April 9, 1999 – Colin William Manley was born 16 April 1942, in Old Swan, Liverpool, Lancashire which uniquely qualified him in age and geographically to become part of the British Invasion. In 1958 as guitarist and vocalist together with Don Andrew he founded the The Remo Quartet, changing their name to the Remo Four in the summer of 1959. Andrew and Manley were in the same class at school (Liverpool Institute for Boys) as Paul McCartney.
They played a mix of vocal harmony material (à la The Everly Brothers), and instrumental numbers in the manner of The Shadows, The Ventures, and Chet Atkins. In the early 1960s Colin was considered the best technical guitar player in Liverpool by his peeps. He could play and replicate anything and was a joy to watch.
They were voted Number Three Group in a 1961 Mersey Beat poll, with among their fans the young Beatles. The band played many gigs around Europe and in late 1967, Beatle George Harrison hired the Remo Four as his backing band for part of his first solo project, the soundtrack album to the movie Wonderwall.
While the songs were mostly instrumentals, they did record one lyrical song, “In The First Place”, with Harrison, which was left in the can until the 1990s. They also became Billy Fury‘s backing band, in the late 1960s until they disbanded in 1970.
Colin went on to become an accompanist for singers including Engelbert Humperdinck and later joined The Swinging Blue Jeans. Colin and Don Andrew appeared with Gerry Marsden performing on stage in an episode of the UK TV soap “Brookside” in the 1990s
He sadly died fighting cancer on April 9, 1999 at the age of 56.
