This cache is placed in honour of The Collies, a St Helens group from the past.
The Collies were a Grange Park based Tribute Act to the Hollies but there was no comparison between the two groups regarding lifestyle. The Hollies made it and The Collies had a dog’s life.
The Collies started out in the 60s when groups were popping up all the time. They had nothing to do with dogs but were fans of The Hollies. The main vocalist’s stage name was Mel N Colly and he started the band in the spare bedroom of his parent’s council house in Upland Road. The other members of the group were friends of his from the area. There was Brock Colly on lead guitar, Stu Colly on bass guitar, and their Russian pal, Panov Colly on rhythm guitar. There were no lassie Collies.
None of them could play any instruments but they bought some cheap guitars from a second hand shop and strummed till they could make some sort of “musical” noise. The main vocalist sang a bit flat but it did not deter them from getting bookings in St Helens in the early days before people realised they were talentless.
In 1966 The Collies appeared regularly in most of the town’s pubs – sometimes even to perform rather than just drinking. The peak of their career was Saturday, September 24th when they appeared in Sherdley Park, giving the townspeople a free concert. It was advertised for a week before it took place and people came from as far away as Sutton Manor to see them.
Sadly the group was short-lived as people could not tolerate their poor performance for long – they were regularly booed off stage before they could embark on their second song and it wasn’t long before they were booed off before they started.
The Collies disappeared some time at the end of 1966 and some say they went off to have music and singing lessons to re-emerge as the Wollies in 1969, a group which did much better than the Collies in so much as they got some applause when they appeared in the town’s various venues.
There was a lot of discussion as to whether or not The Wollies were The Collies and although the appearance of the members of the group looked a lot different it may have just been down to hairstyles, hair colouring and lack of shaving.
The comparison in sound was hugely different and The Wollies soon had some loyal fans. The lead singer’s stage name was Willy Wolly and his voice wasn’t great but it was passable and fortunately the music drowned him out somewhat.
Their name caused a bit of a stir as sometimes people mistook it for The Woollies and reference to Woollybacks (also known as Woollies) does not go down well in St Helens. Due to the frequent misprint there was added misunderstanding with some people thinking it was a popular store not a group.
The Wollies made a living from the group for a couple of years although it was a meagre living and there were rumours of them busking in Liverpool on Saturday afternoons to make ends meet.
No-one remembers what became of any of them; they just seemed to fade out of existence. We still don’t know today if Mel N Colly of The Collies was Willy Wolly of the Wollies and quite frankly, no-one cares!
Congratulations to Hardnut and Mummy Muppet on FTF