Carlsberg was formed in 1974 by two ex-members of The Bintangs: Arti (or Arthy) Kraayeveld (who'd been in the band Kraayeveld with his brother Frank after they'd left The Bintangs in late 1970) and Rob Kruisman (g, s, v, ex-Ekseption and Supersister, who'd been in the Kraayeveld-less Bintangs in 1971-1973). They got Bart Terlaak (ex-Bismarck and Threshold Fear, who'd played with Rob in Island) in as drummer and André Versluys (ex-Trio Juan Blanco) as bass player.
In 1975, the group released their first single, "Sweet Louise", written and produced by Arti Kraayeveld, who was, however, no longer in the band, as the picture sleeve showed: Kruisman, Versluys, Terlaak and Han Bavinck (g, ex-Mailbag) and Egon Jansen (congas). The latter had left by the time of their second single, "Rock On" (1976).
In 1977, they were dropped by Warners due to the lack of chart success and Bavinck (to Superjones) & Versluys (to Uzi and then Vitesse) were replaced by Japie (Jaap) Castricum (g, also ex-Bintangs) and Gerard (or Gé) van Dooren (b, to Jan Rot's Ratata). This line-up started touring the Dutch club circuit, building a solid reputation as an energetic live band. In 1979, they released their first album for Dureco and a Dire Straits pastiche called "All The President's Men" on a single, which hit the lower regions of the charts. Just after the release of the 1980 album, "Cash & Carry" (containing many songs co-written by Yme de Jong of Selfkick fame), another ex-Bintang joined in, Albert Schierbeek (b). That same year, they released a live album, by which time Burt van de Mey (ex-Meltin' Pot) had replaced Terlaak (to The Two) on drums. Shortly after that, Schierbeek was replaced by Willem Visser, who was, in turn, replaced by the returning van Dooren. After the 1983 album "Loaded", Carlsberg split up, apparently due to problems with the taxman.
Carlsberg frontman Kruisman raised eyebrows in 1984 by reappearing in a supporting role in De Gigantjes with original Carlsberg members Arti Kraayeveld and Bart Terlaak. This jive band (originally started as a fun project in 1982, but recording from 1984 onwards) was fronted by lady singer Mieke Stemerdink (ex-Cupcakes). On bass they initially had Ronald Krom (also an ex-Bintang), but Robert Brondsema became the permanent bassist.
In 1988, Carlsberg did a one-off reunion gig and probably another one around 1994. After the break-up of De Gigantjes in 2000, Kruisman started playing gigs with pick-up bands and sat in with other bands, but a full-fledged Carlsberg reunion was impossible due to the bad health of longtime guitarist Jaap Castricum. Of the other two former Carlsberg guitarists, Arti Kraayeveld is now a painter and Han Bavinck plays in The Leo Koster Band. Gerard van Dooren played with many Dutch top bands like Herman Brood's Wild Romance and Oscar Benton's Blues Band.
Sometimes it is all about timing. In 1977 all the music press was interested in was Punk and New Wave. Only Sounds (the UK Music Paper) was still rallying around rock music and the old guard. Even so, young rock fans (like me) were also very careful with our money. Albums were very expensive and could be a large percentage of your apprenticeship wages back then.
So hearing that David Byron the ex lead vocalist from Uriah Heep had formed a super group and was signed to Island records, was not really hot news.
David Byron had been sacked from Uriah Heep the year before for substance abuse (although musical differences was the reason back then). The last album High & Mighty had been seen as a very lightweight album and had been panned everywhere. I am sure Island Records (who had also signed the Ian Gillan Band) were thinking lets not spend too much on this.
It is a competent rock album from a bunch of musicians who obviously felt they had paid their dues. You can sense the bitterness in the lyrics from Byron in the opening track called Rock n Roll where he references his previous band. He was determined to get back in the rock first division, but alcohol and playing small venues with smaller audiences and press indifference would see the band fold before their star could shine.
The album actually cracked the Billboard top 200 in the USA, so the interest was there, but they never got the chance. I also feel the album was sequenced very badly. In the 1970s it was more common than you think to keep the best tracks until the end of side two. in more modern times you open with your strongest songs, not then. The last two tracks ‘The Link’ and ‘End Of The Line’ are epic, full of atmosphere and PROG overtones. David Byron is in fine voice throughout and he remains a very underated vocalist.
