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Volume 121 brings something for all heavy metal fans, with a fast, heavy set. Furthering an idea that first inspired volume 67, this latest comp is another selection of former-half ‘70s tracks (‘69-‘76) that remind me of the galloping, speedy, heavy metal sound that would be typified in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. In the UK, that was around the time of the much vaunted New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) and famous bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Along with those two, groups such as Thin Lizzy made use of another band mechanic that exemplified the times, duel lead guitarists, often playing in harmony. You’ll find all these things and more in this selection.

Judas Priest pre-leather days

I find it intriguing when I hear these types of sounds coming from bands in earlier times, perhaps the NWOBHM bands (and bands from other parts of the world – metal was getting militaristically heavy in the US at the same time) were partly inspired by some of the early ‘70s hard rock pioneers in this comp, and inspired to push the limits they set? Another important factor linking some of the bands here with the later metal bands are the producers/engineers, as we’ll see later. In the case of Tiger, there is a direct link via singer Nicky Moore, who replaced Bruce Dickinson in Samson.

There are tracks from new TDATS guests Agnes Strange, Tiger and Fuzzy Duck, along with new tracks from familiar names like Jerusalem, Tucky Buzzard and Gun. The Gun track here is from 1969 and along with Andromeda they were surely one of earliest bands to attempt this regimented stylistic attack. Although mostly English bands, we have some international wildcards in Désirée (Ger), Kleptomania (Bel), Taste (the Australian one), Left End (US) and Neon Rose (Swe). Speaking of Sweden, that country has consistently come up in TDATS comps with bands playing NWOBHM-ish sounds; Rhapsody, White, EF Band, Neon Rose, Plebb etc, and to this day lots of new Swedish bands are still doing it.

TRACKS

01. Tucky Buzzard - Bo-Bo's Hampton (1973)
       from album ‘Buzzard’
02. Jerusalem - Hooded Eagle (1972)
       from album ‘Jerusalem’
03. Désirée - Listen To The Radio (1976)
       from album ‘Make It With A Smile’
04. Agnes Strange - Granny Don't Like Rock 'n' Roll (1975)
       from album ‘Strange Flavour’
05. Gun - Dreams And Screams (1969)
       from album ‘Gunsight’
06. Wild Turkey - Butterfly (1971)
       from album ‘Battle Hymn’
07. Kleptomania - Cadens (1972)
       from album ‘Elephants Lost’
08. Tiger - I'm Not Crying (1976)
       from album ‘Tiger’
09. Taste - Lady of Love (1976)
       from album 'Tickle Your Fancy’
10. Left End - Spoiled Rotten (1974)
       from album ‘Spoiled Rotten’
11. Hustler - Piranahas (1974)
       from album ‘High Street’
12. Neon Rose - A Man's Not A Man (single edit) (1975)
       from album ‘Reload’
13. Geordie - Ten Feet Tall (1974)
       from album ‘Don't Be Fooled By The Name'
14. Fuzzy Duck - In Our Time (1971)
       from album ‘Fuzzy Duck’



Tucky Buzzard was prolific for a short time, making five albums within five years. I have used a track from their fourth, the record called simply "Buzzard". Their albums were all produced by an unexpected name, Bill Wyman, Rolling Stones bassist 1962-92. Bill made musical contributions too, on piano, and brought in a number of backing musicians that had worked with the Stones. Tucky was started by three former members of The End; Dave Brown, Nick Graham and Paul Francis, however Paul Francis soon split to join Fuzzy Duck, who coincidentally also appears in this comp.

The End's sole album (1969) was also produced by Bill and is well-regarded. On the Sicilian Palermo Pop poster opposite, the band is actually described as "Bill Wyman's Tucky Buzzard". The song I used here, "Bo-Bo's Hampton", is a perfect opener with it's relentless gallop and harmonised guitar lines, a great track! Strangely, most of Tucky's albums didn't get a UK release initially, the debut s/t was US-only and "Coming On Again" was published in Spain. Maybe this lack of exposure in the UK was intentional but it might go some way to explain why they always remained under the radar, here in the UK at least. There's a detailed account for further reading here at billwyman.com.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem made one album that was produced by Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, who wrote these words for the s/t album's liner notes: "This is the first album by Jerusalem, a band which excites me very much; they are rough, raw and doomy with their own strong identity. As they are young and a bit green, they don't follow many rules, so their material is almost crude - but still immensely powerful in content. I believe that, whenever possible, the work of writers and players in their formative stages should be recorded; before inhibition and self-consciousness set in, before fire and aggression die down, and while they are still absorbing influences and doing things which others might consider 'uncool'. Most important though, before they might develop that self-imposed rigidity which afflicts so many. I hope none of these things happen to Jerusalem, we'll have to wait and see......I hope you like it as much as I do".

This album has since been remastered by Rockadrome. Jerusalem's debut was surely one of the most innovative heavy albums of it's time, it's approach was raw and had a youthful, timeless, almost punk-like attack that set it apart from the bluesy goings-on of the established heavy bands like Led Zep, or even Sabbath to a degree. Unfortunately Jerusalem didn't last, and the spin-off band Pussy went in for glam pop, which did result in a couple of rocking tracks but otherwise left the sphere of music that TDATS is interested in.

Agnes Strange

Agnes Strange are a new name in this blog, and here are the liner notes from their UK edition LP: "Agnes Strange sprang into being in 1972 in the Southampton area where they still return when gigs on Christmas Island begin to become intolerable. The band set out to create a sound of their own fusing naturally with their own material today’s feeling for Rock and a touch of Chicago style blues.

In late 1974 the band moved its base to London in order to be managed by the Dick James Organisation. Since then the band has built up a large and loyal following and I hope that this album will enhance their stature in the world of Rock. Agnes Strange has, I feel, the rare ability to not only be aware but to stay aware.

Agnes Strange Strange Flavour front

John Westwood was recently quoted by a newspaper as saying that he came ‘from nowhere really’. Having known John for four dreadful years I cannot recall him ever having been fully aware of his surroundings. John is dedicated to the success of ‘Agnes’ and after years of frustration his patience is bearing fruit. John is an astonishingly talented guitarist and is completely natural in his stage presentation. Alan and Dave are very fortunate that he joined Agnes Strange as he had only just failed to secure the lead in a major feature film ‘I Was A Teenage Mistake’.

Dave Bodwell could be described as a charming young man. Could be. On stage he plays drums with an eerie, almost evil absorption. Dave works hard towards a tight sound and drives a hard, regular rhythm pattern.

Alan Green off stage is an easy going cabinet maker and smiles gently most of the time. On stage he shows himself as a dedicated bass player who believes a straight solid bass line is essential to the Agnes Strange sound. The band has to be seen to be believed."

This was written by Agnes Strange's producer Dave Travis (link). As well as being a performer, Dave was a producer and mastering engineer and worked on records from the likes of Deep Purple, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly and Robin Trower.

Gun debut s/t LP 1968

Gun were an important and influential English hard rock band, and one of the very first. Everyone knows about their classic 1968 top ten single, "Race with the Devil" (youtube), it has been covered ever since by famous and underground acts, right up to modern bands like Church Of Misery. The Gun was a development of guitarist Paul Gurvitz's The Knack (prev. The Londoners, formed 1963). Paul's father was road manager for The Shadows so he had a good introduction to rock and The Londoners had already played in France and Hamburg by the time they settled in London, becoming The Knack, then in 1966, "The Gun". Soon after they were playing at the UFO Club, supporting names such as Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown and Tomorrow.

Gun - Gunsight 1969

By 1968 Paul's brother Adrian had joined on guitar, himself having already cut his teeth with Rupert's People (see Vol70) and pre-T2 bands Please/Bulldog Breed (see vols 27& 74). Gun recorded two albums and they honed their hard rock elements further on the second LP, Gun Sight, which "Dreams and Screams" is taken from. After Gun the Guvitz brothers were in more bands together, including the excellent Three Man Army (see Vol46) and Baker Gurvitz Army with Ginger Baker, as well as separate projects. Both are still working in the music business. Paul started The New Army band in recent years, where he now lives in Arizona. He did an interview with PsychedelicBaby in 2011, and his website is paulgurvitz.com (link).

Fuzzy Duck s/t 1971

Fuzzy Duck in the studio

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Six masterful songs around ten minutes in length each. To make amends for generally avoiding long tracks in these comps, here's an hour's worth of nothing but long, heavy prog tracks that have space to breath, and go to some amazing places...

All these names are new to the blog and many of you will recognise them I'm sure. The UK, the US, Germany and Japan are all represented by talented bands that liked to push the envelope and take rock music into deeper realms than your average four minute axe-bashers. Here's some more results of the amazing experimentation that progressive rock and psych explored during those important times, leaving a legacy that continues to inspire the heavy bands of today. Just in case you are wondering, this is guaranteed 100% drum solo-free!

Steamhammer Speech LP

This set opens with Steamhammer's "Telegram", from their final LP, "Speech". They are a hard band to describe concisely as they had a revolving-door lineup and made four albums that varied in style and quality. A quick look here shows how many members passed through, although founding guitarist Martin Pugh was a constant.

After Steamhammer split in 1973, Pugh and bassist Louis Cennamo joined up with former Yardbirds vocalist Keith Relf and drummer Bobby Caldwell (ex-Captain Beyond) to form Armageddon in 1975 (see Vol26). I really dig "Telegram", it's an extremely heavy and evil-sounding prog workout, all twelve minutes of it. The LP may be an acquired taste in it's entirety though, as one third of the whole album is taken up by a drum solo of over ten minutes, something hard to take for even the most patient prog fan!

Road

Track two, although not typical of the album it comes from, introduces itself with a passing similarity to Sabbath's tri-tone riffage. Road started in Los Angeles in 1970. With bassist/vocalist Noel Redding (previously of The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Fat Mattress), guitarist/vocalist Rod Richards (formerly of Rare Earth) and drummer/vocalist Leslie Sampson. They recorded one album in 1972 called "Road" and disbanded shortly after.

They got together after Redding left Fat Mattress and Richards left Rare Earth. During Road's existence, Redding and Sampson were involved in jam sessions that resulted in Randy California's 1972 "Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds" album (see Vol5). Following Road, Redding and Sampson formed The Noel Redding Band, while Richards went on to a solo career. Sampson also joined Stray Dog, (see Vol8) played in The Gas in the early '80s and Sally Barker And The Rhythm and The Pirates in the '90s.

The following is a piece of a Noel Redding Interview that I found here:
"Do you think that Jimi was being manipulated by the music industry when the 'Experience broke up?"
NR:- I think he was under pressure, because there were all these contracts going down that no-one knew nothing about. Hendrix wasn't coming up with the same quality material because the record company was saying that he had to come up with stuff "comparable" to his previous stuff. I do think the guy was a bit lost and I do think he was getting manipulated business wise. The poor guy, bless him, just needed some time off. He should have come to Ireland for a year!

"Do you think the music industry has changed much over the years?"
NR:- Not really, I still don't get paid.

"After you left the 'Experience what did you do?"
NR:- Well, I'd had the Fat Mattress earlier as a writing outlet for songs and that. When I left the 'Experience, the Fat Mattress did a German tour and an American tour, then that all collapsed as well and I was living in Los Angeles. I had another band called Road. A three piece Heavy Metal type thing, and in 1972 I moved to Ireland.

Fusion Orchestra - Skeleton In Armour line-up. Clockwise from left, Dave Bell, Stan Land, Dave Cowell, Colin Dawson and Jill Saward

Fusion Orchestra might be of interest to Babe Ruth fans, or those of Room. Frequently-heavy prog with a great front woman in Jill Saward, who also played flute, keyboard and more. The sole album 'Skeleton In Armour' is good progressive rock, drawing in many influences from Canterbury scene to hard rock, thankfully the band has a great attack and this LP keeps up momentum throughout, as you can hear in tracks like the one appearing here, and "Have I Left The Gas On?".

On the album, she is joined by the three founding members Dave Bell (drums), Stan Land (2nd guitar) and Colin Dawson (lead guitar). Dave Cowell played bass. Later in the bands' life Colin Dawson quit, so Alan Murphy took over, he later played in English pop bands Level 42 and coincidentally, Go West, who cropped up in the last volume via Hustler drummer Tony Beard. Although the band had a good live reputation, with fans frequently enjoying Jill Saward's titillating stage antics at the Marquee in London, they did not achieve commercial success on EMI and didn't get the green light for a second album. Jill had the most successful career afterwards, in the pop group Shakatak, and surprisingly none of the other players were in notable bands later. Colin Dawson started Fusion Orchestra 2 in 2008, in which he is the only original FO member.

The bulging pants of Silberbart

I have often had Silberbart (trans. "Silver Beard") recommended to me for this blog, and here is a great opportunity to use one of their long free-form compositions. Little is known about this trio from Hamburg. Their 1971 album, Four Times Sound Razing, is regarded as a lost classic of Krautrock, It combines heavy metal and avant garde improvisation.

The band was formed in early 1971 by Hajo Teschner on guitars and vocals, Peter Behrens on drums and percussion, and Werner Klug on bass. Teschner had been in a Shadows-styled band Die Schocker in the mid-'60s before joining bubble gum pop band The Tonics. After that, Teschner, who had always been interested in free jazz, was ready for something more adventurous, and started the experimental power trio Silberbart. Given his Tonics connections with Philips, he was able to make an album on the label. Unfortunately the strange record did not attract much attention at the time, but by the end of the '70s they had appeared on the Nurse with Wound list of influences (link), and Julian Cope says the LP "....tears at the stitches as elements of Guru Guru’s first two albums and Alice Cooper’s first three are straddled simultaneously in a jarring, screaming and ultimately razing proto-metal masterpiece".

Eiliff

I would recommend Eiliff''s LPs to fans of all that's heavy who would like to explore the possibilities of jazz prog, and this style of prog is not what I usually go in for. They play hard and fast all the time though, so there's enough aggression in their long saxophone and hammond-infused tracks to pique the interest of open-minded hard rock fans. The musicianship is consistently brilliant and they remind me of Eindhoven's Mr. Albert Show a lot (see vol63). "faust3d" at RYM said: "Together with Gila and Eulenspygel, Eiliff was one of the best bands to come out of jazzy Stuttgart krautrock scene". Coincidentally, both those bands have appeared in TDATS before.

This comp ends with a suitably epic track that takes a departure from the previous prog/psych tracks here. It's from the guitarist of a Japanese band that has appeared in the blog before, Bow Wow (vols 18& 36). He made a solo album in 1980 and it ends with "Horizon". I was blown away when I first heard it and it's a real blast, something you'd want to hear during the end credits of a particularly tough Japanese video game or in a movie scene with triumphant space ships returning from battle. On that point, I was pleased to see that he recorded some theme music for a sc-fi puppet show that I liked on TV when I was a kid,  X-Bomber. Goodbye and thanks for listening!




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TDATS introduces sixteen new names for Volume 123, the second collection of Spanish bands, after 39: Bandera Inmortal. Most of the usual suspects were covered in that episode, and like The Netherlands for example, searching for further heaviness means looking through all the bands that only made singles, EPs and unreleased material. As such, only five of the 16 tracks here are from albums originally released at the time of the bands. Singles, EPs and archival recordings make up the rest. The searches never end though, and even as I write this I am finding new Spanish discoveries, including LPs, so lets hope there'll be more to come later, as what's here is really good!

Eva Rock at "The Invasion of Filth"

During making this I found out about the "15 horas de Música Pop de Burgos" festival, in Burgos in 1975. It appears to have been Spain's first important rock fest with music ranging from pop to hard rock and prog. Bands that have appeared in TDATS before played it, like Triana, Storm and Eduardo Bort. A new band appearing in this volume called Burning also played it. The fest has since passed into legend, now known infamously as "La invasión de la cochambre" (The invasion of filth) after the hoards of back-packing hippies and free lovers that homed in on it. You can read more here and here.

Mix master Mara B. Stones (mixcloud) has done a great job of embellishing this volume and rounding it off with cool quotes from acid psych compilations and some old movies. Enjoy!

TRACKS

01. Albert Band - Ella Tiene El Cabello Rubio [1970]
       single
02. Los Buenos - Oh, Pretty Woman (Albert King cover) [1969]
       single
03. Los Sirex - Yo Grito [1966]
       from four-track EP 'Los Sirex'
04. Furia - Solamente Tú [1973]
       single
05. Colores - Rompecabezas [1975]
       from ep 'Es Mejor Olvidarn'
06. Clock - Hang On (Confía) [1971]
       single
07. Armada - Cry [1972]
       single
08. Darwin Teoría - De la Ceca a la Meca [1970]
       single
09. Shock! - I Am Blind [1970]
       from album 'Shock!'
10. Smash - Fail Safe [1971]
       from album 'We Come To Smash This Time'
11. Franklin - What Is Wrong? [1973]
       from album 'Franklin I 1971 - 1973'
12. Rockcelona - Queen, Friend And Dread [1979]
       from album 'La Bruja'
13. Burning - I'm Burning (Estoy Ardiendo) [1975]
       from album 'Live at the European Pop Jury'
14. Moon - ¿Por Qué os Portáis Así? [1978]
       single
15. Crack - Descenso en el Mahellstrong [1979]
       from album 'Si Todo Hiciera Crack'
16. Zarpa - Llega La Destrucción [1978]
       from album 'Los 4 Jinetes Del Apocalypsis'

Albert Band

Catalonia's Albert Band made decent pop singles around 1968-1970, and for one they made a real belter called 'Ella Tiene El Cabello Rubio' (She has blonde hair). Amusingly this particular single was released on a label actually called "Belter"! In fact, Finders Keepers Records has made a comp of Belter singles called "Absolute Belter" (link). It would appear the band's name comes from singer, Albert Garriga. Albert Band appeared at the third "Festival internacional de la canción de Màlaga" in 1970, where you can see them in the program (link).

Los Buenos

On to similar pop band heaviness territory for the next track from Madrid's Los Buenos. Julián Granados (link) is the front man here, he was also in Los Angeles and The Brisks, as well as being a solo artist. Some other interesting links from this band: guitarist Johnny Galvao was in Aguaviva who appear in Vol49, bassist Ignacio Egaña made a solo LP in 1974 called "Karma", and keyboardist Rod Mayall was the half-brother of John Mayall. He moved to Spain after leaving Ivan's Meads. After Los Buenos he joined The Pipe from South America who played latin-flavoured rock. Read more about that here (link).


Time for some 1966 fuzz from Barcelona's Los Sirex. At the end of 1960 the band consisted of Antoni Miquel Cerveró ("Leslie" or "L'Anxoveta") as lead vocalist, Lluís Gomis (Lluís Gomis de Prunera, 1944-2012, RIP) on drums, Josep Fontseré Portolés on the rhythm guitar, Guillermo Rodríguez Holgado on bass and Manolo Madruga on lead guitar. They named the band after a component of eyeglasses manufacture: Guillermo worked at his father's glasses factory. The first performance of Los Sirex was at a Barça football fan club (Penya barcelonista), followed by concerts at The Tropical in Castelldefels. Reportedly their daring lyrics caused them trouble with Spanish censorship. The band has occasionally reformed and played as recently as 2012.

Another Barcelona group comes in at track four, Furia. They formed in 1970 from ex-members of a band called Los Gatos Negros, who themselves came from 'Catch As Catch Can' of the late '50s. Like Albert Band, Furia had some singles on Belter records. Furia were not a particularly heavy band but like many at that time you can find the goods on some of their B-sides, like "Solamente Tú" (Only you) included here. It has a chunky riff and a great freakout guitar solo.


Next up is an extremely rare EP from a band called Colores. According to RYM (link) they were from Madrid, and included José Luis Ortega (keyboards), Manuel de Dios (guitar, vocals), Rafa Insúa (bass) and Rafa Ramos (drums). They made a four track EP around 1975 which is some good heavy prog / psych with hammond organ. It sounds a few years behind the times for 1975 but none the less it's solid and worth a listen, although it's rarity might make that hard as it goes for around €100. I used the track "Rompecabezas" in this comp, and here's another track from the EP, "Es Mejor Olvidar" (youtube).

