The judges panel for the show featured Clifford Davis, Ted Ray and, making his first appearance on New Faces, Bryan Blackburn. They were joined by Jack Parnell who replaced the listed Jimmy Henney, as he was still recuperating from his recent operation.

The seven new acts who were looking to impress the studio and TV audience were;

• Paul & Avis (vocal duo) from Walsall
• Paul Scott (magician) from Birmingham
• David Brandon (vocalist) from London
• Raffles (vocal duo) from London
• Patsy Peters (vocalist) from Middlesex
• Maxi Mann (impressionist) from Norwich
• Kris Gayle Band (four-piece jazz/soul group) from Cornwall

Impressing the panel were the young vocal duo from Walsall, Paul & Avis Cain, who topped the scoreboard with 109 points to book their place in the third All Winners Show on 15 May 1976. They opened the show and scored a maximum 40 points, with a mark of ten from each of the four judges, for Star Quality.

They sang Every Time You Touch My Hand written by Birmingham born musician Daniel Boone (real name Peter Green). This was their first single release and was backed by their own composition, Make It.

Paul & Avis released three singles on the Charisma label in 1976 and would perform their second release, Keep Movin’, on their next appearance, which was also written by Daniel Boone.

Despite their last place on the leaderboard the studio Viewers Panel selected the other vocal duo Raffles, who were Henry Buckle and Ian Simmonds, as their winner and they would appear again in the second Viewers Winners Show on 5 June 1976.

In complete contrast to the judges the Viewers Panel of Roy Defriend (Essex), Linda Griffiths (Wednesfield), Vera Holroyd (Bradford), Charmaine Fairgrieve-Taylor (Southend-on-Sea) awarded the duo 109 points, the same as show winners Paul & Avis scored with the expert panel.

Raffles performed their latest single Sandy, written by Chris Arnold, David Martin and Geoff Morrow, which the duo performed sat on stools playing guitar and bass and were accompanied by three cardboard cut-out figures, two of Henry (guitar and bongos) and the other of Ian (piano). The duo wore matching Union Jack waistcoats, referred to as ‘Britain Is Best Waistcoats’ by Clifford Davis, for their performance.

Belfast born, Twickenham based, singer Patsy Peters had been performing since the late 1960s, under the name Pat Ryan and by the time of her appearance on New Faces she was a seasoned traveller, having spent a year in Los Angeles and two seasons in Spain.  On the show she performed the song Jamestown Ferry and scored an very impressive 107 points, but it wasn’t quite enough, despite Ted Ray’s enthusiastic maximum score of 30 points, to secure the win or a return appearance.

She started performing at a very early age as an Irish dancer winning several medals and then moved on to tap dancing before concentrating on her singing.  She is from a family of singers and musicians and her grandfather was a famous band leader and songwriter.  In her stage and cabaret appearances Patsy very often wore a long evening dress and she was extremely handy with a needle and thread which enabled her to make most of her own outfits.

In 1974 she made an appearance on Thames TV’s top-rated programme Special Branch, and also performed in Dublin as well as in Majorca.  She had spent the summer before her New Faces appearance working at Pontin’s holiday camps and had already been booked for a tour of the US for after her TV appearance.  In 1978, after TV appearances with Val Doonican and George Hamilton, she was the special guest star of top country band The Hillsiders, who were known as the Beatles of country music, on their British tour.  She also secured her own show on Ulster TV and in 1979 appeared on BBC2 show T.J.Thorpe Sings Country.

In the 1980s she toured Finland, appeared on the Roy Castle Show and released the album Road of Life as well as appearing at the Wembley Country Festival.  In 1986 she released the single The Moon Behind The Hill but due to distribution issues it failed to chart, but eighteen months later it was chosen for the American documentary, The Old Country, which gave it a new lease of life. The renewed interest in the record helped underprivileged children as Patsy decided to donate all future profits to the children’s charity.  By the late 1980s she had branched out into a style of coarse comedy, as well as maintaining her singing. She also appeared on TV and has contributed to commercials and recorded some voice-overs.

Jazz singer Kris Gayle and her band Gayle Force delivered their own brand of jazz soul to the show with the song Can’t You See It. They finished in third place with a score of 104 points.

Kris, originally from London, visited Cornwall as teenager and later decided to relocate there. After winning a Penzance holiday camp talent contest she secured her first first gig as a singing waitress.  In 1970 she played shows at the St Ives Guildhall with the band The Jazz Roots.

After a spell with the innovative West Country jazz-rock group Matrix she quickly established herself as one of the South West’s leading female vocalists.

Appearing on New Faces with her own band, Gayle Force, produced several offers of work, but she decided to stay in the Cornwall area as none of the offers could match what she was doing in the area. They made a number of recordings, and released two well-received albums, Gayle Force and Which Way Is Up?  Kris would also work as a session singer at the Sawmills studio in Fowey.

Gayle Force split in 1979 and Kris took a break from singing to focus on one of her other talents, cookery, and opened and ran a very successful restaurant in Cornwall. After a lengthy break from the music scene she sold the business and returned to performing again in September 2003 at the St Ives Music and Arts Festival, with West Country pianist Viv Rodd.  They performed together for the next seven years playing shows in the West Country and London and Kris also played a couple of shows in New York as well as one in New Orleans.

Her work has been championed by both Radio 2 presenter Humphrey  Lyttelton as well as by Sir Michael Parkinson, who featured her 2007 album 8.00am, recorded with guitarist John Knight, on his website for over a year.

Norwich based impressionist and comedian Maxi Mann was looked after by the Norwich Artistes / Chic Applin Management team and he had many years on the East Coast holiday camp circuit, where his comedy and impressions were well received.  He also went on to work on cruise ships and performed shows in popular European holiday destinations such as Malta, Tenerife and Cyprus.

He performed just four impressions in his allotted three minutes, Walter Winchell, Eric Morecambe, Frank Carson and finally Bob Newhart, for which he used his telephone prop.

He still seems to be performing but is now billed as an ‘International Knit Wit‘ he has been described by ‘The Stage and Television Today’ as ‘one of those unique creatures, a Comedian with his own style…very laid back using knitting as a prop!‘

Singer David Brandon performed the song Laura, beginning the song totally unaccompanied. His scores were lowered by the marks of Ted Ray who was unimpressed with the performance.

David, along with singers Brenda Scott and Carole Carpenter, had recently performed in a recording accompanied by the Midland All Stars Big Band on BBC Radio Birmingham as well as on Radio 1 and 2 in March 1976.  The recording was also scheduled for BBC1 transmission just six days after his New Faces appearance.

Birmingham magician Paul Scott performed a number of close up tricks with cards and coins, to the backing music of Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head but his strong Birmingham accent and his lack of interesting patter affected his scores when it came to the judges marks, and he was awarded just 80 points.

Three years after his appearance on the show, Paul was still advertising his magic act as being available for children’s parties and cabaret with the added subtext of ATV New Faces.

Pos.	Act	Presentation	Content	Star Quality	Score
1	Paul & Avis	33	36	40	109
2	Patsy Peters	35	36	36	107
3	Kris Gayle Band	33	35	36	104
4=	David Brandon	28	32	26	86
4=	Maxie Mann	29	28	29	86
6	Paul Scott	27	31	22	80
7	Raffles	25	27	24	76

Credits: Thanks to Patti Boulaye and Chris Perry (Kaleidoscope) for the additional information on this show

Archive: A copy his held by the BFI – Work – 570084