Formed in 1960 in Leighton Buzzard as a vocal harmony band called the Knights of the Round Table – later changed to the Barron Knights.

After some personnel changes, the line up by 1962 was Barron Anthony, Duke D’Mond, Pete Langford, Butch Baker and Dave Ballinger.

In 1963, Brian Epstein saw them play in Liverpool and invited them to appear as a support act on The Beatles Christmas shows at the Finsbury Park Astoria.

In 1964 they leapt to fame with the single “Call Up The Groups (Parts 1 & 2). It parodied other leading pop groups of the time, including The Searchers, Freddie and the Dreamers, the Dave Clark Five, the Bachelors, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. They followed this up with two more singles “Pop Go The Workers” (1965) and “Merrie Gentle Pops” (1966).

During August 1964 they toured with the Rolling Stones. In 1965 the group were part of a record-breaking revue with Ken Dodd at the London Palladium, which ran for six months.

In 1970 they embarked upon the first of 24 concert tours of Australia – a country where the group enjoyed success.

In 1971 the Bucks Herald reported that Pete Langford from the Barron Knights had written two songs in support of the protest against a third London airport being built in Wing. The single “If You Jumbo Jet Me” was released under the name Wings Of A Dove, which included all of the Barron Knights and some other artists.

In 1977 the Barron Knights signed with Epic Records and had further hits with “Live in Trouble” (1977) and “A Taste of Aggro” (1978), and their first hit album with “Night Gallery”.

There is a story concerning David Bowie. Bowie’s publisher rejected their re-working of “Space Oddity” as a conversation between two cats (“Birth Control to Ginger Tom”), but after they met Bowie on Top Of The Pops, he gave permission.

The Barron Knights website

The Barron Knights made 17 appearances in Aylesbury up to 1967: