Presenting Les Humphries (piano) & Singers and the musicians of James Last with the Robert Last Bigband; podcast with rarieties, presented live by Yours Truely. All transferred from vinyl ! Les Humphries 10.08.1940 - 26.12.2007

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Les Humphries 10.08.1940 -  26.12.2007

Incl. later famous singers incl.: Jueren Drews amm

The music presented here is mostly NOT available on CD or streaming !

It's a well kept secret that

in the years Les Humpries, an English serving the Army, studying the piano in Hamburg; looking for a job - in Hamburg - at this this time there were James Last, Robert Last and Bert Kaempfert !

Les used the Robert Last sound of Robert Last for demos for THE LES HUMPHRIES SINGERS...

The rhythm section was by James Last 

Les Humphries was born John Leslie Humphreys on 10 August 1940 in Croydon, Surrey, England. He served in the Royal Navy, where he was a member of the naval band and attained the rank of band sergeant major. In 1969, inspired by the success of the Edwin Hawkins Singers gospel group, he formed Les Humphries Singers in Hamburg, where he had relocated. The original line-up included Humphries, Jimmy Bilsbury, and Malcolm Magaron as lead vocals, supported by Jürgen Drews, Judy Archer, En David, Myrna David, Peggy Evers, Dornee Edwards, Henner Hoier, Heike Kloen, Liz Mitchell, Victor Scott and Tina Werner.

Additional members included Mitchell, later frontwoman with Boney M., and Lawton, who also sang for the German progressive/hard rock band Lucifer's Friend and would go on front Uriah Heep.

The Les Humphries Singers performed a mix of pop and gospel covers and had some success in Europe with this approach. Like the contemporary disco act Boney M., their music focused on rhythm and blues, gospel, and disco, but often with psychedelic phasing or flanger effects on solos and bridges, and, much like James Last, larger background choruses in the studio to emulate a live atmosphere.The Les Humphries Singers at the time brought something from the flair of the hippie movement into contemporary German-produced (but English-sung) pop music, especially due to their mixed ethnic background and unusual fashion sense.

Two of their earliest and best known hits were "Mexico" (1972) which was based on the 1957 Jimmy Driftwood country hit "The Battle of New Orleans", and "Mama Loo" (1973), based on "Barbara Ann" by The Beach Boys. On later albums they released "Mexico" with different lyrics, most

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