The interplay between keyboard player ‘Damon Butcher’ and Clem Clempson is terrific. Clem Clempson had auditioned for Deep Purple before this. The real find was Damon Butcher on Keyboards, this guy could really play. I do not own this on CD and I played it today to see if I should try and upgrade it, and my decision is made. I will.
by Phil Aston, 31st August 2019
Tracks
1. Rock 'n' Roll (David Byron, Geoff Britton, Martin Rushent) - 3:28
2. Lookin' For You (Clem Clempson, Damon Butcher, David Byron) - 4:06
3. Lock And Key (Clem Clempson, David Byron) - 4:59
4. Seasong (Clem Clempson, David Byron) - 7:35
5. By The Horn (Clem Clempson, David Byron) - 3:13
“Encouraging Words” stands as a pivotal album by the Rochester rock band Black Sheep, showcasing the collaborative efforts of guitarist Don Mancuso and singer Lou Gramm. Released in 1975, the album follows the success of their self-titled debut and features tracks that blend elements of hard rock with poignant lyricism.
Mancuso and Gramm’s synergy is evident in the album’s sound, with Mancuso’s dynamic guitar work complementing Gramm’s powerful vocals. Despite not achieving the same commercial success as their debut, “Encouraging Words” remains a significant contribution to Black Sheep’s discography, capturing the essence of the band’s musical journey and the creative prowess of Mancuso and Gramm.
Don Mancuso-home
Tracks
1. Halfway Home (Bruce Turgon, Lou Grammatico) - 4:19
2. Encouraging Words (Bruce Turgon, Don Mancuso, Lou Grammatico) - 5:27
3. To Whom It May Concern (Larry Crozier, Lou Grammatico) - 3:51
4. No Worry, No Pain (Bruce Turgon, Lou Grammatico) - 4:11
5. When It All Makes Sense (Larry Crozier, Lou Grammatico) - 4:24
6. The Change (Bruce Turgon) - 5:13
7. All I Am (Bruce Turgon) - 3:35
8. Shauna (Don Mancuso, Lou Grammatico) - 3:44
9. Chain On Me (Don Mancuso, Lou Grammatico) - 4:21
One of the more mellow sounds echoing out of New York in the waning months of 1975 belongs to a brand-new city-based group known as CITY LIGHTS. The band which formed earlier this year is a blend of talent, which styles itself a bit after the Led Zeppelin mold, that is blending a soft sound with" the heavy sound of the electric guitar. Judging from the sounds emanating off of -their initial album, entitled “Silent Dancing”, the year to come may prove an even brighter success story for the quartet.
The highlight of SILENT DANCING is in the harmony formed by the three vocals, Mark Abel, John Berenzy and Don Wilkins. Together they form, a lyrical sound that is reminiscent-of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in. that they are all equal co-leaders. No individual voice drowns out the others; it is all a synchronized sound. This is a unique quality lost in a lot of today's bands, which—follow the old Rolling Stones stereotype of one lead singer in competition with the instruments of the others. In the case of City Lights this is not so. Here is a balance of voices, present in each .song on the album.
The initial songs on the first side of SILENT DANCING are throwbacks to the era of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. “Changes in the World" and "Travelin' Man" both feature not only: the harmony made famous by C, S, N, and Y the lead singer sounds like Steven Stills in his delivery. The latter song begins as it is a remake of "Wooden Ships." Lest anyone think that City Lights is patterning itself after any one style, rest assured that they have undergone 'several changes during the year. Once known primarily as a blues group, they have tried deliberately to change avoid going into the rut that many bands find themselves when they" attempt to establish any" one style. For this reason, the songs on the second side of SILENT DANCING offer quite-a difference from what is on the first side. For one example, the opening cut, which is the title tune is an instrumental with a soft mellow tone. The subsequent tunes move into a style of harder rock. "Sail Like A Nightingale" provides this effect-by employing a more pointed use of guitar and drums.
