46-564: The Mindbenders were an English beat group from Manchester . Originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana , they were one of several acts that were successful in the mid-1960s British Invasion of the US charts, achieving major chart hits with " The Game of Love " (a number-one single with Fontana) in 1965 and " A Groovy Kind of Love " in 1966. Wayne Fontana founded the band in June 1963 with Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, and Eric Stewart . The name of
92-740: A mod following during the Swinging London period of the mid to late 1960s. Freakbeat bridges "British Invasion mod/ R&B /pop and psychedelia ". The term was coined by English music journalist Phil Smee . AllMusic writes that "freakbeat" is loosely defined, but generally describes the more obscure but hard-edged artists of the British Invasion era such as the Creation , the Pretty Things or Denny Laine 's early solo work. Other bands often mentioned as Freakbeat are
138-467: A musical titled Masquerade which premiered in London in 1982. In 1988, he issued another solo album, Red House . Argent went on to play keyboards with a number of musicians, including piano on the title track of The Who 's album Who Are You , and on Variations with Gary Moore , Julian Lloyd Webber , and Andrew Lloyd Webber . In the 1980s he began writing for television. In 1986, he composed
184-1026: A policeman's beat and not that of the music". The band the Pacifics were renamed the Mersey Beats in February 1962 by Bob Wooler , MC at the Cavern Club , and in April that year they became the Merseybeats . With the rise of the Beatles in 1963, the terms Mersey sound and Merseybeat were applied to bands and singers from Liverpool, the first time in British pop music that a sound and a location were linked together. The equivalent scenes in Birmingham and London were described as Brum Beat and
230-664: A front man". Argent continued to tour with Colin Blunstone as The Zombies, and in March 2008 the original surviving members of the band played three reunion concerts at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, performing the album Odessey and Oracle . The band were introduced by Al Kooper , who had discovered the album in a record shop in Carnaby Street in London after the band had broken up. He promoted it on radio stations in
276-585: A group. We're so tight as a group together now. And the whole process has become so organic that we're 100% happy with the Zombies name and rediscovering and playing all the old stuff and at the same time carving a new path forward which is also very, very important to us." In 2012, Argent participated in the unveiling of a Blue Plaque at The Blacksmith's Arms, a pub in St Albans where the Zombies met for their first rehearsal. Argent and his wife Cathy met at
322-601: A session musician, produced albums by other artists, and had a solo career which has included three studio albums: Moving Home , Red House , and Classically Speaking . Argent was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Zombies in Brooklyn in March 2019. Argent was born in St Albans , Hertfordshire , into a working-class family. His father, Les Argent, was an aeronautical engineer who machined parts at
368-425: A solo piano album, Rod Argent Classically Speaking , in which he played Chopin études and music by Ravel , Bach , and Grieg , as well as three of his own compositions. In 2006, Argent joined Hamish Stuart , Richard Marx , Billy Squier , Edgar Winter and Sheila E. to tour with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band . In 2004, Argent and Colin Blunstone recorded a new album, As Far as I Can See... , in
414-558: A tour with Brenda Lee . They also had a No.1 hit in the United States with " The Game of Love " in 1965 (which also reached No.2 on the UK singles chart ). The band's self-titled album reached No. 18 in the UK. After a tour of America and two more singles that were less successful than "The Game of Love", " It's Just a Little Bit Too Late " and " She Needs Love ", Fontana left the band in
460-575: A very different effect from the monolithic character of rock, in that the beat was given not by the duplication of one instrument in the rhythm section by another, but by an interplay between all three. This flexibility also meant that beat music could cope with a greater range of time-signatures and song shapes than rock & roll had been able to". Beat groups usually had simple guitar -dominated line-ups, with vocal harmonies and catchy tunes. The most common instrumentation of beat groups featured lead, rhythm and bass guitars plus drums, as popularised by
506-547: The Beat Generation literary movement of the 1950s. As the initial wave of rock and roll subsided in the later 1950s, "big beat" music, later shortened to "beat", became a live dance alternative to the balladeers like Tommy Steele , Marty Wilde , and Cliff Richard who were dominating the charts. The German anthropologist and music critic Ernest Borneman , who lived in England from 1933 to 1960, claimed to have coined
