FLICKY HARRISON catches up with Peter Langford, of musical legends the Barron Knights

The Barron Knights, who trod the stage alongside The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in 1960s, are still going strong with their parody pop theatre show, and they will be stopping off in Swindon this month.

Peter Langford, one of the founder members, believes the secret to their continued popularity is knowing the songs the audience want to hear. Their shows are not just for the golden oldies, they have an appeal for the 20 somethings too.

"I love meeting them after the show and asking about today's music,'' said Pete, "but they rarely know what's number one, and instead of saying their dad's got all our records they say my grandad has all your records!''

Along with the Barron Knights, Pete runs Templar Entertainment, his own agency to help other bands along their musical journey, and he has written an idea for a TV show called Right to Write which would be open to a singer, duo or group who sang their own songs. He is waiting for the Commissioner of programming at the BBC to get back to him.

Pete recalls touring with The Beatles in 1963/64 and on the last day, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, went to number one.

"All we saw were the real people, Ringo darting about poking fun at everyone, and Paul knocking on our dressing-room door to introduce us to this guy with a Beatle haircut - his name was Jimmy Tarbuck. We have been friends ever since. Jimmy and I still play golf together.''

For the past six years The Barron Knights, famous for hits such as Call Up The Group and Pop Go The Workers, have played at the Chelsea Flower Show.

"We were doing four days instead of our usual two and this guy came up to me and said Ringo was round the corner and he would love to have a chat.''

The former Beatle was hiding away from the cameras for a moment, hoping to have a catch up with his old pal.

"I whipped round the corner and we chatted for about eight minutes until he was engulfed by the media,'' said Pete.

The Barron Knights started out as a straight close harmony band, under the name of Knights of the Round Table, and they stumbled on the comedy element purely by chance.

"My dad read The Express and the front page was all about conscription. I thought about writing a parody on musicians from The Searchers, The Beatles etc and putting them in the forces. So I wrote these silly lyrics and we did the medley on stage. Everyone shouted for us to do it again and that was it. Pop Go The Workers was a hit all over the world.''

From that moment the band were in demand performing in South Africa, USA and the Middle East in front of British Royalty at Buckingham Palace and even the King of Malaysia.

"It was a young relative of his who went to private school in England. He saw us at the theatre and so we were asked to play in Kula Lumpar, all red carpets and magnificent chairs,'' said Pete.

The band also flew out to the Falklands to entertain the troops.

"We played the Ascension Islands and then the big hangar at Port Stanley and then we did small acoustic sessions in the soldiers' huts for about eight soldiers each time,'' said Pete.

The musician, originally from Leighton Buzzard, will be heading for Swindon's Arts Centre, Devizes Road, Old Town, on Wednesday, May 31 from 7.30pm, with their latest show called Sound Track of Our Lives 2017. Tickets are £21 from 01793 524481 or visit www.swindontheatres.co.uk - Flicky Harrison