Throughout the album the most noticeable feature is the manner in which the "band is able to adjust its harmonies to any style of music. In this sense, the word that ~best~ describes City Lights is diverse: By no means is this a "message" group. They are - not given to songs- of content; but concentrate rather on musical cohesiveness. As a new group, it is likely that they feel this to be the most comfortable way establishing themselves. In fact, the most remarkable trait about the lyrical quality of City Lights-" is their ability to make themselves a representative of today's generation without going all - out to say something "meaningful.'' Their music is their message, to coin a cliché and the group seems at ease with this.
The musical backgrounds from which these four men evolve is as diverse as the sounds on SILENT DANCING. John Berenzy is a guitar instructor in New- York, whose creative abilities stretch into the library area as well as music. Drummer Leland Bobbe has appeared in pit bands" on and off broad way and his interests include photography as well as the drums. Don Wilkins, who does keyboards for City Lights —comes from a musical family. His grandfather was a product of the age of ragtime, and although he began as a guitarist the heritage of his family became his own and he moved to piano. He is responsible for the more mellow of the group's output, inasmuch as his leaning Is toward love ballads. Finally, Mark Abel is the member of the quartet with the-most, extensive experience. From his pen come most of the lyrics on SILENT DANCING and his background includes periods with Michael Brown, a guitarist late of Stories, and Christian Osborne of the Plastic Ono Band. Together, these four have been able to mesh their talents into a truly melodic album.
Their music is best described: as cohesive, and it is reasonable to assume that future-endeavors will promise more of the same, subscribing to the theory that the more a group produces, the more it grows together. With City- Lights, togetherness is the key adjective
There aren’t many bands whose birthplace might, idiomatically, seem like an embargo from a period’s genre.
Not always in this case either, but often. They were never (officially) sent to Coventry but left there for five brief years 1968 to 1973. Named after a shady character in a yank pulp sex-thriller that nobody had heard of let alone, hopefully, read, Dando Shaft debunked to a communal house in leafy Ealing well-loaded with an intriguing blend of “good vibes and spirituality …an airy tapestry of influences resulting in a singular repertoire”.
Fronted by two guitarist/vocalists, Kevin Dempsey and Dave Cooper (both contribute to the booklet and had earlier gigged in local folk clubs as a duo), with multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins (vocal, guitar, mandolin, flute, fiddle etc.), Roger Bullen (upright bass) and Ted Kay on percussion not drums. They’d debated going electric but thought it might dilute their joyful, inspired magic, which at times sounds positively ethereal, especially after adding vocalist Polly Bolton from up the road in Leamington in October 1970, a pure and expressive singer who’d worked with June Tabor.
Less whimsical and more diurnal than Dr. Strangely Strange or ISB, less medieval and more coeval than Forest and Amazing Blondel, with the energy (but not wattage) of Trees, their very original sound isn’t quite like anyone else in music’s kaleidoscopic tapestry. This unique blend of quality musicianship in styles reflect a constantly progressive outlook, their website says legendary folk jazzers, and they should know. Keyed-up musical histories adapt freak folk, and this is a master class, pure and simple. Haunting as drift-smoke while on a hill in the middle of nowhere, they’re quite wonderfully pioneers of the genre.
It took off when they moved to London and replaced a cancellation at Pye Studios to cut a demo. This became an album when they recorded eight songs in four hours, with a second session for mixing and to correct a fluff on the instrumental Drops Of Brandy. It was produced by Miki Dallon, who had a failed label (Strike, which issued Roy Harper’s debut in ’67) and restarted with Young Blood Music on which appeared ‘An Evening With Dando Shaft’ in 1970, MCA in USA. The Dandos were signed to a shockingly unfair contract, Dallon still holding and profiting from the original tapes to this day! It was favourably reviewed and compared to Pentangle with a broader palette from Balkan to bluegrass, establishing their sound of many colours.
Due to friendship with Mathews Southern Comfort and John Martyn, they moved to their management agency, Axel, signing a contract for six albums over three years with an annual advance. They were hoping for a move to Island, their sound perfect for that innovative label, perhaps produced by Joe Boyd. Instead their second and eponymous LP was issued in mid-1971 as the fifth release of Neon, a new RCA subsidiary begun in March 1971 and famous for its art covers (by Pat Moran). Started by Olav Wyper, who had signed the Kinks and Sweet to the parent label, he tried to sign Dando Shaft earlier to Vertigo (whose logo he designed). Later buying Transatlantic, he left Neon which folded by the year-end after less than a dozen albums. Vertigo had worked on the basis that after 1500 units it would make a profit, so presumably it didn’t always happen for Neon.
