Monday, October 20, 2025

The Day After The Sabbath 160: British Wiles [Hard Rock, Prog & Psych Album Nuggets of 1973]

The Day After The Sabbath 160 British Wiles [Hard Rock, Prog & Psych Album Nuggets of 1973]

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unzip password: tdats



Welcome to volume 160! For anyone new here, also check out my previous, Sabbath-related volume, which I fast-tracked after the sad Ozzy news (v159).

Concentrating my searches on a single region and a single year unearthed some real gems in a previous volume, #142, hard rock in the USA in 1970 (link), so here is an attempt to do the same thing for the British Isles in 1973. Every track here is an album cut and all the acts are brand-new to TDATS.

So, here's a bunch of fresh sounds and some nice variety; rough 'n ready obscure heavy blues from Caliban, The Equinox and Charge, instrumental oddities from Funky Junction, Mandingo and Projection, a pair of progs from Earth Band and Public Foot The Roman, a soupçon of psych folk from Saturnalia, some unexpected heaviness from a TV comedy gang, plus some glam and pop fun from Silverhead and Hudson-Ford. Almost all of these are homegrown British Isles names, the couple of exceptions like Curtis Knight and Joe Jammer had moved their careers over here to work with British players in the industry.

1973 was a strange year for the kind of bands that I usually feature here. Aside from famous, big-name acts of the time, there is a mystifying black hole in the discographies of many TDATS-suitable bands in 1973, especially apparent in the UK. It was business as usual in the adjacent years, but 1973 is very noticeably absent. A few reasons that I can only postulate are, the oil crisis, which must have hit smaller acts harder with the spike in costs of vinyl production and distribution, and changing trends of the time.

I have often mentioned that '69-'72 are by far the most frequently occurring years for music featured here on TDATS, maybe 1973 was the year when a corner was turned. The echoes of the psychedelic era were fading out and studio technology had become a lot more advanced. The age of by now, very experienced players, super-groups and prog rock was here to stay. The establishment of heavy metal as a genre of its own was getting under way too, from '74 onward with the new intensity of bands like Judas Priest and Motörhead revving into action.

TRACKS

01. Caliban - Hard Bitten Woman (1973)
                            from album Insane Mentality
02. The Equinox - Black Mike (1973)
                            from album Hard Rock
03. Blackfoot Sue - The Spring Of '69 (1973)
                            from album Nothing To Hide
04. Saturnalia - She Brings Peace (1973)
                            from album Magical Love
05. Funky Junction - Rising Sun (1973)
                            from album Play A Tribute To Deep Purple
06. Hudson-Ford - Crying Blues (1973)
                            from album Nickelodeon
07. Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Messin' (1973)
                            from album Messin'
08. Mandingo - Fever Pitch (1973)
                            from album Sacrifice
09. Curtis Knight Zeus - Mysterious Lady (1973)
                            from album Sea Of Time
10. Silverhead - Heavy Hammer (1973)
                            from album 16 And Savaged
11. Joe Jammer - Look Before You Leap (1973)
                            from album Bad News
12. Public Foot The Roman - Don't Bite The Hand (1973)
                            from album Public Foot The Roman
13. The Goodies - Taking You Back (1973)
                            from album Sing Songs From The Goodies
14. Charge - Glory Boy From Whipsnade (1973)
                            from album Charge
15. Projection - Mantis (1973)
                            from album Beats And Ballads

Let's welcome the bands!

Caliban 1973
Caliban - 'Hard Bitten Woman'
album: Insane Mentality
[Seelie Court SCLP 024]

We begin with some raw, driving blues rock from Liverpool. Caliban played the last ever show at the original Cavern Club, made famous by The Beatles, before it was demolished. Then they became regulars at the New Cavern Club over the road, where a newer band called Judas Priest supported them.

Guitarist Keith Hubbard put some of their recordings out on a self-made CD in 2011, and in 2022 Seelie Court released two LPs of Caliban’s music; demos and a live recording. ‘Hard Bitten Woman’ is on both records, in studio and live format. The recording quality of both are not perfect, but they are good enough to convey the Stack Waddy-like power of the band. The Seelie Court label doesn’t have a website, so take a look at Discogs for more info (link). caliban70sband.blogspot / Facebook

The Equinox - Hard Rock
The Equinox - Hard Rock LP
The Equinox - 'Black Mike'
album: Hard Rock
Continuing with the obscure blues rock, The Equinox was a young quartet from Chesterfield, they formed in 1972 and played the club circuit before signing with Boulevard Records, a budget label known for exploiting artists.

They recorded the album 'Hard Rock' in 1973 in the engineer’s basement for £25 each, only to see unrelated people depicted on the cover when it was released, excused by the label due to a “cardboard shortage”. They disbanded by January 1974. Vocalist Mick Shedd now plays with cover band Hellhound, and keyboardist Jon Stoppard performs Celtic music, with a solo album, 'Secret Gardens'. The other members’ whereabouts are unknown.

Blackfoot Sue - Nothing To Hide LP
Blackfoot Sue - Nothing To Hide LP
Blackfoot Sue - 'The Spring Of 69'
album: Nothing To Hide

‘The Gift’ was started in 1966 in Birmingham by twin brothers Tom and David Farme. They relocated to London in the ‘70s and became ‘Blackfoot Sue’. Their first album, from which springs ‘The Spring of 69’, is a solid glam rock effort. Possibly one of the unluckiest bands I have come across so far, they recorded two more albums in ’74 and ’75 which were hampered by various issues and both received very late, low-key releases.

