Nero and The Gladiators
Nero (Mike O'Neill) had previously played keyboards as a member of
The Cabin Boys, the backing group of Tommy Steele's less famous
brother, Colin Hicks.
He and bassist Rod 'Boots' Slade formed The Gladiators
originally with Laurie Jay on drums and Colin Green on lead
guitar. Green was then the lead with Billy Fury's backing
musicians The Beat Boys who would later become Georgie Fame's
band, The Blue Flames.
It was this Gladiator's line up that recorded the classic
guitar led instrumental, Entry Of The Gladiators. The
follow up, In The Hall Of The Mountain King, with
its wonderful vocal intro "Ah, say there Brutus, like, where
is this king's pad?" featured the guitar work of Joe Moretti
and drums of Tommy Brown.
Despite the minor success of the first singles, the original
line-up didn't last long and Green moved off to what he presumably
saw as a more secure future with The Blue Flames shortly after
recording their third offering, Czardas.
A lot of personnel changes followed and the group managed to
record only one further single, Tovaritch, which no
longer credited 'Nero' in the roll call.
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