Wayne Fontana:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3kXqlJhGuE
Wayne Fontana didn't sing "A Groovy Kind of Love"---he left the Mindbenders well before they recorded
the song. There were those who knew the group at the time who swore Fontana had a solo career in
mind from the moment his and the Mindbenders' cover of Major Lance's "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" hit
number five in England. After "Game of Love" went to number two in the UK and number one in
America, Fontana and the Mindbenders toured the States (they had to prove to U.S. immigration
authorities that "Game of Love"'s success justified their doing so first), went back to England, and
Fontana dropped the bombshell on the band smack dab in the middle of a show---their next couple
of singles hadn't done as well as "Game of Love" and Fontana simple walked off stage, telling
guitarist Eric Stewart, "It's All Yours."
(Trivia: Wayne Fontana's real name was Glyn Geoffrey Ellis; contrary to one former myth, he didn't
take his stage name at the behest of his record label, which was also called Fontana---he took it
in admiration of Elvis Presley's original drummer, D.J. Fontana. Fontana and bassist Bob Lang were
the only members of their original lineup to show up for an important audition; the pair all but
shanghaied Stewart and drummer Rick Rothwell---who were at the club but not scheduled to
play---into completing the lineup, and they got more than they bargained for: they were auditioning
for a regular gig at the club and ended up with a recording contract. When Fontana walked out of
the Mindbenders in the middle of that show, the group took to referring to him in the future as
"our former tambourine player.")
Stewart and the Mindbenders carried on with "A Groovy Kind of Love" in 1966 and, arguably, the first
concept album in British rock,
With Woman in Mind. (It was never released in the U.S., but it
beat the Beatles, the Pretty Things, the Kinks, and the Who to the concept punch and is considered a lost
jewel of British rock.) The Mindbenders found themselves unable to pick good singles while making
solid albums (actually, their singles were pretty good, but they preferred to look outside themselves
for singles material despite Stewart maturing as a songwriter, at a time when original material was
very much the preference)---and getting the coveted gig of being the band playing the dance in the
gym near the climax of
To Sir, With Love---but by the end of 1968, the personnel shifted and
Stewart was the only original Mindbender left.
The end of the Mindbenders did prove fortuitous in one respect---songwriting star Graham Gouldman
joined the group near its finish. He and Stewart would go on, after one or two other stops along the
way, first creating Strawberry Studios and then becoming half of 10cc.
