Biography
Formed as a Lancashire quintet, the Fivepenny Piece achieved notable popularity across England throughout the 1970s within the televised pop and rock landscape. Their style evoked an updated take on the Seekers but leaned further toward mainstream pop, resulting in thirteen long-playing records and a similar run of singles issued over the course of the decade. Although none of those singles reached the charts, the ensemble moved substantial quantities of albums, thanks largely to repeated television exposure. Their origins were modest: in 1968, at a golf club in Ashton-under-Lyne in East Lancashire, John Meeks on guitar and vocals, his sister Lynda Meeks handling vocals, and Eddie Crotty on guitar and vocals performed a handful of folk numbers as a trio and were warmly received. Weeks afterward they incorporated George Radcliffe on bass and vocals along with his brother Colin Radcliffe on guitar and vocals, then began intensive rehearsals at John Meeks’s residence. Complaints from Meeks’s wife Margaret about the disturbance and the effect on her freezer’s power supply prompted a move to a back room in a nearby hotel, where sufficient listeners responded positively that the musicians secured regular Wednesday-night bookings and adopted the name “the Wednesday Folk,” a label that also reflected their repertoire at the time.
A victory in a televised talent contest soon drew the attention of the BBC, which not only aired the group but produced a documentary tracing their formation; that exposure prompted the adoption of the name Fivepenny Piece. The broadcast led to representation by one of Britain’s leading talent agencies and, shortly thereafter, a recording contract with EMI. Early singles, among them “Hang the Flag Out Mrs. Jones,” failed to chart, yet the debut album—containing many of the numbers that had proved most effective in live settings—earned favorable notices and solid sales. The follow-up, Makin’ Tracks, brought their first genuine breakthrough by entering the English Top 40 without the aid of a hit single. Two years later King Cotton climbed into the Top 10, marking the group’s strongest commercial showing. Steady appearances on various television programs supplied the visibility that sustained their audience despite the absence of chart singles. Vocally, the ensemble recalled the Seekers, with Lynda Meeks’s clear, forceful soprano supported by the other members in a manner reminiscent of Judith Durham and her colleagues from the prior decade.
After departing EMI the Fivepenny Piece spent time on the Philips label, though by that stage television work overshadowed recording; their performances blended folk elements with conventional pop and generous doses of humor. The resulting material positioned them as a domestic counterpart to the later Serendipity Singers or New Christy Minstrels, albeit an exclusively English act whose sound and Lancashire-specific lyrical references set them apart. As the decade progressed their popularity waned, and in the early 1980s John and Lynda Meeks exited to join the family business. Trevor Chance and Andrea Mullins stepped in as replacements, yet the group’s peak had already passed, leading to a final disbandment in 1985. Eddie Crotty likewise pursued non-musical business interests, though he and George Radcliffe, who died in 2002, periodically reassembled a version of the Fivepenny Piece for occasional live dates. The ensemble retains affectionate regard in England, evidenced by EMI’s 2006 release of The Collection, a twenty-three-track compact disc surveying highlights from their label recordings.
A victory in a televised talent contest soon drew the attention of the BBC, which not only aired the group but produced a documentary tracing their formation; that exposure prompted the adoption of the name Fivepenny Piece. The broadcast led to representation by one of Britain’s leading talent agencies and, shortly thereafter, a recording contract with EMI. Early singles, among them “Hang the Flag Out Mrs. Jones,” failed to chart, yet the debut album—containing many of the numbers that had proved most effective in live settings—earned favorable notices and solid sales. The follow-up, Makin’ Tracks, brought their first genuine breakthrough by entering the English Top 40 without the aid of a hit single. Two years later King Cotton climbed into the Top 10, marking the group’s strongest commercial showing. Steady appearances on various television programs supplied the visibility that sustained their audience despite the absence of chart singles. Vocally, the ensemble recalled the Seekers, with Lynda Meeks’s clear, forceful soprano supported by the other members in a manner reminiscent of Judith Durham and her colleagues from the prior decade.
After departing EMI the Fivepenny Piece spent time on the Philips label, though by that stage television work overshadowed recording; their performances blended folk elements with conventional pop and generous doses of humor. The resulting material positioned them as a domestic counterpart to the later Serendipity Singers or New Christy Minstrels, albeit an exclusively English act whose sound and Lancashire-specific lyrical references set them apart. As the decade progressed their popularity waned, and in the early 1980s John and Lynda Meeks exited to join the family business. Trevor Chance and Andrea Mullins stepped in as replacements, yet the group’s peak had already passed, leading to a final disbandment in 1985. Eddie Crotty likewise pursued non-musical business interests, though he and George Radcliffe, who died in 2002, periodically reassembled a version of the Fivepenny Piece for occasional live dates. The ensemble retains affectionate regard in England, evidenced by EMI’s 2006 release of The Collection, a twenty-three-track compact disc surveying highlights from their label recordings.
Albums