Clock had some singles out on the Barcelona label, Dimensión (link). This small label was responsible for a couple of other bands that have been used here in TDATS, Evolution and Cerebrum. Clock themselves were more of a pop band than heavy, but they made good music and B-side "Hang On" is a very groovy, brassy little number with some good heft, one for the dance floors indeed.



There's almost no useful online information about Armada. They seem to have only made one single on the German Ariola label, but it's a good one, both sides. The heaviest cut is B-side "Cry" but the A-side "People (Summer Song)" (youtube) is fun too. The only snippet I have come across so far is that the band was started by one-time guitarist of Barcelona's Lone Star, Alex Sánchez. If you'd like to read some more in Spanish, there's a discussion board thread that mentions Alex and Armada here: Spanish / English autotranslation. It states that other than Lone Star, Alex was in groups Los Íberos, The Pipe, Los Zooms and The Food. I wonder if that is the same The Pipe mentioned above re: Los Buenos.

Darwin Teoría (Darwin Theory) are up next, they had some singles on the Poplandia label (link), which distributed in Spain some European bands that have appeared here before, like Geordie and Shocking Blue. B-side "Hello Memories" (youtube) is a great piece of Mungo Jerry-like heavy pop and I have included here the A-Side "De la Ceca a la Meca" (From Pillar to Post) which has some awesome growling fuzz and wah guitar, the way we like it.

Here is what the Spanish re-issue label Guerssen says about Shock!: "We are very excited to present what is for us a major discovery in the Spanish Psych-Prog collector scene: a previously unreleased album from 1970 by this obscure Spanish garage-psych band. Until now, Shock were a total mystery. They only released one 45 back at the time (the killer acid- fuzz punker "No se puede ser Superman")  (youtube) and nothing was known about the band...until we tracked them down.

We discovered that prior to their 45 release, they recorded a whole album which was never released. Shock's music is underground garage- psychedelia with crude acid- fuzz guitar, effects, English vocals...think of Agua de Regaliz, early Pan & Regaliz, Cerebrum or even obscure Brazilian bands such as Tobruk but with a more primitive sound. The album features ten songs including the original versions of the two tracks later re- recorded for their only 45: "No se puede ser Superman" (titled here "I'm being mad", it's a different and superior English sung version) and "I want to laugh" (a longer version than the one included on the 45). Remastered from the original 2- track tape"

Smash

Smash were a quality band from Seville who played a few different styles over two albums and could wig out with the best of them when they wanted, as "Fail Safe" shows. This is ten minutes of grungy punks letting loose and enjoying themselves, hypnotising the listener with with a relentless barrage of staccato riffing and stoned jamming. It's a real blast this one.

Prog archives (link): "Spanish prog rock with flamenco sitar. Formed by the sitar / guitar player Gualberto in 1967. The band Smash recorded at the beginning of the seventies two classic rarities of psych / prog rock for Philips label ("Glorieta de los Lotos" in 1970 and "We Come To Smash This Time" in 1971) . The early death of the vocalist Julio Matito marked the end of the band's adventure. In itself, Smash's music has similarities with the Moody Blues and Vanilla Fudge's psychedelic mood. The flamenco touch is evident, applying on traditional "palos" (tarantos.) thanks to Manuel Molina's guitar style. In parallel the leader Gualberto has recorded a few progressive albums with Ricardo Mino, mixing Hindu music to conventional Spanish flamenco guitar works."

Franklin were a late entry here after I saw a post in the TDATS fb group while I was finishing this. I'm glad it was posted as this is a killer track that mixes hard rock riffs and heavy psych to perfection. The El Cocodrilo label (link) released a double LP of all their recordings in 2007, the track I have used here is taken from the first-half LP of that, which is a collection of all their unreleased tracks pre-1973. The second LP is a complete unreleased 1974 album called Life Circle, that was recorded by an altered line-up and is more towards prog rock: "Franklin was one of the first underground groups in Spain, formed in the late '60s by several of the best musicians living in Madrid at the time.

Founded in 1971 by Pablo Weeber and Antonio García de Diego (with Mariano Díaz on keyboards, M. A., Rojas on bass & Juan Cánovas on drums), backed by producers Maryní Callejo and Teddy Bautista. They released a single which included a brutal version of the Stones' Satisfaction that appeared in the Andergraun Vibrations 2 (link).

In 1974, the group recorded a whole album which was unpublished until now; 'Life circle' is a concept album, much more prog-rock than their previous recordings. Conceptually, it has similarities with the Ciclos de Canarios (a group that had connections with them). Nine tracks full of guitar, minimoog, mellotron, keys and some experimental space and near the symphonic passages, all sung in English. They split-up in 1976."

Continuing into heavier territory, "Queen, Friend And Dread" from Barcelona's Rockcelona hits you hard.The LP it's taken from is like this all the way through, it never lets up. This unique and timeless collision between punk, heavy metal and garage rock recorded in 1979 is a real gem for anyone out there who looks for the ultimate in unrelenting fuzz. The group was founded in 1977 by Alfredo Valcárcel, and recorded only one album called "La Bruja" (The Witch).

The heavy metal continues with Madrid's Burning and another of the heaviest tracks here. This one really opens up like some prime NWOBHM which is surprising to say the least for a Spanish band in 1975. Burning was started in 1974 by José Casas ("Pepe Risi", guitar), Antonio Martin ("Toño Martin", vocals), Johnny Cifuentes (keyboards) Enrique Perez (bass) and Ernesto Estepa ("Tito" drums). In this grouping they recorded some singles including the song used here, and then started making albums in 1978, continuing to the present day. Although Burning began singing in English, they are regarded as one of the first Spanish hard rock bands to popularise singing in Spanish, which they did toward the late '70s.


Moon was formed in Madrid in 1974 with Alberto Martin (guitar, vocals), Carlos Navascuas (bass) and Peter Martin (drums). Later Manolo Hernandez joined the band on vocals. Moon were in a movement of Spanish rock that became known as "Viva el Rollo !!" and they were included on a compilation record with that name (link). This important record helped spawn the likes of  famous bands like Leno, Asfalto, Bloque, Topo and Ñu toward the late '70s. The Moon track I have used here is a heavy single from 1978 with more NWOBHM -ish metal going on!


A reprieve from the heaviness and into some prog. Crack came from Gijon, the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. The members were Alex Cakrul (bass), Alberto Fontaneda (guitar, flute and vocals), Mento Heria (keybaords and vocals), Manda Jimenez (drums) and Rafael Rodriguez (guitar). Their only album "Si Todo Hiciera Crack" (1979) is one of the classics of Spanish progressive Rock. It contains seven tracks, all with a great harmony between keyboards, guitar and flute. There are hints of early Genesis and Jethro Tull.


And to finish with some more heavy metal, we have Zarpa, from Valencia. Front man Vicente Feijóo is the only original member and they are still playing to this day. Their first LP "Los 4 Jinetes Del Apocalypsis", which was originally released on tape only, is one of the best of Spain's early heavy metal albums. It was finally remastered in 2006, before which few people had heard it due to it's rarity. Their most recent LP was "Bestias del Poder", only last year.


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Andrew - "Woops" LP back cover

The "Woops" LP is the scarce original 1973 first and only release by Andrew, a band formed by Júlíus Agnarsson and Andri Örn Clausen, playing heavy experimental psychedelic, progressive and artistic rock. Ómar Óskarsson (bass, vocals) and Ásgeir Óskarsson (drums, vocals) were previously in Icecross. The record is listed in the Hans Pokora '1001 Record Collector Dreams' book as a 4 star "True Rarity". The album was recorded at Incognito and re-mixed at Morgan & Soundtek Studios. It was published by Najö Productions. The members of the band, alongside Júlíus and Andri are among others guitarist Björgvin Gíslason (from Náttúra and Pelican),  drummer Ásgeir Óskarsson (from Pelican and Icecross) and Egill Ólafsson (from Thursaflokkurinn and Spilverk Þjóðanna) on piano and vocals.

Jónas og Einar

Courtesy of icelandicmusic.com (link) :- Singer and flute player Jónas R. Jónasson and singer and guitar player Einar Vilberg Hjartarson had a short but very remarkable collaboration. Einar Vilberg became known as an extremely promising song writer and troubadour in 1970 and he had released a very promising EP with Pétur Kristjánsson and drummer Gunnar Jökull Hákonarson. Jónas and Einar got together in 1970 when Jónas left the band Náttúra. They rehearsed together for a while and got used to each others’ groove.

The music they played was acoustic with a hippy feel to it and they sang in English, because they wanted to appeal to a broader market than Iceland. They were consequently invited to play at an international pop festival in Budokan, Japan.  They also released an album that was recorded partly in Sweden and partly in Iceland. The album sold well and received a lot of attention. After a few years collaboration the duet split up, Jónas turned to producing but Einar Vilberg commenced a solo career.  

Mánar

Courtesy of icelandicmusic.com (link) :- The band Mánar was formed in Selfoss in 1967 by guitar players and singers Ólafur Þórðarson and Guðmundur Benediktsson who had played together in the trio Bimbó since they were 13 years old, drummer Ólafur Bachmann and bass player Stefán Ásgrímsson. Stefán soon left the band and was replaced by Björn Gíslason. In the summer of 1967, Arnór Þórhallsson sang with the band and bass player Smári Kristjánsson also played with them. Soon after that Guðmundur Benediktsson left and was replaced by organ player Björn Þórarinsson. Mánar recorded three songs in 1970 and two of them were released on a single the same year.

Mánar

After the album was released Ólafur Bachmann left the band and was replaced by Ragnar Sigurjónsson. That line up recorded two songs that were released on another single in 1970. Singer Mary McDowell sang with Mánar that summer. The band then wrote some songs for an LP. They got Gunnar Þórðarsson to assist them in the last rehearsals before they went on a trip to Denmark in November 1971 to record the album. In 1974, Mánar recorded two songs that were released on a compilation album and in 1975 the band split up.




In 1974, Pelican was the biggest band in Iceland. The first song from the debut album, “Jenny Darling”, was released on a single in the summer, a frisky number that went on to become Pétur’s signature song. The song was the hit of the summer and when the album “Uppteknir” (a word-play, that can mean both “Unpacked” and “Busy”—the album cover featured the band inside a sardine tin), came out in the fall. It became the best selling Icelandic album yet, shifting 11,000 units.

I have used an instrumental track from Pelican's second album. "Á Sprengisandi" is an Icelandic folk song written by Grímur Thomsen (1820-1896). You can read more about it here.
Icecross was formed in Copenhagen by a bunch of like-minded Icelandic hippies. In 1973 they made and self-released one of the most talked-about albums in the realms of obscure heavy rock. It is especially known for its doomy sounds and it's as fresh today as it was when it was recorded. "Jesus Freaks" is a Paean to self-empowerment and the band makes no bones about it's attitude to religion in it's Christian-bating lyrics. Icecross members were all deeply involved with other bands, including many of those appearing in this comp, this album leaves a great legacy and you can read more at www.icecross.net.

Jóhann G. Jóhannsson Langspil LP

Track nine is a diversion into blues from an artist who did not otherwise make heavy music, it's a great song that fits nicely into this set, from a singer-song writer. Johann G. Johannsson was born in 1947 in Keflavik, Iceland. He is one of the most productive of Iceland´s songwriters. He is the author of hundreds of songs, of which more than two hundred have been recorded by various artists. He has composed music in many genres such as rock, pop, R&B and progressive rock. He stared a career as a musician back in 1966 as a singer and bassist.

Svanfrídur

Courtesy of Shadoks music (link) :- The Icelandic prog-rock band Svanfrídur released only one album, recorded six months after they played their first gig. This short-lived band rapidly rose to fame, receiving rave reviews for live performances, but in fact their music was way ahead of its time. They were unable to seal a recording contract so they formed their own label - Swan Records. When the album 'What’s Hidden There?' was released in autumn 1972 it got mixed reviews and sold only a few hundred copies, leaving the band with a great album but sadly not the income they had been hoping for. Recorded at London’s Majestic Studios the album was cut and pressed in England. Perhaps one of the best heavy prog / underground albums from Scandinavia with amazing guitar and all-English vocals. Would have been a famous and successful album on Decca UK.

Þeyr

Courtesy of Wikipedia (link) :- Þeyr was a renowned Icelandic new wave band from the early 1980s. Shrouded under a veil of mystery, their three-year existence was characterized by a deep interest in ancient wisdom. Þeyr helped bring about the new wave movement in Iceland and became one of the first Icelandic bands to be known abroad.

The origins of Þeyr date back to the late 1970s when singer Magnús Guðmundsson, bassist Hilmar Örn Agnarsson and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson (drums and synthesizer) were playing in a garage band called Fellibylur (Hurricane). The band was expanded with vocalist Elín Reynisdóttir, who at the time was singing at a church choir, guitarist Jóhannes Helgason from a rock band called Piccolo, and drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson from Hattimas.

They called themselves Frostrósir (Frostroses) and played rock music and some Icelandic songs at dancehalls in Reykjavík and its surroundings. After a while they decided to change the band’s name and came up with Þeyr, which was drawn from a poem by Skuggi and it means Wind or Thaw in old Icelandic. Þeyr is exactly pronounced as þeir, which means they (male gender). They had a lot of association with English band Killing Joke, at one time Killing Joke front man Jaz Coleman moved to Iceland to collaborate. After Þeyr ended, drummer Sigtryggur Baldursson started The Sugarcubes, who had international fame.

"… En Hún Snýst Nú Samt was Start's only album, released in 1981 and includes their local Icelandic hit “Sekur” (youtube). Singer Eiríkur Hauksson later went on to front the Norwegian hair metal band Artch. While it is regarded by some as Iceland's first heavy metal album, it is more "hard rock/pop with a metal image" to my ears, but it does have some elements of commercial metal of the times, along with the associated slick production approach, on a par with anything else from around the world. With it's boogie-rock basis, the track "Hjonalif" I used here demonstrates the best of the band along with “Sekur”.

Takk og góða nótt!
Rich

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Adrian and Paul Gurvitz had influential but largely unsung careers in British hard rock in the '60s and '70s. Here are some of the best tracks associated with them, from albums by bands such as Gun, Three Man Army, Baker Gurvitz Army and others that you may be less acquainted with.

The prime Gurvitz Brothers bands of interest for us here at TDATS were Gun and Three Man Army, being the hardest-rocking. I have used tracks from both those bands previously, so here I have tried to avoid repetition and picks from just those band's albums, there are so many good ones and it would be too easy! So, I have used a lot of non-album singles and related bands such as 'Parrish & Gurvitz', The Knack and The Buddy Miles Band. Hopefully there'll be enough of interest here to keep you listening, even if you already know Gun and Three Man Army well!

A small mp3 audio file of a recent radio interview with Paul Gurvitz is included with this comp. A written interview with Paul is also included at the end of this article, courtesy of ItsPsychedelicBaby.

TRACKS
01. Three Man Army - My Yiddishe Mamma (1973)
       from album 'Mahesha'
02. Three Man Army - Hold On (1973)
       from album 'Mahesha'
03. Gun - Runnin' Wild (1970)
       single
04. Three Man Army - What's My Name (1971)
       from album 'A Third Of A Lifetime'
05. Three Man Army - Travellin' (1971)
       single
06. Gun - Race With The Devil (1968)
       from album 'Gun'
07. The Knack - Who'll Be The Next In Line [Kinks cover] (1965)
       from album 'Time Time Time - The Complete UK Singles (and more) 1965-1967'
08. Gun - Drives You Mad (1969)
       single
09. The Buddy Miles Band - L.A. Resurrection (1973)
       from album 'Chapter VII'
10. Three Man Army - Jubilee (1974)
       from album 'Three Man Army Three' (released 2005)
11. Parrish & Gurvitz - Another Time Another Day (1971)
       from album 'Parrish & Gurvitz'
12. Gun - Situation Vacant (1969)
       from album 'Gun Sight'
13. The Baker Gurvitz Army - Hearts On Fire (1976)
       from album 'Hearts On Fire'
14. Three Man Army - In My Eyes (1974)
       from album 'Three Man Army Two'

Gun debut s/t LP 1968

Gun were an influential English hard rock band, and one of the very first. Everyone knows about their classic 1968 top ten single, "Race with the Devil" (youtube), it has been covered ever since by famous and underground acts, right up to modern bands like Church Of Misery. The Gun was a development of guitarist Paul Gurvitz's The Knack (prev. The Londoners, formed 1963). Paul's father was road manager for The Shadows so he had a good introduction to rock and The Londoners had already played in France and Hamburg's Star Club by the time they settled in London, becoming The Knack, then in 1966, "The Gun". Soon after they were playing at the UFO Club, supporting names such as Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown and Tomorrow.

Gun - Gun Sight 1969

By 1968 Paul's brother Adrian had joined on guitar, himself having already cut his teeth with acts such as Rupert's People (see Vol70) and pre-T2 bands Please / Bulldog Breed (see vols 27 & 74). Gun recorded two albums and they honed their hard rock elements further on the second LP, Gun Sight, which the track appearing here, 'Situation Vacant', is taken from. After Gun the Gurvitz brothers were in more bands together, including the excellent Three Man Army (prev. in Vol46) and Baker Gurvitz Army with Ginger Baker, as well as separate projects. Adrian and Paul also played on both Graeme Edge Band albums in the latter half of the seventies, with Paul on production duties too.

Adrian Gurvitz started playing guitar at the age of 8 and by age 15, he was touring in early bands like Screaming Lord Sutch, Billie Davis, and Crispian St. Peters. In 1967 he briefly joined Rupert’s People, who had a minor-hit single, 'Reflections of Charlie Brown'. It charted at 13 in Australia and made the Top 40 in the UK. Just before The Gun formed, Paul joined an even shorter-lived version of Rupert's people too.

Paul Gurvitz - Adrian Gurvitz - Louis Farrell

Adrian has gained notability as a lead guitarist, known for his screaming, intricate, hard-driving solos. He was placed at No. 9 in Chris Welch of Melody Maker's "Best Guitarist in the World" list. There's no doubt that he and his brother's powerful style heralded heavy metal right at its birth. Since playing in hard rock bands, Adrian (and brother Paul) were key players in the disco/funk informed soft rock of The Graeme Edge Band. The music, although well-played, is not suitable for this blog so doesn't feature in the comp. It pointed the way for Adrian's solo work from 1979 into the eighties. Adrian also continued as a producer and film score writer. He worked on the hugely successful soundtrack to the The Bodyguard and has recently worked with Ziggy Marley.

Paul Gurvitz in BGA

After the demise of The Baker Gurvitz Army, Paul produced and played on his brother's solo albums, and went to the US in 1985 to work as a songwriter / producer. He wrote for bands such as Five Star, Jody Watley, The Fat Boys, The Cover Girls, Stanley Clarke and others. In 2002 he returned as a solo artist and continues to record his own albums. He has started country-rockers The New Army band in recent years, where he now lives in Arizona. He did an interview with PsychedelicBaby in 2011, and his website is paulgurvitz.com (link).





You can listen to a recent US radio interview with Paul Gurvitz here:




With the departure of long time band mate Brian Morris from The Knack, guitarist Paul Curtis (aka Paul Gurvitz) made a radical change and The Knack became The Gun.

Gun went through many line up changes (Yes vocalist Jon Anderson was even with the band briefly) until they got their first break playing shows with T Rex and Pink Floyd on the London underground scene. "We were playing a lot at The Speakeasy which was a very fashionable club at the time," Paul recalls. "There you would stand shoulder to shoulder with people whose music is still played all over the world today, The Beatles, Brian Jones of the Stones, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix and Keith Moon of The Who, just to name a few".

