The Barron Knights celebrate milestone with MK gig
Imagine the scenario: You have the same job for fifty years. The hours are long and you work late. Oh, and there is plenty of travelling involved - quite often meaning nights away from home.
It doesn't sound like fun, but then this isn't some tiresome road job.
Even after a half century in the business, Pete Langford loves life as a Barron Knight.
The founding member who lives locally at Milton Bryan is looking forward to playing on home turf again too – the Knights will ready their musical armoury and bring their winning style to The Stables, this Saturday night.
"We've built up a lovely following based on hard work," he says, all chirpy-like.
"We work really hard on our singing, harmonies and musicianship of the band," Pete says proudly.
"I don't tend to see that many bands better than us, vocal-harmony wise."
That style will be evident this weekend. But set wise what will be on offer?
"It's the soundtrack to our lives really. There will be some of the songs that we grew up with, done in our own style, some new bits to the show…
"Some of the people who come to The Stables will have seen us plenty of times before, so we keep putting new material in. We like to keep the act fresh," he explains.
The show is special – the first date of the 50th anniversary tour, which will take the band far and wide on a 55 date stint in 2010. Shows have been booked in Australia, New Zealand and Dubai.
"I mentioned to my wife that I was thinking of quitting music, and she said that I would regret it. She said that whenever I'm not out playing, I play at home.
"She said 'you get a lot of pleasure from music, but don't forget that you give a lot of pleasure too.'"
Luckily for fans, the advice of Mrs Langford was heeded.
Pete and his band have been spreading smiles via their sometime humorous deliveries cosistently since their inception.
As you would expect, they have accumulated plenty of stories along the way. And they have inspired a few folks too…
Pete recalls Eric Clapton telling him that he wanted to be like the Barron Knights.
"That's what he told me," Pete says with a laugh.
Equally, the story of the youngster who saw them play in Aylesbury and was inspired enough to buy a guitar is well known.
Bill Wyman documented the very fact in his autobiography.
Back in the day, the BK's toured with both The Beatles and The Stones.
It was watching a performance on TV by Slim Whitman that put Pete on the road to playability though. He took a paper round and mucked out horses saving for his first instrument!
"I used to muck out 12 horses a day" he laughs, "And on a Saturday I would deliver butchers meat too!"
The memories are fantastic, but this isn't a band trading simply on nostalgia.
This is a band with that busy year of touring ahead, and a new CD that will be on sale at tomorrow's show.
Bringing the tour full circle, the band will return to The Stables next December 4 to bring the curtain down on the whole shebang with their blend of rock n roll, blues, soul, ballads…you name it, they play it.
And they do it with a smile on their faces. Small surprise then that their popularity hasn't waived any: "I am so grateful that we have had the success we have," Pete says, "We've nearly sold out The Stables again…it is so fantastic."
Ticket hunters should call the venue with haste to bag a ticket.
Keep your fingers crossed that seats remain and call MK 280800.
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
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