It's difficult for anyone who has heard them not to like -- or even love -- the Tremeloes. They were one of the more prodigiously talented British pop/rock bands of the '60s, and they threw that talent into making amazingly catchy and well-crafted singles that lit up the charts and radio on both sides of the Atlantic for four years running, from 1966 through 1970.

Yet, the Tremeloes are also one of the least-known and least-respected of '60s English bands. The precise reason for the lack of respect is difficult to pin down, except perhaps that their timing was off, as far as making the most of their success. They generally didn't write their own material and they cut their best singles long after the British Invasion (and the mystique surrounding the bands that were part of it) had ended. Yet, ironically, the Tremeloes are also one of the longest surviving English rock & roll bands, still playing regularly more than 40 years after the group's founding.

The band first got together in 1958, when the original members were all in their teens. They were closer in years and background to early British beat bands like the Shadows than to the British Invasion bands with which they subsequently became associated. The original lineup of Brian Poole (vocals, guitar), Alan Blakley (drums), Alan Howard (sax), and Graham Scott (guitar), had Buddy Holly's Crickets as their inspiration. This version of the band didn't stay together long, however, and Blakley quickly switched to guitar (which Poole relinquished) after Dave Munden joined on the drums. Munden proved not only to be a very talented percussionist, but also a good singer. This gave the group a third vocalist, which would prove essential to their success further on in their history. Howard also switched to bass soon after Munden joined.

The band -- then known as the Tremilos thanks to a misspelling -- built up a following at local dances and clubs, and then broke into the U.S. air base circuit, where the length of sets they were forced to play required them to learn a massive number of new songs. By 1961, they had turned professional. The group's lineup changed again around that time when Graham Scott left and was replaced by Rick West (born Rick Westwood), who had previously played with Tony Rivers & the Castaways.

West's arrival was key to the group's long-term success, providing the band with a top-flight (indeed, classically trained) guitarist. They also got a professional manager in the guise of Peter Walsh, who already represented such acts as the Brook Brothers (England's answer to the Everly Brothers) and the vocal group the Kestrels. The band's first break happened soon after when they were spotted by Jimmy Grant, the producer of the BBC's Saturday Club music showcase, who got them an audition for the BBC. This led to the group becoming regulars on radio and, in turn, resulted in an audition for Decca Records on New Year's Day 1962. At the time, Decca was looking for a new rock & roll act and the Tremeloes were up against a relatively obscure Liverpool quartet called the Beatles. Decca executives Dick Rowe and Mike Smith were in charge of the auditions, with Rowe reportedly leaving the choice up to Smith. The latter chose the Tremeloes, reportedly based on the fact that they were based in London and, thus, would be more accessible than the Beatles.

The signing had a range of consequences for the band and their future. At the time, it was routine for groups to have a featured member -- Cliff Richard & the Shadows being the prime example -- thus, the label insisted that the band be signed as Brian Poole & the Tremeloes.

The band accepted this as one price of pursuing success and Poole became the perceived star of the band. They cut a series of records backing other artists, including the Vernons Girls (The Locomotion) and DJ Jimmy Savile, on the latter's version of "Ahab the Arab," as well as some failed singles of their own, got into the lineup of artists in the jukebox comedy film Just for Fun, and generally missed even modest chart action by the length of their fingertips. Their singles of "Twist Little Sister" and "Keep on Dancing" failed to find audiences, despite some valiant efforts at promotion. Success seemed to become less likely as 1963 wore on and a new wave of English rock & roll acts, spearheaded, ironically enough, by the Beatles, began dominating the radio and the charts.

Rather than wilting in this new environment, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes rose to the challenge. They changed their look and pumped up the rhythm guitar parts in their songs, and began looking at R&B, rather than white rock & roll, as a source of material and inspiration.

The result was their version of "Twist and Shout," which managed to rise to number four on the English charts, despite running up head-to-head with the Beatles' recording, issued on an EP that summer. Their next record, a cover of the Contours' hit "Do You Love Me," was a classic of the era, an honest, authentic-sounding screamer of a single that hit number one in England once the Beatles' "She Loves You" vacated the spot, and managed to eclipse a rival version by the Dave Clark Five. In its wake, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes managed a series of respectable and even occasionally inspired hits over the next two years, including a U.K. Top Ten cover of Roy Orbison's "Candy Man" and a convincingly raucous rendition of the Strangeloves' Bo Diddley beat-driven anthem "I Want Candy."