By the middle of 1968, Gun became a power trio. Paul had taken over bass and left the guitar to his brother Adrian, who was by this time becoming quite a talent. The drums meanwhile were still handled by Louis Farrell (prev. in The Knack). Famous jazz musician Ronnie Scott, had just formed a management company and signed them as his first band. Shortly afterwards they were signed by CBS, and by the end of the year they were at the top of the European charts with 'Race With The Devil', included here. Although the single bares the hallmarks of psychedelic pop of the times, with it's big-sounding production and orchestration, there is also the beginnings of hard rock and heavy metal bubbling bellow the surface, powered by Adrian's blistering guitar leads.

A self-titled debut LP appeared the same year and a second LP came in 1969 called Gun Sight. Included here is a track from Gun Sight called 'Situation Vacant'. It has the searing leads and aggression of Race With The Devil, but not so much of the pop production, which also defines the heavier sound of Gun Sight in general. In my opinion this is a very early hard rock album that deserves to be compared with the earliest work of Deep Purple, Vanilla Fudge and Iron Butterfly as some of the very first heavy metal.



After Gun had backfired, the brothers Gurvitz took time out in America. Adrian hooked up with Buddy Miles, while Paul worked with former Londoners band mate Brian Morris, who had changed his name to Brian Parrish. They began writing new songs and were introduced to legendary producer George Martin, who signed them to his label, Regal Zonaphone. They recorded the album Parrish & Gurvitz and toured in support of it throughout the US, according to Paul a second LP was recorded but never released. I have included the great opening track from the album here, 'Another Time Another Day'. The rest of the band included past and future members of bands such as Badger, Spooky Tooth, The Only Ones, Cochise, Roxy Music, Foreigner, Small Faces and Ian Dury's Blockheads. After little label support the project split and the backing band went on to join Peter Frampton.

Three Man Army A Third Of A Lifetime cover

Before Parrish & Gurvitz finished, Paul had begun working on new material with his brother. The brothers had only just returned to the UK in the early '70s when they teamed up again to write and record the debut Three Man Army album, 'A Third of A Lifetime'. This album was released by Pegasus Records in 1971. Most of the songs were rehearsed in the studio before being recorded. The brothers had a predilection for working with first class drummers, and this album featured no less than three with Buddy Miles (Band Of Gypsys), Mike Kellie (Spooky Tooth) and Carmine Appice (Beck Bogard & Appice, Vanilla Fudge). I have used the track 'What's My Name' from this album. Three Man Army was clearly a development from Gun, Adrian and Paul's song-writing and playing was less psychedelic and decidedly more blues-based hard rock, the riffs are often heavy and fast but every song is infused with melody too, with a noticeable hint of southern rock. Maybe from Paul's love of Allman Brothers. Two of my favourite tracks from their catalogue are Butter Queen (youtube) and Pole Cat Woman (youtube), which always go down well on the dance floor. The brothers set the blueprint with this album, all three released albums from Three Man Army are very consistent and I recommend them all equally, although they really turned of the heaviness for the third one, 'Three Man Army Two'.

Mahesha

The band's second release, 'Mahesha' (In the US known simply as 'Three Man Arm'), came out on the Warner Bros-owned label Reprise in 1973. Drummer Tony Newman (Rod Stewart Group, May Blitz, Boxer, David Bowie), a sought-after session man who could be heard on many of the hits singles at the time, was added. Newman became a permanent member of the Army, which now allowed the band to play live and promote Mahesha in the US. "The first tour we did was with the Doobie Brothers and the second was with the Beach Boys. Not necessarily acts with which we had much in common", Paul recalls. "However, Warner Bros. thought it would be a good thing". From this album I have used the two opening tracks. 'My Yiddishe Mamma' is a stately instrumental build-up to 'Hold On'. This is not the same as the Hold On that Rupert's People played, but maybe it was an inspiration.

Three Man Army Two

A year later and the band were recording their third album. This one was heavier than the previous two and the title caused some confusion - 'Three Man Army Two'. Paul clarifies the reason behind the choice. "It was the second album for Warner Bros." Perhaps another interpretation could be that it may have been subconsciously influenced by the fact that it was the Second record to feature the line up of Gurvitz, Gurvitz and Newman. This would help to explain the subsequently titled release 'Three Man Army Three'. I have used the track 'In My Eyes' from this album, which is probably the heaviest album the Gurvitz bros ever made, and should be right at the top of your shopping list!

Buddy Miles - Chapter VII

Adrian lent his considerable guitar skills to other artists during these times. He recorded and toured with The Buddy Miles Band, for the album "Chapter VII" which was released in 1973.

Buddy's career began drumming for Wilson Picket when, at age 19, he was inducted into the original line-up of seminal Chicago blues soul rockers The Electric Flag. He also played in Hendrix's Band Of Gypsys.

The credits on Chapter VII were: Ron Johnson (bass and guitar), Adrian Curtis (guitar) and Buddy Himself on drums, vocals, organ, and guitar. As you probably guessed, Curtis is Gurvitz, the brother's real surname is Gurvitz but they would sometimes use Curtis, especially during their early careers and on various projects like Chapter VII, inspired to do so after their father had himself legally changed to it. Adrian's brother Paul explains: "When my parents divorced my father changed his name to Curtis from Gurvitz and at the time I thought that Curtis was more rock n' roll than Gurvitz". As mentioned earlier, Buddy and Adrian's friendship had started just after Gun finished, and Buddy played drums for some tracks on Three Man Army's first LP.

Three Man Army Three cover

Three Man Army had toyed with the idea of doing a rock opera (working title 'Three Days To Go') and they had recorded a few demos for the project. Paul recently rediscovered these demos and remastered them. From these sessions, nine tracks are featured on 'Three Man Army Three'. A collection of previously unreleased materials that has been captured with good sound quality and released in 2005. A good example of this is the track 'Jubilee', which is included here and features drummer Lee Baxter Hayes. When asked who this 'mystery' drummer was performing on the track, Paul laughs and says, "He was a roadie of ours with, let's say with average skills as a drummer, and we let him play. It was just for fun".

Tony Newman

When Tony Newman left the band to play with David Bowie, the brothers Gurvitz hooked up with Ginger Baker and changed their name to the Baker Gurvitz Army. Baker was considered the ultimate rock drummer at the time, known for his work with Blind Faith and obviously Cream. The band's three albums definitely sounded different to Three Man Army, and Baker's drumming was always impressive, but they do not do much for me and are more a display of good drumming and technically proficient but commercial soft rock. With that sound the band entered the US and UK charts in 1974. Two consecutive albums followed as the band expanded their line up from a trio to a quintet with singer Mr. Snips (aka Stephen Alfred Wilson Parsons - ex-Sharks and later new wave solo artist). When their manager Bill Fahelli died in a plane crash, a dispute with the management company forced BGA to part ways.

Baker Gurvitz Army - Hearts On Fire (1976)

Of the three BGA albums, my pick is the last one, 'Hearts On Fire' (1976). It is not as good as any of the Three Man Army LPs but it has more rocking tracks than he previous two and the title track which I include here is great, if a little short!

The last rock albums that the Gurvitz Brothers played on for a while were the pair of Graeme Edge Band LPs soon after, that were unfortunately rather more lackluster than Baker Gurvitz Army. Unfortunately for heavy-heads, that was the absolute end of the Gurvitz Brothers' forays into hard rock, but by all accounts they made a lot more money for themselves in later pursuits as writers / producers. We can't blame them for doing that and we can't complain about the great set of Gun and Three Man Army albums they left us!


Many thanks to Klemen Breznikar for allowing me to reproduce parts of his 2011 Paul Gurvitz interview here! Klemen runs a great blog/zine over at psychedelicbaby.blogspot.co.uk


Q. Hi Paul. Firstly I would like to ask you about your childhood. What were your main influences at that time, beside Buddy Holly and Elvis.

Paul: I used to listen to a lot of American artist's when I was growing up as there were only a few English ones that I found exciting, around the late 60's I would listen to Santana, Buffalo Springfield, Spirit, The Allman Brothers, Zappa.


Q. Your first band was called The Londoners. You played gigs around London and you also went to Germany.Can you tell us more?

Paul: Actually the Londoners never really played in London other than when we were the backing group for Gene Vincent, The Londoners played mostly in Germany and France.


Q. From Germany you went back to London. You were no longer called The Londoners. Changing your name to The Knack, were there also any changes in lineup? You recorded a few singles for Pye and for Decca. Your first release was 'Who'll Be The Next In Line / She Ain't No Good', right? Can you tell me more about The Knack.

Paul: The Knack was a continuation of The Londoners. There were a few different members, on bass was Gearie Kenworthy, on organ was Tim Mycroft (who is the first of the family tree to have passed away and on drums was Topper Clay, and I played rhythm guitar. The Knack played mostly in London and around England.


Q. In early 1968 you started Gun. You released a debut album in same year, which I think it is a true masterpiece and one of the first heavy albums from that era. You also had a mega hit called Race With The Devil. Can you tell me about it? Who made the cover art? I just love it.

Paul: The Gun was a continuation of The Knack with different members. The first Gun was Tim Mycroft on organ, Gearie Kenworthy on bass, Louie Farrel on drums, and I played rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Actually I started playing as The Gun in late 67. In early 68 there were more changes, Jon Anderson was the lead singer and my brother joined on guitar, then it changed again, Anderson left so did Tim mycroft, and then Gearie Kenworthy and that's when we became The Gun that made the albums. I was now playing bass and Adrian on guitar and Louie on drums.

Race With The Devil was our first hit and was recorded at CBS in London on an 8 track recorder. We were managed at that time by the famous jazz player Ronnie Scott and rehearsed in his club. During the time we were rehearsing there was a guy painting murals on the club walls and we asked him if he would like to do the artwork of the cover. His name was Roger Dean who later did all the Yes albums and many more but The Gun was his first. As far as touring we spent time in France, Germany, Italy and England.


Q. In 1969 you started to record a second album, called Gun Sight. There were lineup changes, right? Drummer Peter Dunton came from Bulldog Breed to join your band. Can you tell me more about that?

Paul: I don't remember much about that. I know Peter Dunton played on some tracks, but never really joined the band although there were some publicity pics with him. Most of the second album was Louie Farrell, later Goeff Britton played drums and toured with us. He later joined Wings.


Q. What went wrong with Gun after the second album? Your brother went to the US to record with Buddy Miles. After that you and Brian Parrish released one album called Parrish & Gurvitz. Slowly after that a new band was born. Three Man Army. What can you tell me about this legendary trio with you Adrian and Tony Newman on drums? You released 3 albums from 1970 to 1974.

Paul: I was recording a solo album for CBS and then decided to join up with Parrish. Three Man Army was an extention of Gun but with a lot of different drummers such as Buddy Miles, Mike Kelly (Spooky Tooth) Carmin Appice (Vanilla Fudge). The band was just a recording band at the time as Adrian and I were playing in different bands but we intended to make Three Man Army a touring band later and when Adrian finished with Buddy Miles.  Parrish & Gurvitz, after making 2 albums with George Martin (of Beatles fame), decided to pack it in and that's when Tony Newman joined and Three Man Army was born. The second album Mahesha and Three Man Army Two were both with Tony Newman.

We recorded often at the Who's studio and toured the US with The Doobie Brothers and The Beach Boys. We did some TV and there is an album of unreleased material called Three Man Army Three and can be purchased at http://wetworldmusic.com/

Paradise Ballroom

Q. During that period you started another project with The Moody Blues drummer Graeme Edge. Soon after that two albums were released. Please tell me more about that project.

The two albums with Graeme Edge were just studio albums. The Moody Blues were taking a break and doing their individual projects. The artwork was by Joe Petagno (Motorhead sleeves etc.) also Three Man Army Two, the second album Paradise Ballroom was recorded in London and Memphis, they have both been reissued recently on The Acerteric label.


Q. Tony Newman left Three Man Army and you started a new band called Baker Gurvitz Army. How did you meet with Ginger Baker?

Paul: Three Man Army was back from the U.S. and Tony Newman was offered a gig with David Bowie and we suggested he took it. Three Man Army had an album ready to record, but no drummer. We met Ginger in The Speakeasy one night and he said he wanted to join the band and the rest is history. That album became the first BGA album. The band toured the UK and America and recorded somehow two more albums. There have been many live albums released since the demise of the band also on wetworldmusic.com. You will find BGA 'Still Alive' which includes a DVD.


Q. In 1976 you released last Baker Gurvitz Army album, called Hearts on Fire. What happened next?

Paul: After the recording of Hearts On Fire our manager was killed in a plane crash and the band split. Adrian pursued solo projects and I produced them.


Q. Then came the 80's and you were involved with a lot of projects.

Paul: The 80's was a whole new era for me with my music. I went from playing and creating hard rock to writing pop r&b for many artists which you will find on my website paulgurvitz.com


Q. In 2002 you released album No Gun - No Army and in 2005 you released Rated PG album. What can you say about that?

Paul: No Gun No Army was just a release of demo's rated. PG was more a project than No Gun No Army. I make the albums more for other artist's to record the songs.


Q. In 2010 you released the album 'Sweetheart Land'. How do you feel about it?

Paul: I liked Sweetheart Land. Gave me chance to switch my style a bit to more country / rock.


Thanks Paul!

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Heavy metal continued to evolve in the mid-seventies with bands like Rush, Thin Lizzy, Scorpions, UFO, Judas Priest and Rainbow upping the ante on each record. All the facets of those cutting-edge bands can be found among the lesser-known and never-known US bands I have included on this volume; grand fantastical themes, guitar harmonies, galloping riffs and histrionic power metal vocals included. Included here are a few conversations I've had with band members of Alkana, Axxe, Squadran and Tyranny.

The UK, and also Germany, were responsible for many of the famous technically-accomplished and speedy metal bands in the latter-half 1970s, but it was happening everywhere else too. American underground metal was exploding in popularity, bands were getting heavier and more skilled, Van Halen broke through were Montrose didn't do so well. The world's focus didn't fall upon many of them, most would sign to regional record labels and only have local success, Ohio's Left End was a good early US example of this, surely they were good enough for the world stage.

Others only made private pressings for gigs and friends, destined to go no further than the shelves of local fans and later, those of avid record collectors. The efforts of reissue labels, and more recently the powers of internet exposure, have thankfully made it easy for everyone to now appreciate how good some of those records are!

If you are particularly interested in this one, you might like to check out the US A.O.R. metal volume Forced Landing (Vol91), or the NWOBHM-inspired volumes, Dreams & Screams (Vol121) and The New Order (Vol67).

TRACKS
01. Squadran - The Wall (1979)
       from the Fly Away 7"
02. Granmax - Mistress Of Eternity (1978)
       from album 'Kiss Heaven Goodbye'
03. Alkana - Paradise (1978)
       from album 'Welcome To My Paradise'
04. Asia - Law Of The Land (1978)
       from album 'Asia'
05. Blitz - Lady Lightning Fingers (1978)
       from the Blitz EP
06. Axxe - Through The Night (1978)
       from the Rock Away The City 7"
07. Impeccable - Traces Of Time (1978)
       from album 'Live On The Rox'
08. Dave Feinstein - Midnight Lady (1978)
       from the Midnight Lady 7"
09. Marcus - Gypsy Fever (1976)
       from album 'Marcus'
10. Midnight - Into The Pit (1977)
       from album 'Into The Night'
11. Tyranny - Rockit (1979)
       from the Tyranny / Infinity 7"
12. Infinity - She Ain't Comin' Back (1979)
       from the Tyranny / Infinity 7"
13. Constellation - You Don't Know (1978)
       from album 'Constellation'
14. Yesterday And Today - Dreams Of Egypt (1978)
       from album 'Struck Down'



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In a new semi-regular section for The Day After The Sabbath, here is the first feature on an official archival release of some truly lost and obscure psychedelic rock n' roll. Bare Sole first came to my attention in a bootleg compilation called "Do What Thou Wilt". I was impressed by the song "Flash" with it's groovy heavy blues riff and rough n' roll attitude. Read More...

Download at [mf] or [mg] or [yd]
password:  tdats




The Netherlands was surely home to many rocking pop bands back in the early days, and Blue Planet was one of the best. Presented here is all the music they recorded. Something of a TDATS tradition now, we have another focus on a Dutch band that only made a few 45s. Blue Planet was cultivated in The Hague, a European rock mecca to rival London and Hamburg in its heyday. Their singles possess heaviness, deceptively wrapped in a hook-laden glam/pop disguise, a talent that many other Dutch bands of the time had. One major quality of BP which jumps out is the vocals of Ron Bausch. They have an emotive strength, but also vulnerability, that gets you straight away. Reminding maybe of Rod Stewart, minus the whiskey-soaked gravel.

Included below is an interview I conducted with the drummer of Blue Planet, Art Bausch. He was really helpful and more than happy to answer anything I asked. He has great enthusiasm for the times and says that he really enjoyed every minute of Blue Planet, even though after the big break of touring with Golden Earring, the band didn't realise its potential in the end, and there were a few sad consequences of the rock n roll life style. He still plays today. I also got a few answers regarding the early days from bassist Peter Wassenaar. Peter in particular painted a picture of the The Hague and Scheveningen being exciting and heady places to be for players and fans, with happening clubs like The Scala, Club 192 and The Flying Dutchman.

As is the case with other talented Dutch singles bands that have appeared here before, including Cobra (Vol111) and Panda (Vol119), some Blue Planet members are associated with Dutch bands that had greater success, and made albums. Guitarist Aad van der Kreeft was in InCrowd, The George Cash band, Big Wheel, Twelve O'Clock and later, Think Tank. He currently plays in Electric Blues (link). Drummer Art Bausch was in Barrelhouse, Trail, later in Livin' Blues, and still plays with The Oscar Benton Band. Bassist Peter Wassenaar was in The Motions and later, Galaxy Lin. All these guys have played in many other bands and musical projects up to the current day. Aad in particular, is an admired guitarist, and you only have to hear his understated, fluid ability, adding to every one of BP's songs, to see why.

I must say many thanks to Marc Joseph of Dutch band Vitamin X (fb), who has always been a great help with this blog and in this case pointed me to some great newspaper articles and translations! Alex Gitlin's Nederpop Files (link) were also very useful as usual.

I'm Going Man I'm Going / Nothing in the World
Philips 6075 105
'I'm Going Man I'm Going' was the band's first release and it was their most successful one too, reaching no 16 in the charts. It is grinding, melodic and memorable, Ron Bausch's vocals are immediately arresting and invoke sympathy. Flipside 'Nothing in the World' is heavier, starting out with a stomping riff and great guitar hooks from Aad.



1971
Times and Changes / Please Don't Shake Me Baby
Philips 6075 128
The final Blue Planet single goes in a different direction and contains two upbeat country-flavoured tracks, with 'Please Don't Shake Me Baby' having the most grit. US Country rock had an influence in The Netherlands around this time.






Following is a phone interview I took with Art about six months ago. Since then he has come back from a successful international run of shows with the Oscar Benton Band.

Art Bausch in recent times

Me: Hi Art.

Art: First I want to say it’s very nice that you from England are so interested in this period of music and Dutch bands. Back then in the ‘70s we were in our twenties and we learnt it from the old guys.

Me: It was all still relatively close to the days of the beginning of Rock n’ Roll in the 40s and 50s. Things hadn’t changed too much at that point. I’ve always been drawn towards the sound of the ‘70s, no digital technology in those days, you had valves and organic-sounding instruments and production.

Art: Yes, and it was very loud. Next to me I had 400watts bass equipment and on the other side I had 400watts guitar. The old Marshal amps. And my brother the singer had a 600 watt installation, we didn’t have a PA system at that time, but the drummer (myself) wasn’t mic’d up. Because it cost a fortune for drum heads and sticks and foot pedals, cymbals, because I just ruined them competing with the sound next to me, but, it worked haha.

Me: I noticed the BP singer had the same surname as you but I wasn’t completely sure that you were related.

Art: Ron Bausch was my older brother.

Me: How did you get into being a musician in the first place?

Art: Ah well, I can speak for my brother too. My father was a military man. He was an airplane mechanic. He was also a very talented young man, he came from Indonesia, from a family with money. He played classical violin. He came to Holland just before the war broke out in 1939. Just before he came to Holland at the age of fifteen, he had a scholarship arranged to study violin in the Hague but a week before he arrived by boat in Holland hell fell with his left hand through a window and hurt it so badly that violin was no option anymore. So he signed up for the army, pretending to be older than fifteen. So he went from playing music in to the army; he never spoke about that time very much but it wasn’t a very nice time.

