A POPULAR 1960s band, who formed at Lymm High School and went on to play alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, have got back together after 48 years.

Dudley Underwood, now aged 72, explained how he formed The Renegades with his school friends Gordon Struthers, Gerald Spencer, George Jones and Brian Palfreman.

The boys started the band because they wanted to take part in a school concert to impress an ‘attractive’ teacher but lead singer Dudley excitedly jumped through a chair in the middle of a spirited performance.

He explained that he and his bandmates were influenced by a new kind of music called skiffle, with musicians using homemade instruments like buckets and washboards to create jazz and folk inspired tunes. 

Rock and roll was just taking off in the UK and Dudley said: “You have got to realise what a big change the 60s were. We had just come out of the war and rationing. The music we listened to was what our parents listened to.”

The band began rehearsing at Holts Café in Lymm and went on to play at the Parr Hall, Crosfields Hall and Winwick Hospital as well as starting a rock and roll night, Rock Ball, at St Thomas’s Church Hall in Stockton Heath.

Just as important as the music were the clothes and Dudley recalls wearing a gold lamé suit, white moccasins and beetle crusher shoes.

In 1963 when Dudley was 18, the band were invited to perform on the BBC radio show, Here We Go, the week before The Beatles made their live radio debut on the programme.

Dudley said: “We were petrified, it was recorded in front of a live audience.

“Music was changing and we got to support a lot of the big bands of the time. We were just young kids. We had great fun and we had a sense of humour.”

The group went on to become support act for The Rolling Stones when they played at the Parr Hall on November 25 1963 and played alongside The Beatles at The Bell Hall in 1962.

Dudley said: “Pete Best was still the drummer with them at that time.

“They turned up at the hall just after we had arrived, they carried their own gear, their suits were all thrown inside a bass drum case, all crumpled up. In the dressing room, John Lennon was in one corner with his guitar and harmonica, George Harrison was in the opposite corner with his guitar practicing and Paul McCartney was the chatty one.”

Dudley, who has been involved with bands ever since, explained how The Renegades have now begun meeting up after almost five decades later to jam again.

“It was like we had never been apart, everyone’s sense of humour was the same,” he said. 

“Then after a few beers we decided to make a CD together.”