They appeared on film, most notably a pair of performance clips in the feature film Go Go, Big Beat, a featured spot in A Touch of Blarney, and made the rounds of the television music showcases, charting moderately well until the end of 1965. The band ran into hard times just about then, owing to issues of music and style.

It was possibly the result of the fact that they'd never really been part of the British Invasion, but the Tremeloes had never seen fit to update their image, which had been something of a pose to start with. They still dressed in matching suits on-stage, and performed the same brand of stomping covers of American R&B and rock & roll. It was no longer possible to expect those to chart, however, their competition wasn't the Dave Clark Five or Gerry & the Pacemakers, but the likes of much heavier and musically higher-powered bands such as the Yardbirds and the Kinks, not to mention the rapidly evolving Beatles and Rolling Stones. All of these groups seemed to up the musical ante, in terms of what sounds and instruments they brought to the table with each new release. Additionally, Poole had emerged as the star of the group and developed a star mentality; he became convinced that his future lay in a career as a pop-oriented vocalist, in the manner of such up and coming figures as Tom Jones. The chart failure of their cover of the Olympics' "Good Lovin' " brought a halt to the success the quintet had been enjoying, and started Poole looking out for his own interests and future.

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By the end of 1965, a split was in the works. The band was inactive in the studio for almost six months while the mechanics of Poole's exit worked themselves out. The consensus in the music press was that Poole was poised for stardom, while the Tremeloes were believed to be headed for oblivion. His singing had been the focus of their singles, he was the "name," and little that the group had done on record had distinguished the other members.

Instead, Poole ended up disappearing from view after a series of failed singles, and ultimately left music. The Tremeloes had their own problems, including the exit of bassist Alan Howard, who was replaced by Mike Clark, a former bandmate of West's, and then by Len "Chip" Hawkes. In the meantime, they'd released a single covering the Paul Simon song "Blessed," a rather improbably dissonant song that failed to chart and got the band dropped by Decca. The members' own best musical instincts, coupled with changes in the British recording industry, helped rescue them.

Although they'd been written off in the press, the Tremeloes themselves knew better what they could do. They had three capable singers, including a lead vocalist in the form of Hawkes, and an excellent if somewhat underrated guitarist in West; they also had eight years of experience as a band, and had retooled their sound before.

Additionally, they had a good and dedicated friend in the guise of Mike Smith, who'd exited Decca in 1966. Smith was now in the employ of the newly created CBS Records label, the British outlet for America's Columbia Records. The new label was hungry for homegrown talent to augment the label's roster of American stars, and Smith convinced CBS to sign the Tremeloes.

The band updated their look and image, and then they returned to the same source whence they gotten their first chart single, "Twist and Shout," back in 1963: the Beatles. The band by now was beyond peer, and each of their albums had songs that could have charted.

The Tremeloes grabbed onto one of them, "Good Day Sunshine." It never charted, but it did re-establish the Tremeloes' name as a credible force in their own right, getting played heavily, receiving good reviews in the music press, and helping the band get onto television. More importantly, it allowed the group to transform their image into a more contemporary one.

It was the band's next single that put them back on track. "Here Comes My Baby," written by Cat Stevens, became an infectiously tuneful, upbeat song, with very pleasing harmony vocals and solid playing in the hands of the Tremeloes. It became a number four hit in England and even made it to number 13 in America, pleasing the group, CBS/Columbia, and Mike Smith no end. (Smith also brought a similar Scottish group, the Marmalade, also managed by Walsh, to British CBS with successful results).

This was the break they needed. The Tremeloes were suddenly booked alongside the Hollies, Paul Jones, and the Spencer Davis Group, where they proceeded to roll over the rest of the show with their sound and style. They were suddenly poised for greater things than they'd ever seemed capable of during their days at Decca. "Silence Is Golden," a popular concert number, became their next single and their first chart-topper in England since "Do You Love Me," ascending to number 11 in America during the spring of 1967, and becoming their second U.S. gold record.

