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TDATS 112: A Limey In The Ranch Of The Rodeo King [UK Country and Southern Rock] by Rich Aftersabbath on Mixcloud
The completion of this comp was triggered by a band I discovered quite recently called Heads Hands & Feet. They were an English act based in London, that were around for a few short years. They specialised in good-time bar room blues and US style country rock, similar in places to Lynyrd Skynyrd but with more focus on honky-tonk (stay with me) and country, not so much the hard rock, and they were an early band for renowned guitarist Albert Lee. I adored their honest, good-natured sound as soon as heard it, and it reminded me of a few other UK bands that had a similar thing going on. Thus the idea for this volume arose, and I hunted down some more UK-based acts that rocked in the finest of American tradition. I'm glad to say all these bands are new to TDATS, so making it has been a great pleasure and a complete learning experience.
TRACKS
01. Velvet Opera - Ride A Hustler's Dream / Statesboro Blues (1969)
from album 'Ride A Hustler's Dream'
02. Cliff Bennett's Rebellion - Amos Moses (1971)
from album 'Cliff Bennett's Rebellion'
03. Steve Gibbons - Bye Bye Buffalo (1971)
from album 'Short Stories'
04. Heads Hands & Feet - Hot Property (1971)
from album 'Tracks'
05. Legend - Moonshine (1971)
from album 'Moonshine'
06. Gypsy - Comes a Time (1972)
from album 'Brenda & The Rattlesnake'
07. Hookfoot - Tradin' Riffs (1973)
from album 'Roaring'
08. Poet And The One Man Band - Light My Fire And Burn My Lamp (1969)
from album 'Poet And The One Man Band'
09. Jellybread - Green Eyed Gypsy Queen (1972)
from album 'Back To Begin Again'
10. Pacific Drift - Just Another Girl (1970)
from album 'Feelin' Free'
11. Guitar Orchestra - Last Chicken In The Shop (1971)
from album 'Guitar Orchestra'
12. Ellis - Your Game (1972)
from album 'Riding On The Crest Of A Slump'
13. Cochise - Diamonds (1972)
from album 'So Far'
14. Holy Mackerel - The Boy And The Mekon (1972)
from album 'Holy Mackerel'
It's common knowledge that the US was shaken-up by the "British Invasion" pop of the 1960s. Early-on it was the Stones, The Beatles and The Who et al that were making big waves across the Atlantic. Then there were the English bluesrockers like Cream, Ten Years After and Led Zep who made more impact a little later. Of course, the majority of these UK acts owed their chops to blues, jazz, rock'n roll and other sounds that originated in the US. In general, it was an amazing time of rich cultural transactions and co-evolution in music. Something I was not fully aware of until recently was the following early '70s cultural return from the US to the UK, with a small uprising in US country rock appreciation that appears to have happened in the UK. It didn't last that long, as you can see from the narrow time frame of the tracks in this comp, 1969 to 1973. An interesting little observation before I go further, three tracks in this comp have turned out to have an indirect connection to Pink Floyd as you'll see - not the first name you'd expect, I wonder if it's got something to do with David Gilmour liking this kind of music? There's also a couple of links to Elton John of all people. Make of it what you will...
Having recently become acquainted with the likes of Heads Hands & Feet, Gypsy, Cochise, Hookfoot and Quiver (although not a band that would fit in a TDATS comp, Quiver guitarist Tim Renwick does appear in this comp), i'm surprised I hadn't run into many of them sooner. Maybe one of the reasons is that these bands have been largely passed-over, despite the fact that they included a lot of very talented players who were in other bands that received a lot more attention. Speaking of such, the lineups of the bands in this volume read a little like a who's who of British journeyman/session musicians. Although they may have not achieved long-term international fame, they were "musician's" bands and you can at least say that they were not motivated by commercial success, but doing what they did for the love of it. In fact, researching this has become something of an incredible adventure through the halls and archives of British virtuoso guitarists that all missed the spotlight.
In a short digression, although this volume doesn't really delve into it, some of the bands included here were closely tied to the "Pub Rock" scene in the UK. Exemplified by bands such as Bees Make The Honey and Brinsley Schwarz. It's said that pub rock was a retreat back to the roots of country & rock'n roll, partly in reaction to the wanton excesses of the burgeoning progressive rock movements. In that respect it shares the ideals of punk rock. Some of the later pub rock names, like The Count Bishops and Elvis Costello, indeed crossed over into punk territory. One of the catalysts of pub rock was the residency of a US (New York) band called Eggs Over Easy at the Tally Ho pub in Kentish Town, north London. They set-up there while recording over in London, and their countrified blues became a big hit, filling the pub every night. Soon they were being requested at larger venues like The Marquee. Another originator of the pub rock sound was a band that is included here, the modestly-named Legend, from Southend.
