The Mid-Knights
Open-knowledge reference entry
The Mid-Knights, also known as Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights, was a Canadian rhythm and blues band, active in the 1960s. Part of the Toronto Sound scene of that era, the band are best remembered for their single "Charlena", which was a number-one hit on the CHUM Chart for two weeks in 1963.
Background
The "Mid-Knights" band was formed and named in 1959 by saxophonist and poet James Leo Donoghue. His close friend from De La Salle "Oaklands" College, Toronto, George Semkiw, guitarist, joined him, followed by Jim Gwilliams on drums, and guitarist John McCanliss. Richard Hubbard later joined the band as vocalist and Barry Lloyd was added at the piano where he later switched to Organ. The band was popular and successful from the start, playing at dance halls in Toronto and surrounding towns. In 1961, Donoghue submitted a tape of the Mid-Knights playing "Summertime" to jazz pianist Oscar Petersen's ASCM (Advanced School of Contemporary Music) and won a partial scholarship. He quit Grade 13 at TCI (Thistletown Collegiate Institute) to attend the ASCM. At this time the "Mid-Knights" band was playing on weekends only as most of the musicians were still in high school. After a brief time at Petersen's school, due to a lack of finances, Donoghue had to leave his band and the ASCM and join a Canadian band working full-time in Michigan. Under the stewardship of Semkiw the "Mid-Knights" band went on to ever increasing success, ultimately branding itself "Richie Knight and the Mid-Knights", undergoing changes in musicians over the years.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Mid-Knights” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.