Alan Whitehead (drummer)

Alan James Whitehead (born 24 July 1945) is a British musician, businessman and author. He was a drummer for The Attack and Marmalade.

The Attack
He started his career in the music industry in 1966 as the drummer for Crispian St. Peters. Not long after, He formed the group The Attack, also in 1966, featuring guitarist and trumpeter David O'List (later of The Nice with Keith Emerson), Richard Sherman on vocals, Bob Hodges on piano and organ, Gerry Henderson on bass and Whitehead on drums.

They released four singles in all, three in 1966 "Try It" / "We Don't Know", "Hi Ho Silver Lining" / "Any More Than We Do", "Created by Clive" / "Colour of My Mind" and one in 1967, "Neville Thumbcatch" / "Lady Orange Peel".

Several compilation albums have been produced which featured the band, Magic in the Air in 1990, The Complete Recordings From 1967-68 in 1999, ''About Time! (The Definitive MOD-POP Collection 1967-1968) and Final Daze'' in 2019.

Marmalade
Although he has had a diverse music and business career, Whitehead is best known as a member of Marmalade, whose most successful single in the UK was a cover version of the Paul McCartney song "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da".

He joined Marmalade at the same time he was in the Attack and working for St. Peters. A few months before Whitehead joined, the group had changed their name to Marmalade, after previously being called Dean Ford and the Gaylords.

Their hit with Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da came in November 1968, and the song went to number one in three different countries. The only member at the time who did not hail from Scotland, when the group appeared on Top of the Pops in 1969, the four Scottish members wore kilts, whilst Whitehead wore a red coat.

In 1969, Marmalade was signed to Decca Records and their next song "Reflections of My Life" became a number 10 hit in the US. After a number three charting hit with Rainbow in 1970, Whitehead left the band in 1971. He returned in 1975 but left for a second and final time in 1978.

Management
After leaving Marmalade, Whitehead worked as a photographer for a while. Whitehead set up his own management company, negotiating his first production contract with EMI Records. Groups that he successfully managed were Lipps Inc., Mel and Kim, Modern Romance and Rikki Peebles. He later went on to manage all-girl groups Amazulu and Belle Stars.

Whitehead continued in artist management and could be seen reviewing sports cars on the Together TV programme "Rock 'N' Roll Cars" (he also provides the voice-over for the show).

He ran Chubby Lama Management with Sasi Langford, representing the indie rock band Shoot the Preacher, who won The Global Song Writing Competition. He has also managed strip clubs.

Personal life
In 1966, Whitehead was in a relationship with Maureen Wilson, an Anglo-Indian from Birmingham. After him she dated and married Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin.

In early 1970, he started a relationship with Swedish model called Leena Skoog and they married in July 1971 with press coverage. They were divorced two years later, although they remained good friends until her death in 1998 from ovarian cancer. In 1978 he married the actress Louise Burton..they were married for 17 years and have 2 sons Kurtis and Leo. While running a strip club in Newquay called Divas he met and married one of the dancers Gemma Ford..it was short-lived and they divorced a year later

In 2013, Whitehead appeared on an episode of Take Me Out, where he landed a date with a woman called Lia-Jay Holmes, who is forty years younger than Whitehead.

Whitehead currently lives in Thailand. He was single until in 2021 when he met a Thai woman called Kwhanchai, who is thirty years Whitehead's junior. They married in May 2022.