The Migil 5
Starting life as a North London pub jazz trio with a singing
drummer (Mike Felix) the band became The Migil Four with the
addition of balding, Acker Bilk-bearded
guitarist Red Lambert, which then tipped their allegiance to pop
(which they partly interpreted as speeding up Moonglows
ballads like Glad Rag Doll and Lucky Old Sun).
The band took over The Dave Clark
Five's residency at the Tottenham Royal in January 1964 and
contrived to become more like their predecessors by adding a
saxophonist, Alan Watson.
The
Migil Five then transformed Ronald Ronalde's Mocking
Bird Hill into a facsimile of bluebeat, and cleaned up on the
charts accordingly (issued by Pye, the song reached Number 10).
 After two Top 40 hits, hopes were high for Boys &
Girls, penned for them by trumpeter Frank Thomas of The
Johnny Howard Band, who handed the manuscript over at the
aforementioned Tottenham Royal (this level of trivia doesn't come
cheap, you know).
But the Migils didn't boost their fortunes by declaring that
the bluebeat boom was over, and then issuing a record in precisely
that style . . .
By 1967 they had reverted to the jazz cabaret style in which
they felt most comfortable.
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