The Bands
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Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera |
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Velvet Opera Ride A Hustler's Dream LP |
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Cliff Bennett's Rebellion (Cliff in center) |
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Steve Gibbons |
This has a great sound with a native American influence and sympathies towards native American's historical plights. Also contributing on the album is Gerry Conway (Fairport Convention, Matthews' Southern Comfort), Alan White (Yes), Mike Kellie (Art, Spooky Tooth), Greg Ridley (Humble Pie, Spooky Tooth) and Pat Donaldson (Poet And The One Man Band). I have encountered some of these names in researching this volume, and some of them appear in it. It would seem to confirm the notion that there was a bit of movement going on in the UK for US style country rock at the time. Steve's act continued into the 2000's as a straight southern rock band, becoming known in the US, and popular in Germany. Now in his seventies, he has played as recently as last year.
Personally speaking, the story of Heads Hands & Feet is a bit of a sad tale of missed opportunity that I find to be poignant. Still, the band was made up of seasoned musicians who's careers would continue without the band. They evolved from a studio-only band's record put out under the name of "Poet And The One Man Band", which was overseen by Tony Colton. By this point Tony had become an industry name. He was a band-leader, writer, arranger and producer who had made many of his contacts while frequenting The Flamingo Club in Soho, especially the Flamingo Allnighter on Friday nights. There's an incredible interview with Tony you can read here that recounts the many personalities that he was acquainted with.
Head Hands & Feet was the logical conclusion for Poet And The One Man Band, a band that Tony had gotten together as support for some of his clients. For instance, they played behind Shirley Bassey on her 5 million-selling album "Something". Variously they were Albert Lee (gtr), Jerry Donahue (gtr), Pat Donaldson (bass), John Bell (clarinet), Speedy Aquaye (percussion), Barry Morgan (drums), Peter Gavin (drums), Raymond Barry Smith (gtr) and Tony (lead vocals). A number of piano/organ players were involved: William Davies, Roger Coulam, Nicky Hopkins and Mike O'Neill. Track 8 in this comp is from Poet's album which was made in 1969.
Most of those names, with the addition of Chas Hodges, were to make up Heads Hands & Feet. Chas, from Edmonton, north London, had been in many beat bands by this stage, including Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, and Joe Meek's house band The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore). He also took part in the Green Bullfrog Sessions (See Vols 13 & 59) with a whole bunch of names including Albert Lee and Rod Alexander of Jodo (See tdats interview with Rod here). HH&F were snapped up by record labels, with their ready-made credentials and mass appeal which was seen as ripe for the US, they were reputedly offered the biggest advance in the history of rock, half a million dollars from Capitol in the US. In the UK they were on Island records. HH&F never realised their full potential, even though they made three albums proper, and after a faltering start they imploded within 4 years of forming. For fascinating details into the times, read the interview I mentioned previously.
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C.J. Flanagan and Tony Colton |
For the fifth track here we encounter another pub rock name, Legend. They originated in the coastal town of Southend, the traditional sea-side haunt for Londoners which also boasts the longest leisure pier in the world. I have taken a track from their third and final album which, in terms of country rock, is aptly-named "Moonshine". It's a brilliant stick of funky, groovy (seaside) rock.
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Legend - Moonshine LP |
Listening to them all, it's clear that no matter what they were playing, be it doo-wop, rock'n roll, pop or blues, their main priority was have fun! On the final album they went in for a sound of two halves, there were some of the most rocking songs they have done, in "Moonshine", "Captain Cool" and "Shine On My Shoes", and there were some big, sweeping, orchestrated ballads like "Another Guy", "Mother Of My Child" and "The Writer Of Songs". Never let it be said that pub rock bands like to be predictable or one track-minded. Legend disbanded in '72 and Micky started a solo band in 1975, which made albums and existed in various forms until the 2000's. In February 2009 the early Legend line-up of Chris East (guitar/vocals), Mo Witham (guitar), John Bobin (bass), Bob Clouter (drums) and Mickey self-released a new album, "Never Too Old To Rock", featuring a selection of Jupp–East songs written over the previous twenty years.
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Gypsy Brenda & The Rattlesnake LP |
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Gypsy news cutting |
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Hookfoot promo Caleb 2nd from left |
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Caleb Quaye at Wembley stadium 1975 with Elton John band |
In 1982, Quaye became an evangelist and is now the National Worship Director for the Foursquare denomination, ministering throughout the United States, England and Europe. According to theguitarbuzz.com (link) Quaye was playing in a Jazz Rock Fusion band called The Faculty as recently as 2012 (youtube).
