The Downliners Sect
 Don
Craine (real name Mick O'Donnell) and Johnny Sutton had
previously been in a Twickenham band called The Downliners.
Following the demise of this band, Keith Grant (real name
Keith Evans) and Terry Gibson were recruited and the band was
renamed The Downliners Sect in 1963. They soon gained a
following at Eel Pie Island in Twickenham.
Ray Sone joined the group on harmonica - apparently beating
Rod Stewart and Steve Marriott for the role - and the group
signed to Colombia Records. Their debut single was a version of
the Jimmy Reed track, Baby What's Wrong?.
From a blues core, The Downliners Sect covered many other
fronts - country, rock 'n' roll, soul, bad taste (the Sick
Songs EP) and self-referential original compositions
- Sect Mania, Sect Appeal (suspiciously
similar to Bo Diddley's Mona), Leader Of The Sect,
Insecticide ad nauseam . . .
An abundance of material was issued, from an independent EP
to three Columbia albums and a pestilence of singles. Yet apart
from a Swedish Number One with a gleeful Little Egypt,
they missed everywhere else.
Nevertheless they had a devoted following and could utilise
an audience's time interestingly, but their confusing mixture of
styles did not reconcile easily on disc. Also, guitarist Don
Craine's deerstalker didn't have the idiosyncratic appeal of
Manfred Mann's beard, Hank Marvin's glasses or Johnny Kidd's
eyepatch.
Ray Sone left in 1965 to be replaced by Pip Harvey who played
guitar and banjo.
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