Candy Bus - Oak acetate demo - Good Morning Mr Wind - 1968

Here is an interesting recording, all the more so since I have had contact with two band members:  John Phillips and Alan George, both of whom kindly presented me with information and a rather splendid promotional band picture.

"Candy Bus was formed out of a band in the Sutton area of Surrey called  The A-Jaes. Members were Trevor White, lead guitar and singer, and later in Sparks, Radio Stars and Jook; John Taylor, drums; Jack ? on bass, and me, John Phillips on Vox Continental ! We specialised in Beach Boys songs mostly with some Four Seasons and Jan and Dean thrown in. We had a manager called Michael B. Savage who at one time was closely connected with The Stones !
I lived in Leatherhead which became well known for the origin of John's Children. They wanted Trevor, who was best friends with John Hewlett, but he wouldn't leave us, so they got Marc Bolan instead .................
The "Good Morning Mr. Wind" was a demo for the song. It was written by Donovan who was a friend of Mike Savage and gave us the song. It was recorded by the second Candy Bus incarnation which was myself, Roger Meakin, lead guitar and vocals; John ? on bass; and Alan George on drums.
There is a rubbish pic attached ! Mike Savage's mum's stairs ..............
Thanks for the interest,
John Phillips

 

" Oak accetate of the Donavan song Good Morning Mr.Wind recorded at R.G.Jones studio Mordon Surry after playing 2 weeks at the Playboy Club Park Lane arriving at approx 6-30am setting up and recording 4 tracks :-Mr. Wind / Expecting to Fly / Original with backing vocal (ala George Martin tapes) but with Alan singing live Backwards!!! Engineer was not impressed and cut a lot of vocals from the tape. We did get a fit of the giggles during the takes. Final track was Susies New Shoes written by John Howe the Bass player that John Phillps couldn't remember his surname. John Howe was the bass player and vocalist of the Wurzals of Cider Drinker and Combie Harvester fame and appeared with them at Glastonbury a few years ago. He is no longer with us.

Im living on the Greek Island of Rhodes. I used to live in the West country in Paignton Devon and was in resident Band at the Grand Hotel Torquay (Mirage). I giged with Function band J B Enigma a Shadows Tribute and a folk rock band called Stormy Monday who are now called Dire Traits (Dire Straits tribute band)

Candy Bus was the Support band for a lot of bands at the time including :-Graham Bond Organisation / Brian Augur Trinity with Julie Driscoll / The Herd with Peter Frampton (Fairfields Hall) twice / Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch / Status Quo (Imperial College) Pictures of Matchstickmen No.8 in the charts / Jethro Tull / Traffic / Amen Corner / Vanity Fair (opening Bird Cage nightclub Harlow) / Harmony Grass (Billericay and we were both ripped off by the promoter who flitted with all the money) / Screaming Lord Such / Sounds Incorporated / Marmalade / The Perishers / Blodwyn Pig /.

We met the Beach Boys twice once in Yorkshire and the second time in Finsbury Park in the pub opposite the theater and gave Mike Love a 3inch tape of Mr. Wind and they said if we got it published in the UK they would put it out in the States on their new Brother Label. Unfortunately it was not to be.

Roger Meakin (top right in photo) Lead Guitar and Vocals. After Candy Bus split toured with the Band Esperanto after they recorded their album "Last Tango". Roger was last heard of in France but has not been in contact with any of us for years

Candy Bus was a fantastic experience but were not in the right place at the right time to get the recording contract although we did turn down the 5 year contract at 1% that the Quos manager did take and got loads of publicity by breaking the contract and going to America for a new one
A fantastic learning curve and a chance to see some of the great groups of the time.

Please let me know if this has been helpful to you and don't hesitate to contact me for any more info.

Best regards

Alan George (front left in photo)

Pre Tintern Abbey to the first incarnation

Prior to forming Tintern Abbey, Don Smith was a member of Twickenham band, The Turnkeys.  Below is a newspaper report from 1964 announcing the band's success in securing a contract to provide the score for a film.

