One group that was very popular locally was the Bog Stompers - they seemed forever (and I mean forever) to be playing 'Poison Ivy' and 'Love Potion Number 9' .

Alan Thomas

They were sometimes called NM and the Bogstompers .. they became somewhat of our rivals in Wilmslow. They were very raw .. as we all were!

They may have opened for us at a youth club in Wilmslow. They were a short lived band .. and faded pretty fast, after their splash in the Wilmslow Advertiser!

That's all I can remember NM were the initials of their leader Norman somebody or other , as I recall ... 40 odd years later!

David Booker
15/11/09

The lead guitarist was Mike Hewitt (a.k.a - Billy Bog) and the Singer N.M .. was Norman Morrison .The drummer was Stu Wilde who was a mate of mine .. and joined the Drifting Hearts after Gordon Thornton left .

Stu is a retired Chief of Police living in N.Wales

It would appear right now they were from Wilmslow, not Stockport . That's all I have right now.

David Booker
15/11/09

I was a founder member of  The Bogstompers - together with Mike Hewitt (lead guitar- now dead), Trevor Martin (bass guitar -  emigrated to Australia in about 1963) and Joe Broadhurst of Alma Lane, Wilmslow (rhythm guitar - was a copper like myself , now lives in Cornwall I believe). We started off playing just instrumentals as was the thing at the time - Shadows , Ventures, Duane Eddy etc.

We soon realised that if we wanted to make it big and get further than Wilmslow British LegionClub we needed a singer. We took on Nigel Maurice Thompson ( known asN.M.) who came from Bramhall but who we knew from Moseley Hall (Grammar School, Cheadle). He was a good singer, too.

The group broke up when I left them to join The Drifting Hearts as a replacement for the late Gordon Thornton.

N.M. and the Bogstompers was strictly a local thing - we shared the bill with the Four Pennies at Wilmslow Public Hall oncebut that was as close to stardom as we got. Mostly it was local youth clubs, British Legion ( I think Joe Broadhurst's Dad was on the committee), dances in village halls etc.

I don't think Mike Rhodes was ever in the Bogstompers (unless he started us off - can't remember), he was with Cliff Bowes and the Arrows.

Stew Wilde
18/11/09