A warm welcome to
Rob Clarke and the Wooltones.
This is an excerpt from their track on a new
album from Fruits de Mer
Records - 'A
Phase We're
Going Through' - 11 classic slices of sixties psychedelia reinterpreted by new bands, with lashings of phasing, studio trickery and love for the originals, of course.
In this excerpt, Rob Clarke and the Wooltones track down an obscure
British beauty - '
Mind of a
Child', by
Clouds - taken from one of their long-lost albums from the late sixties/early seventies on the
Island label.
Rob and the band are ably supported by engineer par excellence
Fran Ashcroft on this, Fran's 'Oot There' mix. But this is just an excerpt - you'll only hear the full version by buying the album. email us at info@fruitsdemerrecords.com to find out more, visit us at www.myspace.com/fdmer2 and check out our webshop at www.fruitsdemerrecords.com
Fruits de Mer Records - classic psych, prog, acid-folk and krautrock - and always on vinyl
a bit of background on the band
...
Early Days:
The Premiers
In early 1964, Ian
Ellis and
Harry Hughes were playing in a band called The Premiers.
The band itself consisted of
Bill Lawrence (bass guitar), Shammy Lafferty (rhythm guitar),
Derek Reid (
Lead guitar), Harry Hughes (drums) and Ian Ellis (vocals). It was decided that an organ would help the sound of the band, and
Billy Ritchie joined.
Cyril Stapleton took the band to
London to record some demos, but nothing came of that, and Derek Reid, Bill Lawrence, and
James Lafferty decided to leave. It seemed that
Ritchie joining the band had prompted more changes than had been intended. Ian Ellis decided that he would take up the position of bass guitarist as well as lead vocalist. The group decided to move in a new musical direction, and changed their name from The Premiers to
1-2-3.
1-2-3 had a much different sound from the previous band, or from almost any other band at that time.[1] After achieving little success in
Scotland, the band moved to
London, England where they hoped that their original music would catch on, but "early audiences were confused by the lack of a guitarist."
The band were given a headlining residency performing at the
Marquee Club, which was unusual, as they hadn't first performed the customary support spots. At the time, they were described as "a unique group...who have created an entirely new sound in pop group music". The same publication referred to "the truly exciting nature of 1-2-3." During the time the group performed at the club during 1967, they were signed by
NEMS management company and
Brian Epstein of
Beatles fame. This event was heralded in the
National Press, complete with photograph and accompanying article.
Among the
Marquee audiences were future superstars such as
Keith Emerson,
Rick Wakeman,
King Crimson,
Yes, and
David Bowie, who said, when interviewed by
Record Mirror in 1967, that they were "three thistle and haggis voiced bairns [who] had the audacity to face a mob of self-opinionated hippies with a brand of unique pop music which, because of its intolerance of mediocrity, floated, as would a Hogarth cartoon in Beano.
The death of Brian Epstein, founder of NEMS, left the band in the care of
Robert Stigwood, his successor. But Stigwood had just signed
The Bee Gees, fellow
Australians, and was preoccupied with making them a success. This brought an end to the management relationship shortly afterwards. After parting company with NEMS, the band kept busy playing in the local
London club circuit. At a club in
Ilford, east London, the band were seen by
Terry Ellis who quickly signed them to his new agency, and re-named the band Clouds.
Originally known as the Ellis-Wright agency, the organisation grew and became
Chrysalis. Clouds had also risen in prominence, playing many major tours, and appearing at the
Royal Albert Hall and many of the headlining concert venues in the world, including the
Fillmore East in
New York.[6] The band released a number of albums during this period. The recordings were generally very well received by the critics, with respectable sales.
Concert reviews were also favourable. A review of a
1970 concert at the Arragon ballroom,
Chicago, began by saying 'This band will be a giant.'
But despite some initial success for the band, Chrysalis increasingly focused its attention on
Jethro Tull, and the momentum was lost. Only in hindsight was the pioneering role of the group revealed, and in that light, it was 1-2-3 who had carried the torch. Ritchie, the organist, was credited as being the first of his kind, providing a role model for others, such as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman.Though the later incarnation, Clouds, was interesting, the music had become somewhat watered-down and mainstream, and the group disbanded in
October 1971, unable to find a niche in an overcrowded progressive rock scene.
Fractals courtesy of
http://www.fractal-animation.net/ufvp
.html - check it out!
- published: 16 Feb 2010
- views: 1636