THE year was 1964 and Cilla Black, the Dave Clark Five and the Beatles all made it to number one in the charts.

But in Bournemouth a group called The Dictators emerged as the best in town, sweeping the board in the first Bournemouth Beat Contest at the Winter Gardens that same year.

In Snapshots last month on April 23, we published a photograph of The Dictators taken in 1965 and chuckled at the old Echo caption that admired their "short, neat and manly haircuts", adding that their good example "could well be followed by all long-haired youths one still, unfortunately, sees around today".

And we asked if anyone had a picture of the lads today.

One of the band members was Tony Moore whose dad, Bert, managed the group in the sixties.

He contacted us with the names of all the lads in our photograph.

As well as Tony, the band was made up of Howard Gordon, Bob Foster, Keith Pearce and John Paul.

The group, with Tony and Howard providing the vocals, was properly known as Tony Howard and the Dictators.

Today Howard lives in Australia and his wife Louise, ne Barnett, was sent the Snapshots photograph printed last month by her mother, Mrs Patricia Harford, of Strouden Park, Bournemouth.

Louise e-mailed to say Howard left the group in 1967 when they married. They had two boys and a girl, Mark, Porl and Sarah, and emigrated from Iford to Australia 20 years ago.

Tony had already left the group in 1966 when he married Jean Daffern. They had three boys, Stuart, Graham and Greg and they, too, emigrated to Australia in 1975.

Louise writes: "We pride ourselves that Tony and Jean and Howard and I have all been married so long considering we were in the 'pop era'! And they said it wouldn't last."

Tony and Howard live in Oxenford on the Gold Coast in Queensland, around the corner from each other and still enjoy a close friendship.

Louise writes: "We are still polishing the Minns Trophy Cup from the Bournemouth Beat Festival in 1964.

"When all together, Howard and Tony do not need any excuse to start singing. Between them they have three grandsons who like nothing better than to hear a rendition of My Grandfather's Clock; that was one of the songs they regularly sang in the sixties."

She e-mailed us a photograph of Howard and Tony, "singing yet again, unfortunately, without the boys to back them" and says "as you can probably tell they still get immense enjoyment from it".

Proud grandfather Bert is hoping his grandson, Greg Moore, who is a well-known tenor in Australia, will be able to come to the UK this year as last year's planned performance with Scotland the Brave in the Royal Albert Hall had to be cancelled.

Greg is currently touring Australia with "The Pirates of Penzance"

Another of the Dictators' members, Keith Pearce, still lives locally and he e-mailed to say he was "amused and slightly embarassed" to see the 1960s photograph emerge again in Snapshots.

"I am the handsome devil, second from the front," he said.

The drummer at the time, Bill Nimms, isn't in the picture because he had long hair and didn't want it cut.

Keith says it would be wonderful to make contact with anyone who remembers the band. He gives his phone number as 01202 534271 (eves) or 01202 520995 or e-mail address as silverfox95@hotmail.com