The Metronomes

The Metronomes

The Metronomes was my first official band and included Frank Lacey, guitar & vocals; Larry Edmonds, guitar & vocals; George Matthews, drums and me on guitar, piano & vocals. We were officially together September 1964 to the spring of 1965. Tape recordings of the band once existed, but were lost long ago. It was a very rudimentary band, since we were all just learning how to play instruments and sing harmonies. I wasn't old enough to drive at this point and Larry and I used to carry our equipment by hand to the nearest bus stop, then load everything on the bus (the bus drivers dreaded the sight of us!) for the ride across town to Frank's house. I have very fond memories of Saturday mornings at Frank's. His mom was a wonderful band mother, providing us with coffee, pancakes and scrambled eggs. The noise we made was certainly not worth all that trouble (grin).

The first song we learned was "All I Gotta Do" from Meet The Beatles. To me, this was the ultimate . . . pretending to be a Beatle, becoming date material by virtue of my being in a rock band, and just plain having fun. A great alternative to the football team (grin).

It took about 9 months for Frank and I to realize our musical preferences were different. Larry and I left the band within a week of each other, and George followed suit within a month. Frank reformed the group as The Young Men with John Herwehe (bass, vocals), Tony Boynton (drums), Pete Axtell (guitar, vocals), Rich Adams (guitar,vocals) and later, Dave Killingsworth (guitar, vocals). The Young Men were very popular, and in 1967 released two singles on the United World label, "Too Many Times/Go!" and "Baby That's All/Love's Time", both of which received significant airplay from the local radio stations. Later, The Young Men merged with The Next Of Kin to form Impact! which later became Thackeray Rocke. Thackeray Rocke released "Bawlin'/Season Of The Witch" and "Tobacco Road/Can't You See", both on Castallia Records. These sides have become legendary among 60's garage rock collectors. Not too long ago, they were included as part of the Pebbles series of Garage Rock releases worldwide. Thackeray Rocke attained even greater heights when in 1969 they became Sleepy Hollow, under the management of Earl Jared, who himself once fronted a band called Earl & The Essex.

Frank Lacey passed away in the early 70's. He was a rocker with conviction and seemingly endless energy. I have no doubt that had he survived, he would have attained stardom.