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Cream 1966 Redcar Poster. It was Live Cream Volume 2 that I first heard when I was 14 and the live recordings were 7 or 8 years earlier, but I'd never heard anything like it. The muscularity of the musicianship, the fact it was all recorded live. It was all amazing to me. And I’d suggest that in some ways we’ve seen improvised rock music through Cream’s lens ever since. Because as a live act - one I was too young to see - there were few to even go near the same territory. That first tour, which incredibly included Redcar jazz club when I was 5 and which this poster commemorates, took in all manner of places. You played where they’d put you on. The very opposite to today’s corporate rock experience.
Rory Gallagher Greenslade 1973 Dundee. This was a notorious tour which went all over the UK. 1973 had seen him tour a lot and all over the place behind Blueprint and Tattoo, both released this year. UK, Europe, Canada and some substantial gigging in America, at one point a UK tour was with the new band Greenslade. An unusual pairing, the keyboard-led proggers don’t seem a natural fit with the blues. The Caird Hall in Dundee, which I’ve been to for a record fair, is one of those grand Victorian civic buildings that put gigs on regularly.
Black Oak Arkansas Rory Gallagher Back Street Crawler 1976 The Spectrum Philadelphia. This is another eclectic but attractive bill. Rory was still trying to break America in the year Calling Card was released. Black Oak had three albums out in 1976. Live! Mutha, Balls of Fire and 10 Yr Overnight Success and Back Street Crawler were on the verge of folding and Koss wasn’t well. 2nd Street was released that year. The Spectrum in Philly held nearly 20,000 and was legendary. Pulled down 15 years ago.
Bob Marley. The great man, drawn from a 1977 press photo by Kim Gottlieb and distributed by Island Records.
Strawbs. As I was writing earlier in the week. They were initially quite acoustic and folky weren’t they? Then evolved into a full-blown prog band. Brilliant, I especially love Grave New World and Bursting At The Seams.
Big Brother And The Holding Company. A band before and after Janis, of course. I really like their ‘teetering on the verge of falling apart’ vibe and the fact they sometimes played out of key. It feels very in the moment and I love that danger, if you’ve not heard 1971’s Janis-less How Hard It Is, try it, it only got to #157 but is very worthwhile.
Moby Grape. Probably a band that, if they could have kept the brilliance of the debut and 2nd album going, could have been massive.You can still hear their influence now, I think. Famously, in a marketing stunt, Columbia Records released five singles at once from the debut. It didn’t work. Classic band and management disharmony scuppered them.
Country Joe And The Fish. I think they were true psychedelic pioneers and had a lot of success with being very far out. All 5 albums from 67-70 charted, 1968’s Together at #23 and then there was the Fish Cheer which in some measure summed up much of the protest movement. “One, two, three, what are we fightin’ for?”
Blue Cheer. Did they invent heavy rock in 1968? I think so, they were certainly very, very loud and when I first heard them, I assumed their music stemmed from 4 years later. It all got messy and fell apart, was put back together and fell apart again, many times. But they made their mark with the hit, Summertime Blues.
Mother Earth. I didn’t hear them until much later but they had some chart success albeit in the lower rungs. Classically, they evaded easy definitions in that period before genres hardened up. Great Tracy Nelson vocals.
Jefferson Airplane Psychedelic Cloud. Based around an early promo photo. I think it’s worth considering, though they’re so familiar, just how far out and even disturbing Airplane were. It’s truly drug-influenced music with all the wonky right angles and twists that implies.
Steely Dan Portraits. We worked on this, colourising a Walter Becker and Donald Fagen promotional photo for Steely Dan's 1977 album Aja. Distributed by ABC Records. It just looks so 1977 doesn’t it?
Axegrinder, Get Off My Rock, Soul Child. Additions to our ‘vibe’ category
Rory, Tom Yorke. Celebrating great musicians.
