Alan Warner (aka Allan Warner) (born 21 April 1947,

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

, England) is an English

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

who has been active from around the mid-1960s. He was a member of groups such as The Ramong Sound,

The Foundations The Foundations were a British soul band who were primarily active between 1967 and 1970. The group's background was West Indian, White British and Sri Lankan. Their 1967 debut single " Baby Now That I've Found You" reached number one in the ...

, Pluto, and The Polecats. He was one of the founding members of

who would have

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

with " Baby, Now That I've Found You", " Back On My Feet Again" and " Build Me Up Buttercup" and " In the Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)". He played

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a guitar technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse (music), pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., d ...

and

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

as well as contributing to the song writing efforts of the group and backing both of the band's lead singers

Clem Curtis Clem Curtis (born Curtis Clements; 28 November 1940 – 27 March 2017) was a Trinidadian British singer, who was the original lead vocalist of sixties soul group the Foundations. Background Early life Born in Trinidad as Curtis Clements, he a ...

and later

Colin Young Colin Young (born 12 September 1944, Barbados) is an English singer who led Joe E. Young & The Toniks in the 1960s. He is mainly known for being a member of the British soul band the Foundations. He also led a progressive rock band and was part ...

Background

Alan Warner was born to parents John and Mary Warner on April 21, 1947, in Paddington. Warner is the youngest child of four children (two brothers and a sister).''Disc and Music Echo'', November 4, 1967
7 - Page 11 Eight faces that laid the FOUNDATIONS of a hit!, * Allan Warner
/ref> As a boy he originally wanted to play trumpet but ended up with a toy accordion. He started playing guitar at the age of 11, after his parents bought him a cheap Spanish guitar for Christmas, and he soon realised, listening to the twangy tones of Duane Eddy, Hank Marvin, The Ventures, he wanted to do music professionally.Alan Warner Websit
Biography
At some stage he was employed as a printer. According to the back cover of the Foundations' album Digging the Foundations (1969), Warner is 5 ft 4in. In 1967, he was living in Elstree,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

with his parents. Alan claims to have made guitars out of old bed frames.

Musical career

In the early 1960s, after leaving school at the age of fourteen, Warner played with several semi-professional groups playing local gigs, before becoming a professional musician two years later. Some of the groups he played in were The Leesiders Sect, The Skeletones and The Line-up, a popular Dublin-based group. His first band was called The Select, a band that mainly covered Rnb songs. The band entered a

Beat music Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music Music genre, genre that developed around Liverpool in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from British rock and roll, British and Music of the United St ...

competition in 1965, and with a rule that each act had to perform an original song, Warner penned his first song "Red, White And Blue For You". After a short stint in the Skeletones, he moved to the south of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. Warner nearly joined a group called The Black Eagles, which included

Phil Lynott Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the co-founder, lead vocalist, bassist, and primary songwriter for the hard rock band Thin Lizzy. He was known for his distinctive ...

and Brian Downey, both later members of

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. The band initially consisted of bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, drummer Brian Downey, guitarist Eric Bell and organist Eric Wrixon although Wr ...

, but he turned it down.''It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine'', 22 July 2011
Pluto interview with Paul Gardner & Alan Warner, You were in The Foundations and recorded four albums.
/ref>

The Ramong Sound

In 1966, Warner placed an ad in a music magazine looking for work in a band. Soul music was coming into England and thought it would be nice to join a soul type band. He got a reply and then passed an audition with a black band who were playing all over London. He got another call and turned up a pub at Edmonton where the band was. The band didn't have any gigs but Warner felt that they had some great ideas. So for some reason, he decided to go with the Ramong, and became a member of The Ramong Sound, a soul and ska group fronted by Raymond Morrison AKA Ramong which also featured

on vocals.''It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine'', July 22, 2011
Pluto interview with Paul Gardner & Alan Warner, You were in The Foundations and recorded four albums.
/ref> Another member was Nigerian born star trumpeter, Mike Falana, who had previously been with

Graham Bond Organisation The Graham Bond Organisation (GBO) were a British blues/blues rock group of the mid-1960s consisting of Graham Bond (vocals, keyboards, alto-saxophone), Jack Bruce (bass), Ginger Baker (drums), Dick Heckstall-Smith (tenor/soprano saxophone) a ...

