Lieutenant Pigeon was a British novelty popular music group, originating from Coventry.

Career

Lieutenant Pigeon were briefly popular in the early 1970s, and a spin-off from the experimental music band, Stavely Makepeace. Fronted by Rob Woodward, Lieutenant Pigeon's sound was dominated by the heavy ragtime-style piano played by his mother, Hilda Woodward.

Lieutenant Pigeon achieved two UK hits: "Mouldy Old Dough", written by Rob Woodward and bandmate Nigel Fletcher, which reached number one in 1972, and "Desperate Dan" (number 17 in 1973). Both tracks were largely instrumental, with the titles providing virtually the only lyrics. "Mouldy Old Dough" (the title being an adaptation of the 1920s jazz phrase, "vo-de-o-do") became the second biggest selling UK single of the year, behind The Band of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' bagpipe version of "Amazing Grace".

Thus, the two best-selling singles in the UK that year, were both basically novelty instrumentals.

In 1974 they had a further hit in Australia with a version of I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen. It reached #3 in the charts there in September that year.

Members

Robert Woodward - keyboards - (born Robert George Woodward, 30 November 1945, in Coventry, Warwickshire).

Hilda Woodward - piano

Stephen Johnson - bass guitar

Nigel Fletcher - drums

Trivia

"Mouldy Old Dough" was one of the choices of Jarvis Cocker when he appeared on the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme, Desert Island Discs.

The track "Mouldy Old Dough" has since become almost a 'theme song' for the sport of British Banger racing, where it is played at the start of many races at tracks across Great Britain, as the racers begin their 'rolling lap'.

"Mouldy Old Dough" was popularised in New Zealand in the 1990s, by its use in a television advertisement for Instant Kiwi scratchcards.

"Mouldy Old Dough" is played over the tannoy at the end of Oldham Athletic A.F.C. home games.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.