W / H / T / V

A hazy memory from drummer Adrian Tillbrook! ‘In 1981 guitarist John Hedley and myself were working with Richard O’Brien in the musical ‘Little Shop Of Horrors’ in Newcastle. We needed to let off steam from time to time so decided to form a band purely for jamming purposes.

The original line-up featured Art McArthur (‘Arty’) from Teesside on vocals and harmonica but I cant recall the first bass guitarist ?  We started to get a few gigs in and around Newcastle to build a repertoire, which mainly consisted of Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Hendrix etc. Eventually we migrated down south to the Southern Cross in Marton, Middlesbrough for a regular Monday night residency. We started to attract a local following due to Arty being on home territory and he was great at rounding up all his mates to come and give the band support.  This was when I recruited Derrick ‘Dek’ Vasey on bass. We also had to find a singer as Arty was getting busy in his role as one of the regions most popular club and cabaret entertainers!  Our new singer was American born Dave Weisser whose style was rooted more in jazz and blues as opposed to the rock repertoire our followers loved. However it still sounded good but probably a bit to diverse to keep the crowd happy. One week Dave couldn’t make it due to an abscessed tooth so John brought in a friend from Newcastle – enter Mick Whittaker. Mick was an instant hit with the Monday night crowd, so much so that the owner/landlady requested that Mick should be a permanent replacement. That was the final piece of the jigsaw that became WHTV (Whittaker, Hedley,Tilbrook & Vasey).

We went on to become the resident band at the infamous Battle Hill Social Club in Wallsend. As well as doing our own sets we were required to act as backing band to the many weird and wonderful ‘Terns’. The highlight of the week being the Sunday lunchtime resident band session featuring WHTV plus guest musicians. We still kept our Monday residency at the Southern Cross going for a while and in addition we would play various guest concerts throughout the region. The favourite one being the ‘Full Circle club’ at the North Eastern, Hartlepool, where its fair to say our appearances became legendary’.