Quentin Robert Duthie Skinner (born 26 November 1940, Oldham, Lancashire)^[1] is the Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary, University of London.

Biography[link]

Quentin Skinner was born the second son of Alexander Skinner, CBE (died 1979), and Winifred Rose Margaret, née Duthie (died 1982). Educated at Bedford School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, he was elected into a Fellowship there in 1962 upon obtaining a double-starred first in History, but immediately gained a teaching Fellowship at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he remained until moving to the University of London in 2008. He is now an Honorary Fellow of both Christ's College and Gonville and Caius College.

In the middle 1970s he spent four formative years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, initially as a historian and latterly in the School of Social Science. It was there that he met Raymond Geuss, later a colleague at Cambridge. Together with John Dunn and J. G. A. Pocock Skinner has been said to have founded the "Cambridge School" of the history of political thought. In 1978 he was appointed to the chair of Political Science at the University of Cambridge, and in 1996 he was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History. He was pro-vice-chancellor of Cambridge in 1999. In 1979 he married Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College London; they have a daughter and a son.

Skinner has delivered many prestigious lecture-series, including the Gauss Seminars at Princeton (1980), the Carlyle Lectures at Oxford (1980), the Messenger Lectures at Cornell (1983), the Tanner Lectures at Harvard (1984), the T. S. Eliot Memorial Lectures at Kent (1995), the Ford Lectures at Oxford (2003), the Page-Barbour Lectures at Virginia (2003), the Benedict Lectures at Boston (2005) and the Adorno Lectures at Frankfurt (2005).

Skinner was Distinguished Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London for the 2007-2008 academic year, and has been Barber Beaumont Professor of the Humanities at Queen Mary since October 2008.^[2]

Skinner is a Fellow of numerous scholarly associations, including the British Academy, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academia Europaea and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and his scholarship has won him many awards, including the Wolfson Prize for History (1979); the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize of the British Political Studies Association (2006); the Benjamin Lippincott Award (2001) and the David Easton Award (2007) of the American Political Science Association; the Bielefelder Wissenschaftspreis (2008); and a Balzan Prize (2006). He holds honorary degrees from many Universities, including Aberdeen, Athens, East Anglia, Chicago, Harvard, Helsinki, Leuven, Oxford, Santiago and St Andrews.

Academia[link]

Skinner's historical writings have been characterised by an interest in recovering the ideas of Early Modern and previous political writers. This has been spread over Renaissance republican authors (see in Principal publications below, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought [1978]), the 'pre-Humanist' dictatores of later medieval Italy, Machiavelli, and more recently (in Liberty before Liberalism [1998]) the English republicans of the mid-seventeenth century (including John Milton, James Harrington, and Algernon Sidney). The work of the 1970s and 1980s was in good part directed towards writing an account of the history of the modern idea of the state. In more recent publications he has preferred the more capacious term 'neo-Roman' to 'republican'.

He is generally regarded as one of the two principal members of the influential 'Cambridge School' of the study of the history of political thought. The other principal member of this school is the historian J.G.A. Pocock, whose The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law (1957) was a significant early influence. Another important stimulus came from the work of Peter Laslett, and more particularly from Laslett's decisive edition of John Locke's Two Treatises of Government (1960) which Skinner read as an undergraduate in his second year at Cambridge.

The 'Cambridge School' is best known for its attention to the 'languages' of political thought and the contextual focus this gives its distinctive blend of intellectual history and the history of political thought.^[3] Skinner's particular contribution was to articulate a theory of interpretation which concentrated on recovering the 'speech acts' embedded in the 'illocutionary' statements of specific individuals in writing works of political theory (Machiavelli, Thomas More, and Thomas Hobbes have been continuing preoccupations). This work was based on Skinner's study of the philosophical preoccupations of J. L. Austin and the later Wittgenstein. One of the consequences of this account of interpretation is an emphasis on the necessity of studying less well-known political writers as a means of shedding light on the classic authors - although it also consciously questions the extent to which it is possible to distinguish 'classic' texts from the contexts, and particularly the arguments, in which they originally occurred and as such it is an attack on the uncritical assumption that political classics are monolithic and free-standing. In its earlier versions this added up to what many have seen as a persuasive critique on the approach of an older generation, particularly on that of Leo Strauss.