Yet Dando Shaft briefly did chart stateside, moving to the parent company RCA for ‘Lantaloon’ (1972). Supporting bands such as Osibisa, Pentangle, Southern Comfort and Brian Auger at prestigious venues like the Roundhouse and Lyceum, they often appeared in concert and infrequently on radio e.g. two Peel sessions in June/September ’71 and January/March ’72 with nine songs overall, as well as In Concert in July with Heads, Hands & Feet. Five new songs were showcased on Stuart Henry’s programme on New Year’s Eve, just before signing to Neon. Their radio debut had been on BBC’s folk service, two of the songs still unreleased (‘Young Man;’ ‘Muntaz’). Their playing was with as much power as the electrified Steeleye Span and Fairport Convention, weaving intricate patterns through textures for a beguiling atmosphere, as if the essence of music as magic.
‘Cold Wind’/’Cat Song’ was a single on ‘Young Blood’ (1970), ‘Coming Home To Me’/’Kallyope Driver’ plus the almost Morris-like ‘Sun Clog Dance’/’This Gift’ both on RCA, the latter of July ’72 a slightly more commercial approach causing dissension in the group. They’d moved to rural Wales by the end of the year with families in tow, though Polly and Kevin stayed in west London. The group fractured, briefly reforming in 1977 for Kingdom when added electrics, drums and sax among other swag including guests, for their reputation still had kudos. Dempsey released an LP with Pentangle’s Jacqui McShee for example and toured America as a duo with Polly Bolton where he took part in sessions with Alice Coltrane and Aquarius; Bolton holds singing workshop today. Jenkins joined Hedgehog Pie then Southern Comfort and Whippersnapper with Dave Swarbrick as well as working with Richard Digance then Bert Jansch. As well as reissues on Trading Places, compilations appeared in 1994 in Germany and one of the three albums and radio in 2002. Three of the band have since exited the stage, Ted Kay (1944-2007), Martin Jenkins (1946-2011), and Roger Bullen (1946-2018).
After the appreciative audience reaction at the live recording following a week of rehearsals to peg the set-list, the group without Burton (Jenkins/Cooper/ Dempsey share the vocals) plus an accomplished guest violinist, Chris Leslie from Fairport and Whippersnapper, the group later returned to north Italy for a week-long tour. Eleven tracks are here, with most not all their most loved, what Dave Cooper overmodestly called “chord fragments and a well-turned phrase difficult to play on one’s own…that together made a kind of wonder”.
Where most tracks are around five minutes up to nearly eight, the shortest opens the set (Railway, from their second album) with chunky violin like a jigging fiddle. Rain opened the debut and is probably their most compiled and specialist radio play, here with Jenkins on mandocello. Slack-stringed guitar duels in a jazz-flavour mixing picking and strumming over tablas and male harmonies, followed by that sweet and easy ethos that sums them up in ‘If I Could Let Go,’ which with the more up tempo violin-driven ‘Feel Like I Want To Go Home’ reminds a little of the Buckleys or Nick Drake. One of their beautiful classics (Sometimes), with time -less lyrics from the folk tradition, removes the extreme vocal endings of the ’71 version augmented with delightful flute by Jenkins.
All the instruments blend on a percussive, symphonic elegy to their debut, while ‘Road Song’ opened ‘Lantaloon’ (’72) which disappointed some of the band. As with ‘Feel Like I Want To Go Home,’ the curve to the jazzier folk of later years including the lyrics is clear. This album’s title track delivers keening violin with vivid lyrical content colouring a dreamy tale-telling, followed by Riverboat which was originally famed for Polly Bolton’s vocals as a classic of that year yet is still mesmerizing here with orchestral violin and flute in heights reached by such as Amazing Blondel in the cathedral and Forest. This riverboat gliding through space and time can freeze a memory like cryogenics without its static view. The title track of Kingdom (1977) is the lone visit to that later work, gospel-like in patches about the age. The closer ‘Coming Back To Stay’ has rocking violin interplaying with a tight band for a joyous finale. Soundwaves always were their forte, though their lyrics hold gravitas.