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Jellybread - Back To Begin Again |
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Pacific Drift - Feelin' Free LP |
The quartet’s debut single, a version of Spirit’s ‘Water Woman’, was followed by the 1970 self-titled album, "Feelin' Free". It had an eclectic mix of styles, jazzy pop to blues, and even a hint of country as on "Just Another Girl" that I used here. Below is a clip of them playing a half hour set for French TV, it starts with "Just Another Girl", sounding quite different to the record, with no lead guitar and no backing vocals.
For track 11 is a very special find indeed. Actually more than just special, it's some kind of one-time-only occurrence almost without precedent. I came across the album by the name of "Guitar Orchestra" while looking into the side-projects of Mick Grabham and Ray Fenwick. I tracked it down and have been knocked over by the quality of stella musicianship that it contains. The story is that guitarist Ray Fenwick (The Spencer Davis Group) and guitarist Mick Grabham (of Cochise, previously of Plastic Penny) met up one day through ex-Plastic Penny drummer Nigel Olsen, when he joined Spencer Davis Group.
Ray and Mick got on well straight away and soon formulated a plan, in the finest of '70s rock excess, to make a touring band and album dominated by many expert guitarists. Four lead guitarists were initially planned, but as it never amounted to a live entity, the multiple guitar layers and harmonies were over-dubbed by Ray and Mick. Mick claims that the idea was inspired by a 1962 LP called "Guitars'a Plenty", made by the George Barnes Guitar Choir (link). Also invited in were Dee Murray (Elton John Band) on bass and Tony Newman (May Blitz, Three Man Army) on drums. Vocals were mainly provided by John Gilbert of Cochise. Tim Renwick also guests on the album, he was mentioned at the beginning as a member of Quiver - on a small side note, Tim was a key supporting guitarist for Pink Floyd in all their shows since Momentary Lapse of Reason, up until Live 8, and a great job he did too. Dave Gilmour produced an early Quiver album, as one of his first production credits.
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Mike Grabham - Ray Fenwick |
The same can be said for the song I have picked for this comp, "Last Chicken in the Shop", a perfect choice as it's one of the most country flavoured tracks, and one of the heaviest. This is not some guitarist's show-off collection, it sounds like a fully-formed band, like a hard rock Eagles album that never-was. Lost to the vaults after being made, it was not officially released until 1997 by AngelAir. This is without doubt one of the most impressive curios I have ever found. Looking into the talents that made it, the best of Ray Fenwick, John Gilbert or Mick Grabham's previous works don't have anything to quite compare, so there was clearly a great chemistry happening when they all got together for this. It's a shame we will not see more of it!
We move on to Ellis, a band which produced two records, the debut being by far the best. The key members were namesake Steve Ellis (vocals - ex-Love Affair) and 'Zoot' Money, real name George Bruno Money (Keyboards, The Animals, Humble Pie). There's a definite Faces vibe about the LPs, not only in Steve's 'Rod Stewart' rasp, but in their good time barroom sound. The self-deprecatingly titled debut LP "Riding On The Crest Of A Slump" was produced by Roger Daltrey, who Ellis was renting from and living next to at the time.
I have used the track 'Your Game', with it's southern rock sound. The guitar embellishments provided by Andy Gee (real name Gröber) really push it to another level. Complementing the band along with Andy (ex-Peter Bardens), was Jimmy Leverton (bassist, ex-Fat Mattress - later replaced by Nick South) and drummer Dave Lutton. Ellis quit after the second album, which he admits was lacklustre, feeling they'd been ignored in favour of the Epic label's more established stars like Jeff Beck, Argent and Donovan. There's a good read here on Steve's website, where he talks about Ellis, using the previously-mentioned Eggs Over Easy as a backing band, his friendship with Keith Moon and almost losing his ability to walk in a dockyard accident. Steve and Zoot would soon pair up again on the first Widow Maker album in 1976.
Cochise have some relations with Hookfoot, in sound and history. Their first album had the Bluesology singer Stewart Brown, and Cochise founder Mick Grabham filled in on bass for a short time for Hookfoot. Another link to Grabham is that Hookfoot were his backing band on his solo album (link). Both bands existed at almost exactly the same time, for the same amount of time, and both made country-hued rock which got a little heavier as their albums progressed.