Skinner's longstanding concern with the speech acts of political writing helps explain his turn at the beginning of the 1990s towards the role of neo-classical rhetoric in early modern political theory, which resulted in his study of Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (1996). Skinner has since returned to what has often been seen as an enduring interest to the Regius Professors of History at the University of Cambridge (not least Lord Acton), the history of liberty and particular developing what he has articulated as a 'third form of liberty'. This can most effectively be described as a form of 'negative' liberty (or neo-Roman) which is characterised however by the active participation in government to remain free from interference and the slavery caused by succumbing to an arbitrary power. See for example Quentin Skinner, ‘A Third Concept of Liberty’, Proceedings of the British Academy, 117 (2002), pp. 237–68. His most recent work was an analysis of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes as a polemical retort to those who, in the English civil war, espoused precisely such a 'neo-Roman' concept of human freedom.

Miscellany[link]

In an interview with Professor Alan Macfarlane of Kings College, Skinner revealed that he was a member of the Cambridge Apostles, a secret society of Cambridge University. He also revealed that Amartya Sen was a fellow member at this time. He commented they were both 'outed' some time ago.

Principal publications[link]

Books

• The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume I: The Renaissance (Cambridge University Press, 1978)
• The Foundations of Modern Political Thought: Volume II: The Age of Reformation (Cambridge University Press, 1978)
• Machiavelli (Oxford University Press, 1981)
• Reason and Rhetoric in the Philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge University Press, 1996)
• Liberty before Liberalism (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
• Visions of Politics: Volume I: Regarding Method (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Visions of Politics: Volume II: Renaissance Virtues (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Visions of Politics: Volume III: Hobbes and Civil Science (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
• L'artiste en philosophie politique (Editions du Seuil, Paris, 2003)
• Hobbes and Republican Liberty (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Books edited

• (Co-editor and contributor), Philosophy, Politics and Society: Fourth Series (Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 1972)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Philosophy in History (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
• (Editor and contributor), The Return of Grand Theory in the Human Sciences (Cambridge University Press, 1985)
• (Co-editor and contributor), The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
• (Co-editor), Machiavelli, The Prince (trans. Russell Price) (Cambridge University Press, 1988)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Machiavelli and Republicanism (Cambridge University Press, 1990)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Political Discourse in Early-modern Britain (Cambridge University Press, 1993)
• (Co-editor) Milton and Republicanism (Cambridge University Press, 1995)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, Volume I: Republicanism and Constitutionalism in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Republicanism: A Shared European Heritage, Volume II: The Values of Republicanism in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• (Co-editor and contributor), States and Citizens: History, Theory, Prospects (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
• (Co-editor), Thomas Hobbes: Writings on Common Law and Hereditary Right (The Clarendon Edition of the Works of Thomas Hobbes, Volume XI) (The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2005)
• (Co-editor and contributor), Sovereignty in Fragments: The Past, Present and Future of a Contested Concept (Cambridge University Press, 2010)

Interviews

• 1997: ‘An Interview with Quentin Skinner’, Cogito 11, pp. 69–78.
• 2000a: ‘Intervista a Quentin Skinner: Conseguire la libertà promuovere l’uguaglianza’, Il pensiero mazziniano 3, pp. 118–22.
• 2000b: ‘Entrevista: Quentin Skinner’ in As muitas faces da história, ed. Maria Lúcia Pallares-Burke, Brazilia, pp. 307–39. [Trans. in The New History: Confessions and Conversations, ed. Maria Lúcia Pallares-Burke, Cambridge, 2003.]
• 2001: ‘Quentin Skinnerin haastattelu’, Niin & Näin 31, pp. 8–23.
• 2002: ‘Encountering the Past: An Interview with Quentin Skinner’ Finnish Yearbook of Political Thought 6, pp. 32–63.
• 2003: ‘La Libertà Politica ed il Mestiere dello Storico: Intervista a Quentin Skinner’, Teoria Politica 19, pp. 177–85.
• 2006: ‘Historia intelectual y acción política: Una entrevista con Quentin Skinner’, Historia y Política 16, pp. 237–58.
• 2007a: ‘Neither text, nor context: An interview with Quentin Skinner’, Groniek: Historisch Tijdschrift 174, pp. 117–33.
• 2007b: ‘La Historia de mi Historia: Una Entrevista con Quentin Skinner’, El giro contextual: Cinco ensayos de Quentin Skinner y seis comentarios, ed. Enrique Bocardo Crespo, Madrid, pp. 45–60.
• 2007c: ‘Intellectual History, Liberty and Republicanism: An Interview with Quentin Skinner’, Contributions to the History of Concepts 3, pp. 102–23.
• 2008: ‘Concepts only have histories’, interview with Quentin Skinner by Emmanuelle Tricoire and Jacques Levy, EspacesTemps, document 3692
• 2009a: ‘Making History; The Discipline in Perspective: Interview with Professor Quentin Skinner’, Storia e Politica, 1, pp. 113–34.
• 2009b: ‘Wie frei sind wir wirklich?’ Fragen an Quentin Skinner’, Zeitschrift fűr Ideengeschichte 3, pp. 5–21.

