Howie Casey

Howie Casey is a true Liverpool legend. His band Derry and the Seniors were the first Mersey Beat group to go to Hamburg and then, as Howie Casey and the Seniors, the first to release a record. Howie learnt to play the saxophone while he was in the army and went on to form The Seniors in 1959. Allan Williams took them to London where Bruno Koschmider booked them for the Kaiserkeller Club in Hamburg, just up the road from the Indra where The Beatles were playing! In 1961, back in Liverpool, they secured a recording contract with Fontana, but their success was limited to the North-West and the Seniors disbanded in 1962.

Howie joined Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes and returned to Hamburg's Star Club. They continued to play all over Europe, often being hired to back acts such as Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins.

In 1970 he returned to London and worked for T-Rex, Mott The Hoople amongst others. He was working for producer Tony Visconti, who asked Howie to work on Paul McCartney's new album, 'Band On The Run'. Howie recorded sax solos for 'Bluebird' and 'Mrs Vandebilt', and in 1976 Paul asked Howie to join him on Wings world tour. Several more albums followed - 'Wings At The Speed Of Sound', 'Wings Over America' and 'Back To The Egg'. Along with Steve Holley, Howie worked on the Rockestra and Kampuchea projects, and then the final Wings World Tour, which finished, rather abruptly, in Japan when Paul was arrested for possession of marijuana!