The Day After The Sabbath 112: A Limey In The Ranch Of The Rodeo King [UK Country and Southern Rock]

TDATS 112: A Limey In The Ranch Of The Rodeo King [UK Country and Southern Rock] by Rich Aftersabbath on Mixcloud

Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera

Velvet Opera started out as the Coventry-based Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera in 1967. On their first uneven psychedelic pop album was a monster heavy single called "Flames", which was a favoured cover when Led Zep was starting out. They included  Richard Hudson and John Ford who would later be in The Strawbs (see Vol94). The leader at the beginning was the charismatic Elmer Gantry (named after the evangelist played by Burt Lancaster in the 1960 film - real name David Terry). Gantry became notorious for participating in the "fake" Fleetwood Mac that toured the U.S. in 1974; that group renamed themselves from Legs to Stretch and had a Top 20 hit in Britain that was inspired by the sordid incident, "Why Did You Do It?" (youtube).

Velvet Opera Ride A Hustler's Dream LP

Gantry left soon after the first Velvet Opera album and the remaining band continued as Velvet Opera, recruiting new singer/guitarist Paul Brett. They made one final album in 1969 called "Ride A Hustler's Dream", from which the opening tunes on this volume are taken. After the whimsical, sometimes-heavy psych of the first album, Velvet Opera adopted a less erratic sound and took on some US blues/country rock sound too, as you can hear in their loving cover of Blind Willie McTell's Statesboro Blues.

Cliff Bennett's Rebellion (Cliff in center)

Cliff Bennett is one of those names that has had run-ins with many in the rock industry, and many shaves with success, but never became a big name. He started out in '60s beat and had his own band Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers, of which Chas Hodges was once a member, who will reappear here in Heads Hands & Feet. In the '70s Cliff was a formative member of Toe Fat and Shanghai. In 1971 one of his many projects was the Cliff Bennett's Rebellion album, from which I have used a bonus track on the Repertoire re-issue. The Rebellion lineup was Cliff (vocals), John Gray (bass). Marek Kluczynski (harmonica, flute), Robert Smith (guitar) and Derek Weir (percussion). It would appear that Marek "Micki" Kluczynski (deceased 2009) was the same guy who became a key member of the Pink Floyd touring crew from 1972 and for many years was the production director of The BRIT Awards, the British equivalent of the Grammys. Here Cliff showed his appreciation of rural US sounds by covering a classic Jerry Reed swamp rocker 'Amos Moses'. A great song with funny lyrics.

Steve Gibbons

Steve Gibbons is up next, he started out in The Dominettes, The Uglys, and then a late lineup of psych band The Idle Race, which made an abrupt turn in the early '70s and took on a lot of US southern / country rock sound on their last album. Steve joined them at the very end of their life and that is the direction they maintained when he took over. The band made an album under Steve's solo name, then morphed fully into The Steve Gibbons Band. I have used the seventh track (B2) on the first Steve Gibbons album, "Bye Bye Buffalo". It's interesting to observe that this album seems to have been a bit of a muso's get-together, and Albert Lee plays on much of it, including Bye Bye Buffalo.

This has a great sound with a native American influence and sympathies towards native American's historical plights. Also contributing on the album is Gerry Conway (Fairport Convention, Matthews' Southern Comfort), Alan White (Yes), Mike Kellie (Art, Spooky Tooth), Greg Ridley (Humble Pie, Spooky Tooth) and Pat Donaldson (Poet And The One Man Band). I have encountered some of these names in researching this volume, and some of them appear in it. It would seem to confirm the notion that there was a bit of movement going on in the UK for US style country rock at the time. Steve's act continued into the 2000's as a straight southern rock band, becoming known in the US, and popular in Germany. Now in his seventies, he has played as recently as last year.

Personally speaking, the story of Heads Hands & Feet is a bit of a sad tale of missed opportunity that I find to be poignant. Still, the band was made up of seasoned musicians who's careers would continue without the band. They evolved from a studio-only band's record put out under the name of "Poet And The One Man Band", which was overseen by Tony Colton. By this point Tony had become an industry name. He was a band-leader, writer, arranger and producer who had made many of his contacts while frequenting The Flamingo Club in Soho, especially the Flamingo Allnighter on Friday nights. There's an incredible interview with Tony you can read here that recounts the many personalities that he was acquainted with.

