LAYTON AND TRENT

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 15

LAYTON AND TRENT

Greg Layton and Mike Trent, the winners of TVl’s “The Entertainers” series, have been singing together now for 14 months. In that time they have been the resident act at an Auckland nightspot, they have appeared in many television shows including TVl’s “Grunt Machine” and "Ready to Roll”, and they have performed as the support act for such international artists as J. J. Cale and Supertramp. With all this experience however, they have still not found the opportunity to turn professional. Both have day jobs to subsidise their earnings from music, but,

with their win on “The Entertainers”, they hope this situation might change.

“We write heaps of our own material, but so far no one has appeared very interested in it, probably because we are not known. I think we’ll probably use the prize money to pay for the recording of some of our stuff and hope we can get someone to promote it.” Commenting on their win Mike Trent said: “We had absolutely no idea. This sort of thing can go any way at all. I was amazed at the number of people that voted for us, people who we didn’t even know.”

Layton and Trent began their nightspot singing because despite their various television appearances they had never sung in front of a “live” audience. They got together initially, for last year’s “Entertainers”, but their efforts were unsuccessful.

However, they carried on singing and gradually created the style that won them this year’s competition. “We love harmony 1 singing, it means a lot more work, but it's very satisfying.”

From now on New Zealand’s only male duo, and the winners of the 1976 “Entertainers” intend to spend more time increasing their stock of original com-

positions and widening their range of instruments. They have already introduced the piano, guitar, mandolin and trumpet to their act, and think that this versatility adds interest to their presentation. “We’re just going to keep right on working, we both love the business and the support we got through “The Entertainers” is great encouragement.”