Plain and Fancy: Marvelous Kid - After The Race (1973 uk, fantastic fusion prog rock, 2024 digi sleeve)

Friday, December 13, 2024

Marvelous Kid - After The Race (1973 uk, fantastic fusion prog rock, 2024 digi sleeve)

Marvelous Kid formed in 1970 when drummer Paul Moon and guitarist Tony Coxon met keyboard player/singer Steve Betts in the St. Austell Bay area of Cornwall. The band started gigging as a three piece, playing covers as well as some of their own material. After a few months they had gathered a loyal following and were joined by celebrated local musician Spike Hooper on tenor sax. Their reputation as an original and inventive band started to grow and was given a further boost when they won a South West Best Band competition in 1970. The prize, a recording session at Decca studios in West Hampstead and a new Laney PA system, enabled them to consolidate and continue developing their own material. Soon the band were gigging all over the south west of England, headlining and supporting various name bands, their continuing success culminating in a performance at the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre.

At the end of that year Steve moved to London where he joined Grannie, another unsung prog band of the period, as lead singer, while Paul, Tony and Spike continued playing in Cornwall. In 1972, following Grannie's demise, Steve returned to Cornwall and with Tony and Paul reformed Marvelous Kid. This second incarnation of the band marked the debut of bass guitarist and vocalist Frank Artés, who had been playing with bands in Exeter, and tenor sax and flute player Ivor Carroll who'd spent time in the New York jazz scene studying with Sonny Rollins. This line up began preparing a set of original material in a Cornish country cottage. In 1973, the band travelled to Dublin to record songs for a proposed first album. Following this, and after some farewell gigs in Cornwall, the band decamped to a large house in Walton-on-Thames where they continued writing new material and began gigging on the London live music circuit. This first Marvelous Kid CD contains five of the tracks recorded in the Dublin sessions.

Kernowbeat