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Lord Rockingham's XI were a group of musicians put together to play as the heavily sax laiden resident band on 'Oh Boy!'. Jack Good had created this TV rock and roll show shortly after being dismissed by the BBC. Although Good had produced the very successful 'Six-5 Special' for the Beeb, he was deemed to be too reckless for Auntie and given his marching orders. Unfortunately for the BBC he was not unemployed for long and ITV were then able to host one of the UK's definitive TV popular music programmes. Lord Rockingham's XI actually had 13 musicians in all if you included bandleader Harry Robinson and lady organist Cherry Wainer. Well known jazz 'buff' Benny Green played alto saxophone with the band, but was so embarrassed by it that he often played in sunglasses to hide the fact. Although most people identified scotsman Harry Robinson as Lord Rockingham, this wasn't the case according to Jack Good. After achieving fame with their single 'Hoots Mon' and wanting to go 'on the road', there was considerable argument about who had rights to the name Lord Rockingham, and lawyers had to be brought in to settle the dispute! Although Good had created the name as a play on words 'rocking 'em', there really had been a real Lord Rockingham in times past. |
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Unfortunately, the Lord Rockingham EP doesn't have much more than the title on its picture sleeve, so I've put this one here instead. Cherry never quite managed a chart single without the XI, but the sound of her Hammond organ was familiar enough to those of us who watched "Oh Boy!". This EP contains material typical of that which she played on the show. |
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| The band achieved one further minor novelty hit apart from 'Hoots Mon' and the joke was over. Harry Robinson did try again with a modified line-up during the hey day of the Twist a couple of years later, but got no significant response. Lord Rockingham's XI remain a delightful, if transient, piece of 1950s fun, and should never have been taken as seriously as some musicians apparently believed they should be. | |
