1960s Blues Boom 3(1)

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1960s Blues Boom Page 3
 
  
The 1960s Blues Boom By John Power (page 3)
 
  
Chicken Shack.
David Yeats and Andy Sylvester started this band in Stourbridge,as the Sounds of Blue in '64. Stan Webb was leaving The ShadesFive and was asked to join them, so he did. They emerged asChicken Shack in '65, taking their name from jazz organist JimmySmith' 'Back at the Chicken Shack', itself taken from bluesjargon. Without Yeats they got residency at Hamburg's Star Club,where many Merseybeat bands had polished their trade Stan wasthe guitarist and Sylvester on bass. At first they filled the drumstool with Alan Morley, from '65-'68, followed by Al Sykes in '68,and then Hughie Flint a former Bluesbreaker, also in that year,then Dave Bidwell from '68-71.
Their first major U.K.gig was the '67 National Jazz and BluesFestival in Windsor and Mike Vernon signed them to his BlueHorizon label as a result. The resulting album, '40 Blue Fingers,Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve' was released in'68, the sameyear that Christine Perfect, later McVie, after her marriage toJohn, joined on keyboards and vocals. It reached no 14 in thealbum charts and Christine was voted best female vocalist fortwo successive years by Melody Maker readers. 'I Would RatherGo Blind' and 'Tears in the Wind' were minor singles hits. In '69Christine left when she married John McVie. Paul Raymondreplaced her briefly but Bidwell and Silvester left to join theSavoy Brown Blues Band in '71 after the band were dropped bythe Blue Horizon label. Stan Webb kept the name and recruitedJohn Glascock on bass and Paul Hancox on drums to keep theband going until '74, when he joined Savoy Brown too, for thealbum 'Boogie Brothers'. In '77 he reformed Chicken Shack oftenchanging line-ups included Paul Butler, Miller Anderson, anddrummers Rick Lee from Ten Years After, followed by KeefHartley, a former Bluesbreaker and founder of his own band for awhile.
At the time of writing the band has had 41 members whichinclude Dave Winthrop, an Essex boy, on sax, on and off from'76-2012. Stan Webb has been the only consistent lead guitar, butvarious line-ups have released 26 albums and four singles.... andcounting!
 
Savoy Brown Blues Band.
Formed in Battersea in '65 by guitarist Kim Simmonds and harpblower John O'Leary. Again they have featured constant line-upchanges. Bryce Portius was the original keyboardist, RayChappell was on bass and Leo Manning the drummer. MartinStone and Bob Hall soon joined on guitars but John O'Leary thenleft, while the remainder recorded their debut album in '67. Up to2009 their had been 62 members and there have been many guestmembers. They have had records released on Decca, Deram,Parrot and Black Pig labels. Kim Simmonds is the only originalmember left in the band, but other founder, O'Leary, is still activein other bands.
Their name became shortened to just Savoy Brown as the bluesboom melted away and their success has mainly been in theStates, by continuous touring rather than with any high-flyingrecord sales. Their highest placed, and only U.S., single reached68 on the Billboard chart, but in 2015 the album 'Devil to Playreached no.4 in the U.S album charts. By 2017 they had released39 albums.
The Bo Street Runners

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Originally called the Roadrunners, after a Bo Diddley song, thisoutfit had to change their name when they realised that aMerseybeat band already had claimed the name, so in'63 the BoStreet Runners emerged, consisting of Gary Thomas, lead guitar,Bob O'Brien on keyboards, Dave Cameron on bass, NigelHutchinson on drums, and John Dominic on vocals. The BoDiddley influence was still highly in evidence.
At first they were a local act around Harrow, but in '64 entered theReady Steady Go T.V. Programme's Ready Steady Wincompetition, staged over several weeks as part of the trendy Modprogramme. They won the first place with a song called 'I'm aBow Street Runner'. The resulting single with 'Tell Me' as the 'b'side sold over 20,000 copies in the U.K. 99 copies of an E.P. soldat gigs and they got to support the Rolling Stones. Keeping upthe success did not prove so easy, but they moved to Colombiain '65 after being dropped by Decca. Thomas, Dominic and andCameron remained in the band and were joined by Foy Fry onkeyboards and Glyn Thomas on drums for a second single 'TellMe What Your Gonna Do', a James Brown song, which made noimpact so Fry and Thomas left to be replaced by Tim Hinkley onkeyboards and Mick Fleetwood on drums.
A move to a more jazzy sound provided the next single, 'Baby,Never Say Goodbye' which managed to chart on a Pirate Radiotop 40, but Fleetwood and Dominic left, to be replaced by MikePatto on vocals to cover the Beatles 'Drive My Car' before theydisbanded in '66.
A compilation C.D., was released in 2004: 'The CompleteRecordings '64-'66' by Cherry Red Records.
The Birds
The band member that makes this group significant is RonnieWood, whose later work with The Jeff Beck Group, the Faces,and Rolling Stones we have already mentioned, as we did theArtwoods, formed by Ronnie's elder brother Art.
The band consisted of Ali Mac Kenzie on vocals and harmonica,Tony Munroe, guitar and vocals, Ronnie on Guitar and vocals,Kim Gardner on bass and vocals, Bob Langham, and later PeteMcDaniels on drums. They originally came together in 1964. Theyalways seemed to have a bit of a problem with a name for theband, first calling themselves the Thunderbirds, until they woundup backing Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds and realisedthey'd have to change it. So they just shortened it to the Birds, asa joke about having long hair. Later in '65 that also proved to be aproblem, or maybe a good publicity stunt, when the Byrds, thefolkrock/psychedelic band arrived from the States to promotetheir hit cover version of Bob Dylan's 'Mr. Tambourine Man'. Theywere served with legal papers by the Birds management, whichwere just ignored and they returned to the States after their tour.But their chart entries did tend to put the Birds somewhat in theshadows.
The band were also in the Ready Steady Go battle of the bandsand impressed Decca Records enough to give them a contract.The first two singles were 'You Don't Love Me' and 'Leaving Here',after a third they moved to Robert Stigwood's label, Reaction for,'That's All I Need For You'. They were highly regarded byaudiences as a live act but as their early promise didn't seem tobe fulfilled, despite sharing bills with the Who, so they split in '67as things went psychedelic. Ronnie and Kim Gardner both joinedCreation. Since 2010 Ali MacKenzie has gone on the road againusing the name of the Birds.
'The Collectors Guide to Rare British Birds' C.D. on the Deramlabel gathered all their recorded material together in 1999
Creation.
In addition to Ronnie and Kim most of the rest of this band hadbeen in the Mark Four from Hertfordshire: Kenny Picknett onvocals, Eddie Phillips on guitars, Mike Thompson on rhythmguitar. They had two records released on Mercury Records: 'RockAround the Clock' and 'Try it Baby' in '64. The original bassistwent to replace Pete Quaife in the Kinks so was in turn replacedby Tony Cooke. Mike Thompson left too but was not replaced.The group did two more non-charting singles '65 and '66 whenthey changed management to Tony Stratton-Smith, who replacedCooke with Bob Garner from the Tony Sheridan Band, whilePicknett came up with the name Creation for the band.
The band's style of playing went beyond the blues to an ArtSchool, Pop Art inspired image similar to the early Who. Theirfirst single as Creation went to no. 49 in the charts before a

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couple of more line-up changes occurred. The next single in '66reflected the Art School image with 'Painter Man', later coveredby Boney M. Picknett took to playing guitar with a violin bow,before Jimmy Page [I can testify to having seen that], and spraycan painted canvasses on stage amidst other Action Paintingtechniques.,p> Several singles followed, some successful in theStates and in Europe, where they toured. More personnelchanges occurred in '67, when Kim Gardner took over bass, whileBob Garner took over vocals as Picknett left, only to return thefollowing year when the band reformed after a short haitus whenEddie Phillips left. When they reformed in '68 Ronnie Wood waspart of the group until they disbanded.
The value of the band to musical evolution has been recognisedby younger musicians and reunions have been staged between1980 and 2016 despite Kenny Picknett dying in '97. A form of thegroup with Eddie Phillips continues to tour.
There have been 13 singles,3 albums, 15 compilations and livealbums.
The Paramounts (Cricketers flyer copyright Maurice Hyde)
The musicians that made up Paramounts will be best known tothe public as Procul Harum. But during the blues boom they werea successful r&b group from Southend. Their first incarnationwas as the Raiders in the '50s, working the youth centres circuitdoing rock covers. The name change to the Paramounts came in'61. Keyboardist, Gary Broker and guitarist Robin Trower werethe two consistent members of the line-up. Chris Copping cameand went and returned as organist when Diz Derrick took over onbass in'63.
They played on the same bill as the Rolling Stones at a gig inDeal, in Kent, and the Stones announced on ITV's Thank YourLucky Stars that they thought that they were ''The finest r&bband in England', and used them as opening act at many gigs.EMI Records signed them up in '63, and released 'Poison Ivy'/'IFeel Good All Over' which reached no.35 in the charts. That wasfollowed by 'Little Bitty Pretty One'/'A Certain Girl' and four moresingles. But by then many of songs they had featured in their acthad become stock in trade for many other groups and they gotlost in the boom, and wound up as the backing group for SandieShaw. Robin Trower left to form a group called the Jam [beforePaul Weller used the name]. Gary Brooker decided it was time tostart writing original material and teamed up with Keith Reid todo this until they decided that it was time to form a band toperform their material. That group in 1967 became Procul Harumand all the members of the Paramounts came and went amongstits ranks. The original line-up under that name was Gary Brooker,vocals and piano, Matthew Fisher on organ, Dave Knights onbass, Roy Royer on guitar and Bobby Harrison on drums. Thatgrouping only did four or five gigs and put out one single, butthat one single was of course the worldwide best seller 'WhiterShade of Pale' in '67. Later that year Harrison and Royer werereplaced by B.J.Wilson and the return of Robin Trower to createthe line-up for three albums. By that time they were apsychedelic/prog rock band and faired best in the U.S.
There have been many line-up changes, re-unions and albumsover the years as Procul rather than Paramounts. Gary Brookerjoined the all star line-up of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, andamongst many other ventures has done solo projects with achoir and orchestral backing
The Fairies.
This group from Colchester took their name in response tolonghairs being referred to a fairies by some other sections of thepublic. They has begun as Dane Stevens and the Deepbeatsplaying gigs around Essex. 'Dane's ' real name was Dougie Ord.Fred Gandy and John Acutt were on guitars, Wimp Weaver onbass and John 'Twink' Alder on drums. After the name changethey brought out two singles: 'Any Time at All'/ 'Don't Think TwiceIt's Alright', by the then little known Bob Dylan, often regarded asthe 'a' side in 1964, and 'Get Yourself Home'/'Don't Mind' in '65.The second single had Nick Wymer, formally of Nick's Nomads,as vocalist, as by that time Doug Ord had been given a jailsentence for manslaughter after a car accident. He worked as ascenery painter for a theatre in Colchester after his release.
The band member who made the biggest impact on the musicscene was drummer 'Twink' Alder. The groups management werealso involved with the Pretty Things and by 1968 he played on theFirst rock opera 'S.F. Sorrow' by the Pretties. Between then andthe Fairies he had been a member of the In Crowd and thenTomorrow, one of the original psychedelic bands to emerge from