Previously unheard demo acetates can be heard here Tintern Abbey acetates

Advert for the newly released Deram single, and a review:

Below are some previously unseen (in their original form) publicity shots for the first incarnation of Tintern Abbey, circa 1967.  Thanks to Don Smith for providing all scans.

First Istanbul gig; Don Smith in action:

Unheard Tintern Abbey - from acetates - Donald Smith original guitarist

Thanks to Tintern Abbey's original guitarist, Don Smith, I am able to bring you previously unheard songs by the band, including the illusive 'Snowman', an unknown track 'Tanya', and the original demo for their only single bearing the track 'Black Jack'.

Don Smith, Tintern Abbeys' original guitarist who featured on their sole single, began his relatively short musical  career with a band called the "Turnkeys" In Richmond in the mid 60s. After he had been playing guitar for less than two years, by chance they scored a part (2 music tracks) in a black & white film (The Little Ones/1965) when they were  overheard rehearsing by the daughter of Director Jim Connolly.

 It was During 1966/7, at the height of the Kings Road scene during many visits to clubs in the area, that the original  line up of Tintern Abbey was formed by Don Smith after meeting David MacTavish at the Overseas Visitors Club in  EarlsCourt London.  Smith brought John Dalton into the band after a meeting in the Cromwellian Club in South Kensington and  Mactavish brought Stuart Mackay into the band after a meeting at the dole office, and it was this grouping of musicians  who formed the quintessentially psychedelic Tintern Abbey.

With the help of a girlfriend of David Mactavish, the band gained financing and much promotion courtesy of Nigel Samuels  (International Times), and an acetate demo was cut  on the 29th July 1967 (Paid for by a friend of Mactavish,not Samuels)  at R.G.Jones OAK studios, featuring Busy Bee/Bumblebee (Beeside) and Black Jack, which was turned down in favour of  Vacuum Cleaner for the Deram release.  After their single release, the band began work (with John Pantry  engineering), on 'Snowman'.  Demo acetates were cut, but the John Pantry-engineered IBC master-tape still survives  (presently with bassist Stuart MacKay).  It was during this time that Don believes the balance within the group went  adrift, with him taking uppers, time keeping (Late arrivals to rehearsals etc) lead to disputes and Don was effectively  "invited" to leave the band, and so it was that the classic Tintern Abbey came to an end.  The bands history here onwards  is well documented elsewhere.  Don moved to Turkey for a year where he played with a popular Turkish group.  Upon  returning to England, he gained employment with ITV as a sound engineer for three years and then as a freelance boom  operator in the film business and ceased to play guitar professionally

Interestingly, apart from one  promo gig in Holland, this Tintern Abbey played no UK gigs.

Original Tintern Abbey demo, 29th July 1967 featuring 

Black Jack / Busy Bee

       

Snowman

Tanya 

This particular track was about a Chinese girl who liked to hang out in Trafalgar Square(Nelson/the tall man) chatting up tourists.

IBC acetate:  Vacuum Cleaner / Busy Bee (Uncompressed)

Prerelease 33.3 rpm acetate recording dated 4th November 1967.

Vacuum Cleaner:

Beeside

Page Full of Hits one sided acetate - Busy Bee (33.3 rpm)

The Mellow Candle singles on SNB and Deram

This band released 2 singles, their first being on Simon Napier's SNB label in 1968, the other a spin off from their only LP on Deram in 1972 (to follow).

Behind the scenes of Gentle Influence - Jeff Arundell

It is with immense pleasure that I am able to bring you a history of Gentle Influence, a highly underrated Oxford band from 1969-70. This is all thanks to the band's bassist, Jeff Arundell who kindly put together the following commentary and photographs.


Following the break-up of the Newlanders, a very successful Witney (Oxfordshire) soul band, we formed The George Street Ideal to support our very talented vocalist, Martin Hester. We ‘found’ a new drummer, George Schwyzer, and the other members were Simon (Sam) Needler on Hammond Organ and Marc Pawley on guitar who also began to write songs together. We started to do a few gigs locally with some success and rehearsed in my parents’ house in the village of Shipton-under-Wychwood.

