Allen Glassock was brought up in Kent in the 1940s. When he was about 11 a friend handed him a guitar to hold whilst he went into the pub to get some cigarettes. He remembers thinking “wow” as he held the instrument and from that moment he knew all he wanted to do in life was to be a guitarist. His parents bought him a guitar shortly after and he sat in his bedroom for hours learning and practicing various chords. He is totally self taught.
By the mid 1960s, offshore pirate radio was becoming very popular and Tony and The Defenders quickly built up a following from the pirate radio audience and even before Allen joined they were climbing up the Big L Fab 40 chart with their single Yes I Do in 1966. After leaving The Defenders, Allen first discovered what was to become a lifelong love of Country music while working in ESE Music in Maidstone. Local musician Eric Snowball opened his popular music shop in The Broadway (later moving to Upper Fant Road) in 1968; The shop quickly became a Mecca for musicians in the South East as well as a source of top quality equipments. The shop was one of the first importers of pedal steel guitars and it’s there that Allen met Gordon Huntley of Matthews Southern Comfort. Gordon was the premier steelie in the UK at that time and a regular visitor to the shop.
The Virginians Country band formed in The Maidstone area In the mid 1960’s at a time when the Fullers pub circuit in London was introducing young people to Country music. John Horten (lead vocals), Allen Glassock (lead guitar), John Kibble (bass), Tim (rhythm guitar) and Aiden (drums) formed the first line up. Originally gigs were in working men’s and social clubs and then later elevated to the Fullers circuit. There were a couple of changes to the line up with Tim replacing John Kibble on bass and Pete coming in as a second singer and replacing Tim on rhythm guitar. That line up remained static until The Virginians disbanded around 1970.
On the demise of the Virginians, John Horton went on to form Redwing (trio) in 1975. John Kibble formed a duo with JImmy J, the original singer with Allen’s first band Venoms and they did rather well touring with the Bachelors etc. Tim joined another pop band before rejoining John Horton in one of the early Redwing lineups.
When the Virginians disbanded, Allen was still working in ESE Music until c1971 when he west to Europe to tour with the folk/rock band Saraband which also included Tim from the Virginians. On returning from Europe, Allen moved to Cornwall in the early 1970s and eventually joined Frank Yonco in a reformed version of his popular Country band The Everglades.
During the 1960s, Frank Yonco and the Everglades were one of the preeminent British country bands alongside the Hillsiders from Liverpool and the Jonny Young Four from Kent. Frank Yonco came from Manchester, forming his first band, The Texan Drifters in 1963. Through the 1960s Frank toured extensively around Britain and abroad and was one of few British groups to have toured Vietnam during the conflict. They played at US military bases all over the world and supported numerous American country stars including Tex Williams, Sheb Wooley, Lefty Frizzell, Roger Miller, Red Sovine and Wanda Jackson.
Although they toured extensively throughout the UK at times Frank felt that the British public were not always ready for country music. To break up the monotony of continual touring he also secured a number of lucrative cabaret contracts and he quickly built up a very loyal following as one of our best Country music entertainers in cities around Britain. He was the first to realise the potential of including a girl singer in the act which was often common practice in the US where girls had always an integral part of the country scene. He brought Kit Connor into his show in 1967.
Frank Yonco had relocated to Cornwall to set up the Folk Beat International Agency and Rainbow Rooms in St. Blazey. He hoped that there would be 50 weeks work for most of his acts in the area and the ever increasing demand from clubs soon had him looking out for new faces to manage. During this period the Everglades took a break from touring but were soon back on the road with a new line up that included Allen Glassock using the stage name Alan Knight. They were Frank Yonco (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Kit Connor (lead vocals), Alan Knight (lead guitar), Sandy Horn (pedal steel guitar), Terry Dean (bass) and Dave Fidler (drums).
Frank’s continued popularity in that period led to TV shows with the then Westward TV channel and in 1976 they released an album (Frank Yonco’s 4th album) Drinking The Beer And Singing A Country Song.
Later that year the band appeared on the talent show New Faces (Series 4 episode 20) which was aired on 1st May 1976. The Everglades sung Ladies Love Outlaws but they lost out to Our Kid, a harmony band from Liverpool. They were invited back to New Faces for the first episode of series 5 which was billed as ‘Winners and Near Misses’. They performed The Walkers’ 1974 song I Wasn’t Born In Tennessee and came second again, this time to Exeter housewife Simone.
