Fivepenny Piece was a five-piece folk band formed in 1967 around Ashton-under-Lyne and Stalybridge in Tameside, England. The band met and performed on Wednesday nights at Ashton's Broadoak Hotel, which gave them their original name The Wednesday Folk.

Career

Their break came when they entered and won the Granada Television talent show New Faces in 1968 (not to be confused with ATV talent show New Faces which didn't begin until 1973), which led to a contract with the Noel Gay agency, a recording contract with EMI, and their new name.

Many of their mostly self-penned songs reflected their roots, using Lancashire dialect, with references to the mining and weaving trades, the mills and factories, and the Lancashire characters who lived in the area. But there was another side to the group's music, perhaps best described as more pop-oriented. The band's music is most often categorised as folk.

The original personnel were John Meeks (24 March 1937, Stalybridge, Cheshire - 25 April 2026) (guitar, vocals); John's sister Lynda Jane Meeks (1 August 1947, Stalybridge – 22 January 2013) (vocals); brothers George Radcliffe (9 August 1937, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire – 2002) (bass, vocals) and Colin Radcliffe (19 January 1934, Ashton-under-Lyne – 2025) (guitar, vocals); and Eddie Crotty (24 February 1942, Stalybridge – 11 April 2009) (guitar, vocals). They performed multiple times on national television, and had their own BBC Television series, The Fivepenny Piece Show. Lynda Jane Meeks died from cancer on 22 January 2013, aged 67 years, at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. Colin Radcliffe died in 2025, after living in retirement in Wales. John Meeks, the sole surviving original member of the group, died on 25 April 2026, aged 89.

For a while in the 1970s the group had a weekly interlude spot on the BBC programme That's Life! with Esther Rantzen.

References

  • Fivepenny Piece official website