Eileen Wright

After one show in Falmouth, Roger Taylor met one of his firsts girl-friends, Eileen Wright. Eileen was one of `the Flushing girls` along with Jill Carpenter and Penny Eathorne. The three of them would take the boat to Falmouth across Falmouth Bay from their homes in Flushing to dance away the night at the Princess Pavilion. It was a six mile journey by road, but that way they couldn`t look up to the stars and dream. They were ​​​​​​​not even remotely carnal undertones. They singled out Roger immediately.

A memorable date
Eileen became a regular addition to The Reaction`s travelling crew and was made to feel at home. She and Roger were still too young to drink in pubs so their dating was limited to coffee bars. However, since Roger played with the band most nights there were very few occasions when the pair were alone together. The distance between them, mich of it covered only by quiet rural roads, and neither of them old enough to drive, also made for a perplexing courtship. One memorable date was the time The Who came to town. Roger was by now consumed by the brilliance of Keith Moon, and had adopted Moon`s crouched style of playing and painted a target of his bass drum. (…) The Who appeared at Camborne in the summer of 1965, just a few miles down the A3047 from Redruth. Eileen remembers: “He talked about Keith Moon a hell of a lot, he thought he was the best drummer in the world. (…) The Reaction later played `My Generation` at their gigs. At the end of the show Keith Moon threw his drumsticks into the audience, Roger tried, but he never caught them. I remember he walked out the concert on cloud nine, he`d finally seen his idol.”

December 1965: a christmas with no partner
At Christmas 1965 she finished with Roger. “He was very upset,” she said. “My mum said he cried, but I don`t know about that. He used to phone me at my friend`s house.” Either way, they both spend Christmas without a partner.