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The Fivepenny Piece are a five-piece band formed originally in 1967 in Stalybridge in Lancashire in northern England - all members of the band were from Stalybridge or nearby Ashton-under-Lyne. Their big break came in 1968 when they won the popular TV talent show 'New Faces' under their orginal name Wednesday Folk, and they were quickly signed up by the prestigious Noel Gay Agency and given a recording contract with EMI Records.
The Fivepenny Piece are best known and remembered in their home territory of Lancashire and nearby areas of the North West of England, but they were widely known across the UK during their heyday in the 1970s, thanks to their many TV appearances in those days.
The Fivepenny Piece made more than a dozen albums throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, as well as a number of singles. The Fivepenny Piece's chart career was brief - none of their singles got into the national charts, but they did make the Top Ten UK albums with their magnum opus King Cotton, and an earlier album Makin' Tracks both made the top forty album charts.
After various line-up changes, the band broke up in 1985, but it was subsequently reformed but by now had little in common with the original band. The Fivepenny Piece continued to perform for a while before disappearing sometime in the 1990s.
But that was not the end of The Fivepenny Piece! In 2004 founder member John Meeks came out of retirement and released a brand new CD. This was followed by a second EMI 'Best of' compilation in 2006. John then convinced Lynda Meeks and Eddie Crotty to join him for a reunion concert, which was recorded and released in 2007 as 'Where It All Began'. And 2008 has now seen the release of the band's latest studio album 'A Special Child' on their own Wednesday Folk label.
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