Alan Ward was born in Nottingham and was the guitarist in successful beat group “The Honeycombs”. From the information I can gather it would seem he moved to London with his family when he was young. Many will know the Honeycombs for their No.1 single “Have I the Right” and the fact that they had a female drummer Honey Lantree. That said, here is a little taster of the group taken from The Honeycombes fan site. 

Introduction

The Honeycombs Mark one line up, Honey Lantree seated at her custom built Carlton drum kit, surrounded by Martin Murray, Alan Ward, John Lantree, and Denis D’Ell, all holding guitars raised above her head. They are all smiling broadly. The Honeycombs original line up. From left to right Denis D’Ell, Martin Murray, Honey Lantree, John Lantree, and Alan Ward.Founded by Martin Murray in 1963 and called The Sheratons, they attracted attention for their female drummer Honey Lantree, and they hit number one in several countries in 1964 with the stomping, Have I The Right. They helped launch the careers of Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley, and they crowned Joe Meek’s career with his final UK number one single. Touring extensively abroad meant they had more success in Sweden, Japan, and Australia/New Zealand, than at home and sadly despite some excellent songs, including the Ray Davies penned, Something Better Beginning, they never quite repeated the success of their debut. Their fifth single, That’s The Way, reached number 12 in the UK charts. As a part of the British Invasion they were recorded performing “Have I The Right” and “Eyes” on the film Pop Gear, along with acts like The Beatles. 

Original line up
A list of the original members of the band with very brief notes.

Martin Murray – Rhythm guitarist and founder. Previously ran a hairdressing salon.
Ann Margot “Honey” Lantree – Drums and vocals. Martin’s salon assistant, and the first female rock/pop drummer.
Alan Ward – Lead guitar.
John Lantree – Bass guitar. Honey’s brother.
Denis D’Ell – Vocals. Real name Denis Dalziel, he changed it to a phonetic spelling.

MK II line up

Peter Pye – Rhythm guitarist replacing Martin Murray.
Honey Lantree – Drums and vocals.
Alan Ward – Lead guitar.
John Lantree – Bass guitar.
Denis D’Ell – Vocals.

NME 29th April 1966In April 1966 three band members left. The remaining two members John and Honey Lantree continued with three new members. Although it was announced that they would become the New Honeycombs, the last two singles released were still credited to “The Honeycombs” including That Loving Feeling which was written by Colin Boyd. 7N.17173. There was some publicity material done featuring the New Honeycombs moniker so it seems the record company weren’t even sure then.

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From the same site it seems there is some mystery as to whatever became of Alan Ward. http://www.thehoneycombs.info/alanward.php

Alan Ward

Edited cutting from the NME with stats and info about Alan Ward. Note the misprint of the name of his school.

Born in Nottingham on 12th December 1945 Alan was the baby of the band, aged just eighteen when he first appeared on Top Of The Pops. He was however also the most musically educated having spent eleven years studying piano and music theory as well as two years learning guitar. His keyboard skills were as important to the band as his guitar playing.

He went to Woodberry Down Comprehensive in London N4. (The NME article has misprinted it as Woodberry Row)

(With thank to Vic Farthing who emailed me to correct this fact. He was a couple of years below Alan at that school.) There were four houses; Keller Einstein, Curie, and Scott. It turns out my mother in law was in the year just above Alan but she doesn’t remember him.

He gives his favourite singer as Buddy Holly, and his favourite groups as The Shadows, and The Spotnicks a Swedish instrumental group that are still touring after 42 albums. Interestingly his favourite composer is Chopin, showing his love for classical music and piano in particular.

After leaving The Honeycombs, Alan set up a guitar and musical instrument shop in Walthamstow adding a small recording studio where among others Martin Murray was a regular customer. Martin says, “Alan was my musical director. I would hum a tune and he would write it out in musical notation, I’d tell him I want the violins to play this and he would play it on the piano and jot it down, and the brass to play this and that would be noted, he was so quick. He charged me about half what the normal going rate was for the job.”

In researching for this page I have come across a number of claims which have since turned out to be incorrect. For one thing there was a claim that he was in a pre-punk band called Bastard 1975-1975 but that was a different Alan Ward who’s real name was Alan Timms. reference at discogs

There is another more pervasive claim that he is doing a tribute to Neil Diamond in Australia, however that theory has now been comprehensively debunked. In fact the tribute is performed by Al James who was the singer in a later (after the official split of the band in 1967) line up of The Honeycombs licenced by managers Howard and Blaikley but having no original members. See the History page for more details.

I found a website about a band called Fortes Mentum formed in 1966 and featuring an Alan Ward on keyboards. I have asked for further info from the website owner but have not had a reply so far. There is a passing resemblance in photographs and a lot of circumstantial evidence makes sense but its hardly confirmation.

Alan’s business also extended into building and supplying guitar amps and speakers again in the Walthamstow area.

I am fairly reliably informed that he has retired to Suffolk or Norfolk. If so then he cannot be the same Alan ward who resides in Edomnton and teaches guitar.

All I can add at the moment is that I would welcome any more concrete information and corroboration.

IMDB entry for Alan Ward

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