Fivepenny Piece

Fivepenny Piece was a five-piece folk band formed in 1967 around Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge in Tameside, England. The band met and performed on Wednesday nights at Ashton's Broadoak Hotel, which gave them their original name The Wednesday Folk.

Career

Their break came when they entered and won the Granada Television talent show New Faces in 1968, which led to a contract with the Noel Gay agency, a recording contract with EMI, and their new name.
Many of their mostly self-penned songs reflected their roots, using Lancashire dialect, with references to the mining and weaving trades, the mills and factories, and the Lancashire characters who lived in the area. But there was another side to the group's music, perhaps best described as more pop-oriented. The band's music is most often categorised as folk.
The original personnel were John Meeks ; John's sister Lynda Jane Meeks ; brothers George Radcliffe and Colin Radcliffe ; and Eddie Crotty . John Meeks and Colin Radcliffe wrote most of their best-known songs, although Crotty also penned several. The unofficial sixth member of the band was the drummer Phil Barlow, who accompanied them in many of their concerts and on their albums.
During the band's 1970s heyday they released over a dozen albums for EMI and then Philips, and reached the Top 10 in the UK Albums Chart with their LP King Cotton. They performed multiple times on national television, and had their own BBC Television series, The Fivepenny Piece Show.
By the early 1980s the group had reached an impasse, and John Meeks' departure was followed soon afterwards by Lynda Meeks. With John's replacement Trevor Chance and Andrea Mullins, the band continued until 1985 when they broke up.
The group reformed in the mid-1990s, and played occasional gigs with various personnel, including the Lancashire folk singer and comedian Bernard Wrigley and Pete Brew. Crotty and George Radcliffe continued to play in the band, along with Mullins. Salford-born guitarist and vocalist Paul Johnston joined the band in the late 1990s as they continued to perform, their final show being at the Grand Theatre in Lancaster around 2004.
George Radcliffe ran the 'Star Inn' pub in Ashton-under-Lyne in the early 1980s and died at the end of 2002, and Eddie Crotty, the band's only remaining original member, died of a heart attack in hospital on 11 April 2009, aged 67, after being ill for the previous nine years. Lynda Jane Meeks died from cancer on 22 January 2013, aged 67 years, at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. Colin Radcliffe died in 2025, after living in retirement in Wales, leaving John Meeks the sole surviving original member of the group.
For a while in the 1970s the group had a weekly interlude spot on the BBC programme That's Life! with Esther Rantzen.

Albums

The Fivepenny Piece Columbia
Songs We Like To Sing Columbia
Making Tracks Columbia – UK No. 37
The Fivepenny Piece... On Stage One-Up
Wish You Were Here EMI
King Cotton EMI UK No. 9
Telling Tales EMI
On Stage Again One-Up
Both Sides of Fivepenny Piece EMI
Peddlers of Songs Columbia SCX 6607
Life Is A Game Of Chance Philips 9109 234
An Evening With The Fivepenny Piece Philips 6382 154
Lancashire, My Lancashire EMI compilation
Here We Are Again BDA Records BDLP 001
57 Fivepenny Favourites Sound Waves SOW 525
Better Than Ever band self issue FP2501

Singles

Running Free / Land of Half Past Nine Columbia
Hang the Flag Out Mrs. Jones / Little Boy Little Girl Columbia
There's A Great Deal of Difference / Ee By Gum Columbia
A Gradely Prayer / Reflections of Emily Columbia
The People Tree / Homemade Brew Columbia
Gotta Get Away / I'm Powfagged Columbia
Save Your Last Kiss for Me / Butterflies and Songbirds EMI
Big Jim / Ee By Gum EMI
Watercolour Morning / Old England EMI
I'll Still Be in Love With You / Flamingo Columbia
It's a Long Way / In a World of Three Foot Nothing Mike Records
The Christmas Story / Christmas Spirit Mike Records

Songbooks

Fivepenny Piece – songbook no. 1
Fivepenny Piece – songbook no. 2