Returning to the judges panel for this show and making his second and final appearance on the show was Geoff Love. He was joined on the expert panel by, the more regular faces of Muriel Young, Jack Parnell and George Elrick and as usual the show was hosted by Derek Hobson.

The performers on the show were a mixture of previous show winners, viewers winners and acts that has scored more than one hundred points on their first appearance.

With the previous week’s show producing a tied result the joint winners were added to this show swelling the line-up beyond the usual six or seven acts and making this only the second show in the history of New Faces, finals excluded, to feature nine acts.

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The nine acts in order of appearance were;

• Quinn (five-piece group) from Birmingham – show 5.17 winner
• Tricia Parnell (vocalist) from Doncaster – show 5.18 winner
• Lynch & Lawson (vocal duo) from London – show 5.20 winner
• Dave Curtis (vocal / guitar) from Wales – show 5.19 winner
• Graham P. Jolley (mind reader) – show 5.22 joint winner
• Birth (four-piece group) from Cornwall – show 4.28 viewers winner
• Gillian Burns (vocalist) from London – show 5.21 winner
• Christy Lee (drummer) from Portsmouth – show 5.13 third place
• Kite (formerly Brother) (trio) from the Isle of Wight – show 5.22 joint winner

The winning act were Kite, the trio from the Isle of Wight, who were formerly known as Brother. Their win secured them a place in the series Gala Final on 2 April 1977.

The group members were Andy Skelton (guitar / vocals), Doug Watson (drums) and Tim Marshall (bass). They had been performing together since 1975 when they formed the group and started performing at the Keats Inn, Shanklin, Isle of Wight.

Following their New Faces appearances they secured a  record deal with Decca Records and released the double A sided single of You Got the Power and I Love the Love We’ve Got, both tracks written by Andy Skelton. The following year they released their self-titled LP Kite on which nine of the eleven tracks were also written by Andy.

Kite played their final performance at Keats Inn on Sunday 2nd September 1979, but after the group split, all three members continued in music. Doug Watson worked with various bands on the Isle of Wight. Andy Skelton worked with a couple of bands before moving to London to work as a session musician. He is now a member of FABBA, an ABBA tribute band and performs in The Skeltons with his daughters Holly and Laurie. Tim Marshall spent several years on P&O cruises and working in various theatres, backing main artists. He now also builds websites, including the one for the band Kite, which has provided so much information for this shows page.

Kite returned to the stage in November 2005 for a reunion concert at Lower Hyde Holiday Park, Shanklin, which was not very far from their original seventies resident venue of the Keats Inn. Making a special appearance with them at that show was their very own New Faces busker trophy which they received for winning this show.

Their winning performance of I Love the Love We’ve Got on this show can be viewed in the video clip below.

Cornish group Birth returned to the New Faces studio having received the viewers winners vote back in series four on show 4.28. They performed their own song, Dream From A Dream.

Geoff Love kicked off the comments and said, ‘I like them very, very much indeed,’ however he did add, ‘I felt at times that the backing was a little heavy for the lead voice, I lost him at times, but they’ve got a good feel.’

George Elrick said they were ‘a competent group’ but started by saying ‘the bass guitar worried me, it might have been the heat in the place, but it just wasn’t on. He knew that himself because I saw him try to tune it up himself, so it’s probably not his fault, but that rather spoiled it a little bit for me.’

Muriel Young called the choice of song ‘excellent,’ clarifying her comment by adding ‘it gave them a chance to show off each individual in the group.’ Jack Parnell said he never noticed the issue with the bass that George Elrick had mentioned and concluded by saying, ‘they had a very good feel, I though it was a good tempo they picked out.’

You can see if you agree with the judges be watching Birth’s performance in the video clip below.

Credits: Thanks to Tim Marshall, who’s Kite website has provided a lot of information on the group for this page.