WEST Fife rockers The Falcons are gearing up to play the Carnegie Hall to mark an amazing 50 years in the business.

It promises to be a night of celebrations and top-class music with friends gathering from far and wide including Nazareth's Pete Agnew and Dan McCafferty coming back from touring Brazil and original members will be returning for a one-off reunion.

In an illustrious career, The Falcons have supported the likes of The Who, The Small Faces, Status Quo, been cheered on by the great Frankie Miller, played to U.S. troops on the continent and been featured on Russian TV.

The Falcons remain as enthusiastic and as popular as ever, very much in demand as a covers band and they were packing them in again at two gigs last weekend.

Trevor Forster, the only original member still playing, first saw the others play at a Valentine's Day party at Rosyth in 1961.

Trevor loved jazz and had been learning to play the clarinet for seven years but before long the brass instruments were dropped as he took on the singing role and he is also the band's bass guitarist these days.

"In the early days, it was a lot of Cliff Richard songs, he was the big thing at that time with The Shadows," Trevor recalls.

"Back then we were playing five or six gigs a week. We would be going up to Aberdeen and Peterhead and by the time we got back the next morning I'd get dropped off at the dockyard gates to go to work because I was an apprentice there." In 1963, Trevor persuaded the legendary boss of the Kinema Ballroom, Cecil Hunter to give The Falcons the prestigious Saturday night slot.

"Up until then it had always been big bands on then but he said he'd give it a go and it went great.

"I still get people coming up to me who remember as the singer at the Ballroom in those days." They won talent contests including one judged by Jukebox Jury presenter David Jacobs, went to London to make a record and travelled to France for a month-long tour of American military clubs to entertain the troops.

Joining them at that time was young Dunfermline guitarist Davie Porterfield, who was to rejoin the band when they re-formed under the original name in recent years...

The Falcons 50th anniversary concert, Carnegie Hall, Saturday 5th March.

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