ABOUT RONNIE
Ronald John Rosario Gaytano, no not a boy band just how I was christened. Born in December 1941 in Malta which was subjected to heavy bombing at that period in time. I was born during a bombing raid but luckily we were spared andthe family made it through the war and moved to the UK in 1950.
We settled in London in the Elephant and Castle, Lambeth, had a basic education till I was fifteen and left school for my first job.
In the late fifties a guitarist friend got me in as a drummer with my 1st group mainly playing in the local pubs, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and the like come to mind. By 1964 I had been with a couple more bands .The genre now was American soul music Sam Cooke, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, etc.
In 1964/65 and in between bands I advertised in the Melody Maker (the music paper of that time) Andy, Steve and John turned up at my Mum's house in Stockwell and within two days was recording Jump and Dance and My Love Will Stay. I became the drummer for the Carnaby till 1966 when the band broke up.
I got married, went to Croydon tech for a couple of years to improve my qualifications in order to support a wife, two children and a mortgage. I joined a company as a service engineer that took me all over the UK and Europe. Now more in technical sales I was head hunted by a Finnish company and became their UK sales manager progressing to sales and marketing director.
In 1987 Mailing & Mechanisation Ltd was set up in partnership with me and a colleague. We specialised in new and rebuilt mail production equipment mainly for the large utility companies and mailing houses that sent out huge amounts of promotional mail as a service. I left the company in 2000 and took early retirement.
My children are now both married with children of their own and have given me three beautiful granddaughters.
THE SOUND OF THE SIXTIES