EARLY YEARS ARCHIVE TOUR DATES

The Vampires 
1958
Bob Danks - guitar, vocals

Rodger Mingaye - guitar 

Ritchie Blackmore - guitar

Alan Dunklin - bass  

This is the band that Blackmore has sometimes referred to (incorrectly) as The Satellites. Danks, Mingaye, and Dunklin all went to the same school. Blackmore was drafted in through Dunklin, who lived next door but one to Blackmore in Ash Grove. They originally started as a Skiffle outfit but Mingaye soon left. Changing their musical style, they then became the "electric" Vampires, but all this was over a matter of just a few months. Who the drummers were can not be recalled.