So he came through the army first to Scotland, he was on a boat to protect the transport on the ocean from Murmansk in Russia to Scotland and then all those Indonesian guys came to Holland after the war, they still were in the army, so that’s how my father met my mother because she was a nurse somewhere where all those guys were, and they got married and this is the result. In the army he played guitar, piano, he sang and he had a big band. There was always music from all kinds of sources in the house where I grew up, from classical to Elvis. It comes from my father. When I was thirteen I had my first amateur band.

Jan Frederik Bausch, second from left, 1947

Me: So you started out as a drummer originally?

Art: Yes. As a small boy I was sitting next to the drummer from my father’s big band, we were in the Dutch part of New Guinea. My father rehearsed with his big band every Sunday in an airplane hangar, I was sitting next to the drummer with my sticks at 5 or 6 years of age.

Me: Were you in bands with your brother at the age of thirteen?

Art: No, my brother was a couple of years older than me, he was a very talented guy, he discovered for me Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley, Otis Reading and the old blues guys, that’s what I learnt from him. That was my start, which was a good one. Blue Planet was my first proper band, when I was just eighteen. Peter the bass player was seventeen. My brother and the guitar player met and they had a thing going while I was just playing at an amateur level. They were already rehearsing and working on the heavy stuff, Zeppelin, Free, and then one Sunday evening they came while I was playing with my band at that time in a very small venue in Leiden,  I was still living with my mother at the time, and suddenly I saw Peter and my brother and Art the guitar player there on the side of the stage and then I knew they were going to ask me. That was exciting.

I was not the first choice of drummer. They were not happy with the first guy, Jack Wolf. He wasn’t in to their groove, I met him shortly afterwards and he was very angry. Ron and Aad had a very clear idea of what they wanted by did not always agree with each other, they were both very talented guys and both had big egos which often came into conflict with each other. But it worked for a short while, we only existed for two years, three months.

Me: What clubs/gigs were you going to back then? What was the life like then?

Peter: The Hague was rock city #1 in the '60s (link) , with clubs and bars were everybody met after gigs, like The Scala, Club 192, The Factory and De Drie Stoepen [The Three Sidewalks].
In The Scala, drummers, bass players and guitarist all had their own corners. In Scheveningen (link)   there was The Flying Dutchman, you could see the bands playing by looking through the upper windows, the club was below street level. On the beach in Scheveningen were lots of people playing all kinds of instruments, mostly blues, I started playing the blues harp in 1966.

It was all great fun, we were young, and there were lots of things to do both in The Hague and Scheveningen. The well-known bands from The Hague were The Motions (Rudy Bennet and Robbie van Leeuwen later in Galaxy-Lin with me), Golden Earring, The Tielman Brothers, Shocking Blue.

I saw Fleetwood Mack playing in Club 192 back in 1968 even got their autographs in the dressing room, Jerremy Spencer, Danny Kirwan, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood etc.

Blue Planet all rehearsed in a place called "Het Kraajenest" in de Jan Vossensteeg in Leiden, among other local bands from Leiden. The reason for forming this band, was the first album of Led Zeppelin, in a week we played all the songs from the album. Also of inspiration were J Geils band and Love, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape.

Me: Why the name "Blue Planet"?

Peter: During that period we all watched rockets go into space and, also to the moon (Bowie sang it; "planet earth is blue, and there's nothing"….in Space Oddity, later that year). It was a catchy and short name. Here in Holland bands changed their names; The Golden Earrings became Golden Earring etc.
Art: We started as opening band for Golden Earring. Their first appearance after their first American tour, and they had just changed from being a commercial band to what they are nowdays. They were getting very heavy, and our manager at that time arranged their homecoming gig in The Hague which was sold out of course, and we were the opening act. We played only for 35-40 minutes, to an audience of 2000 people. Bearing in mind that I had just come from playing gigs in Leiden to only 50 people. When we finished our set, George Kooymans and Rinus Gerritsen from Earring asked us to play their whole tour which was in 1970, it was 36 gigs in a row, with one evening off, at that time I learnt much.

Being professional is what I learnt from those guys. They were big and they had hits. Me and Peter were just enjoying the hard work. We had no money at all. My mother kept the band alive by feeding us and buying us equipment, we got a loan from my mother for a drum kit, that’s the way it was. The start of Blue Planet was just like a fairy tale, Golden Earring’s manager was also their producer, he said that BP was special, we had a sound, and he recorded "I’m going Man I’m Going" and produced our three singles. This guy was so big in the music world, he knew “This is gonna work”, and it worked, we went into the hit parade, and we had work.

Me: How did you get the gig with Golden Earring in the first place? That’s quite an achievement for a young new band.

Art: Because our manager at that time, Henk van Leeuwen, came from The Hague and he knew all those guys. He was very smart and he had a view. We played all weekend, Monday was our day off and Tuesday until Thursday we rehearsed, starting each day at 9am and leaving at 5pm. He told us we have to work hard. So after the Golden Earring tour we went to the studio and recorded “I’m Going Man” and “Nothing In The World”. The machine started working from Fred Haayen’s side (Earring manager) and the booking agency, and we had at that time the pirate music stations out at sea.

Freddy told us “this single is too long” and we said “this is what we have, we are not going to make a sale from two minutes and twenty seconds”. In the end everybody on the radio stations was playing I’m Going Man I’m Going haha. I still meet people when i’m out playing who ask me about my past and what my first band was, and I tell them I was in Blue Planet and they say “woo man, that was the first single I bought” haha.

Me: Was one of those pirate stations Radio Veronica?

Art: Yes, and the Red Bullet agency, Freddy Haayen, they had all kinds of business connections, and they were also rebels, who understood the need to get this music out there. They were very smart, they made a lot of money but also gave a lot of bands the chance to be on the air.

Me: Was it Freddy that negotiated Blue Planet signing to the Philips label? Many other Dutch bands I like were also on Philips.

Art: Yes at that time they were very progressive.

Me: Did Fred have a lot of input in your recording of the singles?

Art: Yes. First you give in a tape with the number and you say this is what we’re gonna do. Fred was very good in feeling the energy of the band and he didn’t want to change too much, he was very good.

Me: Did he suggest things in the studio to improve songs or did he come up with original ideas?

Art: He added the mellotron in I’m Going Man I’m Going. We were the first band with a mellotron as it was a new thing then. It was in the studio and he suggested using it.

Me: Who was playing the mellotron?

Art: It was a well known jazz pianist Cees Schrama.

Me: Did you talk to Cees much or did he just come in and do his own thing?

Art: It was different at those times, when those guys came in there was more animosity. He was not a studio player, you know, “Let me hear the number”, “OK, I think I do this, maybe that”. And we were all there, yeah it was quite an experience. We were living as rebels in hippy times, Rock n’ Roll...

Me: And he was from the more old-fashioned way of doing things?

Art: You could think at the time “You work in an office”, that’s what we thought, everybody with a suit was an office guy haha.

Me: Can you tell me about the 1970 TV clip of "I'm Going Man I'm Going"?

Art: It was late 1970, this was a promotion project named "Beat Behind The Dikes" to help Dutch groups to go international, directed by Bob Rooyens. It was recorded in Hilversum, and also outside on lake IJsselmeer.



Me: So we have spoken quite a lot about your first single, do you have any favourite songs, like Boy or Climb The Mountain?

Art: Climb The Mountain is my favourite, of the ones we recorded. My brother came up with the lyrics, and he sings it very nice.

Me: Yes I do like your brother’s emotive singing on all the tracks, and his lyrical stories, one of the great things about the band. Who was the main song writer?

Art: My brother came with the rough guitar parts, then Aad would come in with suggestions. After that it would go to the rehearsal room where the whole band would have equal say in finishing it off. Everybody was at that time equal. Like I’m Going Man I’m Going, the first two chords are mine. And then the rest came, Pete had ideas....It was the new era, “We are all equal, and we are gonna change the world” and all that bullshit haha.

Me: Well, it worked for a while at least I guess!

Art: Yes, it worked for two years, don’t forget at that age there was a lot of dope going on, it was almost free, a couple of guys in the band enjoyed it very much...

Me: A bit too much?

Art: Yeah, Yeah and they went on to LSD, and speed, and blow. Everyone was going to change the world on LSD. I’ve been there once but I left, I thought “This is a crazy world, this is not my thing”.

Me: Yes abusing drugs usually ends badly.

Art: At that time, for example in Holland, Golden Earring was a totally clean band, they didn’t even get drunk. It was all healthy. And look at them now, they are on top of the world.

Me: Yes it’s respectable to be able to do that really. It’s very easy to give in to these temptations, especially when you’re in that atmosphere, of clubs and groupies and what have you.

Art: Yeah, and a lot of people come up to you “Eh, Eh do you want a pill, do you want a sniff?”. Not for me. That was that time you know, it was total anarchy.

Me: Sure, much more so than now.

Art: It’s also important for our story, as especially my brother and Aad, were doing a lot of speed which is a lot of fun when you are young and you can go for a day or four or five but it wears you out you know, and then they were finished, but there was drive in the band, we thought we were the best in the world you know. “We’re gonna make it”, but reality says we didn’t play sixteen times a month, we played four or five times.

Me: You think that's one of the reasons you didn’t last very long in the end was you weren’t playing enough?

Art: Yeah there was a lack of money, and those two egos of Ron and Aad were too big. They were quite arrogant.

Me: They used to argue?

Art: Yes. Later when the band was finished, years later, then you realise, talking to people, even now, going to my home town, people talk about “Do you remember that concert in the park? Beautiful weather, and you started at twelve o’clock in the night and you ended at three”. People remember. It had something special as a band, we gave a lot from the stage, there was energy.

Me: Can you tell us about the last single, 1971’s Times and Changes?

Art: It was our last record, it didn’t make an impression, nobody was interested. At that time there was no work, little money, our manager wasn’t getting things going. I called everybody together and said “This is the end, this is not what I want”, at that time I was very busy and I didn’t see a future. Aad was starting to get interest from other bands, and that was the moment it was finished.

1971 newspaper article, the band are quoted as saying their third (and ultimately final) single "Times and Changes" is to be in a less heavy style, with the goal of reaching a wider audience. It also says that the band got good responses playing in both France and Germany.

Me: I consider their final single to have a slight country influence, further away from hard rock than the previous two, but both the sides are great and really grow on you. American country rock was popular in Holland at the time. Bands such as Normaal and Dizzy Man's Band were introducing it into their songs. Mailer Mackenzie Band (listen) made two albums and were actually signed to US label Ampex, with reviewers comparing them to Creedence Clearwater Revival. Members of the band had a couple of links with Aad and Peter W. of Blue Planet, via The InCrowd, Big Wheel and The Motions.

Marc Joseph says of this style. "Southern/country rock was really popular in Holland in the late '60s/early '70s. Bands who were virtually unknown in the rest of the world were playing to sold out venues in Holland. Flying Burrito Brothers even received a gold album while in the US they were playing for 100-200 people."


Did Aad play on your last single single or did you have a replacement at the end?

Art: No, it was Aad. All three singles are with the same, original lineup.

Me: I read that a new guitarist came in at the end of the band's life, is that correct?

Art: Yes that is correct, our manager brought in Peter Dingemans to replace Aad. Very good player, at the time he was 22 with a wife and child, trying to decide if wanted to be a professional musician, but the magic was gone. The energy and the drive was gone.

Me: So Aad was the first guy to leave?

Art: Yes. He was a little bit older, he had played in Germany in night clubs and he had become a well respected guitarist in the Hague scene. He was also a guy who wanted to drive sports cars, and I found out years later that our manager was paying him a separate weekly wage that the rest of us did not know about. It was a dark side to Aad.

Me: Did he leave Blue Planet to go and play for another band?

Art: Yes, he played in a group who was from a record company, called Think Tank. And those guys were on the payroll. The record company had a lot of money for Think Tank, and those guys had nothing to do with Blue Planet, it was a commercial thing to make money. It was a different style of music as well, not as appealing to me.

Me: How long did the band last after Peter Dingemans joined?

Art: Around five or six months, and then it was over. It was a marriage which was doomed along with the band. A nice guy and a good player but from a different musical background.

Me: What background was he from?

Art: He was from a more hippy “be nice to each other” way of thinking and we were more arrogant. In Holland we had the nickname “the Dutch Zep”, the looks, the appearance on stage, we were the boss.

Me: So you decided that you were going to leave before the band broke up?

Art: I called everyone together and we had a meeting in a restaurant with the manager, I said “Boys it is over and I quit, I don’t see any future any more” and that was the end.

Me: Did you have songs that were never released or never recorded?

Art: No

Me: Why didn’t you make an album?

Art:  We got off to a great start with the I’m Going Man I’m Going single but didn’t keep the momentum. But of the lack of playing and lack of money, and the two egos who were in conflict all the time, we just never got to that point.

Me: Can you tell us about the equipment that you used?

Art: I had a West End hand-made drum kit which I couldn’t afford, my mother lent me the money. The drummer from Golden Earring drummer, Jaap Eggermont, who became a big producer, had a West End while we were opening for them. I went to the Hague and “West End” is the name of the street in English. There was a man who makes drum kits, a lot of Dutch drummers at that time played on a hand-made West End kit, they were beautiful, and very collectible now. I don’t have it any more.

Me: And the other guys?

Art: Peter Wassenaar had a Fender bass with an Orange combo. Aad played on a Marshal 200W double stack, he started with a Strat and then changed to a Gibson SG, a hard rock icon at the time.

Me: You mentioned Fred Haayen, he produced another band that I like called Cobra (see Vol111).

Art: Yes, same era, Cobra had this English singer, Winston Gawk. He was a very outgoing person on stage, while my brother Ron was a very introvert person, he didn’t move much, he just stood there and sang beautiful, his appearance was important to him. We played together on a few gigs, which definitely would have been at the Paradiso, Amsterdam, at least once. A big venue where you had to play.

Peter Wassenaar   -   Art Bausch   -   Ron Bausch   -   Aad Van Der Kreeft

The Leidsch Dagblad newspaper printed a story that on 10th July 1971 Blue Planet played a festival in Meerlo, with Cobra, Livin' Blues, Brainbox, Focus and Jug Session Group among others. All great bands, showing what circles Blue Planet were mixing in.

Me: Do you remember Big Wheel? I ask because their music reminds me a little of Blue Planet.

Art: Yes, Rob van der Zwan the guitarist was a very big fan of my brother, and at the same time as we had I’m Going... they had the single "If I Stay Too Long". The story on that single was that the producer sang on that single, not the singer Cyril Havermans.

Me: Cyril Havermans sang in Focus later on.

Art: Yes, that’s the circuit Blue Planet were into at that time, we did festivals with Focus, Cuby + Blizzards, Golden Earring. Are you interested in a Dutch group called the Shoes? They had 26 hits! They were older than us, they started off as young guys going to Germany when they were all around sixteen years of age, they did all the hard work you know? It’s so different now days, I was talking to a professional drummer in his thirties and he plays with whoever calls, you know, but in the early days you had a band, it was not done to play with other guys.

Me: I guess you have to be adaptable to make some money, play with a few different bands.

Art: Yes, but you lose your identity.

Me: Are you aware of a split single that Philips released with Big Wheel and Blue Planet?

Art: No, not at all! Someone clever obviously put that one out. I know the drummer Shell Schellekens a little, at that time we admired each other’s drumming.

Me: I’m Going... reached position sixteen in the Dutch hit parade, was that your biggest success?

Art: Yes, but we could have come higher up. But because of the long time it took for I’m Going to reach a high position, Philips decided not to press any more copies. In that week we could have entered the top ten, but It was not available any more.

Me: So it sold-out basically? Why would the label let that happen to a successful song?

Art: It happened because the labels become impatient, and decide to dedicate resources to newer releases. If they had been more patient with us we would have hit the top ten and things could have been very different for us...

Ron Bausch c.1976

Art: Another story also, my brother’s appetite for drugs was large and he had developed addictions. After Blue Planet he didn’t do anything. We tried to get him back on his feet, the family you know.

Me: So he was burnt out? He never worked in music again?

Art: He had plans, but he was going down and down. He never got out of it and he died at age 36 in 1983.

Me: I’m sorry to hear that Art, a cautionary tale.

Bassist Peter had this to say regarding Ron at the time they met: "Ron Bausch was a photo model and a singer with an extremely high vocal range. he was very thin and tall and drove an Austin mini cooper, he was what they then called a 'dandy', and always very sharply dressed"

The Leidsch Dagblad newspaper in 6th Februari 1976 had an article saying that Ron Bausch was in contact with record labels and had arranged a BP reunion LP. Clearly this never came to anything before he died.

Have you heard of the band Cinderella, that made a single in 1971?

Art: Yes, I did studio work with them on their first single, together with Aad and Peter. That was while Blue Plant was still going. I’ve been seen it on Youtube.

Me: Did you guys write the single or were you just brought it to the session?

Art: The main girl, Betty Raadgever wrote it. Their producer, Gerrit Jan Leenders, I did other work for him too. That’s how that started. My memory is good, especially of that period. Everything was so intense and every day was a party.

We take a brief diversion here to read some responses that Cinderella's Betty Raadgever kindly gave for this article.

Betty Raadgever

Me: Hi Betty, did Cinderella make any more music other than the single?

Betty: Cinderella did make more songs, but they are not recorded on a album, unfortunately. And of course I wrote a lot of songs after Cinderella for my other bands: Eyeliner and The Betty Ray Experience.

Me: I spoke to Art Bausch. I asked him about your Cinderella single and he confirmed that he, Peter and Aad Kreeft played on it. Did Blue Planet play on both sides?

Betty: Blue Planet played on both sides of the single, but I wrote the lyrics and music. Aad was a good friend of mine and we knew the other guys from Leiden/Oegstgeest, where we all came from. A very good band, Blue Planet!

Me: Did the other guys in Cinderella play or sing on it too (Renee, Bernardien, Nico)?

Betty; The singers on the record are Betty, Bernardien and Renee in the chorus. I am singing the lead, and the b-side, "The Love That We've Go", Bernardien sings. The guys from BP played all the music.

Me: Did Cinderella break up for any reason or did it change into a different band?

Betty: After four years I choose to switch bands and became lead singer of a hard rock band called "For Shame". Cinderella was over... After the hard rock period I had four other female groups: Trevira 2000, Eyeliner, Nasty Girls and The Betty Ray Experience. The other Cinderella members stopped playing in bands.

Me: Thanks Betty!

And back to Art...

Me: You were in the Oscar Benton Blues band after Blue Planet?

Art: Yes, straight after Blue Planet. We leave for Istanbul on the 9th of June 2015 and play on the 10th. Then we have a day sight-seeing and come back on the 12th. The youngest in that band is sixty three and the oldest is sixty eight haha. Can you imagine? This man made one major hit called "Bensonhurst Blues (1973)", used in French movie Pour la Peau d'un Flic (link) in 1981. He sold eleven million singles in Eastern Europe and Italy and France. But the man is not very healthy now, he is only 65. Three years ago came a German agency, saying hey, we want Oscar in Bucharest, and in Russia. Next we play in Istanbul. We will play an hour and fifteen minutes then an encore and that’s it. We are payed in advance and everything is payed for, we are very pampered. They only think we have to do is play well. It’s really fun. I originally played with those guys from 1972 to 1975, they are real friends, we kept in touch. Three years ago we got together again to play Bucharest, it would have been nice to be taken care of like that back in 1970!

I stopped being professional in 1990. The year before I was working from Monday to Friday in bands.

Me: can you name any other important bands you were in while you were a pro musician?

