Swegas - Swegas (1969)

Swegas was formed in 1969 by Nick Ronai and Joe Spibey, taking their name from a plural form of the Anglo-Saxon word 'sweg', which means 'sound', 'noise', or 'music'. Spibey (trumpet) and Ronai (trombone) had been members of the Fulson Stilwell Band before joining the soul band Cat Road Show, and when they left to form their own band they added Alan Smith on tenor sax and Jonny Toogood on guitar, plus a few other pick up players while they looked for permanent members, and so in mid 1969 they advertised for an organist and bassist, and Keith Strachan and Roy Truman applied and got the gig. They'd played together in various bands since being at college and were looking for something a bit more adventurous, which they found in Swegas, who were attempting to fuse jazz and rock in the manner of Blood Sweat And Tears and The Chicago Transit Authority, who were both in their early stages of development in the US. They secured a deal with B&C Records in October 1969 and recorded an album at Advision Studios in Regent Street, with a line-up of Spibey, Ronai, Smith, Toogood, Strachan and Truman, plus Chris Dawe on trumpet, Nick Thomas on tenor sax, John Legg on baritone sax, and Chrys Chrysostomou on drums. The album was not destined for release, however, and Spibey, Smith and Toogood left the group shortly afterwards, followed later by Chrysostomou. Undeterred, the remaining members recruited Stewart Wilkinson on guitar, Ron Shillingford on tenor sax, and Maurice McElroy on drums, and managed to get a deal with First Class Management, rehearsing endlessly on new material in a room at the London Ambulance Service in Waterloo Road. They signed record and management deals with the Barry Class Organisation in March 1970, and following a tour of Germany they went into Tangerine Studios in Dalston to record their 'Child Of Light' album, which was released in 1970 on Trend Records. A second album 'Beyond The Ox' followed in early 1971, but then things started to go wrong for the band, with their band bus suffering a collision in Hamburg and being virtually written off, following which Barry Class and First Class Management pulled the plug when the band returned from Germany, and after one final gig in Bristol in September 1971 the band broke up. Listening to their records you can hear that they were a very accomplished group, and Ronai had a talent for writing and arranging, but they never had the breaks and so leave just the two albums as their legacy. However, that unreleased first record has since surfaced, and listening to it you can hear that even at that early stage of their existence they were a tight little band, playing all original material, and if they'd just had a little encouragement they could have become the English BS&T.

Track listing

01 Planetarium 
02 There's Nothing In It
03 What You Gonna Do 
04 Old Flames 
05 Over The Points 
06 The Summer Of My Days
07 The Naz 
08 Keep Out Of Sight 
09 Grey Lust