Biography
Manchester's Toggery Five ranked among the more distinctive unsuccessful acts that repeatedly fell short while trying to establish a foothold in pop and rock. Mike Rabin on vocals, Frank Renshaw on lead guitar, Keith Meredith on rhythm guitar, Kenneth Hills on bass, and Graham Smith on drums assembled the lineup in 1963. In a 1964 talent contest backed by the Ready Steady Go! television program, they placed immediately behind the Bo Street Runners. Parlophone Records signed them that same year and issued their first 45, coupling “Bye Bye Bird” with “I’m Gonna Jump,” yet the single made no commercial impression. The label next supplied “I’d Much Rather Be With the Boys,” a number co-written by Andrew Oldham and Keith Richards that the Rolling Stones themselves had deemed unsuitable, although a Stones demo later appeared on the 1975 Metamorphosis compilation. The Toggery Five’s version proved more convincing than the demo in several respects, but despite repeated television spots the record likewise failed to register on the charts. Throughout the following twelve months the musicians kept gigging while undergoing multiple personnel shifts; among the players who moved through the ranks were Mick Abrahams and Clive Bunker, both of whom later became founding members of Jethro Tull after first joining McGregory’s Engine. Frank Renshaw subsequently backed Wayne Fontana and eventually took a role in a post-1960s incarnation of Herman’s Hermits.