, having replaced

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of Rock music, rock band Cream (band), Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a ...

. They ended up leasing the Butterfly club. Warner would be present though the band's name changes and evolution. Morrison ended up being imprisoned for six months. They did try and enlist

Rod Stewart Sir Roderick David Stewart (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer and songwriter. Known for his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart is among the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time, having sold ...

and they jammed with him but Stewart was heading into other genres. They did manage to have Arthur Brown in their group for a couple of months where he shared lead with Clem Curtis before kicking off his own band the Crazy World of Arthur Brown.

The Foundations

The group was eventually discovered by Ron Fairway who managed the group, The Ways and Means Fairway introduced them to a businessman called

Barry Class Barry Class is an entrepreneur, former music store chain owner, band manager, record label founder, musical director, producer and recording studio owner. His greatest success as a manager was with the soul group The Foundations. He also managed t ...

. The original line up as they became known for was Clem Curtis (Curtis Clements) on vocals, Tim Harris on drums, Peter Macbeth (Peter McGrath) on bass Eric Allan Dale (

Eric Allandale Eric Allandale (born Eric Allandale Dubuisson 4 March 1936 – 23 August 2001) was a trombonist, songwriter, and bandleader. During the 1960s, he was in number of bands in various genres which included jazz pop and soul. Background Early life ...

) on trombone, Allan Warner on lead guitar, Tony Gomesz on organ, Pat Burke on tenor sax and Mike Elliott on tenor sax. Ron Fairway's group, The Ways and Means were apparently offered the chance to record " Baby Now That I've Found You" but felt that it wasn't for them. So, The Foundations with Clem Curtis on lead vocals and Warner on guitar recorded it and it became a massive hit. After the group had two more hits with Clem Curtis, " Back on My Feet Again" and " Any Old Time (You're Lonely and Sad)" things were set to change. Clem Curtis decided to leave the band, and they tried out singers which included Warren Davis of the

Warren Davis Monday Band Warren most commonly refers to: * Warren (burrow), a network dug by rabbits * Warren (name), a given name and a surname, including lists of persons so named Warren may also refer to: Places Australia * Warren (biogeographic region) * Warr ...

. Another hopeful was allegedly Hue Montgomery. The successor to Curtis turned out to be

. He was set to record " Build Me Up Buttercup" once things were finalized with

Major Minor Records Major Minor Records was a British record label started by Phil Solomon in 1966. In the early summer of 1966, he had courted a number of British independent labels for a label tentatively named Caroline, after the pirate radio station he owned, wh ...

which was his former label. With Young, the group released "Build Me Up Buttercup".''New Musical Express'', 1969 Summer Extra Special
Page 13 MONEY (TOO MUCH) BREAKS UP GROUPS, Happier are the ''Foundations''
/ref> "Build Me Up Buttercup" entered the UK chart on 26 November 19, 1968 and made the no. 2 spot on 31 December, spending a total of fifteen weeks in the chart. Warner co-wrote "New Direction" with Peter Macbeth and Tony Gomesz, which was included on the B side of the hit. which was released in the earlier part of November, 1968.

''Digging the Foundations'' (album)

By July 1969, the group's album '' Digging the Foundations'' had been released. It contained compositions Tony Macaulay and John Macleod as well as compositions by band members, Warner, Pete McBeth, Tony Gomesz,

, Pat Burke and Eric Allandale. In addition to " I Can Feel It", " My Little Chickadee", and the big hit " In the Bad Bad Old Days", it also featured "Till Night Brought Day" which Warner co-wrote with Peter Macbeth and Tony Gomesz.

Further activities with The Foundations

On Friday 19 July 1969, Warner's Fender Stratocaster was stolen while the group's van was being unloaded in Birmingham. This caused the group to delay their recording of the B side to their single, " Born to Live, Born to Die". As a result, the released of the single was delayed by a week. It had been noted by ''New Musical Express'' in the week ending 10 October 1970 that Colin Young, lead singer of The Foundations had left the group to pursue a solo career. He had already entered into a contract with

and was putting together his new group which was called

Development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

. The group then broke up at the end of the year.

