60's pop legend comes to keynsham

A member of the legendary 60’s band Herman’s Hermits will be in Keynsham next month to tell his incredible story.

John Gaughan was a singer and guitarist with top rock group Herman's Hermits, who dominated the UK music scene in the mid 1960s along with The Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

By the time he was just 19, John had achieved his goal of getting right to the top of the pop music world as a singer and songwriter.

His big break came when he took the place of Keith Hopwood in the legendary group Herman's Hermits, touring with the band alongside front man Peter Noone. John sang all of their chart hits which included "Something's Happening", "No Milk Today", "There's a Kind of Hush" and "I'm into Something Good."

John was rubbing shoulders with the most successful writers and publishers of the day. On the face of it he had everything, but there was one problem, emptiness inside that was increasingly being satisfied by alcohol.

Eventually John's dependence on alcohol took over and within a few years he was a man broken in body, soul and spirit.

"I know what it is to be at the top and everyone wants to know you, and I know what it is to be at the bottom in the gutter as an alcoholic and no-one wants to know you," said John.

He reached a point of total desperation and tried unsuccessfully to end his life by throwing himself from an attic window.

John accepts his life was in a downward spiral before he turned to religion which he says set free from his addictions. John now leads an evening of secular and gospel songs and tells his story of how God rescued him from Alcohol.

The Keynsham Chapter of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International has arranged an evening with John Gaughan on Thursday, February 11, at the Fry Club, Somerdale from 7.15pm.

Admission is £7.50 and includes a buffet. Tickets from Family Books in Temple Court or by calling 0117 9865844.