The Retros

The band's passion and obvious joy in the music is clear in their live act and their recordings. In addition, all of the band members are lead vocalists, enabling them to offer a range and depth of material that few other bands possess. In recent years, Go Go dancers have joined the band on stage, giving an exciting reminder of why the music of the 50’s , 60s , and 70s provided so many people with so much pleasure! In order to please wedding and corporate audiences the band has added some favourites from later decades including ..... (Titanium , Hey-Ho , MrBrightside, Somebody That I Used To Know , Viva la Vida, I Will Wait and Dakota as examples of more recent tracks.) The current line up is: Paul Aitken (drums and vocals) Ben Grove (rhythm guitar and vocals) Steve Morley (bass guitar and vocals) Gordon Sellar (lead guitar and vocals) In the Beginning...The Retros started officially in 1985 but have roots going back to Precious Little in 1975 and The Banned in 1977 ( TOTP + The Charts). Paul Aitken, the drummer/vocalist in these bands, started a new band from scratch, inspired by the material he had known and loved when he was a kid. As interest in the band quickly grew, the band became THE RETROS and the line up changed to: Paul Aitken (drums) and Peter Pontzen (keyboards), joined by two chums from the days of Precious Little: Ben Grove (rhythm guitar) and Graeme Taylor (lead guitar) plus Steve Morley (bass guitar). Life for this line-up began in 1986 at a recording session, which was also videoed, in a rehearsal studio near Blackfriars. The sound of the new band was very authentic with a fresh and exciting delivery. . The Retros proved very successful, playing for large parties and corporate events being booked by Gordon Poole , Mecca and JLA.This success led to the recording of their first album called ' Strings and Skins' and a single ' Pour Your Love' at the end of 1992. By this time Peter had left the line up and Graeme Taylor also left to return to his folk roots in The Albion Band. As luck would have it, Grahame White (Capability Brown.) was available to take over the lead guitar. An excellent vocalist, Grahame added a new dimension to the band - his guitar technique and vocal strengths further added to the the ability of the band to respond to unrehearsed requests! The band released a live album “Undercover” in 2003 and also had a couple of single releases with all the recordings to date being put on itunes by Cherry Red Records. Grahame tragically died in 2010 and his role was taken over by Gordon Sellar –(Beggars Opera , Alex Harvey Band and Freddie Starr’s Band) Gordon had been depping in The Retros for ten years so was a perfect fit.