In the case of the final album, 'Gun Running', 42 years late! It has some great tracks such as ‘Cruising The Highway’ (youtube) which were heading in a B.O.C. direction. While reading their defunct website (link), I was surprised to see that the final gasp of Blackfoot Sue, a pub band featuring the Farme brothers called Cry Wolf, had played in a pub near me in the past, but they never recovered from the covid lockdowns and have since called it a day.

saturnalia magical love
Saturnalia - Magical love LP
Saturnalia - 'She Brings Peace'
album: Magical Love

There are a few interesting things about the Saturnalia album. I find the dark psych-folk vibe quite ahead of its time, reminiscent of other English acts like Axe (vol94), and something that contemporary bands like 40 Watt Sun have run with. Two foundational members, singer Adrian Hawkins and guitarist Rod Roach, came from Horse (vol66), this explains the similar approach and the fact that ‘She Brings Peace’ first appeared on the Horse album.

More points of note, this was produced by Keith Relf of The Yardbirds, who also worked with Renaissance, another band with similar folk vibes (see vol49). And some mention must go to the quirky design of Saturnalia’s album. As the music has a cosmological concept, the 3D-effect picture disc was adorned with band members and zodiacal arrangements. This was one of the first attempts at 3D vinyl and sound quality suffered, collectors have noted that some pressings sound better than others.


funky junction play a tribute to deep purple
Funky Junction
Play a Tribute to Deep Purple
Funky Junction - 'Rising Sun'
album: Play A Tribute To Deep Purple

A lot has been written about Funky Junction so I’m sure many listeners will be aware that the record is the result of a two-day session by three original members of Thin Lizzy, plus two guys from the Irish band Elmer Fudd (youtube). Eric Bell has mentioned in interviews that Lizzy was paid £1000 for the session and they bunged friends Benny White (vocals) and Dave Lennox (keyboards) a few quid to join in.

The album is from the school of infamous budget / exploitation producer Leo Muller (real name David Leonard Miller) who’s labels would employ studio musicians to sell popular sounds of the time to lesser-discerning music buyers. In some cases, good music resulted, such as The Amazonas record that I used back on the latin flavoured vol 118 (link).

The Junction’s Deep Purple covers are fairly lacklustre to be honest, understandable in the circumstances. I think the best track on the record is this House Of The Rising Sun interpretation, with beautiful guitar from Eric Bell and organ work from Dave Lennox. I'm going to take a guess that Lizzy were more at home playing this song. The band pictured on the front cover of the UK/USA edition is in fact Hard Stuff (vol2), who coincidentally were signed to Deep Purple's Purple Records label. Another coincidence is the fact that Hard Stuff guitarist John Du Cann was briefly a member of Thin Lizzy during a German tour in 1973.

Hudson-Ford Nickelodeon
Hudson-Ford - Nickelodeon LP
Hudson-Ford - 'Crying Blues'
album: Nickelodeon

‘Hudson-Ford’ was John Ford and Richard Hudson, who had both just left The Strawbs in 1973. They were also both in Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera before that (see TDATS v112). The duo made four albums in the ‘70s with various lineups of accompanying musicians. ‘Crying Blues’ is a very infectious bit of hard rockin’ pop! They re-invented themselves as 'The Monks' in 1979 with an updated sound, but were criticised by Johnny Rotten himself for being inauthentic punks (wiki).

Manfred Mann's Earth Band Messin'
Manfred Mann's Earth Band -
Messin' LP
Manfred Mann's Earth Band - 'Messin'
album: Messin'
The next evolution of keyboardist/singer Manfred Mann’s (real name Manfred Lubowitz) various acts after a successful pop act and a short-lived jazz outfit, by 1973 his Earth Band were on a fourth LP, ‘Messin’. I have read a few mentions of some good heaviness from Earth Band over the years but this is the first time I have checked them out, and they are a solid band with prominent moog/keys and prog rock and hard rock, as the mood took them.

This ten minute title track is a real trip, well-endowed with Mick Rogers’ great vocals and guitar. Mick had previously been Adam Faith’s guitarist and played in Australian bands The Playboys, Bulldog, and Procession. Drummer Chris Slade has played with a who’s-who of acts including AC/DC, Uriah Heep, The Firm and David Gilmour.

Mandingo - Sacrifice
Mandingo - Sacrifice LP
Mandingo - 'Fever Pitch'
album: Sacrifice

I vaguely remember a copy of the Geoff Love Orchestra ‘Star Wars And Other Space Themes’ LP knocking around at home when I was a kid…I wish I knew where it was now! Geoff was one of those big-band & orchestra conductors who masterminded what seems like and endless array of records, from soundtrack renditions as mentioned above, to easy-listening pop music cover LPs you’d see in Woolworths. ‘Mandingo’ was one of his many exotic pseudonyms, under which he made four funky albums, ‘Sacrifice’ being the first. You just gotta love this early ‘70s time period, when such things contained fuzz guitar as standard!

Curtis Knight Zeus - Sea Of Time
Curtis Knight Zeus - Sea Of Time LP
Curtis Knight Zeus - 'Mysterious Lady'
album: Sea Of Time

Curtis Knight Zeus enters with an attention-getting rocker, fronted by Curtis Knight. The lead guitarist is Eddie Clarke, in his first professional band, three years before he would join the ‘classic’ line-up of Motörhead. Drummer Andy Beirne would later be in Dirty Tricks (See vol65) and keys man Nick Hogarth was briefly in ‘Blue Goose’ with Eddie, just after the demise of Zeus.