Art: Living Blues from 86 until 1990. I have also had my own bands, I had an old fashioned 12 piece soul band and we played the old stuff, the singer in this band was the singer in my first band from 1963, a guy from Indonesia. We did the old soul stuff you know; Otis Reading, which is the music I grew up with, is in my heart, this is what I want to do. So at the moment I am with Oscar Benton, I have another band called Johnny Feelgood (link).  This is a band that consists of six guys of similar ages who are all in other bands. My third band is called The Blues Factory (link), I am the oldest in that band with the rest aged down to 35, which makes it interesting. I am still ambitious but not to play 17 times a month.

Me: Did you ever stop playing to start a different career?

Art: Yes, in the early ‘80s I stopped because I was fed up with the whole thing, I sold my kits. But after 3-4 years I felt the urge to play again.

Me: What work did you do then?

Art: Since the late ‘80s to this day I have been a self-employed handy man. I have a van and a lot of experience by now, so I am very busy with that.

Me: Do you have any more Blue Planet stories to tell?

Art: Blue Planet was playing in Germany in the ‘70s. We all had long hair. During the day when we were just walking around we got a lot of shouts at us about being gay, and being weak. It did not happen while playing in the venues but it was from the general public, away from the scene. We were bullied on the streets.

Me: I guess it no different to anti-hippy sentiment that you could have experienced in any country back then. German, the UK, America, anywhere. Ironically German had many great rock bands back then, with long hair too haha!

Art: Our attitude was that we were going to change the world, no more politicians, we will look after ourselves. What happened?

Me: That dream didn’t work out in the end did, unfortunately.

Art: You can’t change the mechanism, you can’t change the system.

Me: You can’t change human nature. I guess things will always come back down to the same greed and self-preservation, it’s easy to see what’s wrong with that but I guess it’s also survival instinct that will always be there to some degree.

Art: I do what I can to make the world a better place and help people, that’s all you can do!

Well, many thanks to Art, Peter and Betty for making this article possible. Enjoy the music of these great musicians of the golden age of rock...
Rich

Art drumming in the Oscar Benton Band c.2013

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Fox Hutin' has to be one of the best opening tracks on any album, ever! Baying hounds introduce one of the most driving riffs of all time, at first you think this might be Motörhead, but then the unmistakable Southern accents and bluesy leads come in and you find yourself in Southern hard rock heaven. Much of the album is on the verge of heavy metal, and that gives it a unique sound, there wasn't anything heavier than this in Southern rock at the time, that's for sure.

John Teugue  -  Gary James  -  Paul-Anthony Middleton

From Mineral Wells, Texas, power-trio Blackhorse self-released this record to sell at gigs. Gary James was on lead guitar, John Teague was on drums, Paul-Anthony Middleton was on bass and they all shared vocal duties. They made a name for themselves playing around the Dallas Fort Worth area, in clubs such as Motherload's, but their most-remembered gig was at KZEW's Zoo World free concert in the Dallas County Convention Center in 1980, clips of which can be found on Youtube. Along the way they supported other Southern heavyweights like Point Blank.

Live @ KZEW Zoo World 1980

Although the record is technically only a demo, the quality is remarkable. The fizzing guitars sound great, the playing is on the dime. The shared vocal duties, sometimes call and response, sometime in harmony, are perfect, and other than a couple of slower, but no less-good bluesy ballads, the pace never relents. Velvet Angel, The Party's Started, Hell Hotel and Dave's Song motor along and this is one record that doesn't tail off in intensity toward the end like so many others do.

There have been a couple of limited re-issues, the early '90s CD issue being the one that brought them back to rock fan's attention. 


One old fan rememebers: "I worked as a bartender at Spencer's Corner in Ft. Worth late 70s and Blackhorse were once banned from the club because the rock n roll bar had a "No cowboy hats" policy and the drummer always wore one. Those dopes running the club (Spencer Taylor) would not back off the policy so Blackhorse wrote a tune (Spencer's Corner) that called them out. Eventually they played there again in 1979 I believe."

John Teague and Gary (under the name Jesse 'Ropeburn' James) reappeared in the mid-eighties in The Cauze (youtube). Unfortunately they were a very different proposition to Blackhorse, and made an album of silky smooth keyboard-laden AOR. But Blackhorse did reform in 2008 and play some shows, until Gary's untimely death in 2015. If you got to see them at any time you were very lucky indeed!

In the words of Blackhorse themselves: "Blackhorse is a three-piece of intense power and emotion whose concert apperances have been aptly hailed by critics as "kick-ass". This debut album is their story. So ... TURN IT UP and enjoy one of the best rock & roll albums ever".

Follow the Blackhorse facebook page.

Credits
Gary James – Lead guitar, vocals
John Teague – Drums, vocals
Paul-Anthony Middleton – Bass, vocals

Produced by Paul-Anthony Middleton
Associate – Producer Rick Hatfield
Engineer – Bob Hickey
Cover Art –Vicky Sheets

Tracks
A1. Fox Huntin'
A2. Lucille
A3. Velvet Angel
A4. The Party’s Started
A5. Momma Gonna Love You Tonight
A6. Cannot Find My Way Home
B1. Hell Hotel
B2. You've Got The Way
B3. Slow Down Tom
B4. Dave’s Song
B5. Spencer's Corner

Release infos
RYM
Discogs

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The blog has now reached the ripe old age of six years! The past year of doing this has been a very enjoyable one - there's been two Dutch band profiles, Panda (119) and Blue Planet (127), a special and interview on the archival label World In Sound (114), a profile on krautrock producer Conny Planck (116), two heavy metal-inspired volumes; US (126) and NWOBHM (121), Scott Blackerby of The Acid Archives and Bad Cat Records (115) and a profile on The Gurvitz Brothers (125). Regional specials have honoured Spain again (123), Serbia (120), Portugal (113), Boston (117) and Iceland (124). Other themes have included Chicano rock (118) and a special on long prog tracks (122).

A year ago I promised I would be doing more interviews; I got an exclusive with the previously mysterious psych figure of Roy Rutanen and his band (link) and an exclusive with Jim Smith of Stonehouse (link). More exclusives came with Jaap van Eik of Panda (link) and Art Bausch of Blue Planet (link) and I spoke to four of the names appearing in Volume 126; Mike Gandia of Squadran, Danney Alkana of Alkana, Darren Welch of Axxe/Impeccable and Rob Griffin of Tyranny / Graven Image.

I hope that people still enjoy reading and listening to TDATS as much as I enjoy making it, here's to the on-coming year of many new ideas which are in the pipeline. As ever, please drop me a line via email or otherwise if you have any suggestions, and join up at the fb group where you can participate even more fully. My special thanks goes to the group admins that have increased greatly in number and efforts this year and been doing a great job there - you know who you are. Keep it PROTO guys :)

For what is now an annual round-up (last year's) of some of the best tracks appearing on the blog in the last year, here is a comp of fifteen tracks, one from each of the fifteen numbered volumes posted in 2015 so far. Enjoy!

TRACKS
01. Beatnicks - Back In Town (1972) - from v113
       single
02. Gold - No Parking (1970) - from v114
       single and W.I.S. retrospective 'San Francisco Origins'
03. Fanny - Place in the Country (1971) - from v115
       from album 'Charity Ball'
04. Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Comeback (1975) - from v116
       from album 'Fette Jahre'
05. Brother Fox and the Tar Baby - Steel Dog Man (1969) - from v117
       from album 'Brother Fox and the Tar Baby'
06. Yaqui - I Need A Woman (1973) - from v118
       from album 'Yaqui'
07. Panda - Medicine Man (1971) - from v119
       single
08. Pop Mašina - Vreme Za Nas (1975) - from v120
       from album 'Na Izvoru Svetlosti'
09. Fuzzy Duck - In Our Time (1971) - from v121
       from album ‘Fuzzy Duck’
10. Fusion Orchestra - Sonata In Z (1973) - from v122
       from album 'Skeleton In Armour'
11. Rockcelona - Queen, Friend And Dread (1979) - from v123
       from album 'La Bruja'
12. Svanfridur - My Dummy (1972) - from v124
       from album 'What's Hidden There?'
13. Gun - Runnin' Wild (1970) - from v125
       single
14. Asia - Law Of The Land (1978) - from v126
       from album 'Asia'
15. Cinderella - The Love That We've Got (1971) - from v127
       single



"A CD / LP combination. The CD contains 2 parts S.F. underground history with the first Gold line-up feat. lead singer Richard Coco. Their 45 record “NO PARKING” was already reissued on LP by Rockadelic and issued on the CD compilation “Nuggets from the Golden State”.

Part 1 (only on CD) are the Studio Sessions of Leo Kulka´s Golden State Recorders, 9 heavy guitar cuts (same as Rockadelic LP) with great congas and bizarre Rock´n Roll vocals and the previously unreissued 45-rpm flipside a 4:45 minute sensitive but totally unexpected version of Gershwin's "Summertime" produced by Country Joe McDonald (Country Joe and the Fish)."

"Part 2 of the CD is the vinyl release, a live set at the Fillmore-West Audition, a qualification gig for Bill Grahams club circuit, which was successfully passed - gigs at Winterland, Fillmore-West followed. These 42 minutes reach the highest level of power and a unique kind of heavy acid rock sound (especially the 6 min. killer version of “NO PARKING”) - Ed Scott´s hypnotic rhythm guitar, a mind blowing bass and drums create an outstanding and surrounding flow, Joe Bajza´s soaring solo guitar played in a kind of aggressive Cipollina / Jeff Beck style is brilliantly intense and brings true Sixties S.F. Hell´s Angels party feeling to your home. Detailed 12 page color booklet - 78 minutes of hot music reflect the “golden sprit” of the late60's early 70's in San Francisco....15 years later bands like Metallica, Slayer, Exodus…..continued these powerful Bay Area guitar excesses…"



Scott's RYM review here.  "Penned by Barclay, 'Place In the Country' was one of the album's best rockers. Nice showcase for the group's harmony vocals.   rating: **** stars"

"1971's "Charity Ball" found Fanny continuing their partnership with producer Richard Perry. Featuring largely original material (the one exception being a dynamite cover of the Buffalo Springfield's 'Special Care;), this time around the band seemed interested in showcasing their more commercial edge. Material like the title track, 'What's Wrong with Me?' and 'You're the One' seemed to have been crafted with an ear to top-40 airplay.

That wasn't to imply the band couldn't rock as hard as their male competitors. Nickey Barclay's 'Cat Fever', 'Special Care' (which I'd argue crushed The Buffalo Springfield original), and 'Soul Child' were all rockers that were worth hearing. Add to that, Jean Millington had a powerful, soul-infused voice, while June Millington was an overlooked lead guitarist with a penchant for fuzz leads. Interestingly, listening to the album for the first time in years, I guess the biggest surprise came in terms of band contributions. Jean and June Millington were clearly the band's focal points, but  being responsible for over half of the material, keyboardist Nicole Barclay was clearly the band's creative mainstay."

Lokomotive Kreuzberg Fette Jahre (1972)

Track 4 brings something a little different to the party. Lokomotive Kreuzberg was a Berlin polit-rock band that started in 1972. Not speaking German, it's impossible for me to comment on the lyrics, but the music on their 1975 album "Fette Jahre", engineered by Conny, is captivating. They mix many styles, from symphonic prog, to folk, to funk, to hard rock. At all times it is played with extreme talent, these guys sure had the chops to compare with the best. I have chosen the hardest rocking track on the album, which was recorded at Conny's studio, but you can take your pick from it. Others, such as the title track "Fette Jahre" (youtube), are equally good.

I've not had a chance to check out all of their four albums. I certainly will but they may not be the easiest band to get into for non-German speakers, especially as they use a lot of spoken-word skits to get certain points across on their agenda.

Brother Fox & The Tar Baby

Track 5, "Steel Dog Man", starts as it means to go on with a stomping hard rock riff and tight playing, punctuated by glorious psych breaks, backed-up by earthy vocals that cut straight to the bone. Brother Fox and the Tar Baby featured the talents of former Profits guitarist Richie Bartlett, bassist Tom Belliveau, guitarist Dave Christiansen, drummer Bill Garr, singer Steve High and keyboardist Joe Santangelo. Dave Christiansen, Joseph Santangelo, Tom Belliveau and Richard Bartlett were previously in Front Page Review, also appearing in this volume. Belliveau  was also in Pugsley Munion (see vol59), and Bartlett was later in '80s new-wavers The Fools. They were signed by the small Oracle label, which released 1969's Bruce Patch-produced self-titled album. Christiansen was credited as writing all eleven tracks.

Brother Fox & The Tar Baby LP

This has a commercial edge and is a polished product, but it's done right and there's more than enough heaviness here too, over half the album is hard cuts with quite a unique take on combining late-'60s heavy psych with the chunky riffs and hammond organ of the freshly-emerging hard rock sounds of the times. This is what the first Boomerang album should have been like! (see Vol9)


The countrified feel, and high production quality with orchestration, shows that this was a serious stab at a successful album. The mellow tracks and ballads are all good, so make for a nicely diverse listen. The song-writing is consistently good, and the excellent vocals deserve a mention, sounding somewhat like Robert Plant in the heavier tracks. Highly recommended!

I consider there to be a 'big three' of heavy Serbain bands from the former half of the '70s, YU Grupa and Smak have already appeared so now it's time for the last of that trio, Pop Mašina (Pop Machine). They were formed in Belgrade in 1972 by Robert Nemeček (bass, vocals - formerly of Dogovor Iz 1804 and Džentlmeni. The other formative members on their two studio albums were Mihajlo Popović (drums) and Zoran Božinović (guitar - formerly in Džentlmeni).

Na Izvoru Svetlosti LP 1975

Their 1973 debut LP "Kiselina" (Acid), had contributions from members of S Vremena Na Vreme, Grupa SOS and acoustic band Dag. Although excelling in their heavy rock tracks like "Svemirska Prièa," the band played an equal amount of acoustic pop and folk-infused songs in a similar approach to Led Zep's album 'III'. The second and final studio album "Na Izvoru Svetlosti" (At the Spring of Light) followed suit, having a little more emphasis on the hard rock, with a great opener which is the track I have used in this comp, "Vreme za Nas". Track 2 gives you a good idea of their stage show with a live-recorded blues workout. Over-all this album is more consistent and you can hear the improved arrangements and more confident playing.

Many thanks to Garagehangover.com

We all know Birmingham UK was a hotbed for hard rock and heavy metal, with the likes of Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, so the obvious question (to me at least hehe) is, what about Birmingham, Alabama, USA? As a bit of fun, this has unearthed some cool records and here's the best selection I could come up with!

Alabama, along with all the south-east states, is deeply involved in the history of Southern rock and American rock. Although the city of Birmingham itself didn't throw up any internationally-famous bands, it had a thriving music scene. Formative bands in the '50s and '60s were garage bands like The Ramrods and The Vikings. Two are included here with a pair of great covers by The Outer Mongolian Herd and The Distortions. Also included are names like Hardrock Gunter, Jerry Yester and Vic Upshaw, who were born in Birmingham but had further-reaching careers; Vic made singles in France for instance.

TRACKS
01. Crimson Tide - Turning Back (1978)
       from album 'Crimson Tide'
02. Sam Lay - Maggie's Farm (1968)
       from album 'Sam Lay in Bluesland'
03. Hardrock Gunter - I'll Give 'Em Rhythm (1955)
       single
04. The Outer Mongolian Herd - Hey Joe (1968)
       from comp 'Psychedelic States - Alabama Vol. 2'
05. Judy Henske & Jerry Yester - Snowblind (1969)
       'from album Farewell Aldebaran'
06. Vic Upshaw - Popcorn Crazy (1969)
       from EP "Dance the Popcorn"
07. Smith Perkins Smith - Save Me (1972)
       from album 'Smith Perkins Smith'
08. The Distortions - Smokestack Lightning (1966)
       from comp 'Psychedelic States - Alabama Vol. 2'
09. Backwater - Pair O' Dice (1976)
       from album 'Backwater'
10. Hotel - City Lights (1979)
       from album 'Hotel'

Crimson Tide self-titled LP 1978

We kick off with a killer track from Crimson Tide. Although their 1978 self-titled debut had a couple of harder cuts on it, and "Turning Back" is one of those, their second LP, "Reckless Love", is the most consistent. The kingpin of the outfit was guitarist Wayne Perkins (wiki), who started out as a session player in his teens, and in '60s Birmingham bands like The Vikings. After working in the famous Muscle Shoals scene, and a stint working in the UK in Smith Perkins & Smith, who made a record in 1972, he wound-up back home in The Alabama Power Band (originally started by his brother Dale, who was the drummer). They had changed name to "Crimson Tide" by the time of signing with Capitol.

The playing is impeccable through-out with nice slide guitar, but the band didn't last long after their second record. Wayne's session career continued as before, he made his first solo record in '95 and throughout his career has played for everyone from Don Nix to Bob Marley.

It's not too easy finding the whereabouts of the remaining guys, but keys-man Richard "Wolfie" Wolf is a Los Angeles-based music producer, remixer and composer, with numerous film, television credits too.

Alabama Record Collectors Association - "Wayne Perkins, through the help of drummer Jasper Guarino, became a session guitarist at a studio in Muscle Shoals owned by Quin Ivy at $100 a week. He later formed a band, Smith, Perkins and Smith for a very short time. He then was a member of several different bands, including the Gap Band. Wayne was even considered at one time to join the Rolling Stones, but was decided against because he wasn’t British, but did play on one of their albums in 1974.

Crimson Tide - Wayne Perkins center

One day Wayne Perkins went to hear his brother Dale's band, Alabama Power. "They had a great band and no songs," he says. "They had the vehicle and I had the gasoline. I had the connections in Hollywood after all these years." Perkins says that lawyers for the Alabama Power Company were not pleased with the band's name, so the group changed it to Crimson Tide. "I much preferred the name Alabama Power to Crimson Tide because that's sacrilege, to me. Crimson Tide is a great name but [the University of Alabama] was already using it." Crimson Tide released two albums on Capitol Records, the self-titled Crimson Tide in 1978 which provided the single “Love Stop,” and Reckless Love in 1979 and a single of the same name, the latter produced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, bassist for Booker T. and the MGs, with the MGs' Steve Cropper contributing guitar parts.

Crimson Tide became the house band at the Crossroads Club in Roebuck for a couple of years in the late '70s, where well-known acts such as Yes, Joe Cocker, or Rick Derringer, if they had performed elsewhere in town that day, often showed up to sit in. "That's one thing about the Crossroads Club. You never knew who would show up," Perkins says. Crimson Tide split up in 1979. Perkins later released a pair of solo CDs, Mendo Hotel in 1995 and Ramblin' Heart in 2005, as well as having his songs included on soundtracks for several films and TV shows. The members of the band were: Dale Perkins, Wayne Perkins, Greg Straub, Bobby Delander and J.J. Jackson. By the second album, Richard Fox, who played keyboards on both albums, was an official member."

"Sam Lay in Bluesland" LP 1968

Sam Lay (born March 20, 1935, Birmingham, Alabama) is a drummer and vocalist, who has been performing since the 1950s. His drumming can be heard on over 40 recordings for the Chess Records label and 1968's "Sam Lay in Bluesland" was his first solo LP. His career began in 1957, as the drummer for the Original Thunderbirds. In the early 1960s, he began recording and performing with prominent blues musicians such as Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Bo Diddley, Magic Sam, Jimmy Rogers, Earl Hooker, and Muddy Waters

In the mid 1960s he joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and recorded and toured extensively with them. Lay also recorded with Bob Dylan, most notably on the Highway 61 Revisited album. He drummed on the "Highway 61" track, so I guess he's more than qualified to do the great cover of  "Maggie's Farm" included here! Sam was featured in 'History of the Blues', produced by Martin Scorsese, and was inducted into the 2015 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.



Now to what is by far the earliest track I have ever included in these collections. Sidney Louie Gunter Jr. (b.27 February 1925), known as Hardrock Gunter, was a guitarist and performer who was there right at the formative stages of rock and roll and rockabilly at the turn of the '50s. His first teenage group was the Hoot Owl Ramblers. In 1939 he joined Happy Wilson's Golden River Boys and acquired his nickname "Hardrock" when a van trunk lid fell on him before a show and he never flinched. After wartime service he returned to work with the group, before leaving to become their agent and starting to appear on local TV.