For all of their reputation as a pop/rock band, the Tremeloes had a surprisingly progressive and musically sophisticated edge. Rick West's fuzztone guitar on "Let Your Hair Hang Down," "What a State I'm In," and "Suddenly Winter" -- all B-sides -- were a match for anything that Jeff Beck, Davy O'List, or any of the other progressive axe-men of the era were doing. According to historian Roger Dopson, West had it one up on all of them because he was the first guitarist in England to perfect the use of the fuzztone on-stage. They also harmonized nearly as beautifully as the Beatles, and if Chip Hawkes wasn't a match for Paul McCartney in his bass playing, he was still a strong, melodic player. "Even the Bad Times Are Good," "Be Mine," "Silence Is Golden" (a number one hit), "Suddenly You Love Me," "Helule Helule," "My Little Lady," "All the World to Me," and "I'm Gonna Try" -- songs whose respective beats, harmonies, and hooks half the groups in England or America would have killed to put together -- were all achingly catchy, rousing, perfect pop/rock creations, and even those experimental B-sides were tuneful in ways that many progressive rock tracks by the Nice and the Yardbirds weren't.

The Tremeloes toured America just as the Summer of Love was blossoming and managed to chart their album Here Comes the Tremeloes on that side of the Atlantic, while its U.K. version got to number 15. The next three years saw them move from success to success in England and around the world, with another three singles in the U.K. Top Ten and two more in the British Top 40; tours of three continents only confirmed that they could reach audiences well beyond the Sceptered Isle.

In a sense, the Tremeloes' music filled a gap that was left when bands like the Beatles and the Hollies started getting all serious and intense in their writing and messages, and groups like Gerry & the Pacemakers disappeared. There was still an audience out there for well-sung and inventively played pop/rock, songs that were fun to hear on the radio and to hum or sing to. In America, outfits like the Monkees, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and bubblegum rockers such as the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Company on Buddha Records were filling this same gap in slightly different variations.

The Tremeloes, as it happened, were musically very strong, which was one of the reasons that they survived and thrived across an entire decade of stylistic changes in popular music. West, in particular, was a virtuoso guitarist who was respected by his peers and deserves a place in the annals of British rock music not too far behind George Harrison. Hawkes and Munden shared the lead vocal responsibilities (with West doing harmonies), while Hawkes -- somewhat younger and more conventionally attractive than the rest of the band -- became the resident heartthrob for the band's teenybopper fans, sort of the Tremeloes' answer to the Raiders' Mark Lindsay.

They went along well for three years, their one seeming error a popish, elegantly harmonized cover (accompanied by the Keith Mansfield Strings) of Bob Dylan's then new song "I Shall Be Released," that barely made the U.K. Top 30 (although to listen to it today, it seems like a perfectly good interpretation, and more tasteful and valid than the Hollies' attempts at doing Dylan songs). Then in 1970, the band committed a series of grave errors that started innocently enough. The members, apparently weary of being treated as a soft pop band, decided to change their sound and image, but they couldn't have chosen a worse way in which to do it.

Rather than go along making the kind of exquisitely crafted pop/rock that had served them well since late 1966, the Tremeloes decided it was time to be taken seriously. Just what they were thinking at the time was anyone's guess. After three years of tapping into the same market that Paul McCartney had cultivated through the Beatles and his early solo career, they felt the need to emulate the likes of John Lennon and Bob Dylan. (Author's Note: They might better have taken a look at Preston Sturges' movie Sullivan's Travels, about a movie director with the same impulse -- he learns that making people laugh and making them feel happy is the most serious and important business that there is, and something not everyone can do).

They spent a year writing and preparing an album of music that was intended to prove they could do serious songs, and that was not, in and of itself, a mistake. The error came when the group announced their intention and, in the process, disparaged all of their past hits and dismissed the listeners they had attracted as "morons." When the smoke cleared, the group had managed to alienate most of their listeners and any representative of the music press who had previously been in their corner, while the new music -- the album Master -- was ignored by the very people they'd sought to attract. Even in the midst of this debacle, the band showed they still had the golden touch. "Me and My Life," which was a tuneful number off the album, reached number four in England, while its B-side, "Try Me," was a first-rate rock & roll number.

Beyond that point, the group seemed to lose their rudder. They tried sounding heavy ("Right Wheel, Left Hammer, Sham") and country ("Hello Buddy"), spoofing glam rock with "Blue Suede Tie," and even changing their name (the Trems). By the mid-'70s, the Tremeloes were playing in cabaret, a strategy similar to that of the Searchers and a few other surviving '60s bands. They never stopped working, or were without work, however, Dave Munden was there on drums and Rick West stayed on guitar, and the group cut music for DJM, Pye, and Polydor intermittently, before briefly returning to CBS in the early '80s.