Bibliography

• 1988: James Tully (Editor), Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics (Polity Press and Princeton University Press).
• 1995: M. Edling and U. Morkenstam, ‘Quentin Skinner: From Historian of Ideas to Political Scientist’, Scandinavian Political Studies 18, pp. 119–32.
• 1996: ‘Dossier Quentin Skinner’, Krisis 64.
• 2001: ‘Quentin Skinner og Intellektuel Historie’, Slagmark: Special Number (33)
• 2003a: Kari Palonen, Quentin Skinner: History, Politics, Rhetoric (Cambridge: Polity Press).
• 2003b: Kari Palonen, Die Entzauberung der Begriffe: Das Umschreiben der politischen Begriffe bei Quentin Skinner und Reinhart Koselleck (Münster).
• 2006: Annabel Brett and James Tully (Editors), Rethinking the Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
• 2007a: Emile Perreau-Saussine, ‘Quentin Skinner in context’, Review of Politics, 68, pp. 106–122.
• 2007b: Enrique Bocardo Crespo (Editor), El giro contextual: Cinco ensayos de Quentin Skinner y seis comentarios (Madrid: Editorial Tecnos).
• 2007c: Michael Drolet, ‘Quentin Skinner and Jacques Derrida on Power and the State’, History of European Ideas, 33, pp. 234–55.
• 2008: Ryan Walter, ‘Reconciling Foucault and Skinner on the state: the primacy of politics?’ History of the Human Sciences, 21, pp. 94–114.
• 2009a: Richard Fisher '"How to do things with books": Quentin Skinner and the dissemination of ideas', History of European Ideas 35, pp. 276–80.
• 2009b: Frank Beck Lassen and Mikkel Thorup (Editors), Quentin Skinner: Politik og historie: En tekstsamling (Copenhagen: Hans Reitzels Forlag).
• 2010: Marco Geuna, 'Quentin Skinner e Machiavelli' in Anglo-American Faces of Machiavelli, ed. A. Arienzo and G. Borrelli, Milano, pp. 577–622.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities Professor Quentin Skinner - official page
• Philosophy Bites podcast of Quentin Skinner on Hobbes on the State
• Philosophy Bites podcast of Quentin Skinner on Machiavelli's The Prince
• Radio interview explains some of concepts regarding freedom and democracy that earned the recognition of 2006 Balzan Prize, in RealAudio or in MP3 referenced in a Google cached page from Vatican Radio dated 14 December 2006 at dataset 15.12.21.
• - 'Three Concepts of Liberty' Video recorded at the Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Germany.

Philosophy portal

• On Encountering the Past – An interview with Quentin Skinner by Petri Koikkalainen and Sami Syrjämäki.
• Quentin Skinner interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 10th January 2008 (film)
• "What is the State?" Wolfson 2007 Lecture (audio and video)
• "What is Freedom?" Lecture (audio)
• "Interview with Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University" Full Interview Video, 2008, Part I of II.
• "Interview with Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University" Full Interview Video, 2008, Part II of II.
• "The Paradoxes of Political Liberty", The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Harvard University, 1984
• "A Third Concept of Liberty", Isaiah Berlin Lecture at the British Academy, 2002

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The Foundations were a British soul band, active from 1967 to 1970. The group, made up of West Indians, White British, and a Sri Lankan, are best known for their two biggest hits, "Baby Now That I've Found You" (a Number One hit in the UK Singles Chart and Canada, and subsequently Top 10 in the US), written by Tony Macaulay and John MacLeod; and "Build Me Up Buttercup" (a number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 1 in Canada), co-written by Macaulay with Mike d'Abo, at the time the lead vocalist with Manfred Mann. The group was the first multi-racial group to have a number 1 hit in the UK in the 1960s.^[1]

The Foundations are notable for being one of the few label acts to successfully imitate what became known as the Motown Sound. In terms of line-up and musical style, they anticipated the sound of the more successful Hot Chocolate. They were in a similar musical vein as Love Affair, who also topped the UK charts in 1968 with their version of Robert Knight's "Everlasting Love". The Foundations signed to Pye, at the time one of only four big UK record companies (the others being EMI with its HMV, Columbia Records, and Parlophone labels; Decca; and Philips who also owned Fontana).^[2]

