Frank Yonco was last heard of residing in Bath. He had a TV show in the early '90s broadcast from there, possibly BBC.  It was called "Frank Yonco's Bath night).

The album "Live at the Nashville Room" was released on Decca 'World Of Series as 'The World Of Country Music '. 

Line-up was Frank Yonco (acoustic gtr/vocals), Kit Connor  (vocal) , Jim Hornsby (lead guitar) , Dave (Skid) Marks (drums) and Karl Benson (bass, later to join Frank Jennings syndicate), Tom Smiley Bowker  (banjo / dobro). 

After a tour of Germany  Hornsby left and Smiley Bowker took over on lead guitar , plus the other misc instruments . Hornsby later surfaced as banjo player on the Mike Harding hit "Rochdale Cowboy'.

My brother recalls his tenure with Yonco as being 72'- onwards. Yonco's earlier '60s band was the Texas Drifters. There were many other Manchester country groups at this time - Slim And The Bandits, Mavis And Jack  and The  Country Cousins.

There was a pub out on Deansgate .. (name; anyone?) that featured all these folks and was known as THE C&W Club in Manchester.

David Bowker

I think the pub on Deansgate referred to by Dave Bowker, was further south, where Deansgate becomes Chester Road and was called either the Bull or the Bull's Head. I remember seeing Frank Yonco and Mavis and Jack there, in the very early sixties.

Tom Travis

Of the many country bands that frequented Barratts Of Manchester over the years was the ever popular Frank Yonco & the Everglades.

Now we got to know this band quite well because the lead guitarist, one Mr Ady Edlestone worked at the shop as a salesman come guitar fettler.

They were doing a gig in Manchester one night & Ady invited me down to the gig and so I went with the missus I might add (that's a first). Although country was not my thing, we had a really great evening & enjoyed the show which was very professional.

The young blonde lady Kit Connor was Frank's sidekick in the show & they (the band) referred to her as "Princess Laughing Teeth". Now I don't know what the song was called but I do remember a line from a song that they played & she sang "may the bird of paradise fly up your nose". What the hell was that about?

Frank was a real character, a bit of a loveable rogue and I think that he thought of himself as Manchester's answer to Johnny Cash and he did tend to model himself on the man in black.

Frank worked at that time on a used car lot in Salford and as I was in the market for a change of transport (I should not have told him) Frank turned up at my flat in Altrincham one evening in a beat up old mini traveler that was just two screws short of the going to the scrap yard and despite my fumbling excuses & begging him not to leave it in case the neighbors saw it (it was posh where I lived).

He said try it out over the week and see how it goes - its a good runner!!!!!!!

Well he left it and then he left .That mini never moved from that spot all week until I got in it on a Sunday morning and drove it back to the used car lot in Salford. I gave him my sob story of how I would like it but I couldn't afford it and after a very longwinded discussion I left it with him and headed for home somewhat relieved.

As for Ady Edlestone, he was one of the best at fettleing guitars and not only that but he was a great guitar player and did a couple of dep gigs with the Harbour Lights in the early '70s at Bredbury Hall near Stockport. We met up a couple years ago in Manchester where he was working one Saturday. There was me, Eric Haydock (ex-Hollies) and Ady - we all went out to lunch and had a great time. Ady went off home later and I walked with Eric to Piccadilly Station where I last saw him a little worse for wear, balancing somewhat precariously on the platform after all the chardoney we had consumed. It was a good day out and later that week I spoke to Ady who now lived on his own in Salford and asked him what his plans were for Christmas. He said that he didn't have any so I invited him to join us at my house on Christmas day for Christmas dinner which he did. The wine flowed like a river. I bet he doesn't remember me taking him home.
Ady still works in Manchester at sound control and to this day is still an excellent guitar fettler and nice guy. PS. I still have the vinyl album shown here. It is brand new and never been played. Must be a collectors piece by now! Brian Higham, Barratts of Manchester Hi I was in Franks band in the late 60s/early 70s I think. I remember Brian and worked at the Newcastle branch of Barrats of Manchester. I did one tour of Germany with Frank and also played on the live album ... The World of Country Music. Jim Hornsby
I met up with Frank Yonco at his club called the York Club (back Bootle Street, off Deansgate. Manchester) in around 1957. The first time there, I took along my friends Mavis and Jack Lee, who incidently still run a c/w club in Heywood called The Hobos Retreat. They have kept country music going in and around the Manchester area for almost 50 years. In the early '60s Frank asked me to join his band as a double bass player and I worked for him about 3 years. In this time we also had a small haulage buisiness. I remember that at times we would leave the lorry outside the club or pub where the gig was booked. At the York Club I met up with Slim Traynor; his band were the Hillbilly Bandits and Pete Elliott, the country cousins.