In the late '90s, Munden and West were still there, with keyboardist and singer/engineer Joe Gillingham and bassist/guitarist/singer Davey Freyer playing regular gigs in England and Europe. The group's Decca sides with Poole (who has since re-emerged as a singer, sometimes billed on CDs as Brian Poole OF the Tremeloes) have been reissued on CD by Decca Records, but are rather difficult to find. By contrast, Rhino, Sequel, and Repertoire Records each have a collection out of the Tremeloes' post-1965 hits. The band keeps an active website up and bids fair, at this rate, to be busy for their golden anniversary in rock & roll before the end of the first decade of the 21st century. ~ All Music Guide

Source: Bruce Eder

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The Spencer Davis Group was a mid-1960s beat group from Birmingham, England. In their heyday, the group consisted of Steve Winwood (vocals), Muff Winwood (bass), Pete York (drums) and Spencer Davis (lead guitarist/vocals).

Spencer Davis moved to Birmingham from London in 1960 to study. In 1963, he recruited the Winwood brothers and started The Spencer Davis Group. The band performed regularly in the city and were signed to a recording contract after an appearance in a local club.

The group’s first professional recording was a cover version of ‘Dimples’, but they came to success at the end of 1965 with ‘Keep on Running’, the group’s first number one single. In 1966 they followed this with ‘Somebody Help Me’ and ‘When I Come Home’.

By the end of 1966 and the beginning of 1967, the group released two more hits, 'Gimme Some Lovin' and ‘I’m A Man’. These tracks proved to be their two best-known successes, especially in the U.S.

In 1967, Winwood left to form Traffic; his brother Muff moved into the music industry as A&R man at Island Records. In a so-called joint venture, the soundtrack to the film Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush featured both The Spencer Davis Group and Traffic.

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Despite the Winwoods’ departure, The Spencer Davis Group continued performing and released more singles, though not repeating earlier successes. They released 'Mr. Second-Class' in late 1967, which was heavily played on Radio Caroline, and the group’s last minor hit, ‘After Tea’, in 1968.

Although short-lived, The Spencer Davis Group was very influential, with many of the band’s songs covered by other artists over the years.

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 In 1967, two brothers, Michael and Peter Giles auditioned guitarist Robert Fripp to join their band. Despite wanting to recruit a singer/keyboard player, Fripp was asked to join. Following the unsuccessful release of a couple of singles and an album, they added multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald to the line up to enhance the sound.

Fripp, by now frustrated with the lack of success and the overall sound, suggested adding his friend Greg Lake to the band to replace the equally frustrated Peter Giles. In turn, McDonald brought in his friend, Pete Sinfield to help out with lights, and lyrics. Starting rehearsals in early 1969, Sinfield christened the band "King Crimson" who made their live debut in April that year. By now a mellotron had been added to McDonald’s keyboard set up and this sound would become the most recognisable sound in the burgeoning Progrock movement of which the band would play a huge part in establishing. Following a high profile gig supporting the Rolling Stones at Hyde Park, the debut album was released in October 1969. Receiving huge acclaim, “In The Court Of The Crimson King” proved to be a masterpiece. From the striking cover artwork to the highly imaginative,informed and experimental music, it was performed with a precision and intensity that would result in the boundaries of rock music forever being redrawn. The first track, the brutal “21^st Century Schizoid Man” set the scene with its doomy effect-laden vocals and jazzy time signatures. Following this were two mellow almost ambient tracks but it is the final two that established the sound of the band. Both Epitaph and In The Court Of The Crimson King employed heavy use of the mellotron and contained surreal lyrics. Amazingly for a debut release, the album entered the chart at number 5 as it took its place among the rock elite. Following a successful introduction to the States, tensions that would follow the band throughout their career surfaced and the first classic King Crimson line up split in December 1969. Leaving just Fripp and Sinfield to fly the flag, the early momentum was lost and the level of success would never be achieved again. 