Many theatre tours of the UK followed and a UK/Europe tour with US Country singer/songwriter Johnny Bond. Radio shows included The Jimmy Young Show, the Terry Wogan Show and BBC’s Country Club. They recorded another album, Old Greyhound in 1977.
After leaving Frank Yonco and The Evereglades in the late 1970s, Allen returned to Kent where he joined John Horton’s Redwing. The line up was John Horton (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Martin Hempstead (pedal steel guitar), Allen Glassock (lead guitar), Alf Kershaw (bass) and Pete Gamble (drums). Alf Kershaw is Steve Jay’s (Plain Loco) ex-brother-in-law.
Allen Glassock stayed with Redwing for a year. Redwing carried on with numerous changes of line up until they disbanded in 1993. In the mid-1980s, Allen moved back to Cornwall where he did a number of dep jobs playing lead guitar, pedal steel guitar and bass. He also set up his own recording studio, Desert Wind Studios, near Saltash.
He formed a trio called Fusion which included a female singer. When she decided to leave the act, after advertising and searching for a replacement he was delighted to find Lottie Roberts. Lottie Roberts grew up listening to a wide range of music from Gloria Estefan to Fleetwood Mac but never Country. She always loved music and enjoyed singing. When she was 20 she went to work overseas for tour operator Thomas Cook in the Canary Islands and Turkey. She worked as a tour rep and in the resort office but while in Turkey she did some singing in a few bars and beach bars alongside her day job. This was all solo singing and covered a wide repertoire which included modern chart music, R & B etc. When she returned to the UK in 2010 she was working as a contracts manager for a recruitment company and decided to test the water to see if there was any chance of a singing career.
She put a demo on a website as a singer looking for a band to work with and was quickly contacted by Allen Glassock who told her he ran a function trio in the South West. Their female singer was leaving and he was looking for a replacement. Lottie went along to his studio and the two of them hit it off instantly and Lottie was asked to join the trio. After a few months spent learning their programme, Fusion were ready to go back on the road. They also worked as a duo LA2 which really began to take off in 2011.
Within just two years of joining the trio it was the duo that were getting most of the bookings. Lottie was still doing her day job time which was extremely demanding and it was impossible to do this as well as working in the duo and trio. Within a few weeks of handing in her notice she and Allen found themselves working on a cruise ship sailing around the world.
At this time, their repertoire was pop, rock and jazz but Allen was keen to introduce Lottie to Country music. One day he played her some music by the Time Jumpers and she quickly fell in love with Dawn Sears beautiful voice and was intrigued by Country music as a genre. They started putting more and more Country into their act and Lottie quickly felt it was a lot more natural for her to sing Country than the pop, motown, disco and jazz that made up most of their act. After working on the cruises, they worked in Egypt, Ibiza, The Canaries and mainland Spain for Tui hotels as a cabaret act. After working for many years living out of a suitcase and working seven days a week they decided it was time to slow down a bit and returned to the UK in 2016. They continued working in hotels, function rooms and clubs playing mainly dance music and also took on some cabaret work.
Allen was however keen to concentrate on Country and the idea also appealed to Lottie having heard about Allen’s earlier career as a Country musician in the 70s and 80s. They sent a demo to Sylvia McMaster of Sylvan Entertainments, an agency specialising in Country artists. Sylvia liked what she heard and it wasn’t long before they relaunched as LA Country. A trickle of bookings soon became a torrent as word spread round. After working with Sylvan for a year Sylvia invited LA Country to become one of her acts and they are now one of the busiest duos on the club circuit. Lottie is the voice and sings most of the vocals. Allen has always considered himself a musician who could sing and he sung some lead and harmony vocals in most of his bands but he know likes to do what he does best play his guitar with the odd comment.
Lottie told me recently “Believe it or not I use to be very shy on stage and never really spoke until one night we were working in Ibiza and Allen had wrapped my microphone cable around my mic stand along with flowers from then on it almost became a comedy double act.” Allen and Lottie married after lockdown in 2022. LA Country are based in Afan Forest near Neath in South Wales and are happy to travel all over the country. They have a very wide repertoire designed to satisfy line dance and traditional Country music clubs.
Research by Nick Catford.