Toni Cavanaugh

Toni Cavanaugh was born in Indianapolis in 1939. He landed in Germany in the late 50´s as a US paratrooper and was stationed near Mannheim but soon found himself entertaining the troops on various stages around Germany. After his military time he ended up in Hamburg in the blossoming rock'n'roll scene on the Reeperbahn. In 1960 he was drumming in Tony Sheridan´s group the Jets for a while, who were playing the Top Ten club regularly. He also played with Tony Sheridan in the Star-Combo, kinda the house-band at the Star Club from 1963 to 1964. In 1962 he had his own group, the Bats. 1964 saw the release of this LP Rock'n Twist Slop Hully Gully. In 1965 Toni Cavanaugh got a deal with Teldec and recorded four songs in German backed by the The Beat Bothers of Tony Sheridan And The Beat Brothers, among them Kingsize Taylor, Howie Casey and some members of Blizzards from Stade, a small town near Hamburg. Toni Cavanaugh continued to play with various groups in Germany into the 70´s, but finally went back to the states, leaving the music business behind altogether. He died in a nursing home on November 5th, 2005.