O'Connor Family Page Family History Genealogy Model Aircraft Specs Appeal Shadows Backing Tracks Family Matters Family At SeaAbout Us.
As I said on the Home Page Julie and I have many hobbies of which the most important at the moment is Genealogy and we both work very hard at getting as much family history info as possible. I am also interested in building and flying radio controlled model aircraft, and playing my old guitar Though I don’t do it professionally any more as I did for some years on the northern club scene and the best time for me then was when I took my children on the stage with me and ended up winning act of the year award as Flingel Bunt ( see photo left). The
boys are still playing together from time to time around the south coast and are known
as Tore Down. I also enjoy writing songs and poems some of which you
will find on this site. One of the projects I am working on at the moment is a rewrite of a book of memories that my grandad John O’Connor wrote on his death bed which tells of his very interesting life from 1876 - 1961 and the hardships people endured in the north east of England at that time. Our
family history work is most interesting for us with my gg grandparents
coming from Ireland in the 1840’s & my g grandad on the other side
coming from Sweden. I think the most important thing in our lives
though is our twilve wonderful grandchildren who we love a great deal
and spend a lot of time with and are very proud of ( see photo's home page ).
Almost all our family support Sunderland football team and have had
many years of pleasure from doing so but like most teams that suffer from money
starvation they have their ups and downs. but we will always support the Black Cats
God Bless all those who play and
support at the stadium of light.
Flingel Bunt.
The band started after I took the whole family to see The Shadows at the city hall Newcastle in 1982. Kevin who was ten at the time and always been a fan of The Shadows drummer Brian Bennett asked if he could have a kit of drums for Christmas. I told him he could if he went to drum lessons before hand.
Kevin went to the lessons and got his drums and for his age came on well. About that time Kevin wrote to Brian Bennett the usual fan letter and a few weeks later received the first of many encouraging letters back from Brian who was always very kind and supportive. In the package was a letter some signed photo's and a small box. In the box was a silver chain with two silver drumsticks
hanging on it. Kevin I remember was overwhelmed and cried, not believing that Brian could have been so kind. From that moment on Kevin practiced like a wild man and though I had given up playing in the clubs and had no intention of ever going back I did sit in with him sometimes to play Shadows numbers. Christopher my oldest son became interested and wanted me to teach him the rhythm part for Apache which I did. Then came Stephen who also wanted to play Guitar though I steered him to the Bass and after Stephen came Brian his twin brother who wanted to play the Keyboards. We practiced together for two years
with no real intention of playing professionally but this was just not to be. I had organized a presentation night for a teacher Les Turner who was leaving our local school St John's and I had got a couple of local acts to perform. The day before the presentation one of the acts cried off with flu so we had to play in his place and though we were still a bit rough around the edges we had a great night and the boys got their feet wet. From that moment on the boys just couldn't wait to play again so we played at a few charity shows and then found an agent.
You can't imagine how proud I was when in our first year on the north east clubs
we won act of the year award. In the end we were playing venues with many club land big names including The Searchers but I think the best moments for Kevin came on the 21st of May 1989. The night before the family had been to see the Shadows at the city hall in Newcastle once again and Brian Bennett had as is usual a mini stage of his own up high behind the rest of the shads. We knew we were going to be playing the city hall the next day and when we arrived found that Brian's mini stage was still up on the main stage and Kevin used it to set his kit up on. He was truly over the moon and it just rounded of a perfect weekend for him as after the shadows show the night before he met Brian just before he was whisked away in a taxi to the Hotel. Brian was again very kind as he was not at all well that night and on getting into the taxi looked dreadful but when he saw Kevin he delayed the taxi to spend a few moments talking to him. Kevin once again as Brian left burst into tears of joy. Bruce Welch was also very kind and spent some time with the boys talking music and Hank on one occasion spent a lot of time with Christopher talking about guitar pickups. The Shadows were all very nice I have got to say and I would like to thank all of them and in particular Brian Bennett for helping me to give my children an interest that is going to last all their lives. It also give me the chance to spend a lot of quality time with them and at the same time they were never roaming the streets.
Thank You Fella's
