Unit 4 + 2

Early days Brian Parker after a short spell as a guitar player in Adam Faith's backing group The Roulettes in early 1962, formed the fledgling outfit, as Unit Four with fellow guitarist Tommy Moeller, Dave 'Buster' Meikle and lead singer, Peter Moules. Due to ill-health Parker quickly dropped himself from playing duties with the group, and concentrated on songwriting for them. His place was taken by Howard ' Lem' Lubin. The quartet was named 'Unit Four' simply on account of their having four band members. When two further musicians joined the group (Rod Garwood and Hugh Halliday), they augmented the name accordingly. They were later joined by the multi-talented Nigel Snook, becoming Unit Four Plus Two in Late 1963. As Unit 4 + 2, the sextet issued their debut single, on Decca Records. "Green Fields" reached a modest number 48 in the UK in 1964. Their second single release "Sorrow and Pain" fared even worse. Success Unit 4 + 2's song "Concrete and Clay" became a big hit the following year, reportedly thanks to exposure on the pirate radio stations of the day, most notably Wonderful Radio London. The radio station's music director, Tony Windsor, later recalled in an interview that he had initially rejected the song for the station's playlist, but was persuaded to change his mind by DJ Kenny Everett. The disc was recorded using the skills of two guest musicians, Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit (two of Parker's former bandmates from their Roulettes days), who debuted much earlier together at venues such as Cheshunt Boys' Club together with Buster Meikle as members of The Daybreakers. As well as its chart topping exploits in the UK, "Concrete and Clay" was a worldwide hit, and the group suddenly found themselves on radio playlists across the globe. In America, a competing cover version by Eddie Rambeau (produced by Bob Crewe) split sales, with Rambeau reaching #35 on the Billboard charts and Unit 4 + 2 placing at #28. Cash Box charted the two versions together, and they reached a combined #12. Decca released a hastily put together album, also entitled Concrete and Clay, to capitalise on the success, but it was not as notable in style or content as the single. Nevertheless, the next single release "You've Never been in Love like This Before" reached the Top Twenty in Britain, and #95 on the Billboard chart in the U.S. The song returned to the Top Twenty of the UK Singles Chart in 1976, courtesy of Randy Edelman's cover version. More recently, the original song appeared in the film, Rushmore (1998). Downhill After the release of three less successful singles, the band underwent several personnel changes with the 1967 shake up, and experienced a change of record label to Fontana Records, but neither was able to revive the group's fortunes. By 1968, with Ballard and Henrit on board as fulltime members, their sound was toughened up, but a stab at Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" was comprehensively outsold by The Byrds own cover version. They moved into psychedelic mode with their final single offering "3.30" with lavish orchestration and harpsichords aplenty. It failed to chart, and with another album Unit 4 + 2 quickly following suit, the group disbanded in 1969.