DANVERS - Yesterday, Robert Raiche recalled the afternoon in the mid-1960s when a group of boys bicycled into his Danvers driveway to ask him for help.

The leader of the pack was young Brad Delp, who asked Raiche, then the Salem YMCA director, to help their fledgling teenage band learn to get along, and get established. Raiche didn't know anything about the music business, but he volunteered himself as manager of The Monks, drove them to their gigs - since they didn't have driver's licenses yet - and watched the group blossom into a local hit.

"I remember they were paid $10 apiece (for a show) and they were just thrilled," said Raiche, who supervised the band practices in their parents' garages in Woodvale and other neighborhoods.

"At the beginning we attracted the police a few times to tell them to keep it down. After a while, teenyboppers used to appear during practice, and part of my job was to come out and ask the young ladies to go home," he recalled with a laugh.

The news of Brad Delp's death on Friday, at age 55, shocked the Danvers community where Delp grew up, attended school, and became the hometown star who never forgot his roots as he went on to become the legendary lead singer for the 1970s rock band Boston.

"Everybody is very upset because he was one of the nicest people you could ever meet," said Raiche. "He didn't accept the fact that he was different than anyone else being a popular star. He wasn't like that."

Friends of Delp's from the Danvers High School Class of 1969 said he was quiet, modest and peaceful, even after he became famous.

"One of his most memorable lines to me was, 'Let's not talk about me, let's talk about you,'" said his classmate Dana "Mike" Hagan, now a Danvers police officer. "He was very humble. He was the greatest guy."

Debby Marticio became friends with Delp when they worked together at the Hotwatt factory in Danvers Square in the 1970s. She remembered Delp was a big fan of "The Exorcist" when it came out in 1973, and him entertaining his co-workers with his music at the company Christmas parties.

"He was marvelous, one of the nicest, most mellow people," said Marticio, who owns Ma Duke's restaurant in Danvers Square. "He would walk by you and put his hands together and bow to you. He just made you smile."

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