Biography[link]

Origins[link]

The Foundations drew much interest and intrigue due to the size and structure of the group. Not only was there a diverse ethnic mix in the group, but there was also diversity in ages and musical backgrounds. The oldest member of the group was Mike Elliott, who was 38 years old. The youngest was Tim Harris, who, at 18, was barely out of school. The West Indian horn section, which consisted of Jamaican-born Mike Elliott and Pat Burke, both saxophonists and Dominican-born Eric Allendale on trombone. They were all highly experienced musicians who came from professional jazz and rock-and-roll backgrounds. Mike Elliott had played in various jazz and rock and roll bands including Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott,^[3] the Cabin Boys (led by Tommy Steele's brother, Colin Hicks), and others. Pat Burke, a professional musician, was from the London Music Conservatorium. Eric Allendale had led his own band at one stage as well as having played with Edmundo Ros and being a former member of the Terry Lightfoot^[4] and Alex Walsh bands. Alan Warner, the guitarist, was also an experienced musician for his age, having played with numerous semi-pro groups from the age of 16.^[5] Bassist Peter Macbeth was a former teacher. Tony Gomez, the keyboard player, was a former clerk, while Clem Curtis had been an interior decorator and professional boxer.

The story of the origins of the Foundations can be somewhat surprising and a bit confusing as to who was responsible for choosing the band's name, and various sources give slightly different accounts of their beginnings. One version is that they were originally called The Ramong Sound,^[5][6] or The Ramongs, and there were two lead singers, Clem Curtis and Psychedelic shock rocker Arthur Brown.^[7] Other variations on this are that after they dropped the "Ramong" from their name, they were then called The Foundation Squad or The Foundation Sound.^[5] Apparently, Arthur Brown was only a temporary member for about one month, and by the time the Foundations had signed to Pye, he had left the group.

The Foundations actually did come together in Bayswater, London in January 1967. They practiced and played in a basement club called the Butterfly Club, which they ran.^[8] While managing the club themselves, they played music nightly, and handled the cooking and cleaning. They would get to bed around 6 or 7 a.m., sleep until 4 p.m., get up and begin again to get ready to open at 8 p.m. Sometimes they barely made enough money to pay the rent, let alone feed themselves. At times, they lived off the leftovers and a couple of pounds of rice.^[9] They stayed there until they were eventually forced out by a protection racket gang and then had to move next door to a dingy unused mini-cab office.^[10]

Career from 1967[link]

While the biography on Allmusic states that Barry Class was the first to discover them,^[1] Alan Warner, the original founding member and lead guitarist of The Foundations and former Ramongs member states that it was actually Fairway who saw them in the dingy office and then introduced them to Class.^[10] Either way, both Fairway and Class teamed up to become their managers.^[11] Class took care of the business management, while Fairway went out promoting and trying to secure gigs for the group.^[10]

When they were at the top spot with "Baby, Now That I've Found You", Fairway commented to Melody Maker that most management would pull them out of the "bargain priced dates" that were booked for some time. He expressed gratitude to everyone for their support, and said that they would fulfill every engagement for which they had signed.^[3]

Not long after "Baby, Now That I've Found You" became a hit, rock historian Roger Dopson describes what followed as a "behind the scenes struggle",^[3] where Fairway was "pushed out" and his partner, Barry Class, remained as sole manager of the group. Fairway later attempted to sue the band, alleging that he was wrongfully dismissed, though the band said that he had resigned of his own accord.^[12] Dopson also noted that Fairway also leaked a story to the media saying that the Foundations had broken up which only served to keep the Foundations name in the news headlines.^{[3] [13]} Fairway and Class eventually introduced them to Pye A&R man Tony Macaulay.^[10] The day Macaulay came to hear them play, he was suffering from what he described as the worst hangover of his life. The band was playing so loud he could not judge how good they were, but he decided to give them a chance.^[3] He would later comment in the book, 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, that he woke up that morning with a stinking headache, and when he got to the studio and heard The Foundations, he thought they were pretty terrible. He decided his hangover was to blame, and so he gave them the benefit of the doubt.^[14]

At first they found progress quite slow, and one of their sax players, Pat Burke, had to drop out of the band and take another job while they went through a rough patch. He did rejoin them again later in 1967.^{[15] [16]}

