The panel for the last show before the series Gala Final were Mickie Most, Martin Jackson, Jimmy Henney and Les Reed.

Again with joint winners and multiple high scoring acts there was a packed nine act line-up looking to book the last place in the following weeks Gala Final. The acts in the order they performed were;

• Tamashante (five-piece group) from London – Near Miss Show 5.21
• J.J. Stewart (comedian) from Bournemouth – Joint Winner Show 5.27
• Wheels (four-piece group) from Edinburgh – Winners Show 5.26
• U.S.A.U.K. (six-piece group) from Birmingham – Joint Winners Show 5.24
• Tony Kent (comedian) from Nottingham – Near Miss Show 5.22
• John Lord (pianist / vocalist) from Bradford – Near Miss Show 5.25
• Peter Collins with Style (four-piece group) from Norwich – Near Miss Show 5.25
• Our Kid (four-piece harmony group) from Liverpool – Viewers Winners Show 4.22
• Wine & Roses (five-piece group) from Cardiff – Joint Winner Show 5.27

The clear winners of the show were the impressive Norwich group Peters Collins with Style who recorded the top score with each judge to place them fifteen points clear at the top of the studio leaderboard. The group chose to perform the Eric Carmen hit All By Myself which was well received by every single judge.

Mickie Most thought they chose the right song for the show and said ‘these guys have come out with something, I think, really nice and fresh.’ Mickie added ‘I like the grand piano approach and the smoking jackets, and nice looking guys.’ He also added that Peter Collins should stay with the group and never consider a solo career as he may struggle on his own, however, with the group it really looked nice.

Les Reed said ‘I thought the lead singer has a very distinctive voice,’ and his only criticism about the song was the way he sang ‘All By Myse-ee-ee-lf’ as it was not the Queen’s English. During the scoring of the acts, Martin Jackson commented that Peter Collins was ‘one of the most exciting new male singers I’ve seen on this show this year.’

You can see whether you agree with Les Reed on Peter Collins’ over-enunciation of the word myself in this video of their performance from this show.

The runners-up Wine & Roses were referred to as ‘Boots not pants’ by Martin Jackson when he read out his scores, to the amusement of the rest of the panel. I’ve no context behind the comment, other than in the video footage above the group on the left of the shot are Wine & Roses and the female member of the group is wearing knee high boots. I can only assume that it was referring to something that was mentioned in the judges comments after the group performed.

Making their long overdue return to New Faces were the young Liverpool four-piece group Our Kid. The group were voted the Viewers Panel Winners back on show 4.22 of the previous series, however, their return appearance had been delayed several times by Liverpool Council Education officials who had blocked their participation due to the number of shows they had already performed in that calendar year, this included a cancelled appearance on the Christmas day All Winners Show earlier in this series (Show 5.16).

A controversial comment from judge Martin Jackson was cut from the show that was broadcast after the manager of Our Kid threatened a lawsuit unless his comment about the group being ‘the Mothercare Quartet’ was removed. While the producers did cut the comment, they left in one from Mickie Most saying of a singer ‘He’s got a lot of balls,’ although I don’t know which singer he was referring to.

Mickie Most was not one to conform to the rules of the show and he was reportedly the only judge ATV allowed to appear on an All Winners Show in an open necked shirt minus a tuxedo, although the footage above does show Les Reed in a polo neck jumper and jacket, which was picked up on by host Derek Hobson.

The Edinburgh group Spinning Wheel thought long and hard during the three weeks since their surprise win about Mickie Most’s suggestion that they change their name. They came to Studio One in Birmingham with the result of that three week deliberation and announced they were know simply known as Wheels. This name would change again a few months later when a local newspaper ran a competition to give the group yet another new name. The winning entry suggested the name Jody, and that is what they were known as until they split in 1979, apart from a brief spell as the group Hampden’s Heroes, making it four names in two years for them.

The final scores for this show looked like this;

Pos	Act	Les Reed	Jimmy Henney	Martin Jackson	Mickie Most	Total
1	Peter Collins with Style	98	94	92	75	359
2	Wine & Roses	94	94	86	69	343
3	Tony Kent	92	88	84	69	333
4	Our Kid	88	88	80	70	326
5	Tamashante	84	85	81	75	325
6	U.S.A.U.K.	89	85	80	70	324
7	J.J. Stewart	82	80	78	65	305
8	Wheels	78	78	76	70	302
9	John Lord	77	85	77	60	299

Derek Hobson ended the show by wishing Jimmy Henney well for his forthcoming hospital visit and also said that Mickie Most would miss the Gala Final as he would be away in Malibu Beach the following week.

Credits: Patzi Gooch for the video archive of Peter Collins with Style, which helped provide the judges comments and scores shown above