Rising Sons

September 1966, The Rising Sons share the bill with Memphis legend Otis.

A night of nostalgia is beckoning with the long anticipated reunion of The Rising Sons at the Corby Cons Club on April 23rd. Not the Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal California based version of the band, but the Corby based quartet of Pete Buckby, Dewi Toleman, John Hemmings and Jim Gaffney along with special guest Ros Menham.  As it happens, both versions of the Sons operated around the same period of the mid 1960s and, ironically enough, both are having reunions in 2022. Ry and Taj getting together for the first time in 57 years to record an album, ‘Get On Board: The Songs Of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee’, and Pete and the boys reuniting after the same time span to relive and revive their memories from when they were a regular support act around the country to such stars of the day like Otis Redding, The Yardbirds and The Hollies. 

Whilst Ry Cooders’ Rising Sons were a blues based outfit as reflected by their tribute to Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Corby’s Rising Sons were a harmony and soul group, one of the best, their career only cut short when members left to go to university. Belonging to the second wave of Corby Rock, they had followed the successful careers of the likes of the Size Seven, The Crusaders and The Midnighters, leaving an indelible mark on the local scene and far afield. 

For those who thronged to the dances and venues back in those halcyon days of the 1960s, the Festival Hall, Crow’s Nest, Nellie’s Bin, The Welfare, this night at the Cons Club in Cottingham Road on April 23rd will be one of pure unadulterated nostalgia. Tickets are priced at £5 with all proceeds going to the fund of the Lakelands Hospice and also the ‘Charity Pot’, an organisation raising money to provide defibrillators for every club and pub in the town.