Head Hands & Feet was the logical conclusion for Poet And The One Man Band, a band that Tony had gotten together as support for some of his clients. For instance, they played behind Shirley Bassey on her 5 million-selling album "Something". Variously they were Albert Lee (gtr), Jerry Donahue (gtr), Pat Donaldson (bass), John Bell (clarinet), Speedy Aquaye (percussion), Barry Morgan (drums), Peter Gavin (drums), Raymond Barry Smith (gtr) and Tony (lead vocals). A number of piano/organ players were involved: William Davies, Roger Coulam, Nicky Hopkins and Mike O'Neill. Track 8 in this comp is from Poet's album which was made in 1969.


Most of those names, with the addition of Chas Hodges, were to make up Heads Hands & Feet. Chas, from Edmonton, north London, had been in many beat bands by this stage, including Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers, and Joe Meek's house band The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore). He also took part in the Green Bullfrog Sessions (See Vols 13& 59) with a whole bunch of names including Albert Lee and Rod Alexander of Jodo (See tdats interview with Rod here). HH&F were snapped up by record labels, with their ready-made credentials and mass appeal which was seen as ripe for the US, they were reputedly offered the biggest advance in the history of rock, half a million dollars from Capitol in the US. In the UK they were on Island records. HH&F never realised their full potential, even though they made three albums proper, and after a faltering start they imploded within 4 years of forming. For fascinating details into the times, read the interview I mentioned previously.

C.J. Flanagan and Tony Colton

Most of the band continued productive careers in music, Chas became one half of the 'Rockneys'Chas 'n' Dave and Albert Lee's guitar virtuosity has gained him notoriety playing with big names like Joe Cocker (RIP), Emmylou Harris and Eric Clapton. Despite remaining productive in the industry, Tony admits he was hit extremely hard by the failure of HH&F.  At the time he was also burdened with marital problems, he lost interest in making it big, sinking into periods of drug and alcohol addiction. His resurgence occured after US country artist Ricky Scaggs won awards with a 1984 cover of the old HH&F favourite, "Country Boy". Tony has since been re-building a successful career up to this day, in US country music. Reports that he has a side-line as a Dustin Hoffman look-alike remain unconfirmed however...

For the fifth track here we encounter another pub rock name, Legend. They originated in the coastal town of Southend, the traditional sea-side haunt for Londoners which also boasts the longest leisure pier in the world. I have taken a track from their third and final album which, in terms of country rock, is aptly-named "Moonshine". It's a brilliant stick of funky, groovy (seaside) rock.

Legend - Moonshine LP

Southend had been quite a fertile place for rock'n roll since the days of skiffle. Robin Trower started his first band The Paramounts there, which Mick Jagger claimed was the best R&B band in the UK at one point. Following in the '70s were pub rock originators Dr Feelgood, The Kursaal Flyers and Eddie & The Hot Rods. The close-yet-far proximity to London (the last train back from Fenchurch station was 12:25am) allowed the town to develop it's own rock identity; influenced by London scenes, but not quite the same. Southend's pub rock scene started with Mickey Jupp, he had local success in the mid-sixties with The Black Diamonds and The Orioles. In 1968 he started Legend, which made three albums.

Listening to them all, it's clear that no matter what they were playing, be it doo-wop, rock'n roll, pop or blues, their main priority was have fun! On the final album they went in for a sound of two halves, there were some of the most rocking songs they have done, in "Moonshine", "Captain Cool" and "Shine On My Shoes", and there were some big, sweeping, orchestrated ballads like "Another Guy", "Mother Of My Child" and "The Writer Of Songs". Never let it be said that pub rock bands like to be predictable or one track-minded. Legend disbanded in '72 and Micky started a solo band in 1975, which made albums and existed in various forms until the 2000's.  In February 2009 the early Legend line-up of Chris East (guitar/vocals), Mo Witham (guitar), John Bobin (bass), Bob Clouter (drums) and Mickey self-released a new album, "Never Too Old To Rock", featuring a selection of Jupp–East songs written over the previous twenty years.

