Wishful Thinking

(c’65-’80) Dave Luther (guitar), Roy “Boone” Daniel (vocals), Brian Allen (drums), Roger Charles (bass), and Richard Taylor (guitar).

In late ’64 or early ’65, as was Bob Potter’s management style, Barry ‘Bo’ Williams (bass), Graham ‘Topper’ Clay (drums), and Pete Foster (rhythm guitar) of The Renegades were replaced by Woking born Allen, Charles and Taylor of The Emeralds and with this new lineup; that included Daniels (who also went by Spreadborough) from Farnborough and Luther, the two remaining members of the Renegades; the band was renamed Wishful Thinking and pitched as a Woking / Farnham band.

In ’65, Taylor was replaced by former The Lively Set guitarist Terry New. Then in ’66 they released the 7″ single “Step by Step”, which got listed on pirate radio station Wonderful Radio London’s ‘Big L Fab 40’.

On 1 July 1966, the band were at the Marquee Club, London with The Summer Set, and joined The Walker Brothers, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch, The Quotations, The Creation, and Hamiliton and The Hamiliton Movement at the Gaumont, Bournemouth for two performances a day across the 11 to 13 August ’66. On the last of those three days The Moody Blues replaced Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch on stage. Another trip into London to team up with Winston’s Fumbs at Tiles, London on 29 September ’66. Later in ’66, the band attracted 250 to their appeared at the Airmen’s Club, Lyneham on 3 November ’66 and were part of the All-Star Pop Concert package tour when it visited Theatre Royal, York, on 5 November ’66, which was headlined by Freddie & The Dreamers, and included The Mindbenders, Julie Grant, The Lonely Ones, Vivienne Chering, and The Flintlocks along with Wishful Thinking. The band returned to the Airmen’s Club on 10 November for the Tramp’s Ball, then on 17 November ’66, with The Manchester Playboys back at Tiles, followed on 18 November ’66, by an appearance at the Starlite Ballroom, Greenford; before heading out on a UK cabaret tour and over to Denmark. Meanwhile, their single “Step by Step” had hit No.8 in the Scottish Radio chart. The band had held down a pretty heavy schedule through ’66 that included the Atalanta Ballroom, Woking, and The Starlight Ballroom, Crawley, and they found themselves wrapping up the year back at the Airmen’s Club on 31 December ’66 for the New Year’s Eve Ball.

The next year Daniels left the band to be replaced by ex-The Time / Kingsmen vocalist Kevin Scott/Finn, aka Danny Finn, New was replaced by John Franklin (guitar), and Charles was replaced by Tony Collier (bass/vocals), who performed the lead vocals on several of the band’s tracks. ’67 was also the year that the Allen, Charles, Franklin, New, and Scott lineup released “The Wishful Thinking Live Vol 1” LP on Decca, produced by former Shadows drummer/A&R man Tony Meehan and featuring covers of The Beach Boys’ “California Girls“, The Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)“, The Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee” and The Turtles “Happy Together” and the original “Is She a Woman Now“. By this time the band’s fan club was getting pretty active and was run by Sylvia Curtis of Farnham. There was an appearance with Maxine Brown & The Q-Set on 18 February ’67 at Dreamland, Margate. Then, shortly after the release of the ‘Live’ LP and a gig at the Civic Hall, Guildford, the band toured The Netherlands and Denmark, including, on 6 March ’67, Denmark’s Brørup Pop Club, Jylland and the Hit House, Copenhagen as some point. There were three consecutive nights at The Scotch of St. James, London on 20-22 November ’67. Towards the end of the year, they were voted the best non hit parade group of ’67.

Occasional singles and tours occurred over the next few years, this included 1967’s “Count to Ten” which featured some session drumming from Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, who had been in The Lively Set with New.

The Cromwellian, Kensington, was a significant London rock venue in the day and Wishful Thinking stepped onto the stage there on 6 February ’68. Torquay’s 400 Ballroom welcomed the combo on 6 April ’68; a venue they revisited on 17 August and 20 through 23 August that same year. There were also return visits to The Cromwellian on 6, 20 and 21 May ’68. The Cromwellian was managed and part owned by Bob Archer, who would establish Pantiles, Bagshot, and on 14 March ’69, Wishful Thinking were performing there; and on 12 July ’69 the band played Hastings Pier with St. Johns Wood in support. On 1 October ’69, Wishful Thinking were one of the many bands, including Sky, The Embers, The Late, Canterbury Tales, Crazy Paving, Chimera, and Magic Alice that played a benevolent concert at Samantha’s Club, as the Agincourt, Camberley was called for a time. This was compered by Dave West and also featured the Radio 1 D.J. Ray Moore.

An appearance at Grey Topper Club, Jacksdale on 17 May ’70 was followed by a return visit eight days later, on 25 May, to perform at noon and that night for the club’s Whit Monday. Charles was replaced by Tony Collier, then they opened for Pink Floyd at a Danish concert in 1970. They were back in the Southwest on 10 April 1971 at the City Hall, Truro with Marvellous Kid in support. In ’73, they were involved in the soundtrack “That’ll Be the Day“, with David Essex and Ringo Starr; contributing the song “It’ll Be Me” and they can be seen next to Billy Fury during the dance contest scene. Also in the early 1970s, Allen was replaced by Pete Ridley, and then John Redpath (drums), who remained until 1979. Meanwhile, Danny Finn became the singer with The New Seekers from 1976 to 1978.

Wishful Thinking’s biggest success came in ’78 with “Hiroshima” which entered the German Top 10. It was a slow burn of a success; unlike the event it was named after. The track was originally written in ’69 by Dave Morgan, later of ELO, and recorded at Chappel Recording Studios, Wimbledon and released by Wishful Thinking in ’71. It was also included on their album that was also to be titled “Hiroshima“; however, the first release in Germany in ’71 was simply titled “Wishful Thinking“. John Timperley was the audio engineer; and Ruan O’Lochlainn who also worked with Jethro Tull, Rick Wakeman and Ringo Starr, did the cover artwork and photography. Lou Reizner was producer of the single and album and provided the spoken text on the single. It was released at various times in the coming years in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Spain; but it was not until its re-release in May ’78 that it gained any real recognition. It became popular on continental Europe, staying 44 weeks in the German Top 40 Charts, and reaching a highest position of number 8 on 22 May ’78. The album of the same name was released in 1971 in the UK, Germany, Canada and the USA; as well as being re-released in Germany several times, including on CD in 1988.

In 1980, the group became inactive; Scott/Finn moved to Scotland; Franklin remained in Surrey; Allen moved to Salignac, France; and Charles to Australia. “Hirosihma” kept going: In ’82, a German language cover version was released by East German Puhdys. In 1990, German singer Sandra released the song, reaching number four in Germany, Switzerland and Israel and sixteen in France. As of 2019, Sony Music in Germany have the distribution rights for the “Global Records and Tapes” and Ariola catalog. On 16 April 2005, band members Finn, Allen, Collier, and Franklin reunited to perform a single song on TV for RTL in Germany.

After leaving Daniels went to work at B.A.C. in Weybridge and with wife Helen had a boy they christened Dean. He passed on 20 February 2022. New was taken by cancer on 4 October 2010; Allen passed away at his home in France on 23 May 2012, Kevin Finn (“Kevin Scott”, “Danny Finn”) died after a brief illness on 22 February 2016, and Collier left us on died 4 April 2023 in Bournemouth.

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