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the U.F.O.club in '66-'67, with singer Keith West who's 'ExcerptFrom a Teenage Opera' made it into the Top 10, although theopera never manifested, and the group broke up as a result, asthe hit had diverted the group's Underground image, betterrepresented by the single 'My White Bicycle' about the free bikesleft around Amsterdam by the Dutch Provo activists. The grouphad also played at the launch of alternative newspaper'International Times'in '67, and at the newspaper's Free SpeechBenefit at Alexander Palace in that year, The 14 HourTechnicolour Dream. In '69 they played at London's Olympiaarena for 'Christmas on Earth with Jimi Hendrix headlining.Guitarist Steve Howe went on to play for 'Yes' and 'Asia', andTwink remained firmly in the Underground in Pink Fairies andgigging around with bands like the Deviants and Hawkwind aswell as the Pretty Things, before moving to Morocco, marrying aMuslim girl, becoming a father, and converting to that faith whilebroadening his drumming skills.
The Action
The Action reached the peak of their popularity in the Mod era, andhad quite a cult following as they sang harmony and used stringinstruments without a brass section to cover mostly Tamla Motownclassics. At first they had been known as the Boys when they formedin North London's Kentish Town in 1963, with Reg King on vocals,Alan King on rhythm guitar and vocals, Mike Evans on bass, andRoger Powell on drums.
They played mainly in bars and in Germany at first and then backedSandra Barry calling themselves the Boyfriends on the single 'ReallyGonna Shake' in '64, then Pete Watson joined on guitar and the namechange to the Action came about, with a cover of the Wilson Pickettsong, 'Land of a Thousand Dances' /'In My Lonely Room' as the result.It was on Parlaphone arranged by George Martin. Pete Watson left in'66 after disagreements with manager Rikki Farr, and Parlaphonedropped them in '67, the year that psychedelia transformed the modeof music. The new line-up changed to include Ian Whiteman onkeyboards, and Martin Stone, from Savoy Brown Blues Band, onguitar, and the sound became folk rock psychedelia. By '69 they wereknown as Mighty Baby, and signed to Head Records.
Alan King formed Ace in '75 and they scored a U.S. hit with 'HowLong'.
In 1980 there was a compilation C.D and in '90 Paul Weller wrote thesleeve notes for a previously unreleased album, 'Rolled Gold'.
In 1998 the original line-up reformed, played the Isle of Wight Festivaland gigged around for six years.
Garry Farr and the T-Bones
Gary and his brother Rikki were sons of Welsh heavyweightboxer, Tommy Farr. Gary was born in 1944 and died in '94. Hebegan as a folk blues singer, before putting the backing bandtogether. They took over the Yardbirds slot at the Marquee andalso played at the Crawdaddy Club. In '65 they issued the E.P.'Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem T-Bones' on Colombia,
produced by Giorgio Gomesky. There were a couple of othersingles and a U.S. appearance on Shindig. Keith Emerson, laterof the Nice and Emerson, Lake and Palmer joined the band onkeyboards briefly. After '68 Gary went solo. Brother Rikki was inmusic management and was site manager and compere for theIsle of Wight Festival in 1970.
The Clique

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Were formed in'63 in Harrow by John Rowe, lead guitar, PeterWestgarth, vocals. Adrian Stanbach, bass John Kitchen, rhythmguitar, and Trevor Roberts on drums. Brian Morris replacedRoberts in'64.
They had two singles released in'65: 'She Ain't No Good' on Pye,and a twelve inch single 'We Didn't Kiss, Didn't Love But Now WeDo Do', also on Pye. In 2011 there was the'64 Rave-Up' E.P. [AcidJazz] and in '95 the C.D, 'The Complete Recordings 1964 to '65 onDig the Fuzz Records.
The Climax Chicago Blues Band
Quite a late starter to be part of the blues boom, if old in years,the Climax Chicago Blues Band, was formed in Stafford in 1969by Colin Cooper on harmonica and vocals, Peter Haycock onguitar and vocals, Derek Holt on guitar, Richard Jones on bassand keyboards, George Newsome on drums and Arthur Wood onalternative Keyboards. After 1972 they shortened the name to justthe Climax Blues Band.
In in '70 they had changed to Harvest records, and became morerocky. Over the years there have been 18 albums, two U.S. singlehits, 'Get it Right' in'77 and 'I Love You' that made no. 12 on theBillboard charts.
Jones left in '69 so Holt took over bass. Newsome left in in '71and was replaced by John Cuffley.
There have been 16 line-ups altogether so far, and they are stillgoing, but three of the original members are dead: Cooper in'08,aged 69, Wood in '05 aged 76 and Haycock in '13 aged 62.
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