Gypsy Brenda & The Rattlesnake LP

Gypsy evolved from a '60s band called Legay, who released a single in 1969: No-One / The Fantastic Story Of The Steam-Driven Banana (youtube). They hailed from the midlands city of Leicester and were started in 1965 by Guitarist/vocalist/writer Robin Pizer. They were well-known in Leicester at the time, a city that spawned other noted bands such as Family and Pesky Gee! (later to become Black Widow). The band's name actually came from original drummer Legay Rogers, who apparently collapsed after a gig in 1967, suffering stomach ulcers. He was not in the band that arose next, Gypsy. Somewhere in Gypsy was a really great band. When they were on, they were really on. They had genuine talent but seem to have lacked focus. If you took the best tracks from both their albums you'd have a great record. They had some early recognition in 1969 when playing at the Isle Of Wight festival, and John Peel raved about the first record, and a radio session was recorded. (link)

Gypsy news cutting

The rest of Gypsy (all ex-Lagay) were John Knapp (vocals/guitar/keyboards), Robin Pizer (guitar/vocals), Rod Read (guitar/vocals), David McCarthy (bass/vocals) and drummer Moth Smith, with the later addition of Ray Martinez on or around the second LP. This is the record from which I have taken a track, "Comes a Time", a really nice emotional track with a great southern rock sound. This song, and the one after it (youtube), are my favourite two tracks from the LP, "Brenda and the Rattlesnake". This album was a little more consistent than the s/t debut, but in my opinion was affected by a heavy-handed saccharine pop production. The first LP had some first-rate rockers on it, like "What Makes A Man A Man?" (youtube)

Hookfoot promo Caleb 2nd from left

Half way through this collection now, Hookfoot steps in. They were formed by guitarist Caleb Quaye of John Baldry's backing band, Bluesology, which also featured a keyboard player named Reg Dwight, soon to become known as Elton John. Interestingly, Caleb is the older half-brother of singer Finley Quaye who had a brief dalliance with the UK pop charts in the late '90s. After releasing a good solo single called  'Baby Your Phrasing Is Bad' (youtube) in 1967, Quaye got together with Ian Duck (vocals, guitars and harmonica), Roger Pope (drums) and David Glover (bass) to form Hookfoot while they were all working for the DJM label. DJM was the home to Elton John early on in his solo career and Hookfoot were John's backing band on his first output for the label. They were also hired hands for many other artists, including Mick Grabham's solo album, who appears in this volume in Guitar Orchestra and Cochise. The band made 4 albums up until their demise in 1974 and I have chosen the opener called "Tradin' Riffs" from their final album, "Roaring". By this time bass duties had been taken over from Dave Glover by Freddy Gandy.

Caleb Quaye at Wembley stadium 1975 with Elton John band

Although their career has more or less remained in the murky, obscure corners that 'musicians playing for musicians' bands tend to be, Caleb Quaye is regarded by some as one of the best guitarists the UK has ever produced. In 1975 he was invited out with Elton John's touring band and played the entire Captain Fantastic album to a Wembley crowd of 80,000. Several years ago, David Letterman asked his guest Eric Clapton: “So what’s it like to be the best guitar player in the world?”. Clapton replied, “I’m not. Caleb Quaye is!”

In 1982, Quaye became an evangelist and is now the National Worship Director for the Foursquare denomination, ministering throughout the United States, England and Europe. According to theguitarbuzz.com (link) Quaye was playing in a Jazz Rock Fusion band called The Faculty as recently as 2012 (youtube).

Passing through track 8 and Poet And The One Man Band, which has been covered along with Heads Hands & Feet, we'll go straight to Jellybread's country-funktastic "Green Eyed Gypsy Queen". I find the first three Jellybread albums to be unremarkable, pedestrian, straight-blues. They got a real shot in the arm for the fourth, "Back To Begin Again". Maybe the name says it all. They do sound like a different band, beginning again, and the addition of Rick Birkett on guitar (ex-Accent see Vol57) and Kenny Lamb (drums) must have been a contributing factor. On this one they play predominantly hard, funky, country-tinged tunes, with much more attitude in Paul Butler's vocals. Maybe spurred on by the harder hitting music?

Jellybread - Back To Begin Again

Here's what Allmusic (link) has to say about them: "Formed at England’s Sussex University by pianist Pete Wingfield, Jellybread was originally completed by Paul Butler (guitar/vocals), John Best (bass), and Chris Waters (drums). In 1969 the quartet secured a recording contract with the exemplary Blue Horizon Records label and although largely unadventurous, their albums offered a highly competent grasp of black music, including both blues and soul. They provided stellar accompaniment on Lightnin’ Slim's London Gumbo and B.B. King in London, but the unit dissolved in 1971 with the departure of Wingfield and Waters. Newcomers Rick Birkett (guitar, ex-Accent) and Kenny Lamb (drums) joined for Back to Begin Again, but Jellybread broke up when the set failed to make commercial headway. However, Wingfield enjoyed success as a solo artist, session pianist, and member of Olympic Runners." He's also played with Alan Parsons rhythm section, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Paul McCartney, The Hollies and Van Morrison.

