Johnny Claydon (vocals)

Johnny was born in 1948 and by the time he played in The Gravel Camp he was attending Valley Gardens Secondary school which is adjacent to Whitley Grammar. Johnny was a drummer and a popular young man, who was already well known in the growing music scene in his home town. In late 1964 he joined up with Dave, Steve and Robbie to form a band, who were doing the R'n’B hits of that era. They played Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Reed and they practised regularly at St Mary's Church Hall in Whitley Bay. Johnny was both the drummer and the vocalist. Garry would go along to watch and thought the group sounded pretty good and occasionally he would sit in on the drums. By the end of 1965 Johnny decided he wanted to just be the vocalist/front man so Garry became a full member of the band.

Johnny had a very outgoing personality and a good rock voice. He did a great job as the front man! He was also a bit of a song writer and he wrote the words to Tell Me. The group worked together on the music and created a nice, mid-tempo blues song, which they decided to record one day. In the meantime the group set about finding some gigs and try to think up a name for the group. Garry had a blues album called Blues Fell This Morning and one of the tracks was called Gravel Camp Blues. While at Robbie's house one evening, that was the name that was chosen.

Johnny was also a bit of an artist. He created a Gravel Camp logo which was typically Johnny. It was fun and functional, but the group decided to go the more conventional route and have cards printed. However, one day, while practicing at Steve's place, Johnny decided to make a Gravel Camp bass drum cover. Steve's parents had some old wallpaper that looked like brickwork. Johnny cut a piece of that into a circle and then painted "The Gravel Camp" on it in white. The name was now official but unfortunately there aren't any photos of the group logo!

After the group members went their own way in the summer of '65, Johnny continued with his music playing in a band that did Irish music and then later, around 1970, in a rock band. He got married in early 1970 and combined full time work with playing at nights and weekends. Sadly Johnny passed away very young on New Year’s Eve 1989.