They did a couple of tours backing The Toys and later Motown Records' Edwin Starr.^[10] Curtis doubted if this group called The Toys was the original Toys let alone American. They were noticed by Brian Epstein who added them to the roster of his NEMS Agency but the contract became void when he died.^[17]

When "Baby Now That I've Found You" was first released it went nowhere. Luckily the BBC's newly founded BBC Radio 1 were looking to avoid any records being played by the pirate radio stations and they looked back at some recent releases that the pirate stations had missed. "Baby, Now That I've Found You" was one of them. The single then took off and by November was number one in the UK Singles Chart.^[2] This was the ideal time because of the soul boom that was happening in England since 1965 and with American R&B stars visiting the UK, interest and intrigue in The Foundations was generated. Their second single released in January 1968, "Back On My Feet Again", did not do as well but made it to #18 in the UK,^[2] and #29 in Canada. Also in January 1968 they were invited to put down some tracks for John Peel's radio show. One of the tracks that they laid down was a cover of ? and the Mysterians garage classic 96 Tears.^[18][19] On the same day PP Arnold was in the studio with Dusty Springfield and Madeline Bell as her backing vocalists.^[18]

Around this time after the release of their second single, there were tensions developing between the band and their songwriter/producer, Tony Macaulay. He would not allow them to record any of their own songs.^[1] In an interview, the band's organ player, Tony Gomez, told NME Magazine in an interview that he, Peter MacBeth, and Eric Allendale had some ideas that they wanted to put together. Curtis later recalled that Macaulay was a problem. "Tony Macaulay was very talented, but could be difficult to get on with. When we asked to record some of our own material - just as B sides, we weren't after the A side - he called us 'ungrateful' and stormed out of the studio."^[3] The group felt that Macaulay had reined in their "real" sound, making them seem more pop-oriented than they were.^[1] Tony Macaulay was later to recall, "I was never close to The Foundations. I couldn't stand them, and they hated me! But the body of work we recorded was excellent."^[3]

A third single, also released in 1968 "Any Old Time (You're Lonely and Sad)", reached #48.^[2]

Curtis and Elliott leave group[link]

Original vocalist Curtis left in 1968, because he felt that a couple of the band's members were taking it a bit too easy, thinking that because they had now had a hit, they did not have to put in as much effort as they had previously.^[1] Saxophonist Mike Elliott also left around this time and was never replaced. Curtis hung around and helped them audition a replacement singer. They auditioned 200 singers. It was reported in a New Musical Express article in 1968 that Curtis while being interviewd at a festival had mentioned that they were trying out Warren Davis to replace him. He said he wouldn't leave the band until they found a replacement.^[20] He had become friendly with Sammy Davis, Jr. and was encouraged to try his luck in the United States. He moved to the US for a solo career on the club circuit, encouraged by the likes of Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave, playing Las Vegas with the Righteous Brothers. His successful replacement was Colin Young.

New lead singer[link]

With Young the band had two more big hits; "Build Me Up Buttercup" which was their third hit in 1968 and "In the Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)" which was a hit in April 1969,^[2] and reached #23 in Canada May 5 that year.

At the height of their popularity, the Foundations management were in negotiations and a UK TV company for a television series that would star members of the band. They had turned down a number of offers to appear in films because of script unsuitability.^[21]

Bassist Peter Macbeth left the band in 1969, to join the group Bubastis with Bernie Living,^[22][23] and was replaced by Steve Bingham.

Beginning of 1970 to the breakup in late 1970[link]

After a successful run of hits, The Foundations broke off with their management and a Bill Graham sponsored tour to support The Temptations at the newly opened Copacabana club. This ended up in disaster and the band came back to the UK in low spirits. It had been previously reported in a publicity sheet around early December 1969 that the band had broken away from their manager Barry Class. Jim Dawson who was formerly their agent and Mike Dolan took over the group's affairs.^[24] The group's final hits were "Born to Live, Born to Die" which was written by Eric Allendale and Tony Gomez.^[25] and "My Little Chickadee", a US only hit which barely made the hot 100. Another member joined the band in 1970. Paul Lockey who had been with Robert Plant in Band Of Joy joined as their bass guitarist.^[26]

"My Little Chickadee" proved to be the band's last hit. In spite of releasing "Take A Girl Like You", the title song to the Oliver Reed and Hayley Mills film, and a heavy blues rock song "I'm Gonna Be A Rich Man", the band split in late 1970.^[27]

1971 to the end of the 1970s[link]

The last record released in the early 1970s as The Foundations was a single "Stoney Ground" b/w "I'll Give You Love" MCA MCA 5075 1971.^[28] By that time the original band had already split up and Alan Warner had been a member of Pluto since joining and helping to form the English progressive rock band in 1970.^[10] There would be two more singles released as The Foundations in the mid to late 1970s.

