Audley Buckle was born in Trelawny, Jamaica, in a little village called Lime Tree. At the tender age of seven, Audley was singing in village concerts. In 1965, Audley left Jamaica for England and moved to Huddersfield. As a young man he had various jobs whilst studying Engineering at Huddersfield College.
In 1968 Audley, his brother, Bob, and his brother-in-law, Cherry, decided to start a band called “Soul Express”. The band soon started playing in working men’s clubs, such as “Tiffany’s” and “Penny Farthing”, plus other venues in England and Scotland. Their first agent was George Wilkinson, (the 3 Degrees UK agent), followed by Bill Wright of Bankhouse Entertainment, (the UK agent for lots of other reggae artists from Jamaica, eg:- Owen Gray, Winston Groovy, Jackie Edwards, Laurel Aitken, Derrick Morgan and Count Prince Miller).
After 6 months, Bill called “Soul Express” into his office and said “I have got a West Indian singer who wants a backing band, would you be interested”? The band asked who the singer was and he replied “Winston Groovy”, immediately the band “Yes”. The first performance of this new partnership was at the Arawak Club in Huddersfield, after the show he came back to the house and talked about music through most of the night. In the morning he formally asked the band to become his backing band, but the band name had to change! The band was reluctant to change at first due to already having a solid fan base, but after some lengthy discussions, the name change was agreed and “The Groovers” were born.

This was a major change as “Soul Express” was predominantly a soul band that had very few reggae tunes in their repertoire. Within one year they had become a full blown reggae band, with a lot of other reggae artist’s wanting to work with them. Owen Grey was the next singer to approach the band. Owen, at that time was one of Jamaica’s best reggae singers, with hits including “Too Experience”, “Candida”, “Sincerely” and “Natty Bongo”. With Owen, the band also recorded “Summer Sand” and “Hurricane” and toured with various other Bankhouse artists for three years.

In 1971, through Laurel Aitken the band met Ian Smith, a local record producer and front man of the band “The Inner Mind” who had great influence on the future of the band. One night Owen said, “It’s time to do you own record”. He had heard the band perform a song called “The Burning Feeling” and the very next day he contacted the Pama agency (Apollo) and spoke to Geoff Pama. Owen said that he had found a new star and asked him to book Harry’s studios in Harlesden, London for a demo/recording session. The band went down to the studio as “Alton (Audley) and The Groovers”.

The initial idea was to have “The Burning Feeling” as the A side and another tune called “Bend Down Low” on the B side. Bob Marley listened to both songs and said he liked “Bend Down Low” and the producer Derrick Morgan decided that if Bob Marley liked it, then “Bend Down Low” must be the A side. The band was so happy that Bob Marley had listened to the recording. Derrick contacted the Pama office and said “You have got some stars here”. The band recorded four tracks that day adding “Summer Sands” vocal and dub versions. “Bend Down Low” got to Number 2 in the UK Reggae charts, also sold in America, Canada, the Caribbean and even China! A year later the band left Pama and went onto Hot Lead Records, where Ian Smith was part owner with Max Omare from the Shades Club, Sheffield. The first song they released with Hot Lead was “Warm and Tender Love”. Also featured on A-side was “Standing at the Station” and fesatured “Sha La La I Love You” was on the B-side The band went on to do another single, which was a reggae version of “My Ding a Ling” with “Since You’ve Gone” on the B side. Both songs did really well on Hot Lead Records.

In 1978 the band split, with some of the boys getting married and their wives were not seeing enough of them. Audley went back to Engineering putting on entertainment for local companies in his spare time. After a while, Audley signed on with SPE Entertainments. He knew the manager Steve Perriman who had some work for a solo artist and mobile DJ at the Bass Charrington promotion nights. Audley learned DJ’ing very quickly and when Steve sold SPE, he left to set up his own company providing entertainment for major hotel chains and to further pursue his music career.

Audley now has entertainment contracts with Corus Hotels (the Old Golf House Hotel, Huddersfield, Imperial Crown Hotel, Atlantic Studio, Halifax), and the Wool Merchants Hotel, Halifax. Recently, Audley re-started his singing career, working with a band called “Mystics” from Manchester and has also got a project on the go which could lead to an album in association with “The Inner Mind”.

Thank you for listening to my story

Audley Buckle

This music business is a nice business but hard. Watch this space !!!

Audley can currently be seen touring with Dancing Fly