Alan Whitehead

Alan James Whitehead (born 24 July 1945) is a British musician, businessman and author. He was a drummer for The Attack and Marmalade.

He started his career in the music industry in 1966 as the drummer for Crispian St. Peters. Not long after, he formed the group The Attack, also in 1966, featuring guitarist and trumpeter David O'List (later of The Nice with Keith Emerson), Richard Sherman on vocals, Bob Hodges on piano and organ, Gerry Henderson on bass and Whitehead on drums.

They released four singles in all, three in 1966 "Try It" / "We Don't Know", "Hi Ho Silver Lining" / "Any More Than We Do", "Created by Clive" / "Colour of My Mind" and one in 1967, "Neville Thumbcatch" / "Lady Orange Peel".

Several compilation albums have been produced which featured the band, Magic in the Air in 1990, The Complete Recordings From 1967-68 in 1999, About Time! (The Definitive MOD-POP Collection 1967-1968) and Final Daze in 2019.

Although he has had a diverse music and business career, Whitehead is best known as a member of Marmalade, whose most successful single in the UK was a cover version of the Paul McCartney song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". Released in November 1968, the single reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and topped the charts in several other countries.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.