When Curtis returned to the UK, he formed a new version of the group with little success in spite of releasing several singles, but later had a lucrative spell on the 1960s nostalgia circuit. Curtis' re-formed Foundations have on several occasions and among the many musicians to be part of latter day Foundations were Bill ^[29] and John Springate, the latter becoming a member of The Glitter Band,^[30] Derek "Del" Watson, Paul Wilmot (all members of the band "ELEGY") and Roy Carter who later on joined Heatwave.^[31]

Also in the 1970s there would be a collaborative attempt between two former members of the Foundations. Original Foundations trombonist Eric Allendale attempted to work with original Foundations Foundations drummer Tim Harris.^[32]

In the mid 1970s, while Clem Curtis and The Foundations were on the road, there was also another Foundations line up that was led by Colin Young who were on the road at the same time, who were playing basically the same material. This eventually led to court action which resulted in Curtis being allowed to bill his group as either The Foundations or Clem Curtis & The Foundations. Young was allowed to bill himself as The New Foundations or Colin Young & The New Foundations.^[3]

Also in the mid 1970s, Young and his group, The New Foundations, released a lone single on Pye, "Something For My Baby" / "I Need Your Love".^[3] There were actually two more singles released in the late 1970s as the Foundations. They were "Where Were You When I Needed Your Love" / "Love Me Nice And Easy" and "Closer To Loving You" / "Change My Life" on the Summit and Psycho labels.^[33] These featured Curtis as the lead singer.

Various sources erroneously state that there was an early 1970s English line up that had nothing, or little to do with, the original Foundations. However, Curtis has been leading a new line up of the Foundations since coming back to the UK and reforming the group in the early 1970s.

1980s to present[link]

In or around the late 1980s Curtis and Alan Warner teamed up to recut "Baby, Now That I've Found You" as well as other hits of The Foundations.^[3]

There has also been another line up formed in 1999 that included Young (vocals), Alan Warner (Guitar), Steve Bingham (bass), Gary Moberly (keyboards), Tony Laidlaw (sax) and Sam Kelly then Steve Dixon (drums). This version of the group was reformed due to the popularity of the film There's Something About Mary and the interest created resulting from the 1968 hit "Build Me Up Buttercup" being featured in the film. Some time later Young left this version of the group and was replaced by Hue Montgomery (aka Hugh Montgomery).

Known as Alan Warner's Foundations, this group is on tour in 2012 either in their own right or with The New Honeycombs, Terry Rice-Milton of Cupid's Inspiration, Billie Davis and Keith Powell.

Curtis still appears at venues and tours as Clem Curtis & The Foundations as he has done during the past four decades.

There is a bogus American group using the Foundations name and includes original Foundations hits as part of their repertoire. This group has no connection with the group that recorded the hits on Pye.^{[citation needed]}

Former personnel[link]

The Foundations[link]

• Clem Curtis: lead vocals - born 28 November 1940,^[34] Trinidad, West Indies.
• Colin Young: lead vocals - b. 12 September 1944, Barbados, West Indies - replaced Clem Curtis in 1968.
• Arthur Brown: vocals - b. 24 June 1942 Whitby, Yorkshire, Member for approximately one month in 1967
• Alan Warner: lead guitar - b. 21 April 1947,^[34] Paddington, west London.
• Peter Macbeth: bass guitar - b. Peter McGrath, 2 February 1941,^[34] Marylebone, North London.
• Steve Bingham: bass guitar - b. 4 April 1949, Solihull, Warwickshire.
• Tim Harris: drums - b. 14 January 1948,^[34] St John's Wood, North London - Died 2007
• Tony Gomez: keyboards - b. 13 December 1938,^[34] Colombo, Ceylon - (now Sri Lanka).
• Pat Burke: tenor saxophone/flute - b. 9 October 1937,^[34] Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies.
• Mike Elliott: tenor saxophone - b. 6 August 1929,^[34] Jamaica, West Indies. - Left in 1968
• Eric Allandale: trombone - b. Eric Allandale Dubuisson, 4 March 1936,^[34] Dominica, West Indies — died 23 August 2001.
• Paul Lockey: bass guitar^[35] - joined in 1970 for nine months

Guests[link]