Grabham was previously seen in this comp in Guitar Orchestra. He started Cochise in '69 after the demise of Plastic Penny, who made a couple of psych-pop albums in the late '60s, the second of which was pretty good. In the initial Cochise line-up with Grabham was pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, ex-Taste drummer John 'Willie' Wilson, and former Jokers Wild bassist Ricky Wills (yes, the Jokers Wild that was Dave Gilmour's first proper band - Dave haunts this article again hehe). I have used a very cool track called "Diamonds" from Cochise's third and final LP, "So Far". This is about as heavy as they got, and the other cuts on this album to go to first are "Cajun Girl" and "Midnight Moonshine".
Like Hookfoot, Cochise passed by without making many ripples. If truth be told, they both seem to have been solid bands that were not doing anything new, and lacked a defining image or selling point. Grabhams's biggest claim to fame was afterwards, with his stint as Procol Harum guitarist from 1972 to 1975. His career after this ambled along without much else to mention here, playing with Procol a couple more times over the years. In terms of TDATS interest at least, one can only imagine what might have happened if Guitar Orchestra had become a full-blown act, for Grabham and Fenwick.
To our final song for volume 112. This took me a while to track down, and I have now managed to find it, to my great satisfaction. While looking up UK bands online that had been tagged 'country rock', I discovered a completely new one to me, called Holy Mackerel. I did a youtube search for it to see if I could get a quick listen, and low and behold, I soon find a song with "Holy Mackerel - Members of Samuel Prody and Orang-Utan" in the title. Now, alarm bells start ringing. As many of you may know, Orang-Utan was the one-shot London band who recorded a great session one day in 1971.
They got stitched-up by a dodgy producer, who released it as an album in the US without telling any of them, keeping all the profits to himself of course. He even made up the artwork, and the name Orang-Utan, for the sake of the cover. There is a little more on the subject in an interview with guitarist Mick Clarke at It's Psychedelic Baby magazine (link). The connection between Orang-Utan and Holy Mackerel is singer Terry Clark. Now, Terry Clark links another band to Holy Mackerel, Jason Crest. This was a singles-only late '60s psych band who made some average stuff in their time, up until a final acclaimed heavy single in 1969; A Place In The Sun / Black Mass (youtube). Vocalist Terry, Roger Siggery (drums) and Derek Smallcombe (guitar) were all members of Jason Crest, and they all moved on to form Holy Mackerel afterwards. The final associated act is Samuel Prody, an English band that included Derek Smallcombe, which recorded one album in Germany, that has some pretty good heavy stuff on it (youtube).
The story goes that this group added a second lead guitarist Chris Ware, a bass player Tony Wood, and then relocated to the Lancashire countryside to practice for an album of rural rock. The result was the self-titled Holy Mackerel album, which was released by CBS in 1972. It's great! There's no doubt that the guys had a definite idea about what they wanted with Holy Mackerel, it certainly is no re-hash of Orang-Utan, Jason Crest or Samuel Prody. It's a mainly up-beat set of country rockers, with a glam edge, and a couple of ballads. Although the country aspect is of the american flavour, it still maintains a very English feel also, making this quite a unique sounding record. Don't expect any Sabbath heaviness, or any other typical hard rock moves, it's got a fresh, melodic sound of it's own, with a glam energy and urgency that rocks all the way! Apparently Holy Mackerel recorded a second album which was shelved after the band was dropped by it's label. But they did release three singles after the first album. One of which, 'Gemini', was for the second album, which was posthumously released in 1993 (link).
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Ellis |
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Ellis Riding On The Crest Of A Slump |
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Cochise - So Far |
Cochise |
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Holy Mackerel LP |
They got stitched-up by a dodgy producer, who released it as an album in the US without telling any of them, keeping all the profits to himself of course. He even made up the artwork, and the name Orang-Utan, for the sake of the cover. There is a little more on the subject in an interview with guitarist Mick Clarke at It's Psychedelic Baby magazine (link). The connection between Orang-Utan and Holy Mackerel is singer Terry Clark. Now, Terry Clark links another band to Holy Mackerel, Jason Crest. This was a singles-only late '60s psych band who made some average stuff in their time, up until a final acclaimed heavy single in 1969; A Place In The Sun / Black Mass (youtube). Vocalist Terry, Roger Siggery (drums) and Derek Smallcombe (guitar) were all members of Jason Crest, and they all moved on to form Holy Mackerel afterwards. The final associated act is Samuel Prody, an English band that included Derek Smallcombe, which recorded one album in Germany, that has some pretty good heavy stuff on it (youtube).
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Holy Mackerel band |
Well, that's the end of this one, thanks for reading and listening, and happy new year!
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