It’s like stumbling unaware into the hidden entrance of a fairy hill to witness a celebration. Dando Shaft dance and sing about living in the day and days we go through, with smiles aplenty or reverie not so much nostalgic but as life is for living (without the cliché platitudes normal in modern music). A gem of a release from a real treasure stash.
by Brian R. Banks
Tracks
1. Coming Home To Me - 03:50
2. Railway - 02:50
3. Whispering Red - 01:39
4. Sometimes - 04:06
5. River Boat - 04:32
6. Kalyope Driver - 03:05
7. Waves Upon The Ether - 04:38
8. Dewet - 00:46
9. Till The Morning Comes - 01:48
10.Pass It On - 03:50
11.Prayer - 00:32
12.Road Song - 03:36
13.Is It Me? - 03:57
14.Down To You, Up To Me - 03:12
15.Melancholic Fervour (It's Only Us) - 03:47
16.It Was Good - 02:35
17.The Harp Lady I Bombed - 04:55
18.The Black Prince Of Paradise - 02:45
19.When I'm Weary - 03:39
20.I Heard Somewhere - 02:41
21.Magnetic Beggar - 04:14
All songs by Dave Cooper, Kevin Dempsey, Martin Jenkins, Polly Bolton, Roger Bullen, Ted Kay
Black Sheep is primarily remembered for being the band vocalist Lou Gramm sang in before joining the successful '80s rock band Foreigner. Gramm had originally been in a band called Poor Heart in the early '70s. However, nothing much came of Poor Heart, and Gramm formed Black Sheep with bassist Bruce Turgon (who would also join Foreigner) and his younger brother Richard, who played guitar. The band scored a record contract with Captiol and released two albums, a self-titled debut (1975) and Encouraging Words (1976). But the band's longevity was short-lived. First, while opening for Kiss one night, a traffic accident destroyed all the band's equipment, and there was no money for replacement equipment. Secondly, the band lost its contract. Shortly after, Gramm received a phone call from Mick Jones, formerly the guitar player for Spooky Tooth. Jones invited Gramm to join a new group he was forming, Foreigner, and Black Sheep officially came to an end.
by Jason Birchmeier
Tracks
1. Payin' Yer Dues (Lou Grammatico, Don Mancuso, Larry Crozier, Ron Rocco) - 4:12
2. Broken Promises (Lou Grammatico, Larry Crozier, Bruce Turgon) - 5:49
3. Woman Back Home (Lou Grammatico, Bruce Turgon) - 3:24
4. Piano Prelude / Let Me Stay (Larry Crozier / Lou Grammatico, Bruce Turgon) - 8:14
5. Power To Heal (Lou Grammatico, Bruce Turgon) - 3:24
6. Far Side Of The Sun (Lou Grammatico, Don Mancuso, Ron Rocco) - 6:59
7. A Little Or A Lot (Lou Grammatico, Don Mancuso, Ron Rocco) - 3:36
8. Freight Train (Lou Grammatico, Don Mancuso, Ron Rocco) - 3:06
9. Woman (Paul Rodgers, Andy Fraser) - 8:23
10.Stick Around (Lou Grammatico, Bruce Turgon) - 3:27
11.Cruisin' (For Your Love) (Lou Grammatico, Bruce Turgon) - 3:04
Although Rock has always been powered by the mysterious energy of human charisma, one still has to ask where the Stones Satisfaction would have been without a fuzztone, or how Eric Clapton could have possibly survived without the wah-wah. These men, the innovators, were eventually recognized not merely for the in- novation, itself, but for the talent which enabled them to utilize these otherwise gimmicks in a most original and stunning way.
Welcome now one Jimmy Berick, a California kid who grew up on Clapton and Beck and who, like thousands of kids, played everything he could get his hands on. Berick, a wild-eyed introvert, formed a hot local group, but preferred to experiment and make tapes in his Sacramento garage. By accident, through a friend of a friend, the tapes came to the attention of Epic A&R man Michael Sunday who was impressed when friends described Berick's following and the strange contraption in his garage. (Berick had perfected a flying wedge of twin chrome- plated double-neck steel guitars with thirty-two resonating strings. The assemblage, which Berick plays with steel bar slides in each hand is channeled through a variety of sound accessories driven by a wall of Marshall amplifiers). But what impressed Sunday even more was that heavy metal could survive and blossom in the traditionally laid-back Bay area.