• Mike D'Abo :piano - b. Michael David D'Abo, 1 March 1944, Betchworth, Surrey. Co-wrote and guested on "Build Me Up Buttercup" contributing piano.
• John Mcleod: piano

Clem Curtis & The Foundations[link]

• Clem Curtis: vocals
• James Colah: keyboards
• Michael J. Parlett: saxophone
• Alan Warner: guitar ^[3]
• Roy Carter: bass guitar ^[36]
• George Chandler: backing vocals
• Valentine Pascal: electric guitar

1970s line-up[link]

• Clem Curtis: Vocals
• Bill Springate: guitar
• John Springate: Vocals
• Del Watson: Bass
• Paul Wilmot : Drums
• John Paul: ? ^[37]

1977 line-up[link]

• Clem Curtis: Vocals
• Leroy Carter
• John Savile
• Valentine Pascal
• Georges Delanbanque ^[38]

Discography[link]

Summary of single releases

From the bands beginning to their breakup near the end of 1970, the Foundations released ten singles in the UK including two versions of the same song. A good deal of the songs on the singles were composed by Tony Macaulay and John Macleod. They had four significant hits from these plus a minor hit with one of their own compositions, "Born To Live, Born To Die" and another minor hit with "My Little Chickadee" in the United States. There were other titles announced that were either never recorded or were never released. They were "Our Love Went Thataway",^[39] "Tear Jerker, Music-worker, You" which was to be released around the same time as "Better By Far" by Lulu and "No Place On Earth Could Find You" ^[40][41] In 1971 the single "Stoney Ground" was released. It is believed that this single was actually by Colin Young and his new backing band Development. It seems quite likely as the Colin Young and Development debut single "Any Time At All" pre-dates "Stoney Ground". In the mid and late seventies there were two more singles released under the Foundations name. They were "Where Were You When I Needed Your Love" and "Closer To Loving You" which featured the Northern Soul classic "Change My Life" as the B side. These last two singles to bear the Foundations name featured Clem Curtis once more as the lead vocalist.

Summary of album releases

During the 1960s the Foundations recorded and released four LPs in the United Kingdom. Before the release of their debut album, it was originally announced, in the October 1967 of Beat Instrumental Monthly that the debut album's title was to be Sound Basis.^[9] However, when it was released on Pye, it had the title of From The Foundations. The American version of this album, which was released on the UNI label, was given the title of Baby, Now That I've Found You. This album featured Curtis on lead vocals. The next release was in 1968. It was a live LP called Rocking The Foundations, and also featured Curtis on lead vocals plus two instrumentals "The Look of Love" and "Coming Home Baby". Also in 1968, another LP was released on the Marble Arch label. This featured re-recordings of their previous hits and songs, but with Young on vocals instead of Curtis. It also featured a version of "Build Me Up Buttercup". There was also an American album called Build Me Up Buttercup. This was a compilation of Foundations tracks. Side one consisted of tracks from their Rocking The Foundations album; and side two consisted of "Build Me Up Buttercup", the B side of that single, plus some earlier Foundations tracks. The group's last LP release was in 1969, which featured their hit "In The Bad Bad Old Days", and the minor US hit "My Little Chickadee". Since then there have been various compilations of the Foundations songs, released on both the Golden Hour and PRT labels.

UK singles[link]

• "Baby, Now That I've Found You" / "Come On Back to Me" - Pye 7N 17366 - 1967 - UK #1, US #11
• "Back On My Feet Again" / "I Can Take Or Leave Your Loving" - Pye 7N 17417 - 1968 - UK #18
• "Any Old Time (You're Lonely And Sad)" / "We Are Happy People" - Pye 7N 17503 -1968 - UK #48
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" / "New Direction" Pye 7N 17636 - 1968 - UK #2, US #3
• "In the Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)" / "Give Me Love" - Pye 7N 17702 - 1969 - UK #8
• "Born to Live, Born to Die" / "Why Did You Cry" - Pye 7N 17809 1969 - UK #46
• "Baby, I Couldn't See" / "Penny Sir" - Pye 7N 17849 - 1969
• "Take A Girl Like You" / "I'm Gonna Be A Rich Man" - Pye - 7N 17904 - 1970
• "I'm Gonna be a Rich Man" / "In The Beginning" Pye 7N 17956 - 1970
• "Stoney Ground" / "I'll Give You Love" - MCA MKS 5075–1971
• "Where Were You When I Needed Your Love" / "Love Me Nice And Easy" - Summit SU 100
• "Closer To Loving You" / "Change My Life" - Psycho P 2603–1978
• "Baby Now That I've Found You" / "Build Me Up Buttercup" - Old Gold OG9407 - (1979 Re-release)
• "Baby Now That I've Found You" / "Build Me Up Buttercup" - Flashback FBS 6 - (1979 Re-release)
• "Baby Now That I've Found You" (1989 Re Mix) / "Build Me Up Buttercup" - PRT PYS 24 - 1989
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" - CD single - (1998 Re-release) - UK #71

