Lancastrians (Altrincham)

Original line-up included

• Kevin Heywood: Lead Guitar
• Barry Langtree: Lead Vocal 
• Terry Benson: Bass Guitar:
• John Fleury: Drummer

In 1956 Kevin Heywood & Barry Langtree met at secondary school they were both learning to play guitar. Kevin invited Barry to his house to play and thats when it started. 'The Garage' was their first venue. The neighbours were not ready for 'The Heartbeats'.  They both watched 'The Six Five Special' to see what real players did. Eventually they learned the same three chords, when they put the guitars in the same pitch as well things sounded better.

Time wore on, so did the patience of the neighbours but they got good and soon found a bass player and drummer then a singer.  The group became 'Tommy Hart & The Heartbeats' and did a few radio gigs. Eventually the bass player and the drummer were changed to Terry Benson and John Fleury, Tommy Hart left and the name was changed to 'Barry Langtree & The Lancastrians'.

The Manager said; 'We would have to have bigger billboards to fit it on.' Instead, the letters got smaller so much to the relief of Barry his name was taken off. They made TV and summer shows, winter clubs followed and this was important to complete their 'apprenticeship'. At those venues they met many top stars of the day, some are still massive e.g. Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Cilla Black, Moody Blues and many more.

Eventually they were introduced to Shel Talmy, a record producer involved with The Kinks, The Small Faces, The Who, The Ivy League and was responsible for helping the British Invasion of America. Shel was their A & R man and produced all their six singles. He also brought in Jimmy Page to session with them on 'Was She Tall' and 'The World Keeps Going Round' - NOT -''We'll Sing In The Sunshine'' as specified by some people.

The records never made it as hits, just memories.

Going to Germany on tour was 'the straw that broke the camels back', after returning with less money than they went with and then asked to tour France for six months they said, 'No Thanks'. By instruction of the group, a meeting with Shel was arranged and the group decided to disband - not as published on CD covers.

During 2001-2004, the band reformed, reuniting Barry, Kevin and Terry, along with ex-session musician Steve Wilde on drums. 

Discography

• 1964: "We'll Sing in the Sunshine" / "Was She Tall" (Pye 7N 15732) 
• 1965: "Let's Lock the Door (And Throw Away the Key)" / "If You're Gonna Leave Me" (Pye 7N 15791) 
• 1965: "They'll Be No More Goodbyes" / "Never Gonna Come On Home" (Pye 7N 15846) 
• 1965: "Lonely Man" / "I Can't Stand the Pain" (Pye 7N 15927) 
• 1966: "The World Keeps Going Round" / "Not the Same Anymore" (Pye 7N 17043) 
• 1966: "Ballad of the Green Berets" / "My Little Rose" (Pye 7N 17072)

THE BLUEPRINT OF ‘THE WORLD KEEPS GOING ROUND’ BY THE LANCASTRIANS

The Lancastrians were a pop-rock band from Cheshire in England, which put them about 180 miles away from London. They were originally known as the Heartbeats, but after that group split, guitarists Barry Langtree and Kevin Heywood reformed the band as the Lancastrians, along with new members, bassist Terry Benson and John Fleury on the drums.

I first came across them in the summer of 1964, liked what I heard and felt that they had some good original songs. Right around that time I heard the Gale Garnett song, ‘We’ll Sing in the Sunshine’, and immediately thought of The Lancastrians as the band to cover this soft rock song. I took that master to Pye who made an instant deal for the record. It was released in the UK in December 1964 and it did chart, though not as high as we hoped it would.

Nevertheless I believed in the Lancastrians’ abilities and in fact did another five singles with them for Pye, but sadly whatever I tried did not work, despite some great tracks!

The fifth of these was a very strong Ray Davies song I had just recorded with The Kinks for their album “The Kink Kontroversy”, entitled ‘The World Keeps Going Round’.

When the album came out just before Christmas 1965, the Kinks’ version of the song immediately started getting airplay, and so I decided to “cover" my own production, and instructed The Lancastrians to record the song. We held the session for their version at IBC on 21st December 1965, with Glyn Johns engineering and my fave studio drummer Bobby Graham sitting in. The arrangement was closely modelled on the Kinks recording – after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Pye released the single in January 1966 and it also came out in the US on the Jerden label, a small company based in Seattle. Unfortunately, neither release got anywhere near the charts in either country!

The Lancastrians split the following year, but thirty years later, in 2001, they reformed, and found a they still had a willing audience.

Shel Talmy (Facebook)