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The Kingfishers

Line-up  included

  • Ernest 'Ernie' Molloy - lead guitar (cream Gibson) (1958 - Late 1959)
  • Roy Crewsdon - rhythm guitar (Gibson Jumbo), lead vocals (1958 - Late 1959)
  • Peter 'Pete' Birrell - Jazz bass, lead vocals (1958 - Late 1959)
  • Bernard 'Bernie' Dwyer - drums (1958 - Late 1959)
  • Frederick 'Freddie' Garrity Jnr - lead vocals, cheap guitar (1958 - Late 1959)

The Kingfishers formed in 1958 in West Didsbury, Manchester 20 with a line-up of 16-year-old Ernie Molloy on lead guitar (cream Gibson) (b. Ernest Molloy, Friday, May 23, 1941, St Mary's Hospital?, High Street, Burnage, Manchester 19, Lancashire, England), 16-year-old Roy Crewsdon on rhythm guitar (Gibson Jumbo), lead vocals (b. Thursday, May 29, 1941, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester 21, Lancashire, England), 16-year-old Pete Birrell on Jazz bass, lead vocals (b. Peter Birrell, Friday, May 9, 1941, Wythenshawe 22 (or 23),  Manchester, Lancashire, England) and 17-year-old Bernie Dwyer on drums (b. Bernard Dwyer, Wednesday, September 11, 1940, West Didsbury, Manchester 20, Lancashire, England d. Wednesday, December 4, 2002, St. Anne's Hospice near Heald Green, Cheadle, Cheshire, England of cancer).

Molloy was the middle of three boys, the oldest being Harry Molloy (b. Henry Molloy, April 1940, Burnage, Manchester, Lancashire, England) and the youngest being Johnny Molloy (b. John Molloy, 1943, Burnage, Manchester, Lancashire, England). They all grew up in Burnage and went to Burnage Grammar School, Burnage Lane, Burnage, Manchester 19. Ernie Molloy later studied at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, Manchester.

Later in 1958 The Kingfishers was joined by Freddie Garrity (b. Frederick Garrity Jnr, Saturday, November 14, 1936, 123 Crescent Road, Crumpsall, Manchester 8, Lancashire, England d. Friday, May 19, 2006, Gwynedd Hospital, Ysbyty Ifan near Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales).

At the time of his birth Garrity was living at 11 Chandley Street, Ancoats, Manchester 4. Garrity and was the eldest son of miner, general labourer, later dye-mixer Freddie Garrity Snr (b. Frederick Garrity) and Mrs. Elise Garrity (b. Elise Clynes). He had a younger brother Derek Garrity (b. 1939, 11 Chandley Street?, Ancoats, Manchester 4, Lancashire, England d. October 2020, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain) who did his National Service. Freddie Garrity grew up in Glynn Gardens, West Didsbury, Manchester 20 and went to Yew Tree Secondary School where he played football for the school team as he was a talented schoolboy footballer. He later had trials with Burnley and trained with Manchester City and Manchester United football clubs.

Garrity was a talented schoolboy football, he was also steeped in the city's popular entertainment tradition. After leaving school at 15 in 1951, he signed on for an engineering apprenticeship that would have lasted seven years had his musical talent not began to emerge. He started to practice his guitar skills on the shop floor of the Turbine Factory and show them off at staff dances. He was later a shoe salesman, a brush salesman and then a milkman.

Garrity, a fanatical Manchester United fan, he began to get pub gigs. Then during the first year of his apprenticeship, he won a local talent contest in 1956 at The Locarno Ballroom, Sale with an Al Jolson song 'April Showers.' His prize for winning was an electric razor, even though he hardly shaved.

During the Skiffle era influenced by Lonnie Donegan (1931 - 2002), Freddie Garrity on a cheap guitar and his younger brother Derek Garrity on tea-chest bass formed in 1957 in the area in which they he lived called The Red Sox (Skiffle Group), who played around the Manchester area and which lasted three years. In 1958 they were runners-up in the north-west Skiffle championships at The Locarno Ballroom, Washway Road, Sale. Subsequent bookings in and around Manchester at labour halls and cinema intermission kept them busy, but Garrity's fiancée prevailed upon to leave the group to sing with the less demanding John Norman Four. Within weeks he had joined The Kingfishers.

In Late 1959 The Kingfishers became The Dreamers and in March 1962 mutated into Freddie and the Dreamers.

 

John H. Warburg  1/12/23 Some info came from ''Call Up The Groups The Golden Age Of British Beat 1962-67'' (Blanford Press, 1985) by Alan Clayson