - there`s a picture of The Pete Chester Group at

http://www.bradfordtimeline.co.uk/mindex61b.htm