for Sunday 24th July 1966

Besides climbers that were played at the time of the broadcast of the Sunday Fab Forty, Alan kept a note of others he heard later in the week and incorporated them into his list.

There always seems to have been a problem over deciding whether Rey Anton was a solo artist or whether he had a backing band and exactly what they were called. His previous band The Peppermint Men had accompanied him into the Fab Forty in August '65, but somehow there was always confusion over the new backing boys, who got labelled variously Pro Forma, The Pro Forma, and even Pro Formula – sometimes as one word, sometimes two! Rey has since confirmed that the correct name was Pro Form, which does seem to have been the name that appeared in print on the record label once it went on release.

Brian Long's Curzon Street listings for Things Get Better's three weeks of Fab Forty activity, had the recording artists down as 'Rey Anton and The Pro Forma', but Rey Anton was always announced during the Fab Forty rundown without mention of the band. This - whether correct or otherwise – would therefore appear to be what it said on the single received aboard the Galaxy from EMI (probably a hand-written white label copy). Rey penned the Pall Mall-published B-side under his real name of Leonard Hirons.

When the band appeared in the film Dateline Diamonds, released April 66, they were named as 'Rey Anton and The Pro Forma'.

The red additions to the climbers indicate singles listed in Brian Long's book 'The London Sound' based on information typed in the Curzon Street offices or other sources.
Alan Field did not hear them played or announced as climbers.

The Caroline 'Countdown Sixty' chart (south ship) for this week is here

Tune in next week for another Field's Fab Forty!