Ron Tuele & The Monarchs

In the picture above from 1958, Ron had put his guitar down and is in the white sport coat doing his vocal thing while Fred Wyatt is playing bass.

For a couple of years I played with a group call "Ron Tuele & The Monarchs". We were the house band for the Fleet Club in Victoria B.C., playing 50's rock, as well as dance standards. We also played club dates at other venues (such as Club Tango), did some touring, and some recording.

The regular band members were Ron Tuele (leader/guitar/vocals), Lloyd Rayment (piano), Fred Wyatt (bass) and Ian Follis (drums). We supplemented as required. In 1958 Keith Nesbit replaced Lloyd as pianist.
Ian Follis, May 2003

Ron Tuele died on 1 October 2008. In May 2008, the group had a 50th anniversary reunion at Ron's home in Oregon.

Sam Carlson
PNWBands.com

As mentioned, we were the house band at the Fleet Club, and did a mixture of rock & roll, jazz, and conventional dance music depending on the crowd and event. The club operated Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights (it was on DND property). In those days a number of touring artists/groups did shows at the club and we were the musical group backing them (The Four Knights, The Four Coins, Delta Rythym Boys, etc.). We also played other venues around Victoria (Club Tango, etc.), did a little touring to communities up island (Courtenay, Cumberland, Campbell River, Alberni,, etc.), and were recorded in the club as well as in a recording studio by a CKDA jock whose name as I recall was Pringle (but I'm not 100% certain of the spelling since that was 50 years ago). When touring we got a little free radio promotional help from a Vancouver DJ Red Robinson although I don't recall he ever got over to the island to see/hear us.

Ian Follis October 27, 2008