Since the 1960s The Barron Knights have not only been admired by their fans worldwide but also revered by their contemporaries.
Though as lead singer Peter Langford points out, no-one had heard of them outside Leighton Buzzard before 1963. That is until one evening when they were visited backstage by a smartly dressed and well spoken young man. The man asked them about who had supplied the sound equipment they were using during the gig.
The Barron Knights thought no more about it until a couple of weeks elapsed and the same man phoned them. The man's name was Brian Epstein, The Beatles manager, thanking them for the information and offering The Barron Knights a support role on The Beatles UK tour.
1964 saw The Barron Knights also tour with the Rolling Stones as well as conquer the pop charts with their debut hit Call up the Groups, a humorous take on hits by The Searchers, The Bachelors and the Ivy League. This formula proved so successful, The Barron Knights created a unique comic niche for themselves in the pop charts throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Barron Knights Revisit The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
The Barron Knights, now in their 50th year have recently completed their 32nd Australian tour and are currently touring the UK with their Soundtrack of Our Lives tour. The premise of which to revisit the great rock and roll songs that inspired them in their youth, as well as give the audience a taste of the comical music they themselves have become known for.
Their concert at Newport Riverfront on Friday 21st October 2011 began with lead vocalist Pete Langford promising “We’ll kick off with some rock n roll and then have some fun!” before he, Len Crawley on Keyboards, Mickey Groome on Bass and Lloyd Courtenay on drums stormed into a rocking version of the Eddie Cochran classic C’mon Everybody!
Barron Knights Perform Parodies Of Hits By The Searchers And The Smurfs
The band then wasted no time in launching into a medley of some of their greatest musical parodies from the 1960s and 1970s performing excerpts from their hits Call up the Workers and A Taste of Aggro.
Among the parodies sung in the style of the original hit makers included The Searchers Needles and Pins (Saucepans and Tins) The Ivy League’s Tossin' and Turnin’ (Something Is Burnin’) The Brotherhood Of Man’s Angelo (Greasy Joe), Boney M’s River’s Of Babylon (There’s A Dentist in Birmingham).
The bands rendition of The Smurf Song also rekindled cheeky memories for members of the audience who recalled singing the song in the school playground during its appearance in the UK chart during 1978.
Barron Knights Pay Homage To The Everly Brothers and Lonnie Donegan
In between making the audience laugh, The Barron Knights also recalled some great music from the 50s and the 60s including the gentleness of The Beatles Blackbird which featured a wonderful three part harmony, the surf pop of The Beach Boys Do It Again, the pure skiffle of Lonnie Donegan’s Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It’s Flavour?
There were also two marvellous medleys paying homage to The Everly Brothers. The band demonstrated great vocal ability with close harmonies Till I Kissed You, Walk Right Back, and Wake Up Little Susie before showing further versatility by delivering more Everly classics in the second half of the concert after the band had gone off to rehearse them in the interval.
Further concert highlights were versions of The Four Seasons Walk Like A Man featuring drummer Lloyd Courtenay who mimicked Frankie Valli’s original falsetto. “We won’t tell you what we did to him in the dressing room before we came out to get that result” Pete Langford joked to the audience.
Barron Knights Perform Banned David Bowie Parody
There was also a parody of David Bowie’s Space Oddity of which Pete mentioned had been banned by the BBC. Entitled Birth Control To Ginger Tom, the song brought a lot of laughter to the audience as the band broke the ban for the audience by declaring "Stuff the BBC!"
Perhaps the most awe inspiring moments that displayed the bands diversity as musicians were their instrumental performance of The Orchestral version of The William Tell Overture and Pete Langford’s Flamenco Spanish guitar solo Malagena. These pieces alone demonstrated the bands real craftsmanship as musicians and why they are still going strong after 50 years.
- The Barron Knights will be touring again in 2012. For further information on the band, their albums and tour dates, visit their official website.
