'Denny Seyton & The Sabres' were labelled as one of the more promising Liverpool bands that never made it. They won a 'Battle of the Bands' contest, released a charting single, 'The Way You Look Tonight' in 1964 and an album, and were regulars at the Cavern Club appearing with many household band names.
Denny, real name Brian Tarr, was the founder of the group in 1964 and was their lead singer throughout all the changes to their line-ups over the years. The original line-up being Denny on vocals, John Francis on lead guitar, Dave Maher on rhythm guitar, John Boyle on bass guitar and Tommy Walker on drums. However their most important lineup featured songwriter Lally Stott on lead guitar, Mike Logan on organ, John Boyle on bass, and Dave Saxon on drums.
Their sound was R&B-based, and some accounts of their early stage sound compares them to 'The Rolling Stones' before they began to add harmonies and incorporate pop influences into their work. Like 'The Beatles', they played a lot of shows in Hamburg and were regulars on the Star-Club circuit, where they had a dedicated following as they looked to emulate the successful sounds of 'The Beatles', 'Gerry & the Pacemakers' and 'The Searchers'.
On the 10th of September 1964 they made a TV appearance for ATV on 'For Teenagers Only' with 'The Fortunes', Billie Davis, 'The Daly's', Mike Rabin and Peter Lee Stirling.
Their first Mercury release, 'Tricky Dicky' c/w 'Baby What You Want Me to Do', and their second, 'Short Fat Fannie' c/w 'Give Me Back My Heart', never charted, but their third, 'The Way You Look Tonight', was a minor hit, reaching number 48 in England. That taste of success would prove to be fleeting however and John Francis left the group in 1964 and emigrated to Canada in 1967. The group had left Mercury for Parlophone in 1964 where they signed as the more contemporary-sounding 'Denny Seyton Group' and their final single on Parlophone, 'Just a Kiss' c/w 'In the Flowers by the Trees' was produced by George Martin.
They had little success with this and little was heard of the group afterwards although they still appeared locally on Merseyside. 'Denny Seyton and the Sabres' disbanded in 1966.
Lally Stott, Tony Crowley, Mike Logan and Robbie Scott formed 'The Mowtowns' in 1966, with the addition of singer Douglas 'Dougie' Meakin and moved to Italy where they had much more success.
Mercury issued an LP, 'It's The Gear', comprised of covers of contemporary hits, in 1965 but that record, a choice collector's piece as of 2003, also failed to chart, and that was the last heard from the group, apart from appearances on compilations such as 'Mersey Beat 1962-1964' in the 1980s and the 2003s 'Unearthed Merseybeat', the latter offering a superb, thumping cover of 'House of Bamboo' and a raucous version of 'I'm Gonna Love You Too'.
See also - http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2016/01/mersey-beat-seftons.html
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