See in Whitby's New Year with Five Divide's sounds of the 60s

The sound of the Sixties will reverberate round Whitby Pavilion on New Year's Eve when local band Five Divide invite you to see in 2019 in style.

Formed in 1992, the band play hits by The Beatles, The Searchers, The Shadows and more ‘60s’ chart-toppers.

Five Divide has four members: Tony Hoffman– lead guitar/vocals; Mart Beeforth – bass guitar/vocals; Pete Beeforth – rhythm guitar/ vocals and Dave Welsh – drums/vocals.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dave with Mart and Pete are the longest serving members. Dave first joined the brothers for a rehearsal at Sneaton Village Hall.

“We were neighbours and they heard I had a drum machine and could play a bit. They invited me to a rehearsal, Pete was the drummer but wanted to be a singer so I got to use his drum kit.”

Dave was 13 and into Queen and Status Quo, Pete and Mart were older and were listening to and covering U2.

They had added a few Fifties and Sixties’ songs – When You Walk in the Room and Oh, Boy – to the set and it was at their third gig when an audience member suggested that was what they should stick to.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The band took a short break from each other after 18 years or so and there have been a few line-up changes.

“I lasted a few months before I started a blues band and it wasn’t long before Mart and Pete joined me and we were being asked to do Sixties’ stuff again,” said Dave.

They recruited Tony and the band has gone from strength to strength – doing everything from 80th birthday parties to pub gigs.

Dave, who works as a storeman on the rigs, uses a maple PDP kit re-wrapped in chrome and has a 1960s Premier Olympic kit almost identical to Ringo Starr’s Ludwig kit.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

His heroes are Bobby Elliott, of the Hollies, and John Coghlan, Status Quo’s original drummer.

He has Dave has been lucky enough to talk drums with Don Powell from Slade.

Mart has played bass guitar for more than 25 years now and has more guitars in his collection than some music shops. He counts his influences Paul McCartney.

Pete has played guitar for more than 25 years. Realising he had a great voice for vocals it was obvious he should be at the front so he picked up a guitar and the rest is history.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He uses a Fender Stratocaster most of the time. His influences are The Beatles, The Hollies and The Searchers.

Tony has been playing guitar for more than 35 years. A self taught musician who progressed further when he moved from London to York in the late 1980s and began playing in local bands.

Highlights of his musical career include playing at Bruce Welch’s 2012 Shadowmania event in front of 1000 Shadows fans at Lakeside, Surrey.

Five Divide featured in the first episode of a programme fronted by the late Bill Maynard, most famous as Greengrass in ITV’s Heartbeat, and have supported Showaddwaddy. They will repeat that honour at a Yorkshire Air Ambulance fundraiser at Whitby Pavilion on March 8.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Plans for next year also include an-audience-with style gig, a tour of North Yorkshire, pub gigs and playing for the Mayor’s Ball at Scarborough Spa.

“We are not doing so bad for a bunch of lads from Whitby who started off just messing about,” said Dave.

“We have nothing to prove and everything to prove. We have been going for years but everytime we go out I want us to be the best,” he said.

Tickets for the New Year’s Eve party on 01947 458899.