Curtis Knight Zeus
Curtis Knight
Curtis Knight (b.1929 - d.1999) started-out singing in the Harlem R&B scene and recorded a number of singles and demos with Jimi Hendrix before Jimi moved to London in 1966. After a sting of post-Hendrix solo albums, with some good heavy stuff that will probably show up here in TDATS at some point, Curtis tried his own luck in London, and Curtis Knight Zeus was the result, with two LPs, Sea Of Time (used here) and the modestly-titled ‘The Second Coming’ in 1974.

Silverhead - 16 And Savaged
Silverhead - 16 And Savaged LP
Silverhead - 'Heavy Hammer'
album: 16 and Savaged

Michael Des Barres was the front man of Silverhead, a London hard rock and glam band formed in 1972. Before music, Des Barres already had an acting career going back to the early 1960s and has since worked in many well-known TV shows and films. He was inspired to enter the rock world and start a band after performing in ‘The Dirtiest Show in Town’, a musical revue from the same producer as Hair.

In 2021 a documentary about him was released called ‘Who Do You Want Me to Be’, the tag line being: "The son of a junkie aristocrat and a schizophrenic showgirl becomes a master of reinvention on a 50+ year journey through rock and roll, TV, and movies."

The rest of the band on ’16 and Savaged’ was guitarist Robbie Blunt (Chicken Shack, Robert Plant), guitarist Rod Rook Davies (The Sorrows), bassist Nigel Harrison (Blondie) and drummer Pete Thompson (Robin Trower). The dual guitars in 'Heavy Hammer' are cool, foretelling the sound of later-seventies metal. It would seem that Silverhead made a big push in the USA and most of the band have made their individual careers there since.

Joe Jammer - Bad News LP
Joe Jammer - Bad News LP
Joe Jammer - 'Look Before You Leap'
album: Bad News

Chicagoan Joe Jammer (real name Joe Wright) established his session-player career in the UK, where he resides now. marsbardot.com writes: “Joe was given his name [Jammer] by Jimmy Page when he started working for Led Zeppelin in 1969 on the USA tour promoting their first album; first as a drum roadie, then as Page’s guitar tech.

So impressed were Zeppelin with Joe’s musical abilities that they recommended to their manager Peter Grant that he manage young Joe, and Peter promptly invited him to move from Chicago to London, where he recorded his first solo album ‘Bad News’, on the infamous Regal Zonophone label”.

Joe Jammer
Joe in the UK recent years
Joe then spent most of his first stint in the UK in successful funk & disco act Olympic Runners. According to the above source, he returned to the States for a period, “when the Punk movement pissed him off”. This seems a shame to me, as his faster tracks on Bad News have punkish, power pop energy! Maybe he could have capitalised on it? According to x.com/joe_jammer, Joe has played as recently as March this year (2025) and there’s a huge amount of info at his website (link) detailing his associations with countless famous acts, and his own exploits & projects over the years.

Public Foot The Roman LP 1973
Public Foot The Roman LP
Public Foot The Roman - 'Don't Bite The Hand'
album: Public Foot The Roman

I first came across Public Foot The Roman ten years ago when researching for TDATS v112 (link), a collection of British acts that adopted a US country & southern rock sound. There is some of that sound in PFTR, but they are more-so a prog band and every description I read about them compares them to Wishbone Ash and Yes. I am far from a prog expert so I will leave that to TDATS readers to validate, though I can see the Wishbone Ash comparisons in the dual guitars.

They are probably the most obscure name in this set that was on a major label, a band that emerged in Cambridgeshire and had a single self-titled LP released in the UK and USA. In the Detroit Rock City facebook group there is a discussion around a poster that billed PFTR in support of Iggy & The Stooges, along with White Witch (v12) in 1973. A strange matching of bands there but what a show! Three PFTR members went on to ‘The Movies’, who apparently achieved more success, with five albums. Read more at themovies.org.uk

The Goodies Sing Songs From The Goodies
Sing Songs From The Goodies LP
The Goodies - 'Taking You Back'
album: Sing Songs From The Goodies

The Goodies were a well-known comedy trio in the UK, with a TV show lasting thirteen years. They were Cambridge University friends with the guys that would become Monty Python's Flying Circus, all members of the university’s ‘Footlights’ comedy troupe and sharing the same surreal sense of humour. Noticing that the Goodies made an album in 1973, I figured it was worth a listen and was very happy to discover this piece of glammy psych!

Bill Oddie was the Goodie who wrote and presumably sung on this one, with John Marshall (Nucleus, Centipede) on drums, Chris Spedding (Nucleus, and about 50 more bands!) on guitar and Gary Boyle (Brian Auger & The Trinity) on bass. Clem Cattini of Ugly Custard and Rumplestiltskin played drums elsewhere on the album. Not a bad find for this volume, seeing as I have included tracks from Nucleus (v13), The Trinity (v60), Ugly Custard (v40) and Rumplestiltskin (v8) here on TDATS in the past!

Charge - 'Glory Boy From Whipsnade'
album: Charge

This was one of those mystery records that had been bootlegged since the ‘90s. By the time I started TDATS it had already been doing the rounds on obscure rock blogs. The bootleggers made sure to leave out most of the original label details, so the band’s true identity was still a mystery to the world at large when I first heard it. The first officially authorised re-issue happened in 2013, on the Wooden Hill label.

That was made possible after bass player Ian MacLaughlin found one of the bootlegs at a record fair and recognised that it was the long-forgotten album he had made with friends Dave Ellis (vocals, guitars) and Pete Gibbons (drums) as ‘Charge’. Sadly Pete Gibbons had long-since passed by that time, but Ian & Dave were able to contribute an earlier record they had made as ‘Baby Bertha’ for Wooden Hill’s re-issue, making for a comprehensive historical document of both Charge and Baby Bertha. Read more at the old Wooden Hill website (link). Seelie Court has since picked them up and re-issued them again in recent years.

