Warner nearly joined a group called The Black Eagles, which included Phil Lynott and Brian Downey, both later members of Thin Lizzy, but he turned it down.
[10][11] Another member was Nigerian born star trumpeter, Mike Falana,[12][13] who had previously been with Graham Bond Organisation, having replaced Jack Bruce.
[11][20] The original line up as they became known for was Clem Curtis (Curtis Clements) on vocals, Tim Harris on drums, Peter Macbeth (Peter McGrath) on bass Eric Allan Dale (Eric Allandale) on trombone, Allan Warner on lead guitar, Tony Gomesz on organ, Pat Burke on tenor sax and Mike Elliott on tenor sax.
[21] Ron Fairway's group, The Ways and Means were apparently offered the chance to record "Baby Now That I've Found You" but felt that it wasn't for them.
So, The Foundations with Clem Curtis on lead vocals and Warner on guitar recorded it and it became a massive hit.
[22] After the group had two more hits with Clem Curtis, "Back on My Feet Again" and "Any Old Time (You're Lonely and Sad)"[23] things were set to change.
[28] Warner co-wrote "New Direction" with Peter Macbeth and Tony Gomesz, which was included on the B side of the hit.
[33][34] On Friday 19 July 1969, Warner's Fender Stratocaster was stolen while the group's van was being unloaded in Birmingham.
[35][36] It had been noted by New Musical Express in the week ending 10 October 1970 that Colin Young, lead singer of The Foundations had left the group to pursue a solo career.
[38] With The Foundations having broken up at the end of 1970, Warner had gone on to join the progressive rock band Pluto, who would sign up to the Dawn Label, a subsidiary of PYE.
[42][citation needed] That month also saw the release of their single, "Rag-A-Bone Joe" bw "Stealing My Thunder" on Dawn DNS.1017 as well as Pye PV.
The recordings were produced and arranged by Keith Bateman and besides Warner on guitar and Curtis on lead vocals, featured Andy Bennett on Drums and Vince Cross on keyboards.
In addition to In addition to "Build Me Up Buttercup", "The Bad Bad Old Days", "Baby, Now That I've Found You", "Back on My Feet Again", "Any Old Time (You're Lonely and Sad)" and "Born to Live, Born to Die",[50][51] they re-recorded Warner's compositions, "New Direction"[52][53] and "You Can't Fool Me".
[58] A live version of Warner's composition "You Can't Fool Me" was uploaded to Youtube on 2 October 2013.
[61] An article about Warner and his Foundations ensemble appeared in the 8 February 2020 issue of the Ilkley Gazette.
[63] Montgomery who has worked outside Alan Warner's Foundations as part of the duo Soul Providers with Chris Robin since 2007[64] was booked to appear on his own at the Crows Nest pub in Leicester on Saturday 17 December and New Years eve 2022 with Kelly Jenns.
[66] In January, 2017, Warner, Iain Houndog Terry and other artists were appearing at the Back In Our Rock ‘N’ Roll Days show which was headlined 1960s star Billie Davis known for the hit "Tell Him".
[68] In 2022, the three CD compilation Am I Groovin' You was released on the Cherry Red Records subsidiary, Strawberry (cat# CRJAM011T).
[70] According to a notification on the 2NUR FM website, dated 2 December 2024 Alan Warner was set to appear on Jack Hodgins' Vinyl Vibes the coming Sunday 8th at 6:00pm.