Lynda Harrison (75), was a member of one of the first girl bands in Britain. Sixty years later, they’re still going strong…
Standing in the recording studio, I leaned towards the microphone. “We soared high into the night,” I sang. I’d travelled from Hull to Stourport with my bandmates Lesley (75), Hilary (76), and Merle (73), to record our new song, Sixteen.
But it wasn’t our first time in a recording studio – we’d been playing music together for nearly 60 years.
In the Sixties we’d been members of one of the UK’s first girl bands, Mandy and the Girlfriends. The band formed in 1964 when Hilary Morgan and Lesley Saxil-Nielsen, both 16 at the time, went to watch a male band perform in our home town of Hull.
Fronting the band was Mandy Smith and, after the show, Hilary and Lesley cornered her in the ladies loo. “What do you think of starting an all-girl group?” they asked her. Mandy appeared to brush this off, but a few weeks later her family placed an ad in the Hull Daily Mail that read, “Girls wanted to audition for brand-new all-girl pop group.”
Although neither Hilary nor Lesley could play an instrument, they applied. And, as the only two girls to respond, they were selected, with strict instructions to learn the bass guitar and drums within six months.
With Mandy singing lead, Lesley on bass and Hilary on drums, my best friend Karen Baker was recruited to play keys and I joined to supply backing vocals. Mandy’s mum was our chaperone and we played venues across the UK. Some didn’t even allow women inside.
In 1966, I left the band due to creative differences and was replaced by Maggie Wedgner. Then, Karen left the band to get married and was replaced by Merle Pryor.
