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Back in the very early '60s, entertainment groups, such as the ACE Harmonica Band, used to tour the province, providing a wide range of entertainment for dances and concerts. The band included about 12 Chromatic Harmonicas, Accordions, Guitar, Drums, 3 Vocalists and 3 Univox keyboards - (which provided a great sound for Telstar). Particularly for rural areas, the band would often add extra performers such as dancers, magician, ventriloquist, mime group, comedian etc. as part of a total entertainment package. In the Band, Ross Taylor played Chromatic Harmonica and also an amplified double-tier Bass Harmonica, but with the advent of The Shadows era, bought and learned Bass Guitar from Tony Verplak at the Copper Cat. Within the ACE Band, Ross met Jim Lange (Steel Guitar) and his sister Averil Lange (Accordion/Guitar) and so performed some items as a Guitar Trio. This led to other independent gigs and with the addition of Anton Korunic (Guitar/Vocals) in 1963, gained a residency at The Lancaster Lounge under the name of The Marcasites, playing Shadows, Ventures, Santo and Johnny instrumentals and many popular songs of the day. Later on, the group did one or two gigs with Allan Brown on drums. From there, all progressed musically in different directions. Allan moved to The Viscounts, Anton to solo work, Jim to a very busy and successful career playing pedal steel-guitar with Country Music shows on TV and around New Zealand (The Patsy Riggir Show, Val Elliot etc.), Ross to local residencies with rock and jazz groups, C'mon Show etc., Averill at age 80, is still playing Accordion, Guitar, Ukulele and Keyboards! |
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