Pluto

With The Foundations having broken up at the end of 1970, Warner had gone on to join the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary * Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania * Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, ...

Pluto, who would sign up to the

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the diffuse sky radiation, appearance of indirect sunlight being Rayleigh scattering, scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc ha ...

Label, a subsidiary of PYE. The band was already formed and Warner had come in and replaced the previous guitarist. The group was made up of Alan Warner on lead guitar and vocals, Paul Gardner of lead guitar and vocals, Terry Sullivan on drums and Mick Worth on bass. One gig they did was on October 13, 1971. Pluto appeared at the College of Education in Coventry with

Barclay James Harvest Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band, which following a split in 1998 now exists as two successor bands. They were founded in Oldham, in September 1966 by bassist/vocalist Les Holroyd (born 1948), guitarist/vocalist John ...

. That month also saw the release of their single, "Rag-A-Bone Joe" bw "Stealing My Thunder" on Dawn DNS.1017 as well as Pye PV. 15371. Also that month on the 21st, they appeared at the Maria Grey College in Twickenham with Medicine Head. Their self-titled album was released on

DNLS 3030 in November, 1971. Produced by John Macleod, he contributed some piano to the album. It was released in France and South Africa on Pye and in Australia on Astor.

The Polecats

It was noted in the February 7, 1983 issue of ''

Record Business ''Record Business'' was a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a weekly print magazine between 1978 and 1983. It was published by Record Business Publications Ltd. History ''Record Business'' was launched on 20 March 1 ...

'' that Alan Warner was the new guitarist with the group The Polecats and the group after a year's absence had returned to the scene with a new single, "Make A Circuit With Me".

Reconnection with Foundations members

Warner later teamed up with original Foundations lead singer

to re-cut the original Foundations hits. The result was ''Greatest Hits'' released on Double Play GRF176 in or around 1994. The recordings were produced and arranged by Keith Bateman and besides Warner on guitar and Curtis on lead vocals, featured Andy Bennett on Drums and Vince Cross on keyboards. In addition to In addition to "Build Me Up Buttercup", "The Bad Bad Old Days", "Baby, Now That I've Found You", "Back on My Feet Again", " Any Old Time (You're Lonely and Sad)" and " Born to Live, Born to Die", they re-recorded Warner's compositions, "New Direction" and "You Can't Fool Me". In the late 1990s, due to the popularity of the hit

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, ''

There's Something About Mary ''There's Something About Mary'' is a 1998 American romantic comedy film directed by the Farrelly brothers, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ed Decter and John J. Strauss. The film features Cameron Diaz as the title character, while Ben S ...

'' and the revived interest in the song, "Build Me Up Buttercup", Warner reformed a version of The Foundations that featured Colin Young, and another former Foundations member, Steve Bingham. After Colin Young left another singer Hue Montgomery was brought in to front the group. and they toured throughout the UK and down under in Australia.

Alan Warner's Foundations

In 2012, Warner and his Foundations had planned to take a mini tour. The exercise proved to be a success that they added more dates which included a date in Borehamwood in February. Alan Warner's Foundations performed "Barefooting" which was uploaded to Youtube on 30 September 2013. A live version of Warner's composition "You Can't Fool Me" was uploaded to Youtube on 2 October 2013. It was performed by Alan Warner's Foundations and featured Hue Montgomery on vocals. In May 2014, Warner's Foundations which was made up of himself on guitar and backing vocals, Hue Montgomery on lead vocals, Dave Lennox on keyboards, John Dee on bass and backing vocals, Pete Stroud on drums, Nick Payn on saxophone, and Matt Winch on trumpet were set to undertake the Superstars of Soul Tour which was to continue until August. Other artists were

Geno Washington Geno Washington (born William Francis Washington; December 21, 1943, in Evansville, Indiana) is an American R&B singer who released five albums with the Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976. Background ...

and

Jaki Graham Jacqueline Graham (born 15 September 1956) is a British singer-songwriter. Following her hit version of " Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" with David Grant in 1985, Graham scored a further five UK top 20 hits over a two-year period. In 1994, he ...

