Biography

This late 60s Liverpool group came together when former NEMS employee Dyan Birch (b. 25 January 1949), teamed up with Paddie McHugh (b. 28 August 1946) and Frank Collins (b. 25 October 1947) of local group the Excels. A second Merseyside girl, vocalist Carroll Carter (b. 10 June 1948) was added, along with Lloyd Courtney (b. 20 December 1947, Cheshire, England), Don Hume (b. 31 March 1950, Watford, Hertfordshire, England) and Tony O’Malley (b. 15 July 1948). The septet sent a tape to Decca Records’ A&R representative, Tony Hall, who was so impressed by the group’s sound that he decided to record and manage them. Their early 70s UK Top 20 hits, ‘Friends’ and ‘I Will Survive’, were urgent performances with some excellent vocal work. Although their professed ambition was for ‘Arrival to become a household name’, the seven-piece band proved unwieldy and eventually split, with Birch, Collins, O‘Malley and McHugh re-emerging in Kokomo.