In The Court Of The Crimson King

Fripp and Sinfield rallied the troops to record the follow up album. “In The Wake Of Poseidon” It met with a mixed reception. General opion was that it was a pale copy of the first. One track however was different. “Catfood” with its jazz piano, courtesy of Keith Tippett, was an indication of a new direction. After recruiting new members Gordon Haskell, Mel Collins and Andy McCulloch and with Sinfield now playing synthesisers, the third album, “Lizard” was recorded in 1970. This was the most inaccessible release to date containing some of Sinfield's more obtuse words and featuring a selection of jazz musicians. The recurring theme of band members leaving continued and for the next album, Islands where Boz Burrell and Ian Wallace replaced Haskell and McCulloch. Despite all the comings and goings, “Islands” was a gorgeous album. Softer and more structured it contained more restrained playing from the invited jazz musicians. Growing weary of all the line up changes and from Fripp’s autocratic decisions on the musical direction, Sinfield left the band after the release of “Islands” This had been anticipated by Fripp who had already begun recruiting for replacements for his next vision of Crimson. Radically different now, John Wetton (bass), Bill Bruford, (drums), David Cross (Violin) and Jamie Muir (percussion) joined Fripp in the latest line up. With no one else left from the original band, this was the opportunity that Fripp wanted to escape from the clutches of the first album. “Larks Tongue In Aspic” in 1973 and “Starless And Bible Black” the following year, seemed to put the band back on track. Both reached the top 30 in the UK and contained strong songs littered with melodies but with enough experimentation to satisfy their cult following. While live, the band bombarded the audience with a metal like assault. This was too much for David Cross whose violin was lost in the noise and for Jamie Muir who left. (to join a Tibetan monastery it was rumoured!).

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Fripp was by now having his own spiritual crisis and split the band “completely and for ever and ever” in September 1975. He relocated to New York where his work with artists such as Peter Gabriel, David Bowie, Talking Heads and Blondie gained him much respect from the mainstream. Now heavily into electronics, he developed his “Frippertronics” tape loop system with Brian Eno that would be used in various forms on all future work. Solo albums followed, usually including a wide selection of guest artists from the above list. Some short-lived bands were formed and split. In 1981 he formed “Disipline” with Tony Levin, Adrian Belew and old mate Bill Bruford. In October that year, searching for some commercial success on his own, he decided to rename the band “King Crimson” With second guitarist Belew in the mix, Fripp was able to concentrate on a new sound for Crimson. Using all manner of electronics they were producing truly progressive music. Disappointingly for some, however, the mighty mellotron had been put out to grass. The band released three albums with this line up, “Discipline” in 1981, “Beat” in 1982 and “Three Of A Perfect Pair” in 1984. All were well received with tightly constructed sounds with modern new wave and post punk influences. By the time of the third album however, tensions had appeared and this resulted in one side of the album having a lighter, poppier feel, while the other was more extreme at Fripp’s insistence. Consequently the band broke up and it would be a further 10 years before the name of King Crimson would be heard again. Fripp get himself busy during this period forming a number of short-term bands and contributing his original sounds to a number of recordings. He also started a guitar school and formed his own record label, DMG which would result in a number of rare recordings being released in future years.

Following encouragement from Belew, Fripp decided to reassemble the band as King Crimson in 1994. The line-up consisted of Fripp, Belew, Trey Gunn, Tony Levin, Pat Maslelotto, and once again Bill Bruford. Running the band as “Two Trios” the band released “Thrak” in 1995.which contained some incendiary twin guitar and masses of electronics, which had now progressed, from “Frippertronics” to “Soundscapes” to keep up with the digital age. The six-piece band proved to be awkward to manage so Fripp split the band into smaller units. These he called “ProjeKcts”. This enabled the band to work on various compositions before bringing them to the main band. Bruford became unhappy with this set up and left for the last time. From here onwards, with regular long gaps between albums and tours, the band has continued. Tapping into industrial metal and sonic ambience the band still push the boundaries.

King Crimson has been at the forefront of “Progressive Music” for 40 years. Never afraid to take risks they have gone their own way and poked out their tongues at the music industry. Many past members have gone on to huge success in other bands such as ELP. Bad Company, Foreigner and Asia. Many contemporary bands have cited King Crimson as a major influence. 

When things became comfortable, Fripp would split the band or head off on a musical tangent that would alienate and exasperate both fans and label chiefs. But this is what their long-suffering fans want. Never predicable, the legacy they leave will ensure the King will reign for a long long time.

Roger Gibbens

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Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders first emerged out of apprentice telephone engineer Glyn Geoffrey Ellis' daydreams of becoming a successful pop performer.