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#1732802490713552-424: The British Invasion . The beat style had a significant impact on popular music and youth culture from 1960s movements such as garage rock , folk rock and psychedelic music . The exact origins of the terms 'beat music' and 'Merseybeat' are uncertain. The "beat" in each, however, derived from the driving rhythms which the bands had adopted from their rock and roll, R&B and soul music influences, rather than
598-554: The Tottenham Sound respectively. The most distinctive characteristic of beat music was its strong beat, using the backbeat common to rock and roll and rhythm and blues , but often with a driving emphasis on all the beats of 4/4 bar. The rhythm itself—described by Alan Clayson as "a changeless four-four offbeat on the snare drum"—was developed in the clubs in Hamburg , West Germany, where many English groups, including
644-559: The UK singles chart (the last time The Mindbenders registered a single in the UK charts ), whilst The Box Tops original reached the UK Top 10. A couple more flops followed and in March 1968, Lang quit and was replaced by Graham Gouldman. With Gouldman on bass, but with Ric Dixon producing, the band recorded Gouldman's composition "Uncle Joe, the Ice Cream Man" as their final single. On 20 November 1968, The Mindbenders broke up at
690-457: The 'concept' being simply songs written about relationships with women. The album contained "I Want Her, She Wants Me" (written by Rod Argent of The Zombies ), "Ashes to Ashes", and the lascivious "Schoolgirl" (written by Graham Gouldman ). The album did not sell well and was not even released in the United States. The accompanying single, another Bayer / Wine composition, "We'll Talk About It Tomorrow" also flopped. The Mindbenders appeared in
736-466: The 1960s, but disbanded in December 1967, reportedly over management disagreements. After the band broke up, Argent went on to form the band Argent , which had a hit album in 1972 with All Together Now , which contained the single " Hold Your Head Up ". His Hammond B3 solo on that track was cited by Rick Wakeman as the "greatest organ solo ever". The band also recorded the original version of
782-613: The 1967 Sidney Poitier movie, To Sir, with Love and were also on the soundtrack with the songs "Off and Running" (the last Bayer/Wine song recorded by the band) and "It's Getting Harder All the Time". Shortly thereafter, Rothwell quit the band and was replaced by Paul Hancox. Graham Gouldman became the band's producer around this time; future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones was also involved in arranging their records in 1967/68. Later in 1967, The Mindbenders released their cover version of " The Letter " which fell short at No. 42 in
828-642: The Action , the Move , the Smoke , the Sorrows , and Wimple Winch . By 1967, beat music was beginning to sound out of date, particularly compared with the "harder edged" blues rock that was beginning to emerge. Most of the groups that had not already disbanded by 1967, like the Beatles, moved into different forms of rock music and pop music , including psychedelic rock and eventually progressive rock . Beat
874-710: The Animals from Newcastle and Them from Belfast . From London, the term Tottenham Sound was largely based around the Dave Clark Five , but other London-based British rhythm and blues and rock bands who benefited from the beat boom of this era included the Rolling Stones , the Kinks and the Yardbirds . The Beatles' appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show soon after led to chart success. During
920-480: The Beatles , the Searchers , and others. Beat groups—even those with a separate lead singer—often sang both verses and choruses in close harmony , resembling doo wop , with nonsense syllables in the backing vocals. In the late 1950s, a flourishing culture of groups began to emerge, often out of the declining skiffle scene, in major urban centres in the UK like Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and London. This
966-573: The Beatles derived their name, combining it with a pun on the beat in their music), and to a lesser extent by British rock and roll groups such as the Shadows . After the national success of the Beatles in Britain from 1962, a number of Liverpool performers were able to follow them into the charts, including Gerry & The Pacemakers (who achieved a number one hit in the UK before the Beatles),
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#17328024907131012-441: The Beatles, performed in the early 1960s and where it was known as the mach schau (make show) beat. The 8/8 rhythm was flexible enough to be adopted for songs from a range of genres. In addition, according to music writer Dave Laing , "[T]he chord playing of the rhythm guitar was broken up into a series of separate strokes, often one to the bar, with the regular plodding of the bass guitar and crisp drumming behind it. This gave
1058-540: The De Havilland aircraft factory; he had also been the leader of two semi-professional dance bands, the Les Argent Quartet and Les Argent and his Rhythm Kings. Although his father did not teach Argent music, he was raised hearing him playing the upright piano in the family home. Argent's mother was one of eight children, and Argent grew up with "a substantial network of cousins, uncles and aunts" living in
