We went down a storm and we were very excited about the future but, alas, it was not to be. The management group who were based in Blackburn decided they could promote me more than the complete band and so they sent me out on my own to do what they called ‘the five towns’: Blackburn, Burnley, Bolton, Clitheroe and Wigan. I was never to see the Memories again.

I ended up singing for the following six months in various working men’s clubs and casinos and hating every minute of it. I decided to call it a day and so I went home.

After joining a band in Ellesmere Port we got ourselves an agent again and spent the next two years traveling around clubs in Liverpool and North Wales.

In 1968 I was asked to join a band called the Image from Birkenhead and it was while playing with the group that I met my husband Geoff, who was the bass player. We married twelve months later in 1969 and have now been married 38 years in October 2007. We have one wonderful daughter called Donna.

Geoff and I have formed various bands over the years and have always kept in touch with the music scene. We are both members of Merseycats and the Liverpool Rock And Roll Society and manage to meet up on a regular basis with many musicians from the Sixties, both the famous and not so famous.

In July 2006 we got together with Arty Davies on drums, Frank Van Russell, Gary McInnes on lead and backing vocals, Geoff on bass and myself on lead vocals. We decided to re-form Carol and the Memories.

We got down to some serious rehearsing and it is now once again starting to pay off. We have played the Cavern three times so far and it’s great to see so many young ones down their enjoying our music because we tend to stay true to what we know and play music from the Sixties. We have several agents interested in us and have numerous bookings in the pipeline.

I wouldn’t change anything I’ve experienced in the last forty years and I know my Dad (who passed away in 1997) would be proud of me.

Because, after all, this is what memories are made of.

Editor’s notes: Carol has now been singing for more years than she cares to admit, but she started singing with bands back in 1963.At that time she was seriously into Country & Western music and one of the first songs she sang on stage was ‘I Fall To Pieces’ by Patsy Cline. She then joined a band two years later called the Cheques and worked the clubs in Cheshire and North Wales.

In 1966 she was asked to audition with a band from Liverpool called the Five Aces who were looking for a female lead singer to join them on a tour of Germany. The audition and the tour were very successful and they were offered a recording contract with C.B.S. They recorded ‘Tears On My Pillow’ in the spring of 1966 and the record was released on the 6th June of that year. The band at this time was asked to change the name because of a similar named band in the USA. They chose Carol and the Memories.

Carol stayed with them for about a year then left to form her own band called the Renos. This band took her back to her first love ‘country music’ In 1968 Carol was invited to join a band on the Wirral by the name of the Image. Here she met the bass player who twelve months later she would marry, Geoff and Carol have been together now 37years and have formed several bands over the years including the New Renos, Carousel, Cats Eyes, Savannah, Millers Bridge and now finally back full circle to Carol and the Memories.

In 1966 Carol & the Memories comprised Carol Whitfield, vocals; Kenny Harvey, bass; Steve Harvey, rhythm, Jimmy Chadwick, lead; Billy Bryden, drums.

The re-launched Carol & the Memories comprise Carol on vocals, and her husband Geoff Loftus.

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