The Jimmy Berick Group was signed in November 1973 by Epic, and they started to expand into San Francisco clubs. But they were coldly received. As group friend-and-guiding-light Richard Kipsgard put it, "we come in through the back door. We were filling Bay area clubs, but nobody wanted to admit that a metal band could do that. The only answer, as we saw it, was to be as tight as possible."
Late 1973, Hollywood aristocrat Kim Fowley and friend Mars Bonfire saw the group. Mars, who had written the classic Born To Be Wild, was blown out and suggested the name MASTERS OF THE AIRWAVES. It was a compliment. Berick, lead singer John Flak (who was already tired of being compared to Robert Plant) and bassists Randy Rand and David Rodo accepted.
Their first Epic album, Masters of The Airwaves, sports a variety of styles with songs whose topics range from alien landings to Hollywood bitch celebrities to Texas highways. Still, the basic thunder is unmistakable. It is safe to predict that the Masters' first national tour will leave behind a wake of garage bands. All sporting newly chromed pedal mega- steel guitars.
Liner Notes
Tracks
1. In It for the Thrill (Jimmy Berick, Mars Bonfire) - 5:45
2. I Believe in God (Kim Fowley, Becky Hobbs, Lewis Anderson) - 4:26
3. Stay Away From Mirrors (Jimmy Berick, Kim Fowley) - 3:23
4. Light Up the Heavens (Jimmy Berick, Michael Checik) - 5:15
5. Anna King Jamaica (Jimmy Berick) - 3:40
6. Back in '51 (Jimmy Berick, Michael Checik) - 3:35
7. Squeeze Me Positive (Jimmy Berick) - 2:35
8. Highway to Hell (Jimmy Berick, Michael Checik) - 3:43
9. Gettin' Tight (Jimmy Berick, Randy Rand, David Rada, Jon Flak) - 6:00
The bands on this selection represent the innovative boiling point of the short-lived worldwide psychedelic rock movement between 1967-71, the years when garage punk evolved into heavy psychedelic rock with its wider soundscapes and complex improvisations. Vol. 1 contains a dozen 45-rpm songs by lost psychedelic messengers (8 US bands, one from Germany, Peru and France). The groups are Blackrock, Sound Machine, Yesterday/s Obsession, Mastermind, Sangre Mexicana, Bhagavad Gita, Protein Bros, Purple Canteen, Los Nuevos Shains, Blow Mind and the A & B-side of legendary Dirty Filthy Mud. About half of the songs are previously unreissued and appear in stunning soundquality and with 12 p. poster-booklet.
Artists - Title - Composer
1. Blackrock - Black Cloud Overhead (Archie Turner, Cornell McFadden, Joseph Reynolds, Kirk Dudley, Willie Pettis) - 3.36
It's not well known, but long before he joined Foreigner -- and even before he was in Spooky Tooth -- Mick Jones made quite a few records with Tommy Brown, the pair working in France for much of the period. This French CD collects 24 tracks in which they were involved between 1965 and 1971, encompassing recordings billed to several different monikers, including the State of Mickey & Tommy, the Blackburds, Nimrod, the J&B, and Thomas F. Browne. It may be that the singles they released as the State of Mickey & Tommy, obscure as those 45s are, are the best known of the lot, especially "With Love from One to Five," which has shown up on a few relatively high-profile U.K. psychedelia compilations. That does happen to be one of the better numbers, but generally this CD has fair, though not exceptional, music that reflects the British mod, pop/rock, and psychedelic trends of the time with occasional hints of French and Continental influences. "With Love from One to Five" is typical if classy 1967 orchestrated psychedelic pop; "Nobody Knows Where You've Been" strongly recalls the arrangements on Sgt. Pepper's cuts like "Within You, Without You"; and "Frisco Bay" is nice dainty, dreamy pop with beatific Summer of Love lyrics and the lightest hints of raga-rock.