Pacific Drift - Feelin' Free LP

To track 10 now, and a Liverpool band called Pacific Drift. They were Barry Reynolds (guitar, vocals), Brian Chapman (keyboards, vocals), Graham Harrop (guitar, bass), Lawrence Arendes (drums), Jack Lancaster (sax, woodwind) and Dave Davani (horns). Pacific drift was previously called Sponge, when Jack Lancaster was poached by Mick Abrahams to form Blodwyn Pig, so they made up the numbers with Larry Arendes (ex-Wimple Winch) and became Pacific Drift. They made one album in 1970.


The quartet’s debut single, a version of Spirit’s ‘Water Woman’, was followed by the 1970 self-titled album, "Feelin' Free". It had an eclectic mix of styles, jazzy pop to blues, and even a hint of country as on "Just Another Girl" that I used here. Below is a clip of them playing a half hour set for French TV, it starts with "Just Another Girl", sounding quite different to the record, with no lead guitar and no backing vocals.



For track 11 is a very special find indeed. Actually more than just special, it's some kind of one-time-only occurrence almost without precedent. I came across the album by the name of "Guitar Orchestra" while looking into the side-projects of Mick Grabham and Ray Fenwick. I tracked it down and have been knocked over by the quality of stella musicianship that it contains. The story is that guitarist Ray Fenwick (The Spencer Davis Group) and guitarist Mick Grabham (of Cochise, previously of Plastic Penny) met up one day through ex-Plastic Penny drummer Nigel Olsen, when he joined Spencer Davis Group.

Ray and Mick got on well straight away and soon formulated a plan, in the finest of '70s rock excess, to make a touring band and album dominated by many expert guitarists. Four lead guitarists were initially planned, but as it never amounted to a live entity, the multiple guitar layers and harmonies were over-dubbed by Ray and Mick. Mick claims that the idea was inspired by a 1962  LP called "Guitars'a Plenty", made by the George Barnes Guitar Choir (link). Also invited in were Dee Murray (Elton John Band) on bass and Tony Newman (May Blitz, Three Man Army) on drums. Vocals were mainly provided by John Gilbert of Cochise. Tim Renwick also guests on the album, he was mentioned at the beginning as a member of Quiver - on a small side note, Tim was a key supporting guitarist for Pink Floyd in all their shows since Momentary Lapse of Reason, up until Live 8, and a great job he did too. Dave Gilmour produced an early Quiver album, as one of his first production credits.

Mike Grabham - Ray Fenwick

The end result is a fascinating collection of mostly instrumental guitar-heavy blues, with lots of harmonised guitar parts and hints of country and progressive rock. The set opens with a nine minute rendition of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March", while impressive it is the most self-indulgent piece. The rest of the LP is played with equal skill and the songs themselves are genuinely good, with the likes of "Ghost Town" being particularly affecting, aided by John Gilbert's impassioned performance. The same can be said for the song I have picked for this comp, "Last Chicken in the Shop", a perfect choice as it's one of the most country flavoured tracks, and one of the heaviest. This is not some guitarist's show-off collection, it sounds like a fully-formed band, like a hard rock Eagles album that never-was. Lost to the vaults after being made, it was not officially released until 1997 by AngelAir. This is without doubt one of the most impressive curios I have ever found. Looking into the talents that made it, the best of Ray Fenwick, John Gilbert or Mick Grabham's previous works don't have anything to quite compare, so there was clearly a great chemistry happening when they all got together for this. It's a shame will not see more of it!

Ellis

We move on to Ellis, a band which produced two records, the debut being by far the best. The key members were namesake Steve Ellis (vocals - ex-Love Affair) and 'Zoot' Money, real name George Bruno Money (Keyboards, The Animals, Humble Pie). There's a definite Faces vibe about the LPs, not only in Steve's 'Rod Stewart' rasp, but in their good time bar-room sound. The self-depreciatingly titled debut  LP "Riding On The Crest Of  A Slump" was produced by Roger Daltrey, who Eliss was renting from and living next to at the time.

