One of my favorite albums is "The Game of Love" by Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders. The title track is certainly great, and was a hit for them during the "British Invasion", and the rest of the album is a bunch of very cool covers, along with one rather lame original.

I think that their cover of "A Certain Girl" is better than The Yardbirds' or Warren Zevon's versions, right up there with Ernie K-Doe's original.

And the band looks really cool in the cover photo.

Didn't someone other than Wayne in that band go on to form 10CC? Eric Stewart? WW

Yes, Eric Stewart. Along with Graham Gouldman, a later member of the non-Wayne Fontana "Mindbenders".

Wayne's still alive and well and touring. http://www.flyingmusic.com/our-shows/solid-silver-60s/
He's a legend of Manchester musical history and tales of has antics over the years are legion. He's still a great soul singer and a fantastic comedian/compere. He's not been without his problems as you can see below.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492681/Sixties-pop-star-Wayne-Fontana-jailed-setting-bailiffs-car.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-492681/Sixties-pop-star-Wayne-Fontana-jailed-setting-bailiffs-car.html

10cc are still touring, but only with Graham "No Milk Today" Gouldman from the original band

Meant to include this too
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-457694/Try-prison-uniform-judge-tells-fancy-dress-Fontana.html

There was a public television special with clips from Hullabaloo on the other night. WF&M performed The Game Of Love live and it was great- just guitar, bass, drums and WF, and they really pulled it off.

Wait- what's Graham's connection to No Milk Today? Was he in Herman's Hermits as well?

Gouldman wrote "No Milk Today" but was never in Herman's Hermits. He later released the song himself as a single.

I'll have to look for that PBS special. For a couple of years, the New Glen Theater in Glen Burnie was the local Hullabaloo Club. My brother's band (The Unknown Factor) played there several times. After that, it became a movie theater again showing XXX movies.

Wayne Fontana was the first person I remember seeing using a headless tambourine.

Eric Stewart was the singer on The Mindbenders (sans Wayne Fontana) mega-hit "Groovy Kind Of Love" - their first hit single after Wayne had had enough and walked offstage mid-gig.

"...their first hit single after Wayne had had enough and walked offstage mid-gig."

I'm not familiar with this and Wayne's Wikipedia entry doesn't mention it. Could you give us some more info, please?

To quote Shiloh Noone (who he?), author of "Seekers Guide To The Rhythm Of Yesteryear", Wayne Fontana left the Mindbenders after numerous singles failed to chart after their hit "Game of Love." To quote an angry Eric Stewart after Wayne just walked off the stage while they were playing: "All we lost was our tambourine player. Wayne had been threatening to leave the band for some time and drummer Ric Rothwell had reached the end of his patience with his groaning and moaning. Ric was urging him to take his ego trip and p--s off."
Whether this is an accurate account of the circumstances of Wayne's departure or a there is a bit of journalistic licence involved, I don't know. What I do know is that I was not at the gig in question. There is also the possibility that Wayne "adjudicated" his own Wiki-page to remove mention of this potentially embarrasing episode - others have meddled with the mighty Wiki in the past and will do so in the future in vain attempts to rewrite history, but the truth will generally leak out eventually.

Thank you.

I think I know how Rothwell felt.

I caught that PBS Hullabaloo special last night.

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders' performance was particularly great because it was one of the few that was actually live.

So disappointing to see The Kinks totally miming "All Day and All of the Night". Did the producers really think that nobody would notice?

Eric Burdon gave a good example of lip-"out-of-synch" at the end of the first verse of "It's My Life".

But, all-in-all, a cool special.

And Peter Noone looked and sounded like he's still in good shape.

Thanks, Tom, for mentioning this show and putting me on the alert for it.