As a popular local personality, he signed to Birmingham's Bama label. He recorded his own song "Birmingham Bounce" in early 1950 (youtube), the Golden River Boys being renamed the Pebbles on the record. A regional hit which produced over 20 cover versions, the most successful being by Red Foley, who reached no.1 with it on the Billboard country chart, and no.14 on the pop chart. Gunter's original version has become regarded as a contender for the first rock and roll record. It predates "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (who were actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm) by a year. Gunter followed up with "Gonna Dance All Night", one of the first records to feature the actual words "rock'n'roll". Gunter signed to Decca, and his 1951 duet with Roberta Lee, "Sixty Minute Man," was one of the first country records to cross over to R&B audiences.

In 1953 he began working at a radio station, and also remade "Gonna Dance All Night" and recorded "Jukebox Help Me Find My Baby", both of which were issued by Sun Records and became regional hits. In 1958 he was one of the first musicians to use both echo and overdub on his recording of "Boppin' to Grandfather's Clock", released under the name Sidney Jo Lewis. He continued to record with limited success, and in the 1960s left the music business. He retired to Rio Rancho, New Mexico. In 1995 he began to perform again at festivals in England, Germany and the United States. He died aged 88 in 2013.


This is a Birmingham band band I found by checking out 'Psychedelic States - Alabama Vol. 2' from Gear Fab Records (link). It's a great version of Hey Joe, but they certainly put their own garage twist on it. Here's what's written about it: "Hey Joe, The Outer Mongolian Herd (Bill Roberts), Third Story Music, BMI, 2:09 - Released on the Daisy (4847) label in Jan 1968 and b/w "I Wan't To Love You (Scared)". A mystery crew that recorded for a Birmingham-based label, these guys laid down one of the finer versions of "Hey Joe", a garage band staple that never sounds tired or dated." [Mike Markesich]

Farewell Aldebaran LP front

This great track is here because Jerry Yester was Birmingham-born. Judy Henske & Jerry met while working in the West Coast folk scene in the early 1960s, Henske as an uncategorizable solo singer recording folk, blues, jazz and comedy, Yester as a member of the Modern Folk Quartet. They married in 1963. A few years later Henske's career was faltering as a result of ill-advised forays into cabaret while Yester had produced albums by Tim Buckley and The Association, and replaced Zal Yanovsky in The Lovin' Spoonful.

Judy Henske

The pair, with their new-born daughter, moved to Los Angeles in 1968. Henske shared a manager, Herb Cohen, with Frank Zappa, who suggested to her that she should put music to some of the verse she was writing. Yester, at this point, was working with Yanovsky on the latter's first solo album, and experimenting with new electronic and other sound effects. The couple combined to put together the Farewell Aldebaran LP, drawing on a varied selection of their musician friends, and it was issued on Zappa and Cohen's new label.

Farewell Aldebaran LP back

In the UK, the album was broadcast by John Peel who played Three Ravens on more than one occasion on Radio One. Henske and Yester went on to form a more conventional band, Rosebud, before they went their separate ways at the start of the 1970s. The album was reissued on CD by bootleg label Radioactive Records in 2005 (link).

Vic Upshaw - Dance The Popcorn

As previously mentioned with Crimson Tide, the "Perkins" part of this trio was Wayne Perkins from Birmingham. The "Smiths" are American brothers Steve and Tim Smith. Steve Smith had played on southern soul tracks recorded by the likes of Sam & Dave, the Staples Singers and Wilson Pickett at the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Birmingham, Alabama. Arthur Alexander and Ben Atkins (the first white singer signed to Stax) had recorded songs written by the Smith brothers.

The album is mellow country rock affair, mostly acoustic, but there's a couple of electric tracks and "Save Me" is my pick here. Indeed, it was tapped for a single by Island. Smith Perkins Smith started a second album while residing in the UK, which wasn't released. Wayne Perkins had other distractions, including being asked by Island to add rock guitar to a reggae band they were trying to break. His solos on Concrete Jungle and Stir It Up helped Catch a Fire do just that for Bob Marley.

Smith Perkins Smith

Steve Smith was asked to produce Robert Palmer's solo debut. They'd met at Leicester University when Smith Perkins Smith supported Vinegar Joe – in which Palmer shared vocals with Elkie Brooks – but the production offer came out of the blue. His masterstroke of matching Palmer with Lowell George and the Meters for Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley, the album that out-funked Little Feat, confirmed his talents behind the mixing desk. Tim Smith too went into production and arranging, working with Lynyrd Skynyrd among others.

The Distortions - picture found at Garagehangover.com

Here's another track I have 'borrowed' from 'Psychedelic States - Alabama Vol. 2' (Gear Fab Records - link). Here's what it has to say - "Smokestack Lightning - The Distortions. (C. Burnett), ARC Music, BMI. Released on the SEA (102) label in April 1966 and b/w "Hot Cha". The band came from Birmingham and along with the Rockin' Rebellions, The Distortions were the city's top teen crowd-pleasers.

Their first three singles were issued on the SEA label. "Smokestack Lightning" was also issued on the Malcolm Z. Dirge label in August 1966 as the b-side to "Behind My Wall", an original tune and the band's biggest seller in Montgomery and Birmingham. This prompted several record label scouts to present signing offers to the group, with the Mercury label winning out. Mercury placed "Behind My Wall" on their Smash label subsidiary a couple of months later. The Distortions continued to perform well into the late sixties, releasing singles on Malcolm Z. Dirge and the Casino label from New Orleans in 1967 and Capitol in 1968, but all pale in the throes of "Smokestack Lightning". [Mike Markesich]

There's an account of The Distortions over at Garagehangover.com (here) which shows the band's changed appearance and outlook into the early seventies, including a couple of '70s tracks showing a decidedly more slick, funky approach.

Backwater

Nearing the end, here's a change in tack with some live jazz rock. Backwater made two private press records. This track is taken from the 1976 self-titled debut, which has one side of studio tracks and another side from a live performance. I have selected "Pair O' Dice" from the live side. Jazz rock is not something i'll use to often on this blog but in this case a cool riff is a cool riff what ever the style! The quartet formed in 1975, playing clubs and working as session musicians in Birmingham. According to their surprisingly inclusive wiki page (link), the record sold quite well locally and saw them get support slots for the likes of B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, and Emmylou Harris (Harris hailing from Birmingham herself). Backwater released two records on their own amusingly-named label "Bongwater Records", the second is called "North Of The Mason-Dixon And The Heart Of Dixie" and also includes live/studio material.



To close this volume we have a late-'70s AOR band called Hotel. Looking for similar from the Birmingham area, I found only one more band of this ilk, called Telluride, but they are way too soft for TDATS. Much of Hotel's music was very slick and commercial also, but the self-titled first of their two records has a good rocker on it called "City Lights". According to guitarist Tommy Carlton's website (link), he started out in sixties garage band The Swingin' Lampliters, and according to Hotel singer/pianist Marc Phillips' website (link), the band lasted from 1973 to 1982.

Hotel

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Here's a review of the first ever official re-issue of this album recorded in Michigan, 1976. The keen-minded of you may remember that I used a great track from this LP back on TDATS 44, "Ridin' High" (link). It's a fresh-sounding mix of Southern rock, psych and prog and you can read the full review here.





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Here's a compilation from a new label called Archives of Acid. No prizes for guessing what inspired that name hehe. It so-far plans to specialise in rare singles-only acts and for the first release it is concentrating on the state of Ohio. More locales are planned in the future. read more...

Download from: [mf] or [mg] or [yd]


THE DAY AFTER THE SABBATH 130: BAD BAD WOMANbyRICH AFTERSABBATH

A tribute to the bad bad wicked crazy unfaithful two-timing evil-hearted devil woman, muse of many a vintage hard rockin' track!

01. (Sopworth) Camel - Evil Woman (1969)
       from album 'Underage'
02. Rog & Pip - Evil Hearted Woman
       from album 'Our Revolution'
03. Omega Plus - Unfaithful Woman (1969)
       from album 'How To Kiss The Sky'
04. Helix - Crazy Women (1979)
       from album 'Breaking Loose'
05. Leviathan - Evil Woman (1972)
       from album 'Unleashed'
06. Silence - Devil Woman (1971)
       single
07. Night Sun - Crazy Woman (1972)
       from album 'Mournin'
08 . The Kelly - Evil Woman (1971)
       from TV show 'Hit Scene' 15/4/71
09. Beggars Opera - Two Timing Woman (1973)
       single
10. BZN - Bad Bad Woman (1971)
       from album 'The Bastard'
11. Melvin McRae Band - Evil Woman (1976)
       from album 'Queen of Hearts'
12. Frantic - Wicked Woman (1971)
       from album 'Conception'
13. Mandrake - Cold Hearted Woman (1978)
       from album 'Mandrake'
14. Bone - Naggin' Woman (1972)
       from 'British Music Archive 1972 - 73'
15. Bandit - Evil Woman (1975)
       from album 'Bandit'

Camel - Underage

Beginning this is a cover of a song written by Larry Weiss and first recorded by Guy Darrel in 1967. There have been loads of covers of "Evil Woman" (not to be confused with Crow's completely different song of the same name, covered by Sabbath), at least five before 1970 alone, including versions by Spooky Tooth, The Troggs, Lou Rawls and Chris Britton. Larry Weiss recorded his own version on a solo LP in 1974.

Camel (aka Sopworth Camel) appears to have been a band of English musicians that relocated to Italy for a short time where they made the album of covers, 'Underage'. They were Pete Huish (Drums), Martin Fischer (Guitar, Vocals, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord), Dave Sumner (Lead Guitar, Vocals) and Alex Jackson (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano). Dave Sumner seems to have been in a lot of Italian bands and Alex Jackson is also known as Alex Ligertwood, of Santana, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express and others.

Rog & Pip - Our Revolution

Rog & Pip is guitarist Roger Lomas and Singer/Guitarist Pip Whitcher. They were both in Coventry's The Sorrows and recorded some singles together afterwards, under names like Rog & Pip, The Zips and Renegade. This track is taken from the retrospective archival LP "Our Revolution" which was put out by Rise Above Relics in 2013 (link), containing all the singles and a full album's worth of unreleased '70s material. Roger Lomas became a producer in the 1980s, linked with many Ska bands.

There's a load of great tracks on it and it's well-worth getting, Rise Above describes it thus: "Combining the heaviness of Black Sabbath and early Led Zeppelin with the anthemic/aggro pop chants of Slade and The Sweet, Our Revolution is a Proto-Metal blast of Hard-Glam that finally sees the light of day."

Omega Plus How To Kiss The Sky

Omega Plus was certainly one of the earliest heavy acts from France to make an album, and it's a good one. The trio included guitarist and composer Claude Engel (website), who played on the first album by prog legends Magma as well as making his own records. Also playing on Omega Plus's LP was Claude's multi-instrumentalist brother Marcel (website) and Gérard Lévy on bass. "Unfaithful Woman" is an unholy marriage of hard-rocking psych and prog, a real winner!

Ashatrom's review at RYM :- "Featuring Claude Engel on guitar (later with Magma, Dayde, Univeria Zekt and many others), this is generally considered France's first psychedelic record (see also Dickens, Octopus 4 and Popera Cosmic). Interesting to note that Engel himself, on his website at least, does not even reference this album. I don't know why not, as it's not a bad example of the Hendrix psych sound, and with the addition of flute, adds more than the usual copyist acid psych rock that many American band were doing during this time. Also includes one long free rock improvisation that's pretty interesting. A short record, that doesn't even break the 30 minute mark.

Helix - Breaking Loose

Helix is from Kitchener, Ontario, this is an original track from their 1979 debut LP "Breraking Loose". The most recent of many LPs is "Bastard of The Blues" (2014) and they are still playing now, minus original album guitarist Paul Hackman, who tragically died in an accident 1992.

Wiki - "Helix is a Canadian hard rock/heavy metal band. They formed in 1974, and are best known for their 1984 single "Rock You". The original lineup was formed by drummer Bruce Arnold, and consisted of lead vocalist Brian Vollmer, guitarists Ron Watson and Rick "Minstrel" Trembley, keyboardist Don Simmons, and bassist Keith "Bert" Zurbrigg.

However, their most well known lineup, and the one that recorded "Rock You", was the 80s version of the band: Vollmer on vocals, accompanied by guitarists Brent "The Doctor" Doerner and Paul Hackman, bassist Daryl Gray, and drummer Greg "Fritz" Hinz. The history of the band has been marked by many lineup changes, with Vollmer being the sole constant member and only remaining member of the original lineup. Although Hackman was killed in a tour bus accident in 1992, the surviving members of the 80s lineup reunited in 2009 for an album and have continued to tour since 2011."

Leviathan - Unleashed

Track five is another cover of Larry Weiss's Evil Woman. Leviathan (website) was first known as the Mike Stuart Span.

BBC TV chose the Mike Stuart Span as the subject of a 1969 documentary "A Year In The Life: The Big Deal Group", about the efforts of pushing a new band. You can watch some of it here. Record Collector magazine made a limited run of their unreleased demo LP (link) in 2012 which has sold out now, and that is where this cover is from. It's an earthy, bluesy jam which ramps up toward the end and makes a nice alternative to all the other more direct versions. The Evil Woman cover it has most in common with is the 20 minute live rendition by Master's Apprentices (youtube).

Silence Mother's Game/Devil Woman

Silence was a dutch band that made a great single in 1971. Devil Woman is an original song and here's what Robin Wills over at the great Purepop blog wrote about it - "Holland’s Silence max out on the snotty attitude with this great 2-sider. Mother's game is tough and crunchy with some amusing lyrics “ I have a cup of tea and a piece of pie..” “I’m riding in a train in vain, yes baby it’s your mother’s game....” (sic). There’s a neat tempo shift at the end with a dual lead which is most effective and probably a Hans Van Hemert touch. Devil Woman is like a proto-punk Communication Breakdown which reminds of Pantherman in its vocal delivery. It also has a spooky middle break and some clumsy drumming. Not much is known about Silence.

They were from Dordrecht (home to the Zipps and Inca Bullet Joe –another fine Hans Van Hemert production) and although Hans  has good recollections of his Dump or Cardinal Point productions, his recall of these sessions are lost in the mists of time.  This appears to be the 2nd Silence release (The Future of Our Sister Felicity being the first?). The recording session took place on the 23rd of January 1971 and also included covers of Gimmie Shelter and Paranoid, but as far as I can see these seem to be unreleased."

Night Sun - Mournin'

Many classic English bands came to mind when I first heard Night Sun's Mournin' LP, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and King Crimson being three of the most obvious. This may be a bold claim, but it’s justifiable to say that Night Sun could have become as renowned as any of them, if they had continued and expanded on the promise shown by Mournin'. Engineered by famed krautrock figurehead Conny Planc (Scorpions, Kraftwerk, Ash Ra Tempel), the band dissolved very soon after the LP was released, with little promotion or appreciation.

Many thanks to long-time blog follower Richard (aka Sadness) for bringing this Australian band to my attention right at the last innings. It's another great cover of Crow's Evil Woman. As-yet it has been hard to find info on Kelly (or The Kelly) apart from a few youtube videos of two great songs, this one and Blodwyn Pig cover 'See My Way' (link), from appearances on ABC TV's "Hit Scene" and NSW TV's  "Happening 71" respectively. It doesn't appear that either of these tracks were released on record. If anyone out there knows any more about The Kelly please drop me a line! Folk rock, Australian rock & more says :- "known Kelly members were : Andrew Boucaut (v) 1971-74, Rod Olson (g) 1971-74, Jeff Prime (b) 1971-74, Damien Robb (g) 1971-74, Mick Stewart (d) 1971-74, Alan Stirling (k) 1971-74 and Doug Stirling (k) 1971-74 (he also had played in Adderley Smith Blues Band and Levi Smiths Clefs)."

Beggars Opera Two Timing Woman

Beggars Opera was a prog band from Glasgow that made a few albums in the seventies and reappeared later on. Founding member Ricky Gardiner has continued to make albums under the name. This track is a single that was not originally on any albums and it's one of the heavier songs from Beggars Opera, who may well have popped up earlier on this blog if they had made more tracks like the excellent 'Two Timing Woman'. Hard rock with great brass!

BZN (Band Zonder Naam "Band Without a Name") was from Volendam in The Netherlands. Bad Bad Woman is a track from their first album with a hard glam edge, a lot of fun.

Melvin McRae Band - Queen Of Hearts (1976)

Melvin MacRae Band was Melvin McRae (guitar, vox), Rauni Osterman (drums) and Hannu Takala (bass), which is the same as the final lineup of another Finnish band which came before, Yellow, minus Helge Koskela. Melvin was apparently from the UK but so far I've drawn blanks on how he ended up in Finnish bands and what happened to him afterwards. There's a few great tracks on the album "Queen Of Hearts" (1976) which is a mix of hard rock and boogie rock.

Frantic - Conception

Formed in Montana, later moving to LA, Frantic started out as The Frantics. As Frantic they made an album in 1971 called "Conception" which is often described as hard rock but it sounds very dated for 1971, it has more in common with sixties pop music. There's some nice songs, like Wicked Woman, Baby and Midnight to Six Man, but I wouldn't call it hard rock by any stretch of the imagination. Quite good pop music structures with a heavy edge on some of the tracks. Allmusic says :- "Formed in 1965 in Billings, Montana, the Frantics were a sextet who drew their influences from Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and, later, Jim Morrison (note the Lizard Records imprint for their second album).

They were a little on the heavy side in terms of their musical approach, and were ambitious -- they played throughout the United States and relocated several times, to New Mexico and then to Colorado Springs, Colorado, before settling in Los Angeles in 1969. The group released a pair of singles, "La Do Da Da" b/w "Route 66" and "Midnight to Six Man" b/w "Shady Sam." They also cut two albums, Relax Your Mind, which dated from 1968 and was unreleased until the '90s, and a second album, Conception, late in their history. At around that same time, they dropped the "s" from their name and worked as Frantic."

Mandrake - self titled

Mandrake was on Crazy Cajun Records, and I read somewhere that I can no longer find that this was a tax scam label, but I don't know anything else on that subject. The record is great, heavy rock with a southern flavour, bits of funk, and slide guitar, from Texas. The whole thing is pretty consistent, and seems to be attracting quite high prices now. Get it if you can find it, bar broom brawling stuff with a raw sound and loads of great geetarin!

Bone - Fairview recordings

Bone was a UK act, which it's said in various places online recorded music that was never released, at Fairview Studios, Willerby, near Hull, East Yorkshire. They have one track on a Fairview archival release here, and there are other internet download-only "bootlegs" going around that were apparently ripped from www.britishmusicarchive.com, which is inactive at the moment due to site improvements. The music from Bone is pretty much all good UK garage rock demos with some hard blues rock, and Naggin' Woman is one of the better tracks on it.

Bandit - self titled

Bandit from the US made one self titled album in 1975, listed in The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock & Heavy Metal (1983), by Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver. The credits read: Bass Guitar, Steel Guitar, Vocals – Kevin Barnhill, Drums, Percussion – Danny Gorman, Electric Guitar, Vocals – David Della Rossa, Guitar, Vocals – Joey Newman, Lead Vocals – Timothy Eaton  and Producer – Bob Monaco. According to Discogs, Kevin Barnhill was also in the band Hollywood Stars, who made a '70s album that was shelved until recently. I have encountered it before and it's pretty good. Joey Newman had played on the highly rated Blue Mountain Eagle album in 1970, as well as making a solo record in 1980 called "Into His Favor". This track is the "other" Evil Woman, the one originally written/recorded by Crow and covered by a whole bunch of bands, including Sabbath of course!

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This volume is inspired by work of the producer, engineer and studio owner, Konrad "Conny" Plank. Known as a hugely influential figure in Krautrock, and instrumental in the careers of bands like Kraftwerk, Can and Neu!, his name is not synonymous with the obscure heavy fuzz / heavy rock / early metal sounds that TDATS usually covers. However, during his legendary career he worked on hundreds of records, and along the way his skills have enhanced a large number of obscure heavy albums.

