Background and Early Career
Punky Meadows grew up in Washington, D.C., the oldest of four boys, in the Barnaby Terrace neighborhood which produced guitar legends Danny Gatton, Roy Clark, and Link Wray. He attended Draper Elementary and Hart Junior High Schools, the latter where he started playing guitar in his first band, the Intruders.
The Cherry People formed in Southeast Washington, D.C. during the British Invasion of 1964 and changed their name from the Intruders to the English Setters to the Cherry People, all the while establishing themselves as the city’s hardest working and most talented band. From 1964 to 1972 the band revolved around founding members Chris Grimes (born July 17, 1948), Doug Grimes (born April 24, 1951), and Punky Meadows (born February 6, 1950), with a number of personnel changes taking place from 1972 until the band’s demise in June 1975. The Cherry People’s origins go back to the Barnaby Terrace neighborhood of Southeast Washington D.C. where original members Chris and Doug Grimes, Punky Meadows, and Larry Gray were raised on the Beatles and the early wave of the British Invasion. In 1964 these four youngsters formed their first band, the Intruders.
Later he formed the English Setters, a Beatles-sounding band that opened for the Yardbirds, Neil Diamond, and the Young Rascals, all while he was still in high school. In 1967, The English Setters changed their sound and changed their name to the Cherry People, and were later signed to a record deal by Heritage Records. Meadows himself says that the record company promoted them as a "poor man's Monkees". They toured briefly in 1968, appearing at Caesar's Palace and on American Bandstand.
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