Projection Beats And Ballads
Projection - Beats And Ballads LP
Projection - 'Mantis'
album: Beats And Ballads
Closing this volume is a rocking library music nugget composed by Peter Smith & Phil Chilton. Their names both show up in ‘60s pop psych act 'Rhubarb Rhubarb' who made one well-regarded single ‘Rainmaker' b/w 'Moneylender’ in 1968. Other than that they seem to have stayed behind the scenes in production and library / soundtrack composition. After very much enjoying a voyage into Italian library rock with TDATS vol 158 (link), I can see a lot of potential for more exploration in the intriguing labyrinth of library music!

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If you liked this please explore this site further, with 150+ similarly researched collections, articles and interviews. My social links are below, I also have a youtube channel (link).

Thanks for reading!
Rich


Further listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 40: King Richard the Second [first all-English collection]
The Day After The Sabbath 112: UK Country Rock and Southern Rock Special
The Day After The Sabbath 142: Sweet Marie [1970 in the USA]


Thursday, July 31, 2025

The Day After Sabbath 159: Children Of The Grave [Obscure 1970s Black Sabbath Cover Songs]

Download from:  [mg] or [mf]
Unzip password:  tdats


Welcome to volume 159! The name of my webzine, 'The Day After The Sabbath', has sadly become true in a way that I did not originally intend when I started 16 years ago, but this is the time we are in now. I won't wax lyrical about the recent sad news, suffice to say this site would be very different, or maybe not exist at all, if it wasn't for Ozzy Osbourne, as with the rest of the Birmingham UK band, Black Sabbath.

I have always been intrigued by cover versions, and have based previous TDATS volumes on the subject already (v105, v138). Since I started, it's been inevitable that a Sabbath-related collection of some kind would happen, and now seems the natural time.

Here we have a set of Black Sabbath cover songs, all recorded in the 1970s or earlier. The "or earlier" part can be explained; the direction of cover goes both ways, and included here are some songs by other acts that Sabbath themselves covered early in their career.

If this was a Hendrix, Cream or Deep Purple covers comp, it would have been easier to make; it is notable, for a band that is so well-known now, how few times the vast majority of Black Sabbath songs were covered on record within the 1970s, except for one song elaborated below. The reason for this would seem to be that although Sabbath became popular with a select group of rock fans early-on (the ones with especially excellent taste, hehe), they did not achieve the same duration of mainstream recognition as some other heavy acts during the '70s. I can only assume that they were generally too heavy and scary for a wider audience that wasn't quite prepared for such music.

The earliest recorded evidence of Sabbath being covered live was by Scotland's Iron Claw (link), who played their songs at shows from 1970 onward, sometimes before they had even been released by Sabbath themselves, as you will read below.

You can, however, find 'Paranoid' covered in many places in the 1970s, by musical cabaret troupes like The Les Humphries Singers, on several supermarket pop-cover cash-in LPs of the time, and a punk version by The Dickies in 1978. One that has become widely posted since the dawn of the internet is Cindy & Bert's entertainingly bizarre "Der Hund von Baskerville".




Paranoid was apparently regarded as a catchy, floor-filling, chart hit. German No.1, Dutch No.2 and UK No.4, among other top-10 entries around the world, it achieved platinum sales.

I had to include a few examples of Paranoid covers here, but seeing as I could probably do two whole volumes of just that one song, I have looked hard for other songs that were covered during the '70s, and there aren't many. I was lucky to have come across some of these randomly years ago while delving into various countries on other searches. There is no sure-fire way to find them all, as so few are specifically documented or credited as Sabbath covers, and may have names not related the the original song names, on top of that, in different languages.

This leaves the question, how many more are out there? How many Singaporean show band EPs like The Commandos, or small-town USA private 45s like Meloncolony, containing early Sabbath covers, are left to be discovered?

If anyone would like to contribute some contrasting views on this subject, maybe people who were around to remember the '70s (I was at least alive when one of the songs in this set was recorded), feel free to comment at the end of this post, or via my social media / email. I'd be glad to add them here!


TRACKS


01. Orchestra And Chorus Les Humphries - Paranoid (1971)
                            from album Singing Revolution
02. Los Shain's - Wicked World (1970)
                            from album Singles 1969-1970
03. Crow - Evil Woman (1969)
                            from album Crow Music
04. Iron Claw - Fairies Wear Boots (1970)
                            live unreleased
05. Tyke - Paranoid (1977)
                            from album Picture Postcard
06. Suck - War Pigs (1972)
                            from album Rock Today With The Big Heavies
07. Billy Walker - Changes (1973)
                            from album The Hand Of Love
08. Jiří Schelinger & F. R. Čech - Metro, Dobrý Den [A National Acrobat] (1975)
                            from album Nemám Hlas Jako Zvon
09. Soreng Santi - Kuen Kuen Lueng Lueng [Iron Man] (1970s)
                            single
10. Meloncolony - The Wizard (1971)
                            single
11. Skupina F. R. Čecha - Báječní Muži [Into The Void] (1975)
                            from album Báječní Muži
12. The Commandos - Penyesalan [Paranoid] (1970)
                            from EP 'Derita'
13. Elf (Ronnie James Dio) - War Pigs (1972)
                            from album Live At The Bank
14. The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation - Warning (1967)
                            single
15. Crystal Saint - Changes (1973)
                            single
16. The Norman Haines Band - When I Come Down (1971)
                            from album Den Of Iniquity
17. Rolf Kühn - Paranoid (1971)
                            from album New Happy Discothek
18. Flower Travellin' Band - Black Sabbath (1970)
                            from album Anywhere



The Lowdown


Les Humphries was a Brit who ran an international music troupe. They covered pop hits of the time and the performances were of a high standard, often including names that have cropped up here in TDATS before, such as Earl Jordan (of Jodo link), John Lawton (of Lucifer's Friend and Uriah Heep) and Inga Rumpf (Frumpy, Atlantis).