1104-564: The Searchers , and Cilla Black . Outside of Liverpool many local scenes were less influenced by rock and roll and more by the rhythm and blues and later directly by the blues . These included bands from Birmingham who were often grouped with the beat movement, the most successful being the Spencer Davis Group and the Moody Blues . Similar blues influenced bands who broke out from local scenes to national prominence were
1150-526: The UK Singles Chart in 1977. Beat group Beat music , British beat , or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre and developed around Liverpool in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from British and American rock and roll , rhythm and blues , skiffle , traditional pop and music hall . It rose to mainstream popularity in the UK and Europe by 1963 before spreading to North America in 1964 with
1196-650: The US (No. 1 on the Cashbox singles chart) and No. 2 in the UK in 1966. It sold one million copies globally. The Mindbenders' 1966 album of the same name managed to reach No. 28 in the UK. A second song by Bayer and Wine , "Can't Live With You (Can't Live Without You)", had struggled to break the UK Top 30 while the third one, "Ashes to Ashes", took the Mindbenders to No. 14 in the UK Singles Chart in
1242-475: The US, leading to "Time of the Season" becoming a Top 3 hit in the singles charts. The sold out concerts (attended by several DJs and musical celebrities) led to a band reunion. In a 2015 interview with PopMatters journalist J.C. Maçek III about the Zombies' latest album Still Got That Hunger , Argent said " Still Got That Hunger is the first album that has really recaptured some of the resonance of feeling of
1288-594: The autumn of 1966. On 4 July 1966, the Mindbenders began their United States tour in Atlanta , Georgia in front of a capacity 25,000 crowd as the support act for James Brown . It would be their only tour of the United States as The Mindbenders, i.e. , without Fontana. Stewart recalled that "we went down quite well", but that later shows at the Fillmore West Auditorium on Friday 8 July and Saturday 9 July 1966 were more memorable. "The liquid light show
1334-460: The band, with only a handful of B-sides and album tracks being written by Stewart, occasionally in collaboration with Lang and Rothwell. The band's next project was a loose sort of concept album , several months before Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , S.F. Sorrow and Tommy were issued. However, The Mindbenders’ release With Woman in Mind really had no overarching narrative or story,
1380-467: The final concert of a UK tour with The Who , Arthur Brown and Joe Cocker . Stewart and Gouldman played together in Hotlegs and later went on to form 10cc . Lang later joined another rock music outfit, Racing Cars . Lang did not play with the band for long, however, and did not feature on any of their recordings. They had one hit single , "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", which reached No. 14 in
1426-451: The group was inspired by the title of a 1963 UK feature film, starring the British actor Dirk Bogarde , called The Mind Benders . Before that Fontana had a group called Wayne Fontana and the Jets (from July 1962). Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders released a number of singles before recording " Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um " in 1964, which was to be their first major hit in Britain and led to
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1472-597: The influence of which has been detected in Beat music. It was also a major port with links to America, particularly through the Cunard Yanks , which made for much greater access to American records and instruments like guitars, which could not easily be imported due to trade restrictions. As a result, Beat bands were heavily influenced by American groups of the era, such as Buddy Holly and the Crickets (from which group
1518-437: The middle of a concert in 1965. The Mindbenders decided to carry on as a trio—Stewart was the primary lead singer and guitarist, Lang played bass, and Rothwell was the drummer. Both Lang and Rothwell sang backing vocals, and took the occasional lead vocal on album tracks. The Mindbenders' first single without Fontana was the hit " A Groovy Kind of Love " (a Carole Bayer Sager / Toni Wine composition). The song reached No. 2 in
1564-665: The next two years, the Animals , Petula Clark , the Dave Clark Five , the Rolling Stones , Donovan , Peter and Gordon , Manfred Mann , Freddie and the Dreamers , The Zombies , Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders , Herman's Hermits , and the Troggs would have one or more number one singles in America. Freakbeat is a subgenre of rock and roll music developed mainly by harder-driving British groups, often those with
1610-460: The piano and keyboards in the Zombies, Argent was (with White) one of the group's two main songwriters, penning the hits " She's Not There ", " Tell Her No ", and " Time of the Season ", amongst others. Argent was initially the group's lead singer, with Blunstone on guitar. When Argent's keyboard talents became apparent, he became the group's full-time keyboard player, conceding the role of lead singer to Blunstone. The group continued to record through