. An article about Warner and his Foundations ensemble appeared in the 8 February 2020 issue of the ''Ilkley Gazette''. They were booked to appear at the King’s Hall at 7pm Friday, 28 February. The line up at the time was Hue Montgomery on lead vocals, Alan Warner on lead guitar and backing vocals, Paul Hirsch on keyboards, Roger Nicholas on bass and backing vocals, Pete Stroud on drums, Nick Payn on saxophone and Backing Vocals), and Matt Winch on Trumpet. As of August 2022, Warner was still playing venues with Hue Montgomery as the vocalist for his version of The Foundations. Montgomery who has worked outside Alan Warner's Foundations as part of the duo Soul Providers with Chris Robin since 2007 was booked to appear on his own at the Crows Nest pub in Leicester on Saturday 17 December and New Years eve 2022 with Kelly Jenns.

Further activities

In 2010, his book ''100 Lead Licks For Guitar'' was published.Google Books
100 Lead Licks for Guitar
/ref> In January, 2017, Warner, Iain Houndog Terry and other artists were appearing at the Back In Our Rock ‘N’ Roll Days show which was headlined 1960s star Billie Davis known for the hit " Tell Him". Warner got together with bassist Roger Nicolas, vocalist Terry Rice-Milton, tambourine player Martyn McCoy, backing vocalist Nancy Ann Lee, drummer Tristan Long and vocalist Stefan Long. And from different locations they recorded their version of the Frank Wilson northern soul classic " Do I Love You". The clip was uploaded to Youtube on 15 January, 2021. In 2022, the three CD compilation '' Am I Groovin' You'' was released on the

Cherry Red Records Cherry Red Records is a British independent record label founded in Malvern, Worcestershire by Iain McNay in 1978. The label has released recordings by Dead Kennedys, Everything but the Girl, The Monochrome Set, and Felt, among others, as w ...

subsidiary, Strawberry (cat# CRJAM011T). The liner notes by Lois Wilson were based on a fresh interview with Warner. On 20 January 2024, Warner joined Edison Lighthouse. According to a notification on the 2NUR FM website, dated 2 December 2024 Alan Warner was set to appear on Jack Hodgins' Vinyl Vibes the coming Sunday 8th at 6:00pm.

Bibliography

As well as being a musician /

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

/ guitar teacher, Warner is also an

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

of various guitar instruction books and instructional videos that include ''How To Play Rock Blues Guitar''. The first book he wrote was called ''The Guitar Cook Book'', the first of a succession of about 30 similar books and videos.Flashback Website
Meet the band
/ref> He has also played on releases by Bob Mortimore and The Bobby Graham band.

Publications

* ''The Blues Guitar'', By Alan Warner, Published by Waltons Mnf. Ltd, (1986) * ''The Guitar Cookbook'', By Alan Warner (Not officially published. Sold at venues) * ''100 Lead Licks For Guitar'', By Alan Warner, Omnibus Music Sales Limited, 2010 - * ''How to Play Electric Blues Guitar'', By Alan Warner - Music Sales America (January 1, 2000) - * ''Country Guitar Licks: Start Playing Series'' by Alan Warner - Music Sales America (2000) - Amazon
Country Guitar Licks: Start Playing Series Paperback – February 1, 2000 by Alan Warner (Author)
/ref>

References

External links

* * * * * pluto00011 channel, Feb 23, 2011
Alan Warner's FOUNDATIONS- Open the door/ 60 mins
* pluto00011 channel, Jan 13, 2009
The Foundations-You can't fool me (Clem Curtis vocal) (audio)
* pluto00011 channel, Sep 30, 2013
THE FOUNDATIONS 'live'show-Barefooting
* pluto00011 channel, Oct 2, 2013
You can't fool me-THE FOUNDATIONS live show (video) (Hue Montgomery vocal)
* DUOPHONIC_for STEREO phonographs II channel, Jun 11, 2024
The Foundations - New Direction (Stereo Mix)(Psych-Soul) (Colin Young vocal) (audio)
* The Foundations channel, Aug 18, 2024
New Direction (Remastered 2024) (Clem Curtis vocal)(Audio)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Alan 1947 births Living people Musicians from the City of Westminster People from Paddington English rock guitarists English male guitarists English writers The Ramong Sound members The Foundations members Music educators