Los Shain's appear with a very early Sabbath cover, I can count on one hand the number of bands that had recorded Sabbath covers at this point in 1970. They were one of Peru's popular rock acts, you can read more about them in v104 (link).

Crow have appeared here before (vols 1360), they peddled great horn-laden hard rock. Sabbath covered Evil Woman as their debut single in January 1970 at the urging of manager Jim Simpson, who wanted a commercial track. Tony Iommi replaced Crow's horns with heavy guitar.

The Scottish band Iron Claw have featured many times here, in 2011 I interviewed founding guitarist Jim Ronnie at the time of their reformation and new album (link). This live recording of The Claw playing Fairies Wear Boots was made in July 1970, just before Sabbath had released the Paranoid album. This was possible as Iron Claw bass player Alex Wilson was an avid fan of Sabbath, at a time when his band and Sabbath were fledgling acts playing the same circuit. He would memorise Sabbath's songs at shows c.1969 and also create or obtain recordings of them, thus he has some of the earliest DIY recordings of Sabbath ever made. Alex has a youtube (link) where he has uploaded three of Iron Claw's early live Sabbath covers.



Tyke were a trio from Sheffield comprised at this song's time of Paul Jarvis (bass, vocals), Dave Robinson (guitar, keys, vocals) and drummer Ken Markham. It appears their two LPs were fun pub rock affairs, self-released on their own label, Magnum. They covered a number of hits of various styles, and according to Discogs, backed pop singer Dave Berry in their formative years.

Suck formed in what used to be called Rhodesia, in southern Africa. They existed for less than a year but managed to get one of the region's first ever hard rock albums recorded, filled with covers of bands such as King Crimson and Deep Purple, plus a Sabbath-like original of their own called 'The Whip' (see v22). The album is called 'Time To Suck'. This cover of Sabbath appeared a little later on a 1972 collection called 'Rock Today With The Big Heavies', along with two other South African acts, Otis Waygood & Freedom's Children. All three of these bands are on the African TDATS (vol47).

Billy Walker was an American country music singer and guitarist best known for his 1962 hit, "Charlie's Shoes". Nicknamed The Tall Texan, Walker had more than 30 charting records during a 60-year career, and was a longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Jiří Schelinger & F. R. Čech, two guys who often worked together, were in the former Czechoslovakia. They have two tracks here, Into The Void and A National Acrobat, from two different albums, and both covers are killer. When I eventually investigate the Czech / Slovakian region of Europe further for TDATS, I will surely dig deeper with these guys!

Soreng Santi was a Thai singer, songwriter, and composer for other artists. This exotic 'Iron Man' interpretation appeared on a Finders Keepers comp entitled "Thai? Dai! (The Heavier Side Of The Luk Thung Underground)", after they first put it out as a limited 7 inch. I'm glad to have come across these releases as they will be very useful when I eventually cover more of South East Asia, I have already done a couple of Indonesian volumes 98 & 106. This is the only early Iron Man cover (if you can call it that) I have come across so far. Crazy to think, but understandable as the single did not perform well on release. 

From my rare singles volume - 155: Space Machines (link):
"Meloncolony - The Wizard. 
Here's a really interesting single on a small Iowa label. The catalogue number puts it somewhere around 1971. Again we have a band doing an early cover of Black Sabbath, with a more fuzzy, psychedelic approach. In particular, the stripped-down production and keyboards give this a very different feel.

On the flipside, they give the same treatment to Speed King by Deep Purple. I have seen this for sale on auctions and in one case the seller claimed it was from Des Moines. I must give the band a hats-off for their name, which I had read many times as "Melancholy" before suddenly realising it is melon-colony, and laughing my head off as a result. Gotcha! Soon after posting this, a helpful member of the TDATS facebook group linked us to a picture of Meloncolony (link), this link shows the band as a three-piece with names left to right below: Wayne Groff (keyboards), Bob Curtis (drums) and Chuck Vail (vocals)."

Meloncolony Iowa band
Meloncolony on stage (source)

From my limited understanding, The Commandos were an Indonesian / Singaporean act who usually worked as backing band for various pop singers. They recorded a solo 7 inch EP in 1970 with a song called 'Penyesalan' (Regret), and nowhere on the record does it credit Black Sabbath or Paranoid. I have encountered this kind of cheeky international plagiarism many times before, and it's not the only example in this comp alone!

Elf was Ronnie James Dio's first hard rock band before going on to fame in Rainbow and beyond. This track is from a live bootleg that purports to be at "The Bank" in Cortland, NY, 1972. They also regularly covered Led Zep, Jethro Tull and Link Wray among others. At this time the band was still called The Elves but changed to ELF when their album was released later the same year. You have to assume that Ronnie, 'Ronald Padavona' at the time he was in Elf, had no idea he would eventually join Black Sabbath, when he was covering them in New York bars. Guitarist David 'Rock' Feinstein has also become a notable name in US metal since. As such he's appeared here in TDATS twice before in (v126) & (v155).

