Wayne Bentley has been singing almost all his life. He was the one that was asked to get up to entertain his classmates at the end of term at school. Born in Barry (near Cardiff) South Wales on June 18th 1947. His parents moved 40 miles south to Swansea, he was aged 3 at the time. Swansea was where he was to spend the next 33 years.

Following 2 or 3 various jobs after leaving school at 15, jobs which held little or no interest to him at all “I was lousy at all of them” he recalls. He was asked to help form a local group which was being formed in his home village of Llansamlet.He became the lead singer of the outfit that called themselves Wayne & The Comets. They performed their first gig at around about April 1964. Performing at first in community centres before progressing to larger dance halls and ballrooms which were really popular at the time, the length and breadth of South Wales, including much work in the famous Valleys. Gaining increasing popularity they eventually won a group contest called The Embassy Beat Contest Challenge cup held at The Embassy Ballroom, Swansea, the premier gig for bands at that time. “Those early days were a great learning process” Wayne says. The band split shortly afterwards due to the usual personnel changes and differences in opinion.

Wayne then went solo, topping the bill in his own show at The Grand Theatre Swansea in May 1967 in a special concert aimed at launching his own solo career. The show was a sell out. He then spent many years appearing in working men’s clubs, cabaret and nightclubs in the valleys of South Wales working with various live musicians and house bands “Some brilliant some atrocious” he recalls. “That’s when the real learning began” he smiles.

 He moved his family to Leeds Yorkshire in 1983 to be more centrally based as by then he was travelling the length of the country.  Wayne appeared in many top night spots during these years, like The Café De Paris in London, The Heart of The Midlands Nottingham, The Double Dimond Caerphilly, where the likes of Sir Cliff Richard & Dame Shirley Bassey regularly appeared. Also many theatres and summer seasons working with many of the top stars of the time. It was during a season in 1980 at the Adam Smith Theatre in Kirkcaldy Fife that he recorded his only other record of that time, an E.P. of 4 songs called (wait for it) The Love Boat some 18-20 years before he was officially nicknamed ‘Mr Loveboat’ There are 6 copies of that vinyl E.P. still left for posterity, although he hopes to have it re-mastered as part of a future project. This E. P. was recorded at Cava Studios, Glasgow with some of the country's finest musicians.

Tired of the never ending travel up and down the country, Wayne decided to try and work locally and in 1995 moved to Oldham, Lancashire and added pubs to his venues which he had never really experienced before. He’d already had two previous spells of living in Oldham in 1989 and 1992-93 due to a change in personal circumstances and had developed real warmth for the place. “I love the spirit and enthusiasm of the people” he says “They’ve been great with me” The final straw as far as travelling was concerned was a Haven summer season he completed in 1993 which was 750 miles a week for 23 weeks, “Never again”