Born in the town of Hütschenhausen on 3 May 1940, his father was a church organ player. In 1963 he began working in the Köln studio of Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR, West German Broadcasting). Then he became assistant producer and sound engineer at Köln's Rhenus Studio, where he oversaw recordings by a diverse range of artists, including Duke Ellington and Karlheinz Stockhausen. It was around this time that he worked on the two earliest records in this comp, those of Creepy John Thomas and Nosferatu.

Scorpions Lonesome Crow (1972) Brain 1001

Another important album to mention is the first Scorpions album, which Conny produced in 1972. This was eons before their '80s commercial peak and at this point they were a mean and heavy progressive band (youtube). It was the Brain label's first ever release, a label started by two guys that defected from Ohr, another influential experimental label with names like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze. Brain was home to a few of the bands in this comp, as well as some of Conny's most important charges, like Cluster and Neu! It was also responsible for bringing works of great foreign bands into Germany, like Norway's Ruphus (see Vol81).

Conny used devices and equipment of his own design, and modified mixing consoles. He taught himself how to achieve the effects that would later be done easily after the invention of polyphonic samplers, using the faders on his desk in conjunction with complex arrangements of tape loops. Brian Eno worked with him many times and considered him an “inventor” as much as anything else. Michael Rother, who worked with Plank as a solo artist and with Kraftwerk, Neu! and Harmonia said: “He had this immense talent to intuitively grasp our intentions and to create fantastic soundscapes, despite the limitations of recording technology at the time.”

In 1974 Conny designed and built "Conny's Studio", located on a farm in a former pigsty, 35 km south of Köln. Two more albums that appear in this comp were made there, those of Bullfrog and Lokomotive Kreuzberg. At this studio other TDATS-appearing bands Birth Control and Harlis also made albums.

The bio on his site closes with: "Conny Plank died of cancer on 18 December 1987. He did not live to see the day when music producers would be celebrated as if they were superstars. The “hippie, the big bear who delved into his creative manias with unbelievable energy and passion” (Michael Rother) would be a superstar himself today."

So, this comp is an hour of some of the heaviest bands that Conny produced or engineered, or both. Eight of the twelve bands here are brand new to the blog, and all these albums are definitely worth checking out!
TRACKS
01. Night Sun - Got a Bone Of My Own (1972)
       from album 'Mournin'
02. Virus - Old Time Movie (1971)
       from album 'Thoughts'
03. Creepy John Thomas - Lay It On Me (1969)
       from album 'Creepy John Thomas'
04. Sixty-Nine - Red Guitar (1974)
       from album 'Live!'
05. Eloy - Dillus Roady (1971)
       from album 'Eloy'
06. Lokomotive Kreuzberg - Comeback (1975)
       from album 'Fette Jahre'
07. Gomorrha - Dance On A Volcano (1972)
       from album 'I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was'
08. Bullfrog - Live (1977)
       from album 'High In Spirits'
09. Time - Shady Lady (1975)
       from album 'Time'
10. Lava - Tears Are Goin' Home (1973)
       from album 'Tears Are Goin' Home'
11. Nosferatu - Highway (1970)
       from album 'Nosferatu'
12. Lucifer's Friend - Prince Of Darkness (1972)
       from album '....Where The Groupies Killed The Blues'

Virus - Thoughts LP (1971)

Virus shared three members with Hamburg's Weed (see Vol9) at various times; Bernd Hohmann (flute, vocals), Reinhold Spiegelfeld (bass) and Werner Monka (guitar), although I think these guys had left by the time of Virus's Conny-engineered second and final album "Thoughts". Recorded at Star Studio in Hamburg, it was a more direct, hard-rocking album than the psychedelic debut and should be tracked down if you like hammond-assisted riffs. There is an interview with Virus member Werner Vogt at ItsPsychedelicBaby here.

"Creepy John Thomas" LP (1969)

The Sydney-born guitarist John Thomas seems to have had an interesting career. It began properly in Melbourne, having some hits with The Flies. He went to Germany in 1967 with his German girlfriend Doris Honigmann for some time where he made the album "Come With Me" under the name Rust (link) with British musicians in 1969. Then he moved to London and got an album deal with RCA, who commissioned two albums to be recorded back in Germany with Conny Plank producing. For those he became "Creepy John Thomas", his reasoning: "The name came from a Spider John Korner song called Creepy John on the blues album Blues, Rags & Hollers and it seemed a good idea at the time as I wanted to project a less clean cut non-commercial image."

John Thomas in recent times

"The British blues boom was happening - Artists like Capt.Beefheart, Doctor John, The Night Tripper, Screamin' Lord Sutch, Howling Wolf etc., all had groovy names which at the time, held fascination for a young wannabe like me.” Then he spent a year in San Fransisco before returning to London and joined the Edgar Broughton Band, credited on the albums Bandages& "Live Hits Harder!". Moving back to Germany, he made two albums as "Johnny & the Drivers" in Berlin, only to move back to London again in the '80s to become a producer and a continuing solo artist. In 1977 John took friends Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart to Conny's studio to record some music for an album which wasn't ultimately released. Conny was reportedly very impressed with Annie's vocal abilities and this lead to them making their first album as The Tourists (1977) and their first as Eurythmics (1981) with him at his studio.

I have taken the track "Lay It On Me" from the first Creepy John Thomas album. On that record was drummer Helmut Pohl, who also played on albums from Gomorrha, appearing later in this comp. An interesting fact is that Paul Rodgers of Free fame sang harmony vocals on the track "Ride A Rainbow" (link).

Sixty-Nine - Live! (1974)

With track four we have a heavy drums-organ duo from Bad Kreuznach called Sixty-Nine. Conny was engineer on their live album, much of which was recorded at a cultural events center called Fabrik, in Hamburg.

Sixty-Nine was founded in 1969 by keyboardist Armin Stöwe & drummer Roland Schupp. They became popular as a live act and were often invited to open for big acts, like West, Bruce & Laing, UFO, Birth Control, Amon Düül II, Jud's Gallery and Agitation Free. They recorded one studio album in 1973 called "Circle of the Crayfish", then after the live album they disbanded. Stöwe founded a trio called Air. He also started the "General Electronic Plastic Studio" where he developed innovative and successful electronic music devices like computerised sequencers, synthesizers and speaker systems. Sadly, he committed suicide in 2005.

Eloy - s/t (1971)

On to another band that has appeared in TDATS before, Eloy (Vol19). Well-known as a progressive rock and space rock band, their first album, which was engineered by Conny, has very little of those things. It is a meat and potatoes hard rock album with the familiar guitar/hammond sounds of Deep Purple. It was recorded at Star studios in Hamburg, where many classic albums were made including the debuts of Ash Ra Tempel, Neu! and Scorpions. The only continuous member of Eloy is founder and guitarist Frank Bornemann, who steered the band in a more progressive direction like that of Genesis, Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd on subsequent albums. There is an interview with Frank at ItsPsychedelicBaby here. Some names that have been in Eloy and other notable bands are Jürgen Rosenthal (Scorpions), Fritz Randow (Saxon, Epitaph), Jim McGillivray (Epitaph), Manfred Wieczorke (Jane) and Steve Mann (Andy Scott's Sweet).

Lokomotive Kreuzberg Fette Jahre (1972)

Track 6 brings something a little different to the party. Lokomotive Kreuzberg was a Berlin polit-rock band that started in 1972. Not speaking German, it's impossible for me to comment on the lyrics, but the music on their 1975 album "Fette Jahre", engineered by Conny, is captivating. They mix many styles, from symphonic prog, to folk, to funk, to hard rock. At all times it is played with extreme talent, these guys sure had the chops to compare with the best. I have chosen the hardest rocking track on the album, which was recorded at Conny's studio, but you can take your pick from it. Others, such as the title track "Fette Jahre" (youtube), are equally good.

I've not had a chance to check out all of their four albums. I certainly will but they may not be the easiest band to get into for non-German speakers, especially as they use a lot of spoken-word skits to get certain points across on their agenda.

After the band dissolved, Herwig Mitteregger (drums), Bernhard Potschka (guitar) and Manfred Praeker (bass) played in the Nina Hagen Band before making a new band called Spliff in 1980.

Gomorrha I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was (1972)

Conny Plank produced all of Gomorrha's albums, which amounted to three. The first could be described as a Beatles-inspired beat album, and was one of his very first production jobs in 1969. In 1970 Conny and the band re-recorded it from scratch, this time singing in English and playing from a much improved and advanced progressive rock angle. The title track "Trauma" is regarded as their first high-point, and afterwards they were picked up by the formative krautrock label Brain, which Conny had become connected with by this time. The third and final album "I Turned To See Whose Voice It Was" is regarded as their masterpiece, described by some as a cross between Black Sabbath and Procol Harum. From that I have used the track "Dance On A Volcano". Unfortunately, all the band except guitarist Albrecht Claudi (link) apparently left the music business after the demise of Gomorrha.

Bullfrog - High In Spirits (1977)

Conny was involved with two of the three records that Bavaria's Bullfrog made. He recorded, engineered and produced the first self-titled one at his own studio, and engineered/mixed the second, "High in Spirits" (1977). Bullfrog are often compared with the accessible sound of the far more prolific Jane, who Conny worked with on the Brain label. Bullfrog's bio at Prog Archives (link) says that the step-up of High in Spirits earned them a sizeable following both in Germany and in the US. It also gathered quite a huge fan base in Portugal where the album managed to relegate both ABBA and Pink Floyd to second and third place on the local charts. There's a detailed account of the band here in German.

Time - selftitled (1975)

On to track nine, and we come across one of the most obscure entries here, a UK act called Time. Formed by Tristan Margretts (bass, vocals) and Gary Margretts (guitar, keys, vocals), Time was a development of Spontaneous Combustion (link). Joining were guitar/vocalist Alex Johnson (later to hard rockers Nightwing) and drummer Jode Leigh (later to England). They released a single, self-titled album in 1975. There's a couple of mysteries about this record. Firstly, I have seen various online mentions of vocalist Mike Udell, but his name is not listed on the LP cover. The cover states "Produced by Conny Plank at The House Of Sounds for BUK records UK", as yet I have been unable to find out anything about this supposed studio, including where it is. Seeing as bands usually traveled to Conny, I presume it was recorded somewhere in Germany. The album itself is a great find. It is mostly heavy, angular prog, like a much leaner Yes or Gentle Giant.

Lava Tears Are Goin' Home (1973)

Next up is another one-album obscurity, Berlin's Lava. Their 1973 album "Tears Are Goin' Home" was produced and engineered by Plank at Windrose Studios, Hamburg and released by Brain. Conny also plays lead guitar on the track "Would Be Better You Run" (youtube). The album is quite a mellow, melancholic and improvisational affair. The reason it appears here is because of the great opener, "Tears Are Goin' Home", which crashes in like ├┤awkVVind blasting off at full power. Very little seems to be documented about them, they are described as a commune band, that split in 1974 after the suicide of keys player Thomas Karrenbach.

Nosferatu

Nosferatu hailed from Frankfurt. One self-titled album was released in 1970, recorded at Rhenus studio in Köln and Conny engineered it. In their early days they were fronted by guitarist & vocalist Michael Winzkowski (who went on to Orange Peel and Epsilon) and wind player Christian Felke who guested later with Epsilon. Felke also played on the Christian Kolonovits LP "Life Is Just A Carnival" I used on the Austrian Vol107. The album is a strong set of groovy heavy prog. While filled with cool hammond from Reinhard "Tammy" Grohé and ominous guitar from Michael Meixner, there's a wide range of other instrumentation. The whole album works as a continuous piece on a grand scale, it's very impressive. For such an apparently young, short-lived band they sound like they had been playing together a lot longer.

Lucifer's Friend ....Where The Groupies Killed The Blues (1972)

Closing the volume is one of the more familiar names no doubt, Lucifer's Friend. Conny produced their second album, "....Where The Groupies Killed The Blues" at Windrose Studio and Star Studio. By this time the band were already on the slide away from the heaviness of the debut into more commercial prog territories, but this one catches them at an interesting point where they mixed both and ended up making a unique-sounding album.

"Lucifer's Friend" was just one alias that a core of studio musicians was recording under, and there were many! A quick glance finds The Air Mail, The German Bonds, Asterix, Lucifer's Friend, Brother T. And Family, The Children Of Quechua, Electric Food, The Fantastic Pikes, The Pink Mice and Bokaj Retsiem all centering around four names; Dieter Horns (bass), Peter Hecht (keyboards), Peter Hesslein (guitar) and Joachim Rietenbach (drums). In fact, an entertaining sport that any obscure rock addict with an internet connection could enjoy on a rainy day is "Hunt the Lucifer's Friend spin-off". These guys were seemingly involved in a curious mix of bill-paying studio jobs, exploitation records and real bands, they clearly didn't like to keep all their eggs in one basket. What ever the situation, they sure must have been busy individuals around the turn of the decade! The English singer John Lawton was present in two of the heaviest of these acts, Lucifer's Friend and Asterix, and I'm sure most of you know that he was later in Uriah Heep.

Thanks for reading, Rich

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A tribute to the bad bad wicked crazy unfaithful two-timing evil-hearted devil woman, muse of many a vintage hard rockin' track, including twelve acts new to the blog.

01. (Sopworth) Camel - Evil Woman (1969)
       from album 'Underage'
02. Rog & Pip - Evil Hearted Woman
       from album 'Our Revolution'
03. Omega Plus - Unfaithful Woman (1969)
       from album 'How To Kiss The Sky'
04. Helix - Crazy Women (1979)
       from album 'Breaking Loose'
05. Silence - Devil Woman (1971)
       single
06. Night Sun - Crazy Woman (1972)
       from album 'Mournin'
07. The Kelly - Evil Woman (1971)
       from TV show 'Hit Scene' 15/4/71
08. Beggars Opera - Two Timing Woman (1973)
       single
09. BZN - Bad Bad Woman (1971)
       from album 'The Bastard'
10. Melvin McRae Band - Evil Woman (1976)
       from album 'Queen of Hearts'
11. Frantic - Wicked Woman (1971)
       from album 'Conception'
12. Mandrake - Cold Hearted Woman (1978)
       from album 'Mandrake'
13. Bone - Naggin' Woman (1972)
       from 'British Music Archive 1972 - 73'
14. Bandit - Evil Woman (1975)
       from album 'Bandit'

Camel - Underage

Beginning this is a cover of a song written by Larry Weiss and first recorded by Guy Darrel in 1967. There have been loads of covers of "Evil Woman" (not to be confused with Crow's completely different song of the same name, covered by Sabbath), at least five before 1970 alone, including versions by Spooky Tooth, The Troggs, Lou Rawls and Chris Britton. Larry Weiss recorded his own version on a solo LP in 1974.

Camel (aka Sopworth Camel) appears to have been a band of English musicians that relocated to Italy for a short time where they made the album of covers, 'Underage'. They were Pete Huish (Drums), Martin Fischer (Guitar, Vocals, Piano, Organ, Harpsichord), Dave Sumner (Lead Guitar, Vocals) and Alex Jackson (Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Piano). Dave Sumner seems to have been in a lot of Italian bands and Alex Jackson is also known as Alex Ligertwood, of Santana, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express and others.

Rog & Pip - Our Revolution

Rog & Pip is guitarist Roger Lomas and Singer/Guitarist Pip Whitcher. They were both in Coventry's The Sorrows and recorded some singles together afterwards, under names like Rog & Pip, The Zips and Renegade. This track is taken from the retrospective archival LP "Our Revolution" which was put out by Rise Above Relics in 2013 (link), containing all the singles and a full album's worth of unreleased '70s material. Roger Lomas became a producer in the 1980s, linked with many Ska bands.

There's a load of great tracks on it and it's well-worth getting, Rise Above describes it thus: "Combining the heaviness of Black Sabbath and early Led Zeppelin with the anthemic/aggro pop chants of Slade and The Sweet, Our Revolution is a Proto-Metal blast of Hard-Glam that finally sees the light of day."

Omega Plus How To Kiss The Sky

Omega Plus was certainly one of the earliest heavy acts from France to make an album, and it's a good one. The trio included guitarist and composer Claude Engel (website), who played on the first album by prog legends Magma as well as making his own records. Also playing on Omega Plus's LP was Claude's multi-instrumentalist brother Marcel (website) and Gérard Lévy on bass. "Unfaithful Woman" is an unholy marriage of hard-rocking psych and prog, a real winner!

Ashatrom's review at RYM :- "Featuring Claude Engel on guitar (later with Magma, Dayde, Univeria Zekt and many others), this is generally considered France's first psychedelic record (see also Dickens, Octopus 4 and Popera Cosmic). Interesting to note that Engel himself, on his website at least, does not even reference this album. I don't know why not, as it's not a bad example of the Hendrix psych sound, and with the addition of flute, adds more than the usual copyist acid psych rock that many American band were doing during this time. Also includes one long free rock improvisation that's pretty interesting. A short record, that doesn't even break the 30 minute mark.

Helix - Breaking Loose

Helix is from Kitchener, Ontario, this is an original track from their 1979 debut LP "Breraking Loose". The most recent of many LPs is "Bastard of The Blues" (2014) and they are still playing now, minus original album guitarist Paul Hackman, who tragically died in an accident 1992.

Wiki - "Helix is a Canadian hard rock/heavy metal band. They formed in 1974, and are best known for their 1984 single "Rock You". The original lineup was formed by drummer Bruce Arnold, and consisted of lead vocalist Brian Vollmer, guitarists Ron Watson and Rick "Minstrel" Trembley, keyboardist Don Simmons, and bassist Keith "Bert" Zurbrigg.

However, their most well known lineup, and the one that recorded "Rock You", was the 80s version of the band: Vollmer on vocals, accompanied by guitarists Brent "The Doctor" Doerner and Paul Hackman, bassist Daryl Gray, and drummer Greg "Fritz" Hinz. The history of the band has been marked by many lineup changes, with Vollmer being the sole constant member and only remaining member of the original lineup. Although Hackman was killed in a tour bus accident in 1992, the surviving members of the 80s lineup reunited in 2009 for an album and have continued to tour since 2011."

Silence Mother's Game/Devil Woman

Silence was a dutch band that made a great single in 1971. Devil Woman is an original song and here's what Robin Wills over at the great Purepop blog wrote about it - "Holland’s Silence max out on the snotty attitude with this great 2-sider. Mother's game is tough and crunchy with some amusing lyrics “ I have a cup of tea and a piece of pie..” “I’m riding in a train in vain, yes baby it’s your mother’s game....” (sic). There’s a neat tempo shift at the end with a dual lead which is most effective and probably a Hans Van Hemert touch. Devil Woman is like a proto-punk Communication Breakdown which reminds of Pantherman in its vocal delivery. It also has a spooky middle break and some clumsy drumming. Not much is known about Silence.

They were from Dordrecht (home to the Zipps and Inca Bullet Joe –another fine Hans Van Hemert production) and although Hans  has good recollections of his Dump or Cardinal Point productions, his recall of these sessions are lost in the mists of time.  This appears to be the 2nd Silence release (The Future of Our Sister Felicity being the first?). The recording session took place on the 23rd of January 1971 and also included covers of Gimmie Shelter and Paranoid, but as far as I can see these seem to be unreleased."

Night Sun - Mournin'

Many classic English bands came to mind when I first heard Night Sun's Mournin' LP, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and King Crimson being three of the most obvious. This may be a bold claim, but it’s justifiable to say that Night Sun could have become as renowned as any of them, if they had continued and expanded on the promise shown by Mournin'. Engineered by famed krautrock figurehead Conny Planc (Scorpions, Kraftwerk, Ash Ra Tempel), the band dissolved very soon after the LP was released, with little promotion or appreciation.