The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation's track is here as another example of something Sabbath covered for their debut album. The Retaliation was a vehicle for Dunbar, after stints on drums for John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers and The Jeff Beck Group. He continues to perform occasionally with the World Classic Rockers, a band he has been part of since 2003, which features a rotating lineup of classic rock musicians.

Crystal Saint is a left-field find. The credited writer and (presumably) singer is Lyndy Mar, although she obviously didn't write this side! The 45 is on the Wichita, Kansas label, Kanwic Records.

The Norman Haines Band's tune here may not immediately strike you as Sabbath-related, but this tune was recorded by Earth, the previous form of Sabbath, whose demos have been floating around bootleg land for years. Although "When I Come Down" was not released by Haines' own band until 1971, he shared the same manager as Earth, Jim Simpson, which granted Earth early access to some of Haines' compositions. As luck would have it, this year (2025) sees the first ever officially sanctioned release of the Earth demos, coming in September from Big Bear Records, Jim Simpson's own label. (link). Exciting stuff!

Rolf Kühn was a German jazz composer and performer (clarinet and saxophone), born September 29, 1929, in Cologne. In the early '70s he made a couple of 'Happy Discothek' pop cover LPs, and thanks to those we have this entertaining instrumental of Paranoid! This particular record also has novel renditions of Black Magic Woman and The Kinks' Apeman.

Flower Travellin' Band were one of Japan's premiere early heavy acts along with the likes of Blues Creation and 'Speed, Glue & Shinki'. At that time, and to this day, Japan showed a total understanding and appreciation for metal and took to it like a duck to water, as you can hear on volume 36: Rising Sun (link).

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If you liked this please explore this site further, with 150+ similarly researched collections and articles / interviews. My social links are below, I also have a youtube channel (link).

Thanks for reading! I'm off to nosh on a bat's head sandwich....
Rich


Further listening:
The Day After The Sabbath 95:   A Shrine To DooM Foregone [second doom special]
The Day After The Sabbath 105: Goin' Down [covers special]
The Day After The Sabbath 138: Get Out Of My Life, Woman [covers #2]



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Thursday, June 19, 2025

The Day After The Sabbath 158: The Underground Set [1970s Italian Library & Instrumental Heavy Psych]

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Welcome to volume 158! This collection of various artists was inspired by the comp’s namesake, an Italian instrumental act named (on record) as The Underground Set. That was not actually their real name, which we will get into later. I have been aware of them for a long time and used them the first time a couple of years ago in the second all-instrumental comp, #148 (link). At the time of researching that one, and subsequently discovering new names like Mirageman for the Italian vol156 (link), I got the idea of compiling a volume of Italian instrumental heavies, as I have encountered so much quality in that arena from Italy over the years.

A lot of this comp reminds me of instrumental bands I dig like 35007 and Monkey3. In a lot of ways it sounds very modern and not so much of its time like conventional '70s hard rock usually does. Instrumental compositions tend to lead the composers into more progressive sounds.

I had already been developing an interest in general library music, after doing this webzine, especially the movie-orientated vol100 (link), which brought me into contact with tracks from KPM, one of the biggest British library labels. After downloading a few 1970s rock-orientated KPM albums, I was amazed to recognise some of the tracks from TV adverts and shows I had seen as a kid in the '80s, such as The Sweeney (link).

So, we have here a combination of Italian instrumental groups and composers, the majority of which worked in library and soundtrack music. Library music being compositions made with the intention of being licensed “off the shelf” for use in films, TV, theater and any other purpose where they might be useful to a producer of such things. Italy is traditionally one of the most fertile grounds for such music, fuelled by its natural talent for arts and music and its prolific post-war film industry. 


TRACKLIST


01. I Marc 4 - The Trip (1970)
                            from album I Marc 4
02. The Underground Set - War In The Night Before (1971)
                            from album War In The Night Before
03. Blue Sharks - A "Watt" Too Much (1972)
                            from album It Became Crystal
04. Silvano Chimenti - Il Cuore Degli Operai (1971)
                            from album Sonorità Nel Lavoro
05. Nenty (Nello Ciangherotti) - Ciminiere Fumanti (1971)
                            from album Sonorità Nel Lavoro
06. I Gres - Hot Dogs (1974)
                            from album I Gres
07. Piero Umiliani - To-Day's Sound (1973)
                            from album To-Day's Sound
08. Gianni Mazza - Esacerbato (1972)
                            from album Nevrosi
09. Giuliano Sorgini - Mad Town (1974)
                            from album Zoo Folle
10. Francesco De Masi - Il Tallone Di Achille (1972)
                            from album Ettore Lo Fusto
11. The Underground Set - Slaughter On The Motor Road (1970)
                            single
12. The Reverberi Group - Memento #5 (1972)
                            from album The Reverberi Group
13. Silvano Chimenti - Contrazioni (1972)
                            from album Droga
14. GLL (Golf Lima Lima) - Speed Limit (1975)
                            single
15. Blue Phantom - Distillation (1971)
                            from album Distortions
16. Era Terziaria - Mondo Vellutato (1972)
                            single
17. Free Action Inc. - Life Story (1970)
                            from album Rock & Blues
18. Mirageman - Paralysis (1972)
                            from album Thunder And Lightning
19. Gabriele Ducros - Dopping 2000 (1976)
                            from album Freedom Power
20. Filippo Compatti - Rock Noise (1978)
                            single


01. I Marc 4 - The Trip (1970)
album: 'I Marc 4'
A perfect opener for this set, '60s beat meets psych in the typical suspense-building style of a library track designed for fitting movie scenes. The name 'I Marc 4' comes from the initials of their members: Maurizio Majorana (bass), Antonello Vannucchi (keys), Roberto Podio (drums) and Carlo Pes (guitar). I Marc 4 recorded most of Armando Travaioli's compositions, and recorded with famous composers like Ennio Morricone & Piero Umiliani.