A wealthy Faringdon-based businessman, Rodney Harnett, approached us, said he would promote us, and eventually he became our Business Manager. We made a few demo’s and he managed to get some interest from John Schroeder, a legendary A&R man at Pye records. John introduced the song ‘Never Trust in Tomorrow’ and got Pye to sign us. However, one of the conditions was that we changed our name to Gentle Influence. They particularly loved Martin’s soulful ‘black’ sounding vocals. Sam and Marc wrote the B-side. We recorded the single in the famous basement studios of Pye Records in ATV House just off Marble Arch in London.

We were all semi-pro at the time and Rodney, with ambitious ideas, persuaded us to go fully professional and move to London. Gentle Influence was planned to be Pye’s answer to the new rave group ‘Love Affair’. Although ‘Never Trust’ got a lot of radio airplay on its release, and it was a Radio Luxemburg ‘Hit Pick’, it failed to sell enough and didn’t chart. Meanwhile we were rehearsing hard and doing a few gigs in and around London. One was the legendary open air Oxfam concert at Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1969 with a host of famous 60’s bands such as Love Affair, Status Quo, Grapefruit and Jimmy James & The Vagabonds.

It was very disappointing and rather worrying as we had all given up our jobs and had moved to London in expectation of great success. Rodney persuaded John Schroeder for Pye to fund and release a follow-up, ‘Always be a Part of My Living’ but this single also ‘bombed’. By the end of 1969, Rodney ended his management contract and we returned to Oxfordshire, got new jobs and resumed a semi-pro career for Gentle Influence. We were busier with gigs than we had ever been before, playing all over the southern part of UK!

At this time the BBC got in touch and asked us to record some live tracks for their daily Radio shows. Apparently the UK Musicians Union were becoming upset that there was too much airplay given to American records and curiously insisted that a certain percentage of music played should be recorded ‘live’ by the BBC. They hoped this would boost the involvement of UK professional musicians? So we started a very productive period of traveling up to BBC studios in Maida Vale, London most Sundays to record 6 live covers of popular songs in 6 hours. One track was then played each day of the following week to boost the percentage of recorded ‘live’ music on the BBC radio stations.

Eventually in 1970, the group ‘folded’ and we all went in completely different directions. I lost track of George, Martin took a welding job in Witney (a great waste as he was truly a much better singer than many who have achieved great fame and fortune), Sam took over the management of his family’s Sportswear and Skiwear Chain, Marc returned to work for Readers Digest in Swindon and I started my own business as a Used Car Dealer.

Above:  A Flyer with photograph taken on the Victoria & Albert Bandstand in Hyde Park, London

Above:   A Car Sticker promotional item

 Above:  1.       The group on a houseboat on the River Thames, Kew, London 1970
      2.       The group assembled on a farm gate: Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire December 1969

 Above:  1.       George Schwyzer – drummer 1970 2.       Simon (Sam) Needler & Marc Pawley 1970

 Above: 

Left.  Jeff Arundell – Bassist

Right. Martin Hester – Vocals



Many thanks to Jeff Arundell for all of the above.  Image copyright remains that of Jeff Arundell.

The B side to their second single can be heard HERE

The World is a Trapezium - Motives - Tom Winter 1967

It with great gratitude to Tom Winter and the Motives that I bring you what is most probably the rarest single (well EP really) from the psychedelic era.

Recorded at Telstar Studios in Weert, Holland, as a demo to promote the band, this EP contains 4 tracks revealing the band's quality musicianship and extraordinary song-writing of Tom Winter.

You can read more at Sweet Floral Albion

Listen to Baby of the May

The Sorrows - Ypotron / No No - 8 inch acetate

One of a kind, the Sorrows really letting their hair down, in this acetate from the film Ypotron (Operation Y from 1966 - Italy).

No No was released in Italy only, Ypotron only on film.