Many thanks to long-time blog follower Richard (aka Sadness) for bringing this Australian band to my attention right at the last innings. It's another great cover of Crow's Evil Woman. As-yet it has been hard to find info on Kelly (or The Kelly) apart from a few youtube videos of two great songs, this one and Blodwyn Pig cover 'See My Way' (link), from appearances on ABC TV's "Hit Scene" and NSW TV's  "Happening 71" respectively. It doesn't appear that either of these tracks were released on record. If anyone out there knows any more about The Kelly please drop me a line! Folk rock, Australian rock & more says :- "known Kelly members were : Andrew Boucaut (v) 1971-74, Rod Olson (g) 1971-74, Jeff Prime (b) 1971-74, Damien Robb (g) 1971-74, Mick Stewart (d) 1971-74, Alan Stirling (k) 1971-74 and Doug Stirling (k) 1971-74 (he also had played in Adderley Smith Blues Band and Levi Smiths Clefs)."

Beggars Opera Two Timing Woman

Beggars Opera was a prog band from Glasgow that made a few albums in the seventies and reappeared later on. Founding member Ricky Gardiner has continued to make albums under the name. This track is a single that was not originally on any albums and it's one of the heavier songs from Beggars Opera, who may well have popped up earlier on this blog if they had made more tracks like the excellent 'Two Timing Woman'. Hard rock with great brass!

BZN (Band Zonder Naam "Band Without a Name") was from Volendam in The Netherlands. Bad Bad Woman is a track from their first album with a hard glam edge, a lot of fun.

Melvin McRae Band - Queen Of Hearts (1976)

Melvin MacRae Band was Melvin McRae (guitar, vox), Rauni Osterman (drums) and Hannu Takala (bass), which is the same as the final lineup of another Finnish band which came before, Yellow, minus Helge Koskela. Melvin was apparently from the UK but so far I've drawn blanks on how he ended up in Finnish bands and what happened to him afterwards. There's a few great tracks on the album "Queen Of Hearts" (1976) which is a mix of hard rock and boogie rock.

Frantic - Conception

Formed in Montana, later moving to LA, Frantic started out as The Frantics. As Frantic they made an album in 1971 called "Conception" which is often described as hard rock but it sounds very dated for 1971, it has more in common with sixties pop music. There's some nice songs, like Wicked Woman, Baby and Midnight to Six Man, but I wouldn't call it hard rock by any stretch of the imagination. Quite good pop music structures with a heavy edge on some of the tracks. Allmusic says :- "Formed in 1965 in Billings, Montana, the Frantics were a sextet who drew their influences from Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and, later, Jim Morrison (note the Lizard Records imprint for their second album).

They were a little on the heavy side in terms of their musical approach, and were ambitious -- they played throughout the United States and relocated several times, to New Mexico and then to Colorado Springs, Colorado, before settling in Los Angeles in 1969. The group released a pair of singles, "La Do Da Da" b/w "Route 66" and "Midnight to Six Man" b/w "Shady Sam." They also cut two albums, Relax Your Mind, which dated from 1968 and was unreleased until the '90s, and a second album, Conception, late in their history. At around that same time, they dropped the "s" from their name and worked as Frantic."

Mandrake - self titled

Mandrake was on Crazy Cajun Records, and I read somewhere that I can no longer find that this was a tax scam label, but I don't know anything else on that subject. The record is great, heavy rock with a southern flavour, bits of funk, and slide guitar, from Texas. The whole thing is pretty consistent, and seems to be attracting quite high prices now. Get it if you can find it, bar broom brawling stuff with a raw sound and loads of great geetarin!

Bone - Fairview recordings

Bone was a UK act, which it's said in various places online recorded music that was never released, at Fairview Studios, Willerby, near Hull, East Yorkshire. They have one track on a Fairview archival release here, and there are other internet download-only "bootlegs" going around that were apparently ripped from www.britishmusicarchive.com, which is inactive at the moment due to site improvements. The music from Bone is pretty much all good UK garage rock demos with some hard blues rock, and Naggin' Woman is one of the better tracks on it.

Bandit - self titled

Bandit from the US made one self titled album in 1975, listed in The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock & Heavy Metal (1983), by Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver. The credits read: Bass Guitar, Steel Guitar, Vocals – Kevin Barnhill, Drums, Percussion – Danny Gorman, Electric Guitar, Vocals – David Della Rossa, Guitar, Vocals – Joey Newman, Lead Vocals – Timothy Eaton  and Producer – Bob Monaco. According to Discogs, Kevin Barnhill was also in the band Hollywood Stars, who made a '70s album that was shelved until recently. I have encountered it before and it's pretty good. Joey Newman had played on the highly rated Blue Mountain Eagle album in 1970, as well as making a solo record in 1980 called "Into His Favor". This track is the "other" Evil Woman, the one originally written/recorded by Crow and covered by a whole bunch of bands, including Sabbath of course!

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A brief detour from the usual TDATS fair, normal service will be resumed shortly! This is a comp of awesome stoner rock, doom and sludge from 1992 to 2005, much of which has whiskey-soaked southern flavour. Hope you enjoy!

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It's about time for an Irish volume! Ireland certainly did not have a lot of hard rock music in the '60s and '70s. There are the couple of internationally-known names like Thin Lizzy & Them, but making this volume was a bit like doing the New Zealand ones, in that I have had to use a fair amount of artistic license to find an hours-worth of music to satisfy this blog's remit. The country's political problems in the past certainly did nothing to help matters and during the magic period of the late '60s to the late '70s those problems were at a peak.

I have been looking for years to finish this off and have probably found enough for part 2 in the future, there are a few missing here like Horslips and Mushroom that some may protest about but I have plans to include those on the blog later.

There are a few invaluable sites for Irish rock that I must thank. rockroots.wordpress.com is a great resource with rare tracks to download, and between them irishrock.org, irish-showbands.com and irishshowbands.net detail pretty much every vintage Irish band that ever existed.

TRACKS:

- Joe O'Donnell - For Trades And Hospitality & House Of Warriors (1977)
       from album 'Gaodhal's Vision'
- Skid Row - Night Of The Warm Witch (single version) (1971)
       from album '34 Hours'
- Cromwell - Guinness Rock (1975)
       from album 'At The Gallop'
- The Radiators From Space - Electric Shares (1977)
       from album 'TV Tube Heart'
- Andwella's Dream - Sunday (1969)
       from album 'Love And Poetry'
- Reform - Back To The Wall (1974)
       from album 'All For One'
- Eire Apparent - Here I Go Again (1968)
       single
- Bernie Tormé - Anyway Anyhow Anywhere (The Who cover) (1979)
       from album 'Punk Or What'
- Fruupp - Decision (1973)
       from album 'Future Legends'
- Granny's Intentions - Maybe (1970)
       from album 'Honest Injun'
- Light - Ray's Song (1978)
       from album 'Light'
- Plattermen - Cat's Eye (1972)
       from album 'Old Devil Wine'
- Jimi Slevin & Firefly - Child Of Peace (1978)
       from album 'Getting There'
- Turner & Kirwan of Wexford - Father 'Reilly Says Goodbye (1977)
       from album 'Absolutely And Completely'


Joe O'Donnell is a classically trained violinist from Limerick. He pioneered the design and use of electric violin and his impressive CV looks like a who's who of UK prog rock, not just Irish rock. He has appeared with a few of the other acts in this volume, including Granny's Intentions and Rory Gallagher, as well as a host of prog / rock names like East Of Eden, Rare Bird, Trees, Headstone, Jade Warrior and Henry McCullough. He has also maintained a solo career and folk and ceilidh to this day with 'Joe O'Donnell's Shkayla'.

In 1977 he made a solo record called Gaodhal's Vision which featured the talents of Rory Gallagher on many of the tracks, and that is where the opener for this volume comes from. 'House Of Warriors' has some brilliant violin riffing which shows the instrument can rock just as much as guitar!

Skid Row are probably second to Thin Lizzy in status as an early Irish blues rock / hard rock band, although SR had a more experimental jam rock approach than Lizzy. Like Lizzy, the players involved during the band's short recording career include many recognisable names, such as Phil Lynott who sung in the late '60s before being thrown out by formative bass player,  Brendan "Brush" Shiels.

After Lynott was gone Gary Moore received his highest amount of acclaim by that point as SR's singer/guitarist for both the band's two official studio albums. Drummer Noel Bridgeman was in Granny's Intentions (which Moore also was) and post-Moore guitarist Paul Chapman played in many other bands including Lone Star and UFO. I have used 'Night Of The Warm Witch' from the second Skid Row album, '34 Hours'.

Dublin's Cromwell were one of the few hard rock bands to release a full album, aside from the well-known names this was quite a rarity in Ireland. They released five singles and according to irish-showbands.com they were on the road for at least five years. In '72 they supported a Rory Gallagher tour. Cromwell was Patrick "Pat" Brady (guitar, vocals), Michael Kiely (guitar, bass, vocals), Derek Dawson (drums), Mick O'Hagan (vocals), and Desmond Kiely (bass). O'Hagen replaced Kiely and himself left in '73, the band continued as a trio, sharing vocal duties.

The album 'At The Gallop' is not up to the level of Lizzy / Skid Row in terms of musicianship for instance but it's a rare example of a mid-'70s Irish hard rock LP, and it has a few decent tracks. As such it is now very collectible and commands high prices. I have used a track that was recorded a few years before the LP was released, the band's first single, 'Guinness Rock'. Brady and Kiely continued after Cromwell as an acoustic duo, 'The Establishment'.

Dublin's The Radiators From Space are described in many places as Ireland's first punk band. They had a great album called TV Tube Heart in 1977, the same year that The Boomtown Rats made their debut. Although Ireland had seemingly missed out on producing a lot of established, recorded hard rock acts in the '70s, that was certainly made-up for in the punk explosion. Suddenly punk bands were popping up everywhere and the Irish spirit certainly found an affinity with the likes of The Sex Pistols and The Damned.

According to irishrock.org The Radiators organised one of Ireland's first Punk events, The Belfield Punk festival in 1977, and played with The Undertones, The Gamblers, Revolver and The Vipers. The Radiators split in '81 with various members continuing with Eric Bell, ex-Pogues members, and have reformed from time to time, notably to support U2 in 2005.

Lead by singer/guitarist David Lewes, Andwella's Dream started as 'The Method' in Belfast. By 1968 they had moved to London and recorded their highly-rated CBS album, 'Love and Poetry'. Around 1970 there were some lineup changes and as 'Andwella' they recorded two more albums on he CBS imprint, Reflection. I have used the track 'Sunday' from Love and Poetry, it's quite heavy with some nice Hendrixian guitar.

Reform

Limerick's Reform evolved from local showbands in the late '60s, and made some of Ireland's first glam rock. They were a popular hard-working ballroom act and although they made a fair number of singles and appeared on TV more than once, they didn't release an LP until 1979. It seems by then the time had passed, and 1984 was the last time they played.

According to irish-showbands.com, Reform leader Don O'Connor complained in an interview that Irish pop magazines like Spotlight were concentrating solely on new flash-in-the-pan Dublin bands and ignoring hard-working rural bands like Reform, making it impossible for such acts to achieve national success.

Eire Apparent started out in Belfast as the final 1960s incarnation of 'The People', including Henry McCullough. After moving around (reportedly sharing a farmhouse near Blackpool at one time with Lemmy's early band The Rockin' Vicars) they found significant success in Dublin, and sought greater success by relocating to London. While there they got co-signed by Soft Machine manager Mike Jeffery and Hendrix manager Chas Chandler, after a performance in the famous UFO club. This landed them a support slot on a Hendrix/The Move/Pink Floyd tour.

Hendrix befriended them, producing and playing on their only album, 1968's 'Sun Rise', which was put out by US label Buddah Records after they made a name there supporting Hendrix, Soft Machine, The Animals etc. The band appears to have had problems caused by it's fanbase being spread too thinly and failed to really nail it in either the UK or US. After personnel changes, they disbanded in 1970. Various members would go on to play with acts such as Freedom, Sam Apple Pie, T.Rex, Pretty Things, Wings and others. My favourite track is a b-side which was not on the album, 'Here I Go Again', and that is what appears here!

Dublin's Bernie Tormé (aka Bernard Tormay) is a guitarist with an interesting career, most famous for playing with Gillan, Atomic Rooster and Ozzy. His career has spanned decades of rock including blues, punk, hard rock and metal. One of his early bands was Dublin hard rockers 'Urge' in the early '70s and in the late '70s he started forming various projects with and without his name on them. He even joined Dee Snider's Desperado (with Clive Burr ex-Iron Maiden) in the late '80s.

I have chosen a track from an album of late-'70s Tormé rarities called 'Punk or What', covering a Who classic with metallic punk aplomb. Bernie still regularly plays live and has just made a new album called 'Black Heart'. Bernie on Bandcamp.

Belfast's Fruupp were one of Ireland's only symphonic progressive rock acts, and there were very few. I have used a track from their debut album 'Future Legends'. Apparently they started out as a hard rock act before taking progressive tendencies and the weighty guitar parts in 'Decision' would seem to confirm that.

Fruupp moved to London in 1971 and were received well, supporting heavyweights like King Crimson, playing frequently in Europe and home from home, Germany, where I would say their style was very well-suited. Unfortunately it would seem that after an impressive four albums inside three years they still hadn't made it big enough to justify the efforts and they disbanded in 1976.

Belfast's Light were active in the late seventies and made a self-titled album with a couple of decent tracks. This is what the back cover says, rather hyperbolically: "Anyone who remembers THEM or Chicago-based band TRUTH cannot fail to recall the playing of one of the world's great guitarists JIM ARMSTRONG. Following the demise of TRUTH in 1971, Armstrong retreated from the international scene to gig at a more relaxed pace in native Belfast.

There was some writing and recording work with Brian Scott and Bernie MacDonald in 1973, to be followed by concert performances with an occasional band called LIGHT, which included George O'Hara and Albert Mills. The breakthrough came in March 1977 when the band came together to play regular sessions at Ireland's premiere rock venue, THE POUND. at the invitation of promoter Dermot Moffatt. The last fifteen months have seen LIGHT established as Ireland's finest rock band, possibly the best ever".

Plattermen

Omagh's Plattermen were a showband that originated in the '50s. By the early '70s they had become a BS&T style horn rock band that incorporated hard rock. After a couple in the '60s, they made the album 'Old Devil Wine' in 1972 with a couple of decent tracks including 'African Wah Wah' and the one included here, 'Cat's Eye'.

After that album, one more single was recorded. For this one they used the moniker 'Hammer', and it was released by Vertigo. Unfortunately it's not as good as Cat's Eye, but they were still attempting to continue with a heavier sound.

Jimi Slevin & Firefly made one album in 1978. Dubliner Jimi Slevin was in notable bands Peggy's Leg and also briefly Skid Row near it's end. At the age of 19 he started blues rockers Crossroads in 1969, then joined Alice in 1970, before starting Peggy's Leg in 1972. In the mid-'70s he started The Jimi Slevin Band, which made the album 'Getting There' in 1978, credited to Jimi Slevin & Firefly. He went solo in 1980. Since then he has made some solo albums and started a label/studio called Riteroad Music, but the 'Getting There' LP remains the main point of interest for hard rock fans. He shows some good talent which is reminiscent of Thin Lizzy at their melodic moments.

Turner and Kirwan of Wexford finish off this set. Both Turner and Kirwan grew up in Wexford Town. They recorded a single as Aftermath circa 1971 released on Irish Polydor which gained some airplay. This is now very difficult to locate.

The duo moved to New York City in the early 1970s and became Turner and Kirwan of Wexford, playing the Irish pubs and clubs around the city. They developed a style which mixed Irish traditional folk music with full-blown progressive rock, creating some great music in the process! Father 'Reilly Says Goodbye is a beautiful closer for this compilation! Thanks for listening.

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Here's a fun selection of the later-seventies tracks I discovered while making last-week's Irish volume. This is decidedly punk flavoured, with a bit of hard rock, power pop and glam for good measure. The majority of tracks here are from Northern Ireland, where there was somewhat of a punk movement occurring at the time. A couple of labels to look up for these and other singles are Rip Off Records and Good Vibrations. Thanks to Clint at the tdats fb group for pointing-out the 2013 movie "Good Vibrations", about the label (link).

TRACKS

No Sweat - You Should Be So Lucky (1978)
       singleand compilation "Belfast Rock"
Xdreamysts - Dance Away Lover (1978)
       single
Rudi - No.1 (1978)
       single
Moral Support - Sin (1979)
       single and album 'Zionic Bonds'
Reform - Salt Away (1974)
       from album 'All For One'
Midnite Cruiser - Rich Bitch (1977)
       single
Detonators - Cruisin' (1978)
       from album 'Belfast Rock'
The Duggie Briggs Band - Punk-Rockin' Granny! (1977)
       single
East Coast Angels - Punk Rockin' (1977)
       single
Pretty Boy Floyd & the Gems - Rough, Tough, Pretty Too (1978)
       single and compilation "Belfast Rock"
The Outcasts - Frustration (1979)
       from album 'Self Conscious Over You'
Bernie Tormé - All Nite (1979)
       from album 'Punk Or What (77-79)'
Cobra - Graveyard Boogie (1978)
       single and compilation "Belfast Rock"


No Sweat from Belfast. Members: Clive Culbertson (vocals, bass, guitar), David Stuart (keyboards), Michael Katin (guitar), Ricky Bleakley (drums). The B-side to this single is also very good, in a style more akin to Thin Lizzy. In fact it sounds like Lizzy playing with Cheap Trick!

Xdreamysts from Derry. They made some cool singles in the later '70s, and an album in '81 with a more commercial Power Pop sound. Uel Walls (vocals, guitar), John Doherty (guitar), Roe Butcher (bass) and Brian Moffatt (drums).

Rudi from Belfast. Brian Young (guitar, vocals), Ronnie Matthews (guitar, vocals), Gordon Blair (bass guitar), Graham Marshall (drums) and Paul Martin (keyboards). Raw punk on the Good Vibrations label which released some good singles at the time.


Moral Support from Belfast. Headed by Andy McCarroll who was a Christian singer/song writer. What ever your opinion of the subject matter, Moral Support played pretty damn well!


Reform from Limerick. Appearing in the previous TDATS, here's another track from their sole album and one of the better ones. These guys are the closest I have found to an early Irish glam/proto punk band. If you know more drop me a line!

Midnite Cruiser from Portadown. Paul Maxwell (vocals), Crow (guitar), Peege (guitar), Rodney (guitar), Jimmy (bass) and Ger (drums). Another obscure Northern Irish band that made a single in the late '70s. Some good pop punk here.


Detonators from Belfast. Cruisin' is a great driving track that has a real US proto punk Stooges sound. These guys don't seem to have released anything officially, but they were included on a period compilation of Belfast Punk called "Belfast Rock" (1978). Recommended!


The Duggie Briggs Band from Portadown. Punk Rockin' Granny. I think that says it all. Duggie Briggs Band also released a worthy EP in '78 called 'The Duggie Briggs Flashes on It Again'. My rip of this single was very tinny so I have boosted the bass a bit.


East Coast Angels from Dublin. A very rare single here, apologies for the less than stella sound quality on this one, I have attempted to make it sound a bit less murky by boosting the midrange a bit. Although this is called Punk Rockin' it's more of a bonehead cruncher. Good stuff.

Pretty Boy Floyd & the Gems from Belfast. Another band I discovered on the 'Belfast Rock' album. According to various sources they were originally a show band called Candy and were still playing as such at the same time as Pretty Boy Floyd, so some people never accepted them as punk.


The Outcasts from Belfast. These guys recorded two Peel sessions and were successful enough to make three albums.

Dublin's Bernie Tormé was also on the last TDATS, here's another track from the '70s rarity album of his, "Punk Or What". You can buy it derectly from Bernie at his Bandcamp and he is still making music now.

Cobra from Belfast. The final band that were on the 'Belfast Rock' album, Graveyard Boogie is the b-side to the 'Looking for a Lady' single. Both sides of it are great, not so much punk really, they could even be described as one of Northern Ireland's first entries in the NWOBHM.



Cheers from the Punk-Rockin' Granny!

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