Simon Dupree & The Big Sound - Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friend (1968)

Simon Dupree And The Big Sound were a British psychedelic band formed in 1966 by brothers Derek Shulman (vocals), Phil Shulman (vocals, saxophone, trumpet), and Ray Shulman (guitar, violin, trumpet, vocals). They started as The Howling Wolves and then became The Road Runners, playing R&B around the Shulman's home town of Portsmouth, before becoming Simon Dupree And The Big Sound in early 1966 (There was, of course, no Simon Dupree, but the band wanted a flashy-sounding name). The rest of the group were Peter O'Flaherty on bass, Eric Hine on keyboards, and Tony Ransley on drums, and the sound was originally focused more on the songs of Wilson Pickett, Don Covay, and Otis Redding. They were signed to EMI's Parlophone label, and issued a few singles which failed to chart, but in 1967 the group's management decided to try moving them in the direction of psychedelia, and one of their singles in this new style was the smash hit 'Kites'. Regarding themselves as blue-eyed soul brothers, they hated it as it was so unrepresentative of their usual style, and the follow-up 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' was only a minor hit, while 'Broken Hearted Pirates' missed the charts completely. A then unknown keyboard player by the name of Reginald Dwight was hired to fill in for an ill Eric Hine on a 1967 tour of Scotland, and he was almost recruited as a permanent member, but they turned him down, and laughed when he told them he was adopting the stage name of Elton John. The group released just one studio album, 1967's excellent 'Without Reservations', but they had made a start on a second record before it was cancelled, and tracks from it turned up on a recent retrospective of their career, so as we have the songs and the title, all we need is some artwork to complete the follow-up to 'Without Reservation'. Frustrated as being seen as one-hit wonders, the band broke up in 1969, with the Shulman brothers going on to some success with their next project, Gentle Giant. 

Track listing

01 Stained Glass Window
02 Please Come Back
03 Light On Dark Water
04 What In This World

05 You
06 Don't Make It So Hard (On Me Baby)
07 Kindness

08 Can't You See
09 Loneliness Is Just State Of Mind
10 Laughing Boy From Nowhere

11 Now

12 What Cha Gonna Do

13 Castle In The Sky
14 Rain
15 Something In The Way She Moves
16 I'm Going Home (John/Taupin)