UNDER THE RADAR

Artists, bands, and labels meriting more attention

- Words: Lin Bensley

This month: Les Hobeaux

At the height of the skiffle craze in 1957, there were estimated to be between 40,000 and 50,000 combos performing throughout the UK. Most were a flash in the pan but one group worth mentioning are Les Hobeaux; almost as much for the originality of their name as their take on the music.

Formed in the summer of 1957 by 17-year-old Les Bennetts, an accomplished guitarist who was then a student at London Polytechnic, they regularly played the West End and won the International Skiffle Competition at the '57 Soho Fair. The group were no slouches when it came to self-promotion and often sported hand-knitted jumpers bearing their name, intersected by a treble clef, and appeared twice on Six Five Special throughout the year.

When busking in Hastings, washboard player David Russell recalled the local streetwalkers paying them to perform in Shepherds Market to draw a crowd while they plied their trade.

“One evening I told this to my landlady,” recalled Russell, “who exclaimed I was ‘living off immoral earnings’, whereupon I handed her my rent and said, ‘So are you.’”

Soon after Russell left to study architecture, Bennetts secured a record deal with HMV, when the group decided to sack him, only to learn that it was his name and no other on the dotted line. As he legally owned the group’s name, he was hastily reinstated. Bennetts had an acute sense of humour and enjoyed a practical joke, but in this instance, even he must have had trouble seeing the funny side.