All of those songs were found on singles credited to the State of Mickey & Tommy; the ones billed to the Blackburds are more like soul-flavored British mod rock that could serve as incidental film music, while Nimrod's 1969 single "The Bird" (previously included on several collector-oriented comps of rare British psychedelia) is a fairly strong relic bridging psychedelia with early progressive rock. The best track, however, is the relatively unheralded 1966 single "There She Goes" by the J&B, a quite haunting, dramatic song that's a bit like a mini-soundtrack to a story of Swinging London heartbreak. As a whole, this will hardly qualify Jones and Brown as lost masters of mid- to late-'60s British rock, but there's pleasant period music of the genre to be heard, virtually all of it from extremely rare recordings (including soundtracks).
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. With Love From 1 To 5 - 3:01
2. Sunday's Leaving - 2:43
3. I know What I Would Do - 3:06
4. Quelqu'un Qui Part (Mick Jones, Tommy Brown, Long Chris) - 2:36
5. Frisco Bay - 3:14
6. Julian Waites - 2:24
7. Nobody Knows Where You've Been - 2:40
8. Good Time Music (John Sebastian) - 2:56
9. If I Could Be Shure - 3:11
10.Alice - 2:48
11.Promenade Dans La Foret Du Brabant (Mick Jones, Tommy Brown, Giorgio Gomelsky) - 2:19
12.Absolument Hyde Park (Mick Jones, Tommy Brown, Raymond Donnez) - 3:10
13.Get Out Of My Life Woman (Allen Toussaint) - 2:43
14.Don't Go Home (Johnny Lehmann, Stan Lebowsky) - 1:59
15.In The Crowd (Billy Page) - 2:49
16.Don't Need Nobody - 3:24
17.The Bird - 3:16
18.Don't Let It Get The Best Of You - 2:23
19.There She Goes (Mick Jones, Tommy Brown, Gilles Thibaut) - 2:39
20.Wow! Wow! Wow! (Mick Jones, Tommy Brown, Georges Aber) - 2:43
21.Never At All (Eddie Vartan, Tommy Brown) - 2:22
22.Then You Got Everything (Eddie Vartan, Tommy Brown) - 1:52
23.Gentle Sarah - 2:54
24.Carry My Load - 4:14
All songs written by Mick Jones, Tommy Brown except where noted
When the original LP by Synanthesia was released in the late sixties, the album cover gave no information about the band: sleeve notes had already become a thing of the past. Happily, the 2006 re-release on CD includes a little booklet which explains a little bit more about Synanthesia, how it came together, and what the group was trying to do.
The late sixties were a time of change in the pop music scene in England. The beat period of the early sixties, when a specifically English beat sound emerged to dominate pop music, came to a close. During the mid-sixties, after the release of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album, itself the culmination of more original ideas flowing into the Beatles' music, flower power took over. This started a wealth of new groups (or as they started to be called, bands), some of whom departed from rock-and-roll and beat, some leaning more towards folk and jazz. At the time, this music became labelled "underground" or "progressive". Among the most successful at that time were bands such as Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, the Moody Blues, and King Crimson. Three-guitar-and-drums groups gave way to more varied instrumentation, with the introduction of wind instruments, especially sax and flute, and, to a lesser extent, strings.
London had become the centre of a new-style folk scene. Bob Dylan had introduced the idea of the singer-songwriter and inspired a whole range of this kind of artist in London, notably Bert Jansch (later to team up with John Renbourn in the acoustic band Pentangle) and another visitor from America, Paul Simon. The doors were open to music which was original, breaking away from the standard formulas of yesterday. Outstanding in originality was the Incredible String Band. Playing a multitude of instruments, the two musicians in that band, Robin Williamson and Mike Heron, drew on all sorts of different traditions, from Scotland to Afghanistan. The music was poetic and romantic. In the sixties, we allowed ourselves to dream.
In 1968 I started working in the small ad section at Melody Maker, at that time London's leading music newspaper. The paper went to press on Tuesday and Monday mornings always saw a never-ending procession of people coming to the office to place last-minute ads, looking for gigs, musicians, etc. Like many bands at that time, Synanthesia came together through the small-ad columns of Melody Maker. Dennis Homes, who brought the three of us together, placed an unusually long advertisement under "Musicians Wanted". What was he looking for? A second guitarist and a flute-player. Unusually, he listed all his musical preferences. I noticed that he was living in the same unfashionable part of London as I was: the working-class East End. We met.
