Portsmouth music scene

The Cadillacs




Original Cadillacs 1

Original Cadillacs

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Original Cadillacs 1960

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Cadillacs at Court Lane

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Cadillacs four piece, and also with singer Mick Reeve

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One of the last photographs of Colin with the Cadillacs, and the display at the City Musem in 2009


Original Cadillacs 2

Cadillacs motage


Colin Quaintance

From the Portsmouth NEWS - 13th August 2011
TRIBUTES have been paid to rock'n'roll guitarist and 60s local legend Colin Quaintance. The 68-year-old played in a number of popular bands - including the Southern Sounds and the Cadillacs - and was a key part of Portsmouth's music scene from the tender age of 14. He once famously turned down the chance to join chart-toppers Manfred Mann in their early days because `there was overtime at the dockyard'. From 2004, he reformed the Cadillacs and raised more than £10,000 for charity - earning himself a We Can Do It T-shirt in the process.
Now friends and relatives have spoken of Colin's warmth, humour and love of music after he died from a stroke last month. Daughter Kathy Woodman, 25, said her father had been hugely popular with everyone who knew him. `I will remember him as a wonderful dad,' she said. `But more people will have seen him playing in pubs and clubs across Portsmouth.
`He was a brilliant guitarist and when he got in the right mood he was in the zone - no one could match him. All he wanted to do was give music to people, that was what made him happy. `His passion for music was so infectious it was impossible not to be touched by it.'
Dave Allen runs a website about Portsmouth popular music of the 1950s and 1960s called Pompey Pop - and was friends with Colin for many years. He said: `The Cadillacs were perhaps the first successful Portsmouth rock `n' roll group-working across the south and south west. `Southern Sounds worked through the 1960s and were very popular.
'At that point Colin was working in the dockyard and when the original Manfred Mann guitar player left he was approached, but there was overtime at the dockyard-plus at that point Southern Sounds had more gigs than the Manfreds. `In later years - sometimes appearing under the name Colin Christian - he continued to perform solo and in duos playing guitar and singing. `We used to meet up with him and other local guys from 60s groups every Christmas. Colin was a bright guy, a good companion with a dry sense of humour. `He was a highly respected musician and almost certainly the first local guitarist to play a Fender Stratocaster.'
Kathy, of Hester Road, in Eastney, said she is now in the process of organising a charity concert in memory of her father. She said: `To be remembered through music is what he would have wanted.'

Colin Quaintance - Obituary
Rock 'n' roll guitarist played in 60s bands and raised thousands of pounds for charity
rock'n'roll band The Cadillacs. They became well-known, playing gigs throughout the area and split up in 1962. Colin continued to play in various other bands and especially enjoyed performing in his favourite haunt, COLIN Quaintance was known as a gifted guitarist who formed part of a vibrant 60s music scene.
He was born in Hester Road, in Eastney, and lived in Portsmouth his entire life-aged just 14 he formed his first band, The Hot Rods. In 1959, Colin, with fellow guitarist Pat Green, singer Merv Skidmore, bassist Keith Milton and drummer Bryan Hatchard, formed Old Canal Inn, in Southsea.
Then in 2004, The Cadillacs decided to reform and play gigs to raise money for good causes, collecting more than £10,000.
Colin Quaintance:
Born: June 22, 1943
Died: July 21, 2011.

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