![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/the-fabs-how-a-60s-all-girl-band-nearly-ruled-the-world/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/127410126_thefabs3-printedcolourcloseup.jpg&description=Image source, The FabsImage caption, Original girl power - The Fabs started as a seaside show "novelty" but ended up playing throughout Europe, Mexico and the US"You're fabulous, fabulous to be with."So sang 1960s' girl group The Fabs of their imagined loves. But in truth, the fabulous ones were the performers on stage.It was a time where not many women played guitar and drums, but band leader Wally "Waldini" Bishop wanted to change that. He formed the quartet who would become The Fabs, whose story is being re-told in the Cardiff Music History: City of Sound exhibition.One of the four was Sarah Wrigley, nee Johnston, a 19-year-old Cardiff girl whose musician father had taught her to play the guitar.She said Wally Bishop had a show with dancers in Ilfracombe, Devon, but decided in 1963 to form a girl band in a similar vein to the Beatles. Image caption, The three guitarists in the band - Maria Kitsom, Margaret Lewis and Sarah Wrigley (Johnston)Sarah said Wally heard about her through her father and got the other girls, who did not play instruments, the gear and lessons they needed. Sarah said the quartet - her on lead guitar, Linda Mazey from Barry on drums, Margaret Lewis from Bedwas on bass guitar, and Newport's Maria Kitsom on rhythm guitar - were a bit of a "novelty" for those watching them in the summer of 1964."We did three or four numbers of the day which only required three or four chords… and we were very popular with the audiences."After the season, an offer came for a contract to perform for US bases in Germany for American GIs.Image caption, Linda Mazey on drums, when the band performed at a US base in Germany in 1965Sarah said the band all had "good figures" and wore "all the gear all the time". "The guys absolutely loved us," she added. "It didn't really matter what we sounded like, to be perfectly honest, however I have to say after four months of playing six nights a week four hours a night, we did rapidly improve."This led to the group going back and){kind=link}
“You’re fabulous, fabulous to be with.”
So sang 1960s’ girl group The Fabs of their imagined loves.
But in truth, the fabulous ones were the performers on stage.
It was a time where not many women played guitar and drums, but band leader Wally “Waldini” Bishop wanted to change that.
He formed the quartet who would become The Fabs, whose story is being re-told in the Cardiff Music History: City of Sound exhibition.