HEDGEHOPPERS ANONYMOUS – IT'S GOOD NEWS WEEK 7″ – EXC ORIG 1965

Hedgehoppers Anonymous – It’s Good News Week / Afraid Of Love
(Decca Records  1965  F12241)
UK Pressing

Vinyl in Excellent condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles)
 

Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a 1960s beat group from the United Kingdom. They formed in November 1963 as The Trendsetters, and became The Hedgehoppers the following year. Jonathan King took over their record production in 1965, and added “Anonymous” to their name.

Their major success was the King produced and written “It’s Good News Week”, issued on Decca. This song has also been used as the theme music for Good News Week, a satirical news-based comedy quiz show on Australian television which ran from 1996 to 2000 and has subsequently been revived in 2008. Four other singles were released by the group before the final line-up dissolved. Lack of further chart activity leaves them labelled as one-hit wonders.

Band members

• Mick Tinsley – lead vocals (born Michael Tinsley, 16 December 1940, Portsmouth, Hampshire).
• John Stewart – lead guitar (born 18 March 1941, Torphins, Aberdeenshire, Scotland).
• Tony Cokayne – rhythm guitar November 1963 to 1964
• Ray Honeybull – bass guitar (born Raymond Honeyball, 6 June 1941, Whickham, County Durham).
• Leslie Dash – drums (born 3 April 1943, Hillingdon, Middlesex).
• Alan Laud – rhythm guitar (born 13 March 1946, Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire). 1965 to February 1967
• Glenn Martin – drums (born 22 January 1946, Wembley Park, Middlesex).
• Lee Jackson – bass (born Keith Anthony Joseph Jackson, 8 January 1943, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumbria). December 1965
• Nick Webster – guitar (born 15 July 1951), [[Leeds}}
• Tom Fox – bass. December 1965 to February 1967
• Mick Matthews – lead guitar, vocals (born Michael Matthews, 18 December 1946, Knutton, Staffordshire).

Apart from Alan Laud (sometimes spelled Ladd), the band members were Royal Air Force personnel based at RAF Wittering, near Peterborough, England (Hedgehoppers was RAF slang for low-flying planes).

Laud is retired and living in Norfolk. Tinsley is still singing and recording. Glenn Martin is still drumming, playing regularly with the Surrey Jazz Orchestra.