1656-533: The rock anthem " God Gave Rock and Roll to You ", written by lead singer Russ Ballard , which was later covered by other artists including Petra and Kiss . Argent's first album included the song " Liar " (also composed by Ballard), which became a hit for Three Dog Night . In 1976, the band broke up. In 1978, Argent released his debut solo album Moving Home with many well-known musicians, including Gary Moore , Genesis drummer Phil Collins , and Weather Report bass guitarist Alphonso Johnson . In 1980, he wrote
1702-460: The rock band the Zombies , and went on to form the band Argent after the first break-up of the Zombies. Argent is one of the main composers of the Zombies' music and made major lyrical contributions to the band's songs. As the band's keyboardist he used a variety of instruments, including Hohner Pianet , Mellotron , harpsichord , and organ . In addition to his work with the Zombies and Argent, Argent has made music for television series, been
1748-530: The style of The Zombies. A subsequent album and DVD Colin Blunstone & Rod Argent of the Zombies Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre received favourable reviews, as did their 2007 US tour. One critic noted, "The Zombies, still led by original keyboard wizard Rod Argent and featuring the smoked-silk vocals of Colin Blunstone, is the best 60s band still touring which doesn't have Mick Jagger as
1794-532: The term in a column in Melody Maker magazine to describe the British imitation of American rock'n'roll, rhythm & blues and skiffle bands. The 'Mersey' of 'Merseybeat' refers to the River Mersey . Liverpool lies on the eastern side of the river's estuary. The name Mersey Beat was used for a Liverpool music magazine founded in 1961 by Bill Harry . Harry claims to have coined the term "based on
1840-600: The theme music for ITV 's coverage of the 1986 FIFA World Cup , Aztec Gold , which he released as a single under the name of Silsoe . Also in 1986, he composed the theme music for ITV's The Two of Us and for 1987's LWT series Bust. Two years later, the Argent/Van Hooke composition "Goal Crazy" was used by ITV's The Match from 1988 until 1992; and the duo also composed the now-familiar theme music for ITV's It'll Be Alright On The Night , first used in series 6 in 1990 and then until 2008. Argent also composed
1886-668: The theme music to the ITV ( LWT ) sitcom The Piglet Files , which aired from 1990 to 1992. In 1987, Argent formed a production company with ex- Van Morrison drummer Peter Van Hooke which produced a number of artists. In 1995, Argent produced Soraya 's debut album On Nights Like This and her second album Wall Of Smiles . Other albums the business partners produced included Tanita Tikaram 's Ancient Heart (1988), Nanci Griffith 's Late Night Grande Hotel (1991), Joshua Kadison 's Painted Desert Serenade (1993), and Jules Shear 's Healing Bones (1994). In 1999, Argent recorded
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1932-554: The town. He decided to become a musician "aged eight or nine", and as a child, he sang as a chorister in the St Albans Cathedral Choir . While at St Albans School , he met Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy . Argent, Atkinson, and Grundy first played together at a jam on Easter 1961 in St Albans. Argent wanted to form a band and initially asked his cousin Jim Rodford to join as a bass guitarist. Rodford
1978-461: Was a major influence on the American garage rock and folk rock movements, and would be a source of inspiration for subsequent rock music subgenres, including Britpop in the 1990s. Rod Argent Rodney Terence Argent (born 14 June 1945) is an English musician. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Argent came to prominence in the mid-1960s as the keyboardist, founder and leader of
2024-440: Was great and really worked with our act, which was a lot heavier than on our records." In September/October 1966 they embarked on a 12 date package tour of England backing Dave Berry of 'The Crying Game' fame. The tour also included Dusty Springfield and The Alan Price Set . Stewart was developing himself as a songwriter, and wrote "My New Day and Age" for Family . However, the Mindbenders generally sought material from outside
2070-488: Was particularly true in Liverpool, where it has been estimated that there were around 350 different bands active, often playing ballrooms, concert halls and clubs. Liverpool was perhaps uniquely placed within Britain to be the point of origin of a new form of music. Commentators have pointed to a combination of local solidarity, industrial decline , social deprivation, and the existence of a large population of Irish origin,
2116-482: Was playing in local band called the Bluetones at the time, so declined. Colin Blunstone and Paul Arnold joined the new band in early 1961, while all five members were still at school. Arnold left not long after and was replaced by Chris White . After the band won a local contest, they recorded a demo as their prize. Argent's song " She's Not There " got them a recording contract with Decca . In addition to playing
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