In the early 1960’s there were many fledgling Scottish bands struggling to create a unique sound of their own. A major factor holding them back was their remoteness from the main hub of the UK music business. London was where you had to be and frankly nobody was interested in what was happening north of Watford let alone in Scotland
In a gesture of defiance, and self-publicity, guitarist Manny Charlton and The Mark Five, emulated the Jarrow Marchers by demonstration marching all the way from Edinburgh to London. By the time of reaching Market Harborough Fontana offered a “record deal”. However following the release of ‚Baby What’s Wrong’ Manny Charlton explains, in the end this only aggravated Jock/Sassenach music-biz tensions even more: „We made a record and came against the machine in London. The people just cashed in on the publicity we had and after the record was made we were forgotten.“
Matters were made even worse by Scottish promoters and ballroom managers who insisted that Scottish groups limit their set-list strictly to covers of singles in the UK top thirty. In other words,
performers like Agnew, Charlton, singer and front man Dan McCafferty, and drummer Darrell Sweet were excluded by ‚the machine in London‘, and yet trapped into mimicking its often dire output as well…