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Tony Harte Lead Vocalist

His Story

My Roots

 This is the earliest photo of  me taken around spring 1953

I was born in Hackney East London at 8.30am 29th April 1952 in our front room which also acted as my parents bedroom, we had 3 rooms in a large Victorian house that we shared with four other tenants including a barber shop. Other Tenants were bed bugs, Rats and Cockroaches, during these years I contracted some strange illness's including yellow jaundice, scarlet fever, diphtheria, countless other honk yer guts up bugs or run like mad for the one toilet shared by 12 people and all the barber shop customers. 

                  Me with my Mum and Dad 1954                                                                                                                                                                                    

Next door was a very rough East end pub that my Dad spent all his free time in until he got barred for life, as he did in almost all the pubs in the area.                             

Over the road was the spooky bit another pub called The Mildmay Tavern the very pub The Honeycombs were discovered.

My parents were Irish immigrants that always struggled due to either my Dads ill health or him drinking his wages.

Life was tough in those days but my Mum always made sure we had a hot meal and a bath once a week at the local washhouse.        

The Early Years

They were very happy years for me other then school I hated it, I  went to a Catholic Primary School and was taught my Nuns and Priests who in between bashing me with various weapons taught me fluent Latin, so much so when I went to secondary school I could converse in Latin but could not recite the Alphabet.    We were all Street urchins in those days, always getting into scraps, playing on Bomb dumps or smoking fags in derelict houses aged 8yrs.    During one of our street battles with some other Street kids I hit the biggest one with a rock and promptly done a runner, only to run through a fence that had barbed wire threaded through it and I ended up with 150 stitches in my leg and spent the next year infirmed in the same room I was born in.    During these long days I discovered we had a record player and some records and little did I know it then this was to be the time in my life music took a hold on me, I would play the same records over and over the bug had well and truly got me.

 This is me aged 7 with my sister around 1959, I was about to do my first communion and my sister aged 13 her confirmation its a Catholic thing, my Mum saved for many months to pay for the clothes and the photo costs and that's an Irish thing.

The Secondary School Years                  

Having had a gut full of crazy Nuns and Priests my Mum allowed me to go to a C of  E  secondary school, by this time we had moved from the slums of Hackney to a nice house in Leyton East London which in those days was more of a London outreach area. 

During my 4 years at secondary school all I managed to learn was how to fight, smoke, drink and girls and more girls, I was 11 went I had my first bit of Nokkie during lunchtime over Hackney marshes with a girl that was far to old for her years. I often wonder where she is now.

Me with my Mum Dad and Sister 1964

These were good years for me, my Dad had stopped drinking and was in regular work so after my sister got married when I was 12 my parents could afford things they never could before, as in my first Guitar Xmas 1964 a Watkins Rapier in red with a whammy bar and a 50 watt amp.

Most boys of my age spent all there free time playing with parts of their body making them go blind, as for me it was my Guitar 24/7, within two years I had teamed up with other kids from my school and we had our first group " The Ruckholt Raiders" we were shit, but what the hell the girls loved us, and the boys hated us, shit I got so lucky with the girls then.

 My Class photo 1965 I am third from the left in the front row.         

The Teenage Years

After leaving school in 1967 I started work as an apprentice on London Transport, done everything there from driving a Train to working in a Signal Box, I loved the job but it interfered with my Band and I could only  play every other week as I was on shift work.  In 1969 I got the sack and spent the rest of my teens in various dead end jobs, but a least I could gig with my band "The Magic Rock Band" 5 nights a week, and we built up a very large local following and all the perks that go with it.

At aged 17yrs 10 months I got married to my first Wife Val aged 16 and in a matter of weeks we had a child on the way.

Me and my first wife, she was 6 months pregnant in this photo, Sadly our child died at birth 02nd Nov 1971

The Magic Rock Band just got better and better, and soon were supporting acts like Heinz, Marty Wilde, Lord Such The Searchers and many more, the truth of it all was we were a band of heavy drinking womanising arseholes, but we were a kick arse band.

Me 1970 in The Magic Rock Band

1973 came along and with it the birth of my Daughter Angie I was present at the birth and could not talk for almost an hour after she was born, and for me that is a world first.