^{[2] [33]}

UK albums[link]

• From the Foundations - Pye NSPL 18206 - 1967
• Rocking the Foundations - Pye NSPL 18227 - 1968
• The Foundations - Marble Arch MALS 1157–1968
• Digging the Foundations - Pye NSPL 18290 - 1969
• Golden Hour of the Foundations (Greatest Hits) - GH 574 - 1973
• Back to the Beat - PRT DOW7 - 1983
• Best Of - PRT PYL 4003–1987

UK EPs 7"[link]

• "It's All Right" - Pye NEP24297 - 1968
• "Mini Monster" - Pye PMM.103

UK EPs 12"[link]

• "Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Pye Big Deal BD 107 - (4 tracks)
• "Baby, Now That I've Found You" - PRT Pyt 24 - 1989 - (3 tracks incl remix)

UK CDs[link]

• Golden Hour Of The Foundations - Knight Records KGH CD 104 - 1990
• Strong Foundations - The Singles and More - Music Club - MCCD 327 - 1997
• Build Me Up Buttercup - Castle Select SELCD 527 - 1998
• Baby, Now That I've Found You - Sequel Records - NEECD 300 - 1999
• Build Me Up Buttercup (The Complete Pye Collection) [Remastered] - Castle - 2004

US singles[link]

• "Baby Now That I've Found You" / "Come On Back To Me" - Uni 55038 - 1967
• "Back On My Feet Again" / "I Can Take Or Leave Your Loving" - Uni 55058 - 1968
• "Any Old Time (You're Lonely And Sad)" / "We Are Happy People" - Uni 55073 -1968
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" / "New Direction" - Uni 55101 - 1968
• "In The Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)" / "Give Me Love" - Uni 55117 - 1969
• "Born To Live, Born To Die" / "Why Did You Cry" - Uni 55162 - 1969 - UK #46
• "My Little Chickadee" / "Solomon Grundy" - Uni 55137 - 1969
• "Take A Girl Like You" / "I'm Gonna Be A Rich Man" - Uni 55210 - 1970
• "Stoney Ground" / "I'll Give You Love" - Uni 55315 - 1971
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" / "Baby, Now That I've Found You" - Eric 192 (Re-release)

US albums[link]

• Baby Now That I've Found You - Uni 3016 (Mono)/73016 (Stereo) - 1967
• Build Me Up Buttercup - Uni 73043—1968
• Digging The Foundations - Uni 73058—1969

Canadian singles[link]

• "Baby Now That I've Found You" - Pye 827—1968 - #1
• "Back On My Feet Again" - Pye 833 - #29
• "Build Me Up Buttercup" - Pye 17636 - #1
• "In the Bad Bad Old Days (Before You Loved Me)" - Pye 17702 - #23

References[link]

Reference links and other information[link]

• The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown http://www.richieunterberger.com/brown.html
• Alex Gitlin Pluto page http://www.alexgitlin.com/npp/pluto.htm
• Gary Moberley info http://web.archive.org/web/20091027104142/http://geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Diner/2674/moberley_gary_a.htm
• Pluto Website http://www.pluto-rockband.com/70141/info.php?p=2&pno=0
• Alan Warner site page http://www.alan-warner.com/10102/info.php?p=4&pno=0
• Ride Your Pony http://rideyourpony-twighlightzone.blogspot.com/2007/09/group-made-up-of-west-indians.html
• Mike D'Abo Foundations http://www.mikedabo.com/foundations.htm
• Buddah Records @ Disco-Disco.com http://www.disco-disco.com/labels/buddah.shtml
• www.javirunner-brightsideofthemoon.blogspot.com Info on Barry Class
• www.tamworthbands.com Info on Barry Class

External links[link]

• Clem Curtis & The Foundations web site
• Alan Warner's Foundations official website
• The Foundations at Allmusic
• The Foundations discography at Discogs
• Clem Curtis web site
• Clem Curtis on Myspace
• Alan Warner site page
• Interview with Clem Curtis