The Mindbenders

The Mindbenders were an English beat group from Manchester. Originally the backing group for Wayne Fontana, they were one of several acts that were successful in the mid-1960s British Invasion of the US charts, achieving major chart hits with "The Game of Love" (a number-one single with Fontana) in 1965 and "A Groovy Kind of Love" in 1966.Wayne Fontana founded the band in June 1963 with Bob Lang, Ric Rothwell, and Eric Stewart. The name of the group was inspired by the title of a 1963 UK feature film, starring the British actor Dirk Bogarde, called The Mind Benders. Before that Fontana had a group called Wayne Fontana and the Jets (from July 1962). Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders released a number of singles before recording "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" in 1964, which was to be their first major hit in Britain and led to a tour with Brenda Lee. They also had a No. 1 hit in the United States with "The Game of Love" in 1965 (which also reached No. 2 on the UK singles chart). The band's self-titled album reached No. 18 in the UK.After a tour of America and two more singles that were less successful than "The Game of Love", "It's Just a Little Bit Too Late" and "She Needs Love", Fontana left the band in the middle of a concert in 1965. The Mindbenders decided to carry on as a trio—Stewart was the primary lead singer and guitarist, Lang played bass, and Rothwell was the drummer. Both Lang and Rothwell sang backing vocals, and took the occasional lead vocal on album tracks.The Mindbenders' first single without Fontana was the hit "A Groovy Kind of Love" (a Carole Bayer Sager / Toni Wine composition). The song reached No. 1 in the US (No. 1 on the Cashbox singles chart) and No. 2 in the UK in 1966. It sold one million copies globally. The Mindbenders' 1966 album of the same name managed to reach No. 28 in the UK.A second song by Bayer and Wine, "Can't Live with You (Can't Live Without You)", had struggled to break the UK top 30 while the third one, "Ashes to Ashes", took the Mindbenders to No. 14 on the UK Singles Chart in the autumn of 1966.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.