02. The Underground Set - War In The Night Before (1971)
album: War In The Night Before
One of the best & heaviest albums from the mysterious world of psychsploitation & Italian library music, in my humble opinion. After decades of speculation, and respected archivist Vernon Joynson writing it was an English band, Nuova Idea drummer Paolo Siani admitted it was they who recorded both Underground Set albums, in a Musikbox magazine interview. The music is far heavier than Nuova Idea's output, and this seems to be because it was composed by Le Orme's & Nuova Idea's producer, Gian Piero Reverberi, along with his brother Gianfranco Reverberi, who appear again later in this set as The Reverberi Group.

03. Blue Sharks - A "Watt" Too Much (1972)
album: It Became Crystal

Here's a funky nugget from a library project involving composer / musician Stelvio Cipriani, along with Carmelo Carucci and Ipcress (Giorgio Zinzi). Cipriani crafted over 200 film scores, blending jazz, funk, and orchestral melodies. Carucci started with beat group I Romans and composed for anime like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. Zinzi was a composer known for his evocative film scores, including La Costanza della Ragione (1964), L'arma, l'ora, il movente (1972), and Bazooka pour un espion (1966).

04. Silvano Chimenti - Il Cuore Degli Operai (1971)
album: Sonorità Nel Lavoro

Here's a pulsating little number with expressive guitar and atmospheric touches. The 'Sonorità Nel Lavoro' library album is a great one for psych guitar pieces and commands high prices. It was reissued in 2019 by Sonor Music Editions, who have reissued some other LPs used in this set. Another Silvano Chimenti piece from a different album is coming up for track 13 in this set.


05. Nenty (Nello Ciangherotti) - Ciminiere Fumanti (1971)
album: Sonorità Nel Lavoro

This one starts exactly as it means to go on with a thick fuzzy guitar riff that carries the whole piece while layers of latin beats and more guitar solos weave through it. Nello Ciangherotti and Silvano Chimenti together were responsible for the Sonorità Nel Lavoro album. The album features industrial-inspired tones that were intended for obscure documentaries about work. If all factories sound this cool i'll be looking for a new job tomorrow!

06. I Gres - Hot Dogs (1974)
album: 'I Gres'

This is lead by jazz drum breaks. The sparseness leaves space for all the changes and visiting instruments to hit hard and it's great! Correct me if i'm wrong but I believe even a bit of talk box guitar joins the party at one point. I Gres consisted of Giorgio Carnini, Roberto Pregadio, Enzo Restuccia, & Silvano Chimenti (who features in two other tracks in this set). They produced three albums in 1974-1975. Two of their main composers were Silvano, and another busy library soundtrack composer Romano Rizzati.

07. Piero Umiliani - To-Day's Sound (1973)
album: To-Day's Sound
According to Discogs this gatefold double LP has sold for almost £2500! It doesn't contain much psych but 'Open Space' and 'Exploration' are the nearest and this title track is the standout for me, a compact groover indeed. Piero Umiliani was a prolific soundtrack composer but his work that deserves mention the most here is the 'Mah Nà Mah Nà' song, used in The Muppet Show!
08. Gianni Mazza - Esacerbato (1972)
album: Nevrosi
Like 'Ciminiere Fumanti' before, this one kicks off with some shredding fuzz and ends on it too, packing a lot into three minutes including frantic keys. This album, from the ten-album 'Viaggio Attraverso I Problemi Dell'Uomo' (Journey Through Man's Problems) series on the Roman Record Company label, has some more similarly cool tracks. Mazza started out in popular Roman group I Freddie's and has become a famous TV personality on various music based shows.

09. Giuliano Sorgini - Mad Town (1974)
album: Zoo Folle
One for flute fans! Giuliano Sorgini, born in 1942, is a multi-instrumentalist renowned for his pioneering contributions to library music and film soundtracks during the 1970s. Known for cult movie soundtracks like 'Zoo Folle', 'The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue' (1974), 'The Return of the Exorcist' (1975) and 'The Beast in Heat' (1977). Sorgini blended genres such as psych-funk, jazz, electronica, and progressive rock.

10. Francesco De Masi Orchestra & Il Punto - Il Tallone Di Achille (1972)
album: In Nome Del Popolo Italiano / Ettore Lo Fusto
Some more flute-rockin' for ya! This track is from side 2 of a split LP with one movie soundtrack on each side. The other side is the score to 'In Nome Del Popolo Italiano' written by Carlo Rustichelli. The tag-line for the film on Francesco De Masi's side, 'Ettore Lo Fusto', reads "What must Cardinal Giove do to acquire land on which stands a prestigious brothel?". Highbrow Italian cinema i'm sure! The LP cover states that the music is performed by the Francesco De Masi Orchestra in conjunction with the Roman band 'Il Punto' (link).

11. The Underground Set - Slaughter On The Motor Road (1970)
single b/w 'Motor Road Underground'

Another killer track played by Nuova Idea operating under the moniker of The Underground Set. This one has a downer, contemplative vibe accentuated by the recurring piano motif that is repeated by other instruments to great effect, another great composition by the Reverberi brothers. Both sides of this single are fantastic, it was released a year before 'War In The Night Before' but they are included on modern reissues of that LP.