Ellis Riding On The Crest Of A Slump

I have used the track 'Your Game', with it's southern rock sound. The guitar embellishments provided by Andy Gee (real name Gröber) really push it to another level. Complementing the band along with Andy (ex-Peter Bardens), was Jimmy Leverton (bassist, ex-Fat Mattress - later replaced by Nick South) and drummer Dave Lutton. Ellis quit after the second album, which he admits was lacklustre, feeling they'd been ignored in favour of the Epic label's more established stars like Jeff Beck, Argent and Donovan. There's a good read here on Steve's website, where he talks about Ellis, using the previously-mentioned Eggs Over Easy as a backing band, his friendship with Keith Moon and almost losing his ability to walk in a dockyard accident. Steve and Zoot would soon pair up again on the first Widow Maker album in 1976.

Cochise have some relations with Hookfoot, in sound and history. Their first album had the Bluesology singer Stewart Brown, and Cochise founder Mick Grabham filled in on bass for a short time for Hookfoot. Another link to Grabham is that Hookfoot were his backing band on his solo album (link). Both bands existed at almost exactly the same time, for the same amount of time, and both made country-hued rock which got a little heavier as their albums progressed.

Cochise - So Far

Grabham was previously seen in this comp in Guitar Orchestra. He started Cochise in '69 after the demise of Plastic Penny, who made a couple of psych-pop albums in the late '60s, the second of which was pretty good. In the initial Cochise line-up with Grabham was pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, ex-Taste drummer John 'Willie' Wilson, and former Jokers Wild bassist Ricky Wills (yes, the Jokers Wild that was Dave Gilmour's first proper band - Dave haunts this article again hehe). I have used a very cool track called "Diamonds" from Cochise's third and final LP, "So Far". This is about as heavy as they got, and the other cuts on this album to go to first are "Cajun Girl" and "Midnight Moonshine".

Cochise

Like Hookfoot, Cochise passed by without making many ripples. If truth be told, they both seem to have been solid bands that were not doing anything new, and lacked a defining image or selling point. Grabhams's biggest claim to fame was afterwards, with his stint as Procol Harum guitarist from 1972 to 1975. His career after this ambled along without much else to mention here, playing with Procol a couple more times over the years. In terms of TDATS interest at least, one can only imagine what might have happened if Guitar Orchestra had become a full-blown act, for Grabham and Fenwick.

Holy Mackerel LP

To our final song for volume 112. This took me a while to track down, and I have now managed to find it, to my great satisfaction. While looking up UK bands online that had been tagged 'country rock', I discovered a completely new one to me, called Holy Mackerel. I did a youtube search for it to see if I could get a quick listen, and low and behold, I soon find a song with "Holy Mackerel - Members of Samuel Prody and Orang-Utan" in the title. Now, alarm bells start ringing. As many of you may know, Orang-Utan was the one-shot London band who recorded a great session one day in 1971.

They got stitched-up by a dodgy producer, who released it as an album in the US without telling any of them, keeping all the profits to himself of course. He even made up the artwork, and the name Orang-Utan, for the sake of the cover. There is a little more on the subject in an interview with guitarist Mick Clarke at It's Psychedelic Baby magazine (link). The connection between Orang-Utan and Holy Mackerel is singer Terry Clark. Now, Terry Clark links another band to Holy Mackerel, Jason Crest. This was a singles-only late '60s psych band who made some average stuff in their time, up until a final acclaimed heavy single in 1969; A Place In The Sun / Black Mass (youtube). Vocalist Terry, Roger Siggery (drums) and Derek Smallcombe (guitar) were all members of Jason Crest, and they all moved on to form Holy Mackerel afterwards. The final associated act is Samuel Prody, an English band that included Derek Smallcombe, which recorded one album in Germany, that has some pretty good heavy stuff on it (youtube).

Holy Mackerel band

The story goes that this group added a second lead guitarist Chris Ware, a bass player Tony Wood, and then relocated to the Lancashire countryside to practice for an album of rural rock. The result was the self-titled Holy Mackerel album, which was released by CBS in 1972. It's great! There's no doubt that the guys had a definite idea about what they wanted with Holy Mackerel, it certainly is no re-hash of Orang-Utan, Jason Crest or Samuel Prody. It's a mainly up-beat set of country rockers, with a glam edge, and a couple of ballads. Although the country aspect is of the american flavour, it still maintains a very English feel also, making this quite a unique sounding record. Don't expect any Sabbath heaviness, or any other typical hard rock moves, it's got a fresh, melodic sound of it's own, with a glam energy and urgency that rocks all the way! Apparently Holy Mackerel recorded a second album which was shelved after the band was dropped by it's label. But they did release three singles after the first album. One of which, 'Gemini', was for the second album, which was posthumously released in 1993 (link).


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