We started to meet up with bands from Liverpool who would come to the York Club - they were the Blue Mountain Boys, Hank Walters, a brilliant guitarist called Carl Goldbey and many more. Then we would exchange visits to their club in Liverpool called the Black Cat Club.

They were very good times about the late 50s early 60s but I would like to think we were pioneers. About that time as country music has developed over the years.

When the York Club shut down, Frank wanted another venue. He managed to try out a pub by the name of the Bull's Head, Chester Road, Hulme, Manchester. This lasted 18 months and during this period Karl Denver and Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boys would come for a free for all.

I remember Johnny Duncan asking Slim Traynor to be his mandolin player in his band but Slim at the time didn't want to go pro. Pete Elliott would become a regular singer. I also met up a most talanted and brilliant young guitarist, Dougy Darby, who now lives in the states.

I remember being on the Gene Vincent show when I was with the Texas Driffters at the Domino Club. I found Gene a very shy man.

The Bull's Head pub changed management so it was decided to move on. The next venue was the Manchester Sports Guild, near Victoria Station. It was mainly a jazz club but on different floors they had folk nights and country/ western. I don't remember how long this lasted but Yonco wanted a change, so Club43 on Amber Street, Shude Hill, was the next venue.

By this time I moved on with the Pete Elliott band for a time.

I am still in contact with all the main players in the bands. Yonco lives in Bath, Slim lives in France, Dougy Darbyin the USA, Pete Elliott in Denton and Ian Mcdowall (part of the Country Cousins) lives in Australia.

I married Frank Yonco's wife, Sylvia, in the 70s and was married for 23 years but sadly she died in Cornwall in 1994,

Frank Yonco wrote a brilliant book called Jack Daniels if you please - the life and times of the British Country legend Frank Yonco. He has travelled all over the world and I found it most compelling reading from his young days to the present.

Derek Clegg

This page has brought back many wonderful memories of the artists we met at the MSG who became friends we met at the MSG, especialy Mavis & Jack.

My self and my wife Barbara were frequent visiters to the MSG and Club 43 during the '60s and '70s.

We had many memorable evenings with Frank & Kit, especialy when Bill Munrow & The Bluegrass Boys performed at the MSG.

One of Frank's pranks was to raffel off his well worn out vehicles - this was one raffle NO one wanted to win.

We left the UK in 1977 for Africa, Zambia, Botswana & RSA. What a pleasure to hear Frank & Kit really did make it. Sorry I wasn't there to see it.

Eric Dignam

Frank Yonco country band in the early days were called The Texas Drifters.

Oon my first visit to the York Club in Manchester,1957, Frank had a great musician in his band  by the name of Rod King who played a fender pedal steel guitar, and bearing in mind steel players were a rare breed in those days, and to make the country sound this intrument was in my opinion the nucleus  of any c/w music.

In and around the '50s Frank had entertained the American GIs at Burtonwood. Slim Traynor and the Hillbilly Bandits also played at their camps. 

Slim always had his ear to a.f.n  radio program transmitted from Germany in the hope of picking up new material to play. These were from the Grand Ole Opry - broadcast relayed to the GIs stationed in Germany. 

Thanks also to our country friends in Liverpool at the time.  A lot of records and music came from the Liverpool docks, as the seafarers brought in from the States and Canada. 

Derek Clegg

Thanks for putting Frank Yonco and his bands on the website. Frank, in my opinion, has travelled far and wide in the world, working along side top american country artists.

He has toured Vietnam  behind enemy lines entertaining the american troops,  the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany and so many other countries.

If you have the opportunity of reading his book  please make the effort. Your local library could obtain it for you. 

The book is called [ jack daniels if you please ]  The life and times of the British Bountry legend Frank Yonco by kelston ross.  [ k.r.a.2003 ].   It's a terific  464 pages book on his early days to the present times with lots of photos on tours with Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash. Lefty Frizzell, Willie Nelson, Carl Perkins, Billie Jo Spears, Hank Williams jnr, Johnny Bond, George Hamilton IV and so many well known american country singers.   he Had his own tv shows with Westward Television, Granada TV did a documentary on him and in 1997 HYV transmitted his show from the River Avon entitled "Frank Yonco's Bath Night