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On this day, 15 January 1968, rock band The Herd played Cardiff’s Top Rank.
The Herd were founded in 1965 in south London, and recorded three unsuccessful singles with Parlophone. In 1966 three members in succession (Terry Clark, Louis Cennamo and Mick Underwood) quit the group and the group got the line-up that made it famous.
The singer, Peter Frampton, was 16 when he joined the group in 1966 and had just left school. The other members were a few years older. Parlophone did not want to go on with them, but Fontana were willing to give them a try. They also sent their manager Billy Gaff away and brought in the songwriters/producers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley instead. This pair had been largely responsible for a string of hits by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.
In October 1967 they supported the Jimi Hendrix Experience at The Saville Theatre, London. Their greatest success came with "I Don't Want Our Loving to Die", (March 1968) a number five UK hit single.
With his boyish photogenic looks, Frampton was dubbed "The Face of ’68" by teen magazine Rave.
The last months of 1968 were tempestuous times for the group. Steele left the group, to be replaced by Henry Spinetti. The group dumped their managers Howard and Blaikley, and briefly found a new mentor in Harvey Lisberg who after three months found himself so bogged down with their personnel problems that he politely withdrew his services. Most songs on their first and only album Paradise Lost were written by Peter Frampton and Andy Bown, just like their next single, "Sunshine Cottage".
Dissatisfied with mere teen idol status, and disappointed with the failure of "Sunshine Cottage", Frampton left by the end of 1968 to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott.