12. The Reverberi Group - Memento #5 (1972)
album: The Reverberi Group

Following the previous track we have another brilliant melancholy arrangement from brothers Gian Piero Reverberi and Gianfranco Reverberi. I have no idea (no pun intended) but maybe again played by Nuova Idea? The rest of this library record is a scattering of musical styles, including five versions of 'Memento', the fifth and final one is the psych guitar version we are interested in but it is cool to hear the other interpretations played with different instrumentation.

13. Silvano Chimenti - Contrazioni (1972)
album: Droga

Here's a piece from one of the other LPs in the 'Journey Through Man's Problems' series. Silvano Chimenti is a guitarist and composer, starting out with beat group 'I Planets', later joining 'The Others & Pataxo' and working with names such as Piero Umiliani and Ennio Morricone. 'Droga' (Drug) is another great LP for rock cuts, on discovery it stood out to me from most Italian library due to many tracks sounding like a US-style blues & hard rock band minus the singer. Now a sought-after collectible that has sold for over £2000 according to Discogs.

14. GLL (Golf Lima Lima) - Speed Limit (1975)
single b/w 'Leslie'

Here's a great piece that sounds to me like a cross between Goblin and Neu. GLL was Giancarlo Leone and Luigi Lopez. Leone has since become a journalist and prominent TV / Film producer along with composing and Lopez started out as performer, producer and songwriter in the late '60s. He was a member of the short-lived '70s supergroup 'Fantasy' and continued with success in many TV themes and pop hits.

15. Blue Phantom - Distillation (1971)
album: Distortions

This LP was a blogger's favourite back when I started TDATS, for good reason. I used Blue Phantom once before ages ago on volume 20 (link). At that time I assumed it was an established band, as it certainly sounded like one, but in reality it's an alias of Armando Sciascia, a prolific library composer. It's pretty amazing that this Sabbathy doom sludge sound came from a writer born in 1920! And is that a faintly similar sound to an air-raid siren in the background? I wonder where they got that idea from?.... One has to wonder how much influence the session players had on the sound, none of whom have been identified to my knowledge.

16. Era Terziaria - Mondo Vellutato (1972)
single b/w ''Mittente: Le Castella' by Walter D'Amore

Here's a little chill-out after the onslaught of Blue Phantom. A Band from Lambrate (Milan). The line-up was Euro Moroni (guitar), Franco Pensato (keys), Leo Ercolani (bass) and Paolo Fraccascia (drums). They have only one track mentioned on Discogs, this A-side on a split single with Walter D'Amore.

Information from italianprog.com (link) :- "A quartet of twenty-year-olds from Lambrate (MI). Era Terziaria, musically influenced by Pink Floyd and Soft Machine, joined singer and comedian Walter D'Amore for a single 45 rpm released by the Milanese label Ama. The record is not particularly representative of their genre, containing on side A a rather soft instrumental track dominated by guitar and keyboards, while the sound of this group was decidedly more aggressive. On the back a rather anonymous ballad, sung with a Roman accent and credited to "Walter" only. The 45 rpm is very rare and highly valued on the collector's market. Their manager was Alex Schiavi, later active with the group Cemento and as a soloist."

17. Free Action Inc. - Life Story (1970)
album: Rock & Blues

There is some contention that this instrumental exploito-psych LP 'Free Action Inc. plays Eddy Korsche' was actually played by German musicians, and this particular composition also appears (with vocals) on the Brother T. & Family (1970) album as 'Oh Love', which I used on the German volume 82 (link). This is something I was surprised to notice myself when first hearing this track and have not seen anyone else mention it as-yet. There is a Germanic link in Eddy Korsche, Austrian producer and composer who licensed music from the Italian 'Help!' label that released the Free Action Inc LP. The truth is out there, somewhere. 

18. Mirageman - Paralysis (1972)
album: Thunder And Lightning

Here's some brooding jazz rock with killer flute and big-band orchestration. I used this consistently-strong album, featuring a lot of psych guitar over various exciting compositions, back on the second Italian TDATS (link) and it deserves more attention. 'Mirageman' was pianist & composer Giovanni Fenati. Starting in the '50s with an orchestral repertoire, his style took on contemporary elements around the late '60s. As 'Mirageman', he issued three albums between 1970 and 1972.

19. Gabriele Ducros - Dopping 2000 (1976)
album: Freedom Power

This is probably the closest to straight funk in this set, away from rock. But the riff drills home hard enough for TDATS I think, similarly to Giuliano Sorgini's 'Mad Town' above. The album this is from looks to be some of Gabriele Ducros's earliest works and it includes tracks from other guys including Silvano Chimenti who is in this set twice. Ducros has since worked on TV and film scores including 'Panama Sugar' starring Oliver Reed.

20. Filippo Compatti - Rock Noise (1978)
single b/w 'L'Anticicciolino'

Starting with fake audience applause, this disco glam track reveals itself to be more like some pulsating Hawkwind space rock. I cannot find evidence that Filippo Compatti was a real person, but there is a page of info at orrorea33giri.com (link) connecting this single to Hungarian porn actress Ilona Staller (elected to Italian Parliament in 1987) in some incomprehensible way. Both sides of the single are attributed to different writers, including British ex-pat Alan Taylor, so maybe 'Filippo Compatti' is an alias. Answers on a postcard please!

Until next time.....Ciao! 

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Further listening:

The Day After The Sabbath 100: Reel Ravers [100th anniversary movie rock special]
The Day After The Sabbath 148: Heads Of Our Time [instrumental 2]
The Day After The Sabbath   69: No Troubled Sky [instrumental 1]


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