The rock n' roll revolution of half a century ago soon had teenagers across the district dreaming of stardom.
Pat Brook was a Warwick School pupil in the late 1950s when the likes of Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Gene Vincent inspired an exciting scene. The Mustangs were in the thick of it.
Mr Brook recalls: "I was still at Warwick and most of my friends were either at Warwick, Leamington College or Kingsley.
"We all went bopping on Saturday nights in someone's dad's garage to a borrowed Dansette record player - 78s only in those days. We all drank orange squash and thought we couldn't get any higher!"
Things started to change when Martin Noble decided to make his own electric guitar (two decades before the punk scene made a virtue of 'DIY music'), inspiring Pat Brook and Tim Sexton to do the same. It was rough and ready, but it was a start.
"The three of us practised like mad, getting corns on our fingertips. We were learning instrumentals influenced by Duane Eddy and an English band called Cliff Richard and the Drifters, who later changed their name to The Shadows.
"Six months passed and the word got about that Kenilworth had its own rock n' roll band. We were asked to do a paid gig for the local Christian youth group at St John's schoolrooms."
Drummer Colin Gozney was recruited for the live debut, an all-instrumental show including some innovative home-made attempts at echo effects. It went down well and soon the boys were asked to play a young farmers' hop at the Parochial Hall in Kenilworth.
A singer was the obvious next step and in came colourful Coventrian Ricky Starr. Leamington bassist Chris Allen completed the full line-up, by now christened The Mustangs.
A date at a student ball in Birmingham gave the boys a taste of bigger things. They knew it was time to get serious.
"Our parents realised we were serious about the band and agreed to stand guarantors for a brand new set of guitars. We also invested in a Vox AC30 amp and speaker cabinet," recalls Pat Brook.
"We were beginning to look like a band now, with our plain white shirts and jeans. I'd spent all week painting the Mustangs logo on the bass drum skin, complete with a prancing stallion!
"Then we met a character called Vince Martin from Coventry. He was at the tail end of a singing career but could still make Ricky Starr look second rate - especially in his gold lame suit.
"Vince did a few gigs with us and livened up the band no end. I remember going all the way to a Skegness holiday camp in his Mini Traveller with most of our gear on board."
At Martin's suggestion The Mustangs represented the Midlands at a national 'battle of the bands' at Blackpool Winter Gardens, an event headlined by Eden Kane.
Pat Brook laughs at the memory now: "Utter chaos! Twenty-odd bands from all over the country playing for nothing, for the dubious chance of a record contract. Talk about naïve!"
The band also drove through snow for a gig at the Embassy Ballroom, Skegness, only to smash into the venue's concrete gates on arrival.
On subsequent visits to Skegness they all slept in the van, only to be woken up by the roar of the lions in the promenade zoo."
Mike Smith, once the singer for The Mustangs' Leamington rivals The Challengers, briefly joined up and shared the stage with Vince Martin.
"He did the odd gig, but whenever he was there we were twice the band and were as popular as the Challengers in the Leamington coffee bars.
"That's all the youngster did in those days - drink cappuccinos. Beer and spirits were for the oldies, although most gigs were now in pubs and it wasn't long before most of us acquired the taste."
Much of the social activity was centred on the New Yorker, a Leamington coffee bar. Among the staff was Welsh girl Lynn Curtiss, who was to exert quite an influence on Pat and his band.
