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Now Playing: "Don't Lock Your Heart Away"
Chapter Five was formed in Barrow -in -Furness in 1964. Members were: Dave McGerty Keyboards, Allan Davies Guitar, Frank Hayes Bass Guitar, Tony Flanagan Drums, Dave Roberts Tenor Sax, Bruce Martin Trumpet, Lou Mickleback Baritone Sax, and John Ritson vocals, who took over from original singer Bob Atkinson when Bob left after a brief spell as vocalist.
The Band turned professional in 1966 touring Germany that year, and recorded three songs for the giant American Label CBS. Their first single was a cover of Maxine Browns "Anything That You Do Is Alright". The "B" side was a Dave McGerty composition, "You Can't Mean It". The single sold reasonably well for a first release and charted in the top forty of a couple of Pirate Radio stations. The Bands other recording was also a cover of a song recorded by Maxine Brown entitled "One In A Million", a Rudy Clarke composition. The song was a favourite of the band and it was expected to do well. The single was featured on BBC's Juke Box Jury and one of the panelists was Kenny Everett and he voted the song a miss. The "B" side was a dreadful song called "Hey Hey" and was purported to be by Chapter Five, but in fact the band had never even heard of it. Whoever the session band were, who recorded this so called song, they were just awful. Chapter Five believe that this is the reason CBS decided not to issue the single. Shortly after this, a very good version of "One In A Million" was released by Karol Keyes on Columbia Records and did fairly well.
"You Can't Mean It" however broke into the Northern Soul scene in the early seventies courtesy of DJ Richard Searling, and has become a Northern Soul classic. The original CBS single being currently quoted at £600 in the Rare Record Guide.
"You Can't Mean It" has been re-released three times in recent years, once on vinyl on the Sevens label in 1996, again on a Goldmine compilation album called "Northern Soul The Classics" in 1997, and more recently on a Bestway Records cd "Sixties Soul Happening" in June 2004.
On the 18th August 2004, the original members of the band, returned to the studio after nearly forty years, (see photograph below), and recorded two songs that they had written in the sixties, but never had chance to record. "The First Time", written by Dave McGerty, and "Don't Lock Your Heart Away" written by Allan Davies and John Ritson. The session went incredibly well and the songs have just been released on the Chapter Five label as a limited edition (orange label) of 1000 copies.
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