The Bodysnatchers

Before I talk about The Belle Stars, it seems only appropriate to mention The Bodysnatchers. According to Judy Parsons, this is how The Bodysnatchers were formed.

Nicky Summers really liked the 2 tone groups like The Specials and decided to form a Ska/Blue Beat band. She could just about play guitar and put an advert in the Melody Maker classified ads for female musicians to form a Ska/Blue Beat band.

Stella Barker answered her advert. She had only really played acoustic guitar at home and had just bought herself an electric guitar.

Penny Leyton had learned classical piano at school but had never played in a band before or played an organ.  Penny was doing an evening class at drawing at St Martin's College of Art and put an advert in the art colleges notice board.

Sarah-Jane was teaching fashion design at the college, rang up and went along to the audition to offer her services as a guitarist. SJ had only ever played acoustic guitar before.

Meanwhile, Miranda saw the Melody Maker advert and rang up even though she had never played an instrument before - she asked what instrument they wanted and Nicky said saxophone. Miranda borrowed her brother's saxophone and went along to the audition.

Jane Summers (no relation to Nicky) also rang up in response to the Melody Maker ad, she played drums.

So Nicky's group had a drummer, bass player, two guitarists, a saxophone and organ, but it still needed a singer.

Nicky saw Rhoda in the audience at a gig somewhere in London, and went to her and asked if she wanted to be the singer in the group.  Rhoda went to the audition and passed.

The Bodysnatchers were formed and much to all their surprise became successful almost immediately and were signed to the 2 tone record label. The Bodysnatchers did tours and made two singles, Let's Do Rock Steady and Easy Life.

Then just over a year later in the summer of 1980 they sacked their drummer Jane. They put an advert in the Melody Maker for a drummer which Judy saw. She went to the audition but didn't want to join the group full-time. She said she'd play with them for a one month tour of England that started in 4 days time. She had a job at the time that she didn't want to give up, but she did the tour by taking days off work in lieu of her summer holidays. Anyway, at the end of the tour, she decided she really enjoyed playing in the band. So she gave up her job and joined the band on 26th September 1980. They did another tour of England in October and much to Judy's horror decided to split up! Nicky and Rhoda disagreed with the rest of the band about which sort of music they should be playing.

The Belle Stars

So the rest of them decided to stay together and to form a new band. They put an advert in the Melody Make ads again and that's how they recruited Lesley on bass guitar.

They also advertised for a singer. Lots of people applied and came to the audition but none were quite right. Eventually they got Jennie because SJ mentioned it to one of her ex-boyfriends that they were looking for a singer. He was going out with Jennie and suggested her, although she had never sung in a band before. Jennie was very nervous and it took a lot of persuading to get her down for an audition, but she did come eventually.

And that's how The Belle Stars were formed in December 1980. Penny left the band at the end of 1981 and so they put another advert in the Melody Maker for a sax/keyboard player and Clare Hirst joined the band.

They were formed in December 1980 and played their first gig on December 25th 1980, although they hadn't decided what name to call themselves then.

It was actually a friend of theirs, Gaz Mayall (from The Trojans) who came up with the name of The Belle Stars.

More info to follow!