Me my first wife Val and my Daughter Angie

1975 saw the birth of my son Christopher, I bottled out when it came to being present, once was enough. This also called an end to the Magic Rock Band, the birth of my son was like a wake up call to me and I gave up the rock"n"roll scene as I knew it.

My Son Chris on his 2nd Birthday he is now 32

During the later 70s I was in various bands but in truth had lost heart with it all and by 1980 I had turned it all in and had a proper job as a motor mechanic.

The Middle Years

In 1986 after a four year fight with cancer my Mum lost the battle and died aged 58 I still miss her to this day, we were very close and she was robbed of life when it had just began for her.

My Mum 6 months before her death with my Dad behind on their 40th wedding anniversary

Me my first wife and kids 1986

Along comes 1990 not a good year for me in May an electrical fault resulted in my house being destroyed by fire, by October my house had been repaired, my marriage had ended and I was a single Dad with a pregnant 17 year old daughter and a renegade son.

Photo's From the day my house burnt down

I struggled on for a couple of years, with good times like the birth of my granddaughter Cara in 1991 and the bad times like spending far too much time in nightclubs partying with the girls and drinking myself stupid.

My Daughter Angie then 17 now 34 and my Granddaughter Cara  then 10 months who is now 16yrs

1993 saw my poor old Dad finally get his wish and join my Mum, He died alone in Basildon Hospital as by the time I got to the Hospital at 3am he was gone, but in truth he really died when my Mum did.

That year I met and a year later married my second wife Gill I was 40 and she was 25 and it was a classic case of o shit, I have done a big lulu here, and needless to say we divorced a year later and I was back on the block again, back in the nightclubs and drinking myself stupid again to the point where my Doctor told me I had the toxin levels of a vagrant.

So I went on the wagon just like my Dad before me.    At this time by chance I was offered a job in a band from an old friend and I snatched his hand off, we were a bunch of 40 year olds and we called the band "Not Dead Yet" well into 60s heavy metal, the truth being we were too loud to play anywhere, so myself and the lead Guitarist formed a duo called "Sods Law" and for the next 4 years we done the pub and club circuit.

Me and Roy as Sods Law 1995

The Recent Years                     

1994 was a good year for me, I had cut the booze down, I was back in a Band, my second Granddaughter Harriet was born, who is now 13 and best of all I had a new love Julie who I had known since 1987.    By this time my music was growing week by week and I had regained what I turned my back on some 15 years before.

Me and Julie on Holiday 1994

Me and my two Granddaughters Cara and Harry aged 8 + 6 yrs

In 1997 me and Julie got married and to this day we are lovers, best mates and go everywhere together, and chuck the odd vase at each other, Julie even went with my daughter to be present at the birth of my third Grandchild Kia who is now 7 and all boy.

Me and Julie Lisa and Steven my Step kids who are now 21 and 18 on our wedding day 1997

My Grandson Kia who is now 8

2002 saw the birth of my very special Granddaughter Abbie who is now 5 years old and a little cow, I call her my limpet mine!! coz she's mine and sticks to me like shit to a blanket

My Granddaughter Abbie who is now 7

Between 1994 and 2004 I have had the good fortune to work with many big name 60s acts and touring with the 60s show " The Beat Go's On "

                   The Bachelors                                                Bucks Fizz                                                            John Leyton                                        Billie Davis                                        Ed Stewpot

      Peter and Robin Sarsteadt and Billie Davis                                       The Searchers                                                             PJ Proby                                                           Billie Davis with Jet Harris

2004 came the offer to join The Honeycombs and again I snatched their hand off.

The Honeycombs are a great bunch of guys and we have a real blast when we are on the road.

So that's me I am 56 now and still doing the same shit I was doing 42 years ago.

AND I HOPE I CAN SAY THE SAME WORDS IN 20 YEARS TIME

As for today

Here are some recent photo's

Tony's Pet Cat Spike defending her territory from other cats

I give my step son Steven a bad time as my Team Leyton Orient trash his Team Southend Utd

Me and Julie Sun it on holiday

Me and my Special Granddaughter Abbie

Me and Julie sunning it big time

The best Time of day..............Dinnertime

My 56th Birthday

From back to front....Me...Dirty Dolly...Cara my 16yr old Granddaughter...Angie My Daughter...Harriet my 14yr old Granddaughter...Kai my 8yr old Grandson...Abigail... My 7yr old Granddaughter