The photo above was taken circa 1960 at the Kings Hall Cheadle Hulme when we were known as Ray Black and the Steeltones.

When we added a tenor sax we changed to The Powerhouse Six .

The line up from left to right was Peter (Tatts) Tattersall (lead guitar), Ray Black(vocals and rythm guitar),Bernie Burns(drums), Pete Hewitt (bass guitar) and Bernard (Biff) Keegan  (piano).

We laid down a pretty mean sound although I do say it myself and played the Manchester scene around the time of Johnny Peters and the Crestas. We played many various locations, church halls, skating rinks, community centres, dance halls such as Newton Heath Palais, the Kings Hall and a couple of gigs at The Bodega in the centre of Manchester.

We did one show at The Plaza Ballroom in Manchester where I remember a cigar smoking extrovert, who was turning Manchester upside with his Disco shows, saying to me after a rehersal session, "yeah... Okay,  but you gotta get some ginger up your backside and bop a little more!"

That was about 1960 and Jimmy Saville went on to do great things in the dance hall circuit. 

The Midland Hotel in Manchester at a Christmas Party for the staff - Christmas 1961.
This line up in the photo was the same as above except the drummer is Andy Black.
He is still gigging at various functions with an outfit called "BandAge"

I remember one  gig we went to at the Kings Hall in Cheadle Hulme where soon after we arrived they had to evacuate due to a power supply problem so we just set up outside on a warm summer night and played "unplugged"for about 45minutes to a very appreciative crowd!

Going back to the Plaza gig, we had to learn a waltz called (I'll be loving you )Always as this was the change over music from the resident band to ensure a smooth transition of perfomance. What a hoot! A buzzed up testosterone filled group of teenage rockers learning a waltz. But we did it because Jimmy Saville was a stickler for production values!

I could probably sit for ages and bore you to tears but it is good to look back on a fantastic time ...when two or three of your mates came along as roadies but actually were hired muscle to keep jealous boy friends at arms length,(it also helped that they got in free as a consequence!)

If you have any ideas how I could get back in touch with any of the boys to catch up on the last 50(!!) years I would really appreciate your help.

Yours  (still rockin')

Ray Black
9/6/09

To contact Ray, please email paul.