Billy Belton

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

Billy Belton guitarist/bass guitarist with Freddie Keil and The Kavaliers, Commodores, Bob D. Five, Trinity, Salty Dog and Ray Woolf and The Avengers

Billy Belton was born on January 25th, 1944.  He studied classical piano as a child, but Bill Haley changed his plans, and thus through the late 1950s to the mid 1970s, Billy Belton was a stalwart of the Auckland music scene, and a guitarist later turned bassist.  He worked at Sydney Eady's music store in Auckland for eight years, bringing him in contact with almost every Auckland musician of the day.  He grew up in Herne Bay, where his next door neighbours were the Keil family of Keil Isles fame.  Herma Keil, Frank Gibson and Brian Henderson (also of the Keil Isles) were school mates at Mt Albert Grammar.  At 14, after reading a newspaper advertisement, he successfully auditioned for a dance band which had a strange line-up – three guitars, no bass, drums, saxophone and accordion.  He and pianist Dave Smith spent a year with Jeff Bolton's Commodores with guitarists Bob Wynyard (The Sundowners), Sonny Manihera and Tiger Purdy, playing teenage clubs. There was a short-lived Shadows style group featuring Tuhi Timoti on lead guitar before he and Dave Smith joined Freddie Keil and the Kavaliers.  Billy was a rhythm guitarist at that point in time, and Freddie Kyle was restructuring The Kavaliers and needed a pianist and a guitarist. That gig lased nearly five years.  Signed to Zodiac Records (at that stage it was still at the famous Saratoga Street studio under Eldred Stebbing's house), the band recorded around thirty tracks including a 12 inch LP and a dozen 7” inch singles. Freddie Keil and the Kavaliers enjoyed youth club residencies in Ellerslie and Panmure and the big one, Eden Roskill in Dominion Road, was huge.  There were other regular engagements, weekends in Northland and the Waikato, short tours for Benny Levin and Phil Warren.  Beach resort residencies were popular every Christmas and The Kavaliers played at Mt Maunganui and Napier, even travelling to Christchurch for a weekend.

The Commodores  —  Tiger Purdy, David Smith, Jeff Bolton
and kneeling Billy Belton and Sonny Manihera

Freddie Kiel and The Kavaliers  —  Dave Paul, Freddie Kiel,
Billy Belton, Jimmy Murphy and Dave Smith, Brian "Tuffy"Smith

Freddie Keil came from the Keil Isles dynasty and, due to some split-up, formed his own bands: first The Zodiacs and then The Kavaliers.  A German-Samoan, he had the looks of a tanned Elvis and worked as a drycleaner, so his stylish clothes imported directly from America were immaculate.  In those times the only way to buy imported clothing (even Levis jeans) was from seamen off English ships in our ports.  He was sharp, and the ladies adored him.  He was an organised and dynamic band leader, he chose the band's clothes, playlists, and everyone enjoyed working for Freddie without any disagreements.  His voice was a bit pitchy but his delivery of the songs plus the total package more than made up for this, and he had a constant supply of American recordings, so the band would cover all the popular American music, following the styles of Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, and all the American singers of the day.  During this period a lot of New Zealand bands were following either the old English pre-Beatles sound or were more traditional dance bands.  Billy had a ball playing with the band from 17 years old for about five years as a rhythm guitarist.  Bigger bands had a distinct lead or rhythm guitarist and players didn't swap tasks.

Billy Belton, Danny Stradwick, Ray Woolf, Norris Nutsford, Tony Bloomfield

The Avengers  —  Norris Nusford, Tony Blomfield, Billy Belton and Ray Woolf

The Newsounds was an Auckland group that was not widely known.  Without a couple of excellent recordings, plus having Ray Woolf in the line-up it would have been largely forgotten.  The group, unusually, had no personnel changes from beginning to its end, and it comprised of Laurie Simpson (organ), Brian Biddick (trombone), Rod Gibson (sax), Ray Woolf (vocals), Al Pachett (leader and guitar), Ian Laird (drums) and Billy Belton (bass).  This group was a follow on from the very popular and successful Al Paget Sextet with its leader, naturally, being Al Paachett.  This was a great sounding formal dance band that played at the popular dance venues.  Before breaking up they changed their style to be an early rock'n'roll band. Al Pachett was a perfectionist and his musical input into any group he played with was - get it perfect, and always get it right.  The venues played consisted of church and public halls, hired by businessmen, to run dances on a weekly basis.  The music style was designed for people to foxtrot, quick step, and waltz.  Al Pachett used the stage name Al Paget, and he was a school/music teacher and a fine guitarist.   Although his Al Paget Sextet went through a number of personnel changes it always sounded great as he seemed to gather good musicians around him.  He was an organised, disciplined musician and therefore reliable for promoters, and as a band leader he was a lovely man to work for.

The Newsounds  —  Billy Belton, Ray Woolf, Ian Laird and Al Pachett

Newsounds 1966  —  Billy Belton, Al Pachett, Laurie Simpson
and Ian Laird