Dennis had already been in the music scene for quite some time, playing bass guitar in a soul band. He played me some of his original songs and I was struck by their complexity and unusual quality (and the fact that they had nothing to do with soul music). I remember him saying that he was interested in doing something really different. Only 18, I was then more or less a beginner on the guitar, but already had a distinct preference for acoustic fingerstyle playing. At that time the only things I could play, like many other players at that time, were songs I had learned listening to records (in those days the more interesting ones were harder to find and much more expensive!) and trying to work out what how the guitarist was getting his sound. I had also started to make up some songs of my own, initially very influenced by the style of Bert Jansch. In this I was inspired by Richard Carlton, a schoolfriend who taught me how to read music and who composed two of the tunes included on the Synanthesia LP.
The third member of the band was Jim Fraser. Jim was from the North of England and had just arrived in London. Unlike us, he was a jazzman through and through and had spent many a night blowing away in jazz sessions. He had an amazing gift for tasteful flute, sax and oboe improvisation around the tunes that Dennis and I played to him. With me on vocals and guitar, Dennis added his guitar or vibraphone, an instrument completely unheard of in "progressive" music. With Dennis on guitar and vocals, I accompanied on guitar or bongos and even ventured out on violin and mandolin.
We set out to be an acoustic band. We recorded a demo and Dennis hawked it around. This resulted in interest from an agency, Chrysalis (later to become a huge record label), and led on to gigs, mostly at colleges and universities. The setting in which we presented our music was not always the ideal one for us. Most of the other groups were amplified and loud. We played music which needed to be listened to: the aim was not to blow people over with a wall of sound. Still, it was an interesting experience.
After one concert, our agent told us that a guy was interested in recording us. The following Monday we were to go to a recording studio in Chelsea, a fashionable part of London. Another interesting experience. A visit to the toilet revealed a part of the studio with shelves stacked with master tapes by musicians I admired: the Incredible String Band, for example. I recall that at our second session (we only did two for the whole album!) we saw the gear that Fairport Convention had left lying around.
The album completed, we had to wait for its release. This proved more difficult. None of the record companies seemed to be interested. It was only after a long wait that we were signed up to RCA and the record came out. Unfortunately, RCA was not prepared to invest much in getting the public's attention. In those days, when the Home Service had recently been re-named Radio 1, local radio was in its infancy. Practically the only way of getting a hearing for our kind of music was by being invited to appear on Top Gear, John Peel's radio programme. We were not invited.
And so, the Synanthesia album flopped. The inevitable followed: we disbanded. It was impossible to keep on doing gigs in faraway towns and continue our day jobs. But we all needed the income from our day jobs.
Over the years, various friends reported that they had seen the Synanthesia LP on sale for 50p at Woolworth. It was only this year, 37 years later, that I suddenly heard the record was being sold on E-Bay for surprisingly large sums of money, that some time ago there had been a bad quality bootleg version, and that Sunbeam Records had been in touch with Dennis about a re-release. And that also, even more unexpectedly, one of the songs from our one and only album had been included on an anthology of British Folk music, called Anthems in Eden, on the Sanctuary label. This is very gratifying, especially in view of the fact that the other artists on that collection include many of those who influenced us.
One big plus about all this is that the three of us are now back in touch. Dennis tells me that up to the end of March 2006, the Synanthesia CD has already sold 632 copies. Not enough for platinum, but also not bad for a 37-year-old album.
by Les Cook, 2006
Tracks
1. Minerva - 4:15
2. Peek Strangely And Worried Evening (Les Cook) - 2:47
3. Morpheus - 5:51
4. Trafalgar Square (Les Cook, Richard Carlton) - 3:02
5. Fates - 2:02
6. The Tale Of The Spider And The Fly (Les Cook) - 5:58
7. Vesta - 4:45
8. Rolling And Tumbling (Les Cook, Richard Carlton) - 3:14
9. Mnemosyne - 5:20
10.Aurora - 3:50
11.Just As The Curtain Finally Falls (Les Cook) - 5:01
