Shops
"The shops close everywhere between 1 and 4pm and then open till midnight. I bought a stuffed crocodile - only a small one - to put in the back of the car."

"I bought long carved wooden pipes," said John. "And Aaron and Johnny Gus bought extra-large beer glasses shaped like boots."

"They are difficult to drink out of," said Aaron. "It takes a lot of practice."

Johnny Gus also bought an Italian LP of THE SHADOWS - "very good" - and a kit for making a miniature car complete with engine.

None bought Italian records - "they just don't have anything worth getting," they all agreed.

Italian girls
What did the boys think of Italian girls?

"They're very snobbish," said Tony.

"But we'd have liked to have brought some back with us," added Aaron. "We couldn't get them through the customs, though."

"All of us are glad to get back to English girls," Tony said.

No beat stars
John mentioned that French pop star RICHARD ANTHONY is very big in Italy, "but beat isn't big business over there. There are no beat stars who are household words like THE BEATLES are in this country.

"They liked us on stage but off stage they just didn't want to know. It was as though we had come from another planet!"

Italian Presley
Returning to the subject of the Italian pop scene, John Banks said, "BOBBY SOLO, an Italian, he's the big thing, he's a solo singer and resembles ELVIS PRESLEY. The Top 20 is dominated by Bobby Solo, RITA PAVONE - the Italian Cilla - and gangs of others, but I can't remember their names.

"There's one British group - from London who went over there two years ago and stayed. They are called THE ROKES and they'd just had a disc released in Italy - 'Shake, Rattle and Roll."

"There are no weekly pop papers, nothing at all, only pop sections in the ordinary papers.

"No, there's not a big pop scene over there: their big names are not household words."

The group wrote numerous songs during their trip and recorded some of them during a two-day session in the studios last week prior to their current theatre tour.

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