"The Banner Man" is a 1971 song by the British pop band

Blue Mink Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six top 20 hit singles on the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised o ...

. The song managed to reach the top ten on the UK charts peaking at #3 in May 1971. It was released as a single with the B-side "Mind Your Business". The single was written by Blue Mink founders Roger Cook and

Roger Greenaway Roger John Reginald Greenaway (born 23 August 1938) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for his collaborations with Roger Cook and Tony Burrows. His compositions have included " You've Got Your Troubles" and the ...

. In 2002, Robin Carmody of ''

Freaky Trigger ''Freaky Trigger'' is an Internet publication and e-zine that focuses on popular culture with topics varying from music to cinema. It was founded by the music critic Tom Ewing in 1999 and features Pete Baran and Mark Sinker as editors. From 2 ...

'' named "The Banner Man" the best British

bubblegum Bubble gum (or bubblegum) is a type of chewing gum, designed to be inflated out of the mouth as a bubble. Composition In modern chewing gum, if natural rubber such as chicle is used, it must pass several purity and cleanliness tests. However, ...

song of 1971, deeming it Blue Mink's "second masterpiece" after "

Melting Pot A melting pot is a Monoculturalism, monocultural metaphor for a wiktionary:heterogeneous, heterogeneous society becoming more wiktionary:homogeneous, homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative bei ...

" (1969) and one of numerous hits written by Cook and Greenaway wrote in the genre. He described it as "

Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestantism, Protestant Christian church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. It is aligned with the Wesleyan-Holiness movement. The organisation reports a worldwide m ...

-themed" and added: "Its theme is naturally distant from today, but it’s one of the few chartpop records to make

ritualism A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...

sound like a perfectly normal and enjoyable part of life (which I guess it was back then, at least for more people than now)." Carmody also listed it among the ten best British bubblegum songs, writing: "Ritualism and pop don’t normally go together unless someone can make an arcane ritual sound like the very stuff of pop. This was such a song." Bob Stanley describes "The Banner Man" as a brassy bubblegum song that "made light of the heavy

session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...

talent in lue Mink'sline-up."

Track listing

Weekly charts

"The Banner Man" reached the top ten on the UK charts, as well as in Australia and Belgium.

Other uses

"The Banner Man" appeared in the 1999 film East is East.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banner Man, The 1971 songs 1971 singles Blue Mink songs Songs written by Roger Greenaway Songs written by Roger Cook (songwriter) Bubblegum pop songs