The British singer Jess Roden (b.1947) enjoyed a career which ran from the 1960s into the 1980s, fronting well-known bands, performing extensively, winning the respect of his peers, but never gaining major commercial success. He began his musical career with local bands in his hometown of Kidderminster, but became more widely known in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the Alan Bown Set, a popular live soul band whose performances won them a following comparable to thier contemporaries Geno Washington and the Ram Jam Band and Jimmy James and the Vagabonds.In 1967 the band changed to a more "psychedelic" style and renamed itself The Alan Bown! (the exclamation mark was soon dropped)..