Old Dover Road

**Old Dover Road** were a British progressive rock band formed in Canterbury, England in August 1967 by Roger Cole, Jim McDonald, Pete Winwood, Walter Gish and Geoff "Lizard" Laine. They were managed by disk jockey Jared McKernan - known for his links to the breakup of American rock group Flyford Favell - and are best known for their death in a plane crash in 1972 and the surrounding conspiracy theory.

## Formation and career

Old Dover Road formed in Canterbury, England, where Cole and McDonald met at the University of Kent. A singer and a keyboardist, they put out an ad in the student paper and eventually recruited Pete Winwood on guitar and Walter Gish on bass. Missing a drummer, they recruited Laine from the local WMC. Laine was known as Lizard and would not answer to his name, and he was fifteen years older than the other members. Lizard could not play drums, but he could drive, something none of the other members could do. He learnt drums during his time with the group.

In 1968, playing clubs around Canterbury, Old Dover Road were approached by Jared McKernan, who wished to manage them. McKernan was independently wealthy. The group accepted. McKernan had taken the group on, seeing their potential, but hit a block when the band revealed that they did not enjoy being paid for their music, which they viewed as selling out. Old Dover Road typically played gigs for beer, and later, cocaine. The band would never record an album, although they did record a couple of singles that McKernan would play on his radio show. McKernan travelled to America frequently, and would occasionally bring the band with him. They were successful in the States in selling out small clubs and gained a cult status, although McKernan would pocket the money himself. McKernan was renowned for his temper, and the band took great pleasure in pushing him to bursts of violence. The band never signed with a label, although it is unclear whether they were simply unsuccessful in achieving it or turned down any prospective offers. It is on one of these visits that McKernan met Al Hickey, who introduced him to Lawrence Flynn. The friendship would be short-lived and entangled with Flynn's heroin addiction that eventually led to the breakup of Flyford Favell.

## Plane crash

### Events

On 13 August 1972, the band boarded a plane from a private airport in New York City on a flight to Southend. The night before, they had played between 17:00 and 4:30 at a club in the city. Friends of the group attest that tensions were at an all time high between the band and McKernan. The pilot was Robert McPherson, a friend of the band. The plane disappeared somewhere above the Atlantic ocean. Wreckage from the plane and personal items washed ashore over the next thirteen months as far away as New Zealand. All band members, McPherson and McKernan died in the crash.

### Conspiracy

In September 1973, a rumour began to circulate in the band's hometown of Canterbury that the band had not in fact died in the crash. It was suggested that the plane had landed in the north of England and all members of the band, as well as McPherson, were alive and living in Hull. The rumour was acknowledged by various student papers in the city and began to spread through the music scene. In 1986, journalist Thomas Kerr described the theory as "devoid of logic", given that "Hull is hardly the dark ages, someone would have noticed by now". The most prevalent and enduring theory posited that the band, unhappy with their dealings with McKernan and with great personal conflict with him, had plotted to murder him to escape their contract, and staged their own deaths to do so. Reasons cited for this included the band's growing tensions with McKernan, the missing flight, McPherson's competence as a pilot and the fact that Lizard - allegedly - continued to be sighted around Canterbury for the next forty years. There is no evidence for any of the theory, and all members remain legally deceased.