Mystery BrumBeat personality Bulls Head Bob asked Megan for her early memories of starting out as a bass player and what guitars she opted for along the way; My Guitars... for the love of Freda

Eden Kane Eden Kane was born Richard Sarstedt on 29 March 1942 in Delhi, India, where his father was the accountant to… A couple of friends and I had a so called 'group'. I don't think we ever selected a name but we had lots of ideas! Margaret Griffiths, a lifelong friend, played the piano and her friend, Anne Abernethy, who lived across the road, improvised on 'drums' with knitting needles and biscuit tins. I proudly twanged away on my plastic strings! We just rehearsed a lot but were really a "sitting room group". We considered "Let's Have A Party" to be our best number.

Top tracks

Like Dreamers Do" / "(BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM) Everybody Fall Down" (Decca F 11916) June 1964 (#20 UK) Originally called The Crestas, they formed in 1961 in Olton, Solihull. Phil Cash - rhythm guitar, Martin Baggot - lead guitar, Don Gould - organ, and Gerald Freeman -drums had been in the scouts together, they were complemented by Megan Davies on bass guitar, who stood out in the same way that Honey Lantree did in The Honeycombs. The pop music scene was very fresh in those days with no real expectations of longevity. George Harrison famously said that he expected the Beatles to "last for four years". We had by 1966, made our way into the financially lucrative Ocean Liner cabaret runs on the RMS Queen Mary, RMS Queen Elizabeth and RMS Queen Elizabeth II.

Tell Me When" was written by Les Reed and Geoff Stephens. On the suggestion of publisher and producer Frank Poser, Stephens teamed up with Les Reed, with neither having yet written a hit song. After being played part of a tune Reed had written, Stephens thought that the words 'tell me when' fitted exactly. The phrase, used when pouring a drink, was applied metaphorically in the song to refer to a relationship, i.e. per the lyrics 'tell me when you're ready to be mine'. [1] [3] Great Ormond Street Hospital– a famous hospital in London specialising in pediatric care (medical care for children) Where Megan has worked since the late 1990s. Entire Decca output accompanied by new sleeve-notes featuring quotes from the band's bassist, Megan Davies They signed to Decca late in 1963 and their first single "Tell Me When" was released in February 1964 reaching umber 7 in the Record Mirror chart (number 5 in the much more influential Melody Maker chart Melody Maker chart listings here) Steppenwolf Canadian-American band Steppenwolf was formed by German-born guitarist and singer John Kay (real name, Joachim Fritz Krauledat) in 1967, playing…Megan Davies (born Megan Kelso Davies, 25 March 1944, Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire), bass (from early 1961) [2] The Scouting movement was a big feature of my upbringing. Dad was a Scout Master and mum, a Guide Captain. At the age of fifteen, I moved from Girl Guides to assist with Wolf Cubs and in 1960, the 1st Olton Scout Group were preparing a Gang Show and when asked "Can anyone play an instrument?" a few of us took up the challenge. Martin Baggott, Phil Cash and I possessed guitars and Gerry Freeman was the obvious choice as the drummer because he was the lead drummer in the Scout band.

Megan Davies joined a Brum group called Mongrel - the same band that provided members for Roy Wood's chart-topping "Wizzard" after he left the Electric Light Orchestra (see The Move). Megan later gave up music full-time to train as a radiologist after which she worked for many years at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London where she no doubt helped save many lives, surely a most worthy career for a former pop star. We were later to move to the Gibson 335 Stereo guitars and I used a matching Epiphone Rivoli Bass - all in sunburst. I don't know what finally persuaded me to switch to the Epiphone but I seem to remember getting it for a price that I couldn't refuse plus, it was a new design and very much in fashion! In 1964 Birmingham had its first group in the Top Ten. Their follow-up release was given to them by The Beatles! They made a film!! They appeared at the incredible NME Poll Winners concert!!! The solid body Hofners were an improvement, at least image-wise for a while but the dream of the majority of guitarists was to own a Fender. The year was 1962 and Selmer had just started distributing the Fender range of guitars (Stratocasters were 163 guineas new). "Monk" Mutch ( Johnny Neal and The Starliners) let me use his Fender bass at one of John Singer's Town Hall gigs and I was smitten (by the bass and Monk's playing).You might be wondering why I didn’t get Megan to play some bass for us, which would have been really nice of course. The amps at the time were those Leak/Grampian/Linear 'clone' basic amplifiers that had a metal cage casing, through which you could see the glowing valves. The valves were always coming loose. I'm not sure they were meant for so much travelling. I remember browsing for accompanying speakers in the Radio Spares shop which was situated in the Great Western Arcade in Birmingham. Speaker cabinets were made by various fathers who were also often commandeered as roadies or managers. When Martin got his first Watkins Dominator we thought we had arrived. Drummer Gerry Freeman persuaded Megan Davies, a fellow Sunday School teacher (and later his wife) to come in on bass. Adding organist Don Gould in 1962 the band went forth as The Jaguars, specialising in instrumentals. Megan Davies recalled; "The downside to this is that we became pretty much isolated as pop artists and out of touch with the local and national music scene. Nevertheless, those three years at sea were great fun." After Three Little Words also stalled at #23 it became clear that the ‘Solihull Sound’ was not going to eventuate.

They notched up a highly respectable number 23 with "Three Little Words (I Love You) during that tour but after that things drifted. Arguments with the record label over their next single and general public apathy meant that like many good bands they faded from public awareness, although they continued touring up to the end of the sixties. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. I know Megan because I’m mates with one of her sons, Jake – or Jacob as she calls him. I met Jake at sixth form college and we played music together in bands over the years. NOTE: This single (A side) was never recorded but was promoted by the record company as the next release.Accent, The Yorkshire group The Accent were originally known as The Blue Blood Group before moving to London in 1966. They secured… Cliff and The Shadows was definitely the way to go. There were very few other role models to choose from anyway, and we gradually went electric. It was obvious then, that one of us would have to change to bass guitar. Here, I think the story goes, "Well, you're the worst guitarist, Megan. You can play bass." I'm not sure that it was actually said in so many words, but that's the gist of how I got the job. The record was a brilliant and catchy composition - fitting the times perfectly. Produced by Mike Smith, it peaked at Number 7 in the U.K. and remained in the charts for 13 weeks. Some of the band members were still going to school at the time!