Graham Hankins

Graham Hankins was one of the very early members of The Reaction, Roger Taylor's band in Cornwall. He still lives and works in Truro and I spoke to him this evening. He remembers being introduced to Roger in the street (Pydar Street?) in the middle of Truro by someone called Oscar Carveth, and Roger joined Johnny Quale and the Reaction following this meeting. Contrary to the information in Queen the Early Years, Johnny and Graham, although older than Roger, were not more experienced as musicians: in fact Graham hadn't been in a band before the Reaction.

He confirmed that the band's first ever gig was at the Rock and Rhythm Championship in 1965, and that that night they did an instrumental version of Ray Charles 'What'd I say' as well as one of their own compositions.

More on this to come!

UPDATE 25/7/10: Jim Craven has said that the band had a few incarnations before the R and R championship of '65, and that originally Oscar Carveth and Peter Baron played guitar and drums respectively, though whether this was The Reaction or not is I think open to debate. Will try to clarify this.