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Rechristening himself Wayne Fontana after Elvis Presley's drummer, DJ Fontana, Fontana's first band was the Jets, a staple on the Manchester circuit through 1961-1962, but one which was doomed to failure. According to legend, the original Jets broke up when Fontana and bassist Bob Lang alone turned up for the most important audition of their young career, at the famed Oasis club. Hurriedly, Fontana press-ganged a couple of other local musicians, bystanders in the bar, into service -- drummer Ric Rothwell and guitarist Eric Stewart. Stewart was already an old hand on the Manchester music scene, having played with local heroes Gerry Lee and the Stagger Lees and Johnny Peters and the Jets (unrelated to Fontana's combo). That was still his regular band that evening at the Oasis, a situation that changed immediately after this ad hoc combo left the stage and was offered a Fontana label contract. Renaming the band after Dirk Boarded's then-recently released hit movie The Mindbenders (Fontana, of course, was allowed to keep his name!), the quartet's first release, in June 1963, was a cover of one of the aforementioned stage favorites, Fats Domino's "My Girl Josephine," retitled "Hello Josephine."It was not a major hit, peaking at number 46, and two further singles, "For You, For You" (October 1963) and a cover of the Diamonds' "Little Darling'" (February 1964), were even less successful. But the label did not lose faith. After all, what sort of headlines would "Fontana drop Fontana" make?

The band plugged on, and in May 1964, their version of Ben E. King's "Stop Look and Listen" made number 37. Again it was a tiny drop in the ocean, but this time the Mindbenders were able to capitalize upon it. By early fall, they were riding the Top Five with a spellbinding take on Major Lance's masterpiece of incoherence, "Um Um Um Um Um Um." The Mindbenders' original recording of the song was produced by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham -- their label rejected it and insisted on a re-recording, cut with Fontana's own Jack Baverstock. The first recording remains unreleased; the remake soared to number five. An EP titled after the hit followed it to number seven, while the band's eponymous debut album reached number 18. As was standard at this time, the entire LP was recorded in one day, crammed in to a schedule which included their first major British tour, supporting Brenda Lee.

Meanwhile, back in the singles chart, the band was busy confirming their ascendancy with a skillful adaptation of Clint Ballard's "The Game of Love," featuring a moonlighting member of the Spinners folk group on backing vocals and a devastating Stewart guitar solo, played on a Les Paul borrowed from Jimmy Page. It reached number two in Britain and number one in America, despite being not only the Mindbenders' first Stateside release, but also one of the first releases on the American Fontana label. The band set off for America almost immediately and ran straight into trouble. Visa difficulties had forced the band to cancel a couple of shows at the start of the tour -- immigration officials actually demanded statements from both Billboard and Cashbox to prove that the band's Stateside success actually justified their presence here. Then, the moment they stepped off the plane, the Mindbenders were served writs for one million each. They were being sued for not making two gigs in New Jersey. Thankfully, the threat came to nothing and the remainder of the tour passed off happily.

A new version of their debut album, featuring several cuts not on the U.K. album was released, making a respectable number 28; unfortunately, the moment the band's back was turned, their fortunes began to dip. Their next single, "Just a Little Bit Too Late," only reached number 45 in the U.S. (and number 20 in Britain) and when "She Needs Love" halted at number 32 in the U.K., at the same time as their second album, Eric, Rick, Wayne and Bob, stiffed, it appeared as though the Mindbenders' magic had dissipated already. Certainly Wayne Fontana, the Fontana label, and the Kennedy Street Enterprises management label, thought so. The singer had always entertained visions of eventually graduating to a solo career and, in October 1965, everybody concerned realized the time had come; everybody, that is, aside from the band. They remained in the dark until, midway through a live show, Fontana simply walked off stage, turning to Stewart as he left and saying, "It's all yours." It was not the first time the band had played on without their frontman; back in March, nervous exhaustion had confined Fontana to bed, midway through a 21-date, twice-nightly British tour with Herman's Hermits. So, with Stewart taking lead vocals, the band finished the set themselves; the audience seemed to enjoy themselves and the decision was made to carry on as a three-piece, which was precisely what their label and management had been planning all along. And, overnight, one fading chart act became two promising newcomers, singer Wayne Fontana and band the Mindbenders. 

Albums:

Source: Dave Thompson

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