One summer’s day in 1969, musician Herbie Flowers and fellow members of the newly formed pop group Blue Mink were finishing a recording session when singer-songwriter Roger Cook sat at the piano and played a song he had just written.

It was called Melting Pot and the rest of the band loved it. Within 20 minutes they had recorded it and studio bosses were convinced they had a first hit on their hands.

By November it had reached Number Three in the Top 20 and with 15 weeks in the charts was one of the biggest-selling 45rpm records of the year.

Even by 1969 standards, the lyrics about racial harmony were pretty silly. Yesterday, it was revealed that almost exactly 50 years after Blue Mink said the world’s problems could be solved by ‘a great big melting pot’, their debut hit has been banned by regulators as being ‘offensive’.

Controversy: A song by pop-group Blue Mink (pictured at the height of their fame) that refers to 'coffee-coloured people' and a 'Red Indian boy' was removed from a radio station after a listener complained that the lyrics were offensive

Ofcom said references to ‘curly Latin kinkies’ and ‘yellow Chinkies’ were too extreme for modern audiences.

The media watchdog said ‘Chinky’ was an unacceptable anti-Chinese slur and was exacerbated by the use of the word ‘yellow’.

Other words deemed unfit for the ears of easily offended modern listeners included ‘Red Indian boy’ and ‘coffee-coloured people’ because of the risk of hurt to minority groups.

Sitting at his home in Ditchling, East Sussex, bass guitarist Flowers, 81, admits he is bewildered by the row that was triggered by a single complaint to Ofcom about the song’s broadcast on golden oldies radio station Gold.

‘I suppose we were just rather naïve musicians. Racism and sexism were not part of our consciousness then,’ he says.

‘I don’t think it occurred to any of us there was anything wrong with it. People didn’t say “what terrible lyrics”, they thought it was rather catchy.

‘Of course, I can see why it wouldn’t be very acceptable now, but as it is there are far worse things played on Radio 1 these days, songs full of obscenities and violence.’

For flowers, the dispute resembles a similar row over the Lou Reed song, Walk On The Wild Side, on which he played and which was banned from the airwaves because of its references to ‘coloured girls’.

In 1969, the group's debut single Melting Pot was seen as a statement against racial intolerance by a British band

‘I think there are far more important things to be worried about these days than musical lyrics, such as the speed lorries drive through our village and the lack of a zebra crossing,’ he says.

In the summer of 1969, Herbie, who played his first instrument during nine years’ service in the RAF, joined other session musicians to form Blue Mink.

They were keyboard player Roger Coulam, classically trained guitarist Alan Parker, who went on to write scores for Hollywood films and TV shows, and drummer Barry Morgan, who learned his trade on cruise ships and played on many of Tom Jones’s biggest hits.

Initially the group was meant to be an instrumental band, but they decided to bring in not one but two vocalists, African-American former gospel singer Madeline Bell and Roger Cook, who’d penned the Fortunes No 2 hit, You’ve Got Your Troubles with his songwriting partner, Roger Greenaway.

At the time, there were few British pop groups with a female singer and even fewer where the singer was black. If the band had a novelty feel, then that may have been deliberate.

Until then Madeline, who was a backing singer for Dusty Springfield and sang on Joe Cocker’s cover of The Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends, had enjoyed limited success.

Melting Pot changed all that. Its optimistic lyrics imagine the creation of a single human from people of many races.

‘Take a pinch of white man, wrap him up in black skin, add a touch of blue blood, and a little bitty bit of Red Indian boy.

Curly Latin kinkies, mixed with yellow Chinkees, You know you lump it altogether, and you’ve got a recipe for a get-along scene. Oh what a beautiful dream, if it could only come true, you know, you know.’

All very idealistic, but immigration was a touchy subject in 1969 Britain. Enoch Powell’s notorious ‘rivers of blood’ speech had been made only 18 months before the release of Melting Pot.

The lyrics that saw Blue Mink’s 1969 track Melting Pot banned 'Take a pinch of white man, Wrap him up in black skin, Add a touch of blue blood, And a little bitty bit of Red Indian boy. Oh, curly Latin kinkies, Mixed with yellow Chinkees, If you lump it all together And you got a recipe for a get along scene; Oh what a beautiful dream If it could only come true, you know, you know. What we need is a great big melting pot, Big enough to take the world and all it’s got And keep it stirring for a hundred years or more and turn out coffee-coloured people by the score Rabbis and the friars Vishnus and the gurus We got the Beatles or the Sun God Well it really doesn't matter what religion you choose And be thankful little Mrs. Graceful You know that livin' could be tasteful We should all get together in a lovin machine I think I'll call up the queen It's only fair that she knows, you know, you know. What we need is a great big melting pot Big to take the world and all its got and keep it stirring for a hundred years or more And turn out coffee-coloured people by the score.' Advertisement

Although the initial outcry over the West Indian Windrush arrivals had softened by the late 1960s, there were concerns at the numbers coming from India and Pakistan.

Within two years they were to be swollen by another 50,000 Gujarati Indians expelled from Uganda by dictator Idi Amin. Culturally, 1969 was a crossroads. The summer of love and the hippy movement were ending in an orgy of violence.

A Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, ended in a riot with one fan stabbed to death by Hells Angels bikers who had been hired to provide security, while in Los Angeles, the Manson gang murdered a pregnant Sharon Tate and four other adults.

Back home, The Beatles were drifting apart — Paul had married Linda while John and Yoko had turned their ‘bed-in’ for peace honeymoon into an anti-Vietnam war protest.

Musically, the Stones and Beatles dominated the charts but Motown was also sweeping the country. So perhaps the idea that we could iron out racial differences through music wasn’t so crazy after all.

At the time, Blue Mink’s sound was described as ‘white soul’.

For her part, Madeline said of the lyrics: ‘They have caught the mood of the moment, I suppose. They were meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but a lot of people are taking them seriously. Obviously, the idea of mixing up all colours, races and religions is quite ridiculous.

‘And even if we were all green with blue hair we’d still find something to argue about.’

For the band, which had taken its name from a breed of Tonkinese cat, it was the start of five years of pop fame.

Blue Mink had successful singles including Good Morning Freedom, The Banner Man, Stay With Me and Randy, only to split in 1974 when the hits dried up. Elton John announced them on stage for their final appearance in America.

But it was not the end of the story for the band members. Madeline continued to be hugely in demand and sang on the soundtracks of films A Touch Of Class and The Last Tycoon.

In the 1980s, she was the voice behind advertising jingles for British Gas and Brooke Bond tea. Now 77, in recent years she has lived in Spain.

Two of Blue Mink are dead, founder Roger Coulam and drummer Barry Morgan, who owned the studios in north-west London where Melting Pot was recorded.

Alan Parker, at 75, the youngest surviving member of the band, is still playing the guitar.

Roger Cook, a former plasterer’s mate from Bristol, who wrote a string of hits for stars including Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Gene Pitney and Andy Williams, is now based in Nashville.

Herbie, who co-wrote Dad’s Army star Clive Dunn’s No 1, Grandad, is also still playing music.

Reflecting on the Blue Mink row, he smiles: ‘I am glad to be a bit of a mischief maker, but you would have thought the world had got bigger fish to fry than this.’