[4] A six-month residency on a BBC television series, Singalong, led to support bookings on tours with, among others, Dusty Springfield, Roy Orbison and the Small Faces.
[citation needed] The Settlers’ melodic style[5] was largely settled before the advent of British folk-rock in the guise of Fairport Convention and Pentangle later in the sixties.
In 1969, the band appeared with Cliff Richard, Una Stubbs, and William Hartnell amongst others in Life With Johnny, a six-part religious themed drama serial on ITV.
In particular, their recording of John Lennon and Paul McCartney's "Nowhere Man" (1965) was, together with the Overlanders' 1966 UK No.1 hit, "Michelle", and the Truth's version of "Girl", among the best known covers of songs from the Beatles' album Rubber Soul (1965).
However, although "Nowhere Man" reached a high of No.5 in Radio London's non-sales-based Fab 40 in March 1966[7] and the group's spirited version of Gordon Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain" received a good deal of airplay in May 1966,[8] the Settlers did not succeed in enjoying a Top 40 hit during the 1960s.
The original bassist, Mansel Davies, left in 1965 to pursue a career in teaching and was replaced by Geoff Srdzinski (born Geoffrey Srodzinski, 10 June 1946, Plymouth, Devon), who shared accommodation in Hampstead, London, with Tony Hooper of Strawbs.
Shortly after recording a religious album, I Am Your Servant, in 1973, Kent left the group and later released a solo single, "I Only Want To Be In The World", on the Beeb label in 1975 before moving into radio broadcasting.
The eponymous The Settlers, for (Island Records, 1967) included Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Mr Tambourine Man" and such folk standards as "The Wreck of the Old 97".
Lightning Tree (York, 1972), which, in addition to the title hit, included extracts, spoken by Cindy Kent, from Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 speech "I Have a Dream".