Tintern Abbey - Vacuum Cleaner (1968)

Tintern Abbey were formed by Don Smith after meeting David MacTavish at the Overseas Visitors Club in Earl's Court London, and each of them added another member to the group, with Smith bringing in John Dalton, and MacTavish introducing Stuart MacKay into the band. After discovering a mutual love of the poems of William Wordsworth, and in particular his 'Tintern Abbey', the group named themselves after the poem. They released only one 45rpm single on Deram Records, with a re-titled 'Busy Bee' as the lead track, and 'Beeside'/'Vacuum Cleaner' came out in December 1967. However, the Jonathan Webber-produced single failed to sell, and so although the proposed follow-up record 'Snowman' had reached mastering stage, Smith left the group. After Smith's departure, Paul Brett was added as a guitarist, and he was joined by organist Terry Goldberg, originally of the Mark Leeman Five, with this new line up recording what would have been their second single 'How Do I Feel Today'/'Do What You Must', which was slated for an April 1968 release, although in the end it never appeared. A full-length album was allegedly meant to follow in August 1968, and although recording sessions took place at Tony Pike's studios in Putney, London, by the time August rolled around the group had disbanded, and the album never appeared. Since the band's breakup, the 'Beeside'/'Vacuum Cleaner' single has been highly sought after by collectors, selling at £1000 plus, and it's been hailed as one of the best examples of British psychedelia. As such, the band has become something of a cult favourite among fans of British psyche, and so an album from them would have been most welcome. In 2006 a 7" vinyl EP of tracks recorded in 1968 was released by Paul Brett and John Dalton as a charity benefit for Oxfam, while other recordings have also since surfaced, and so we are now in a position to take the best of these 1967 and 1968 sessions and imagine what an album from the band would have sounded like if it had appeared as intended in 1968.

Track listing

01 Vacuum Cleaner
02 Tanya
03 Seeds Of Discord
04 Bodmin Blow
05 Black Jack
06 It's Just That The People Can't See 
07 Busy Bee
08 Hookah
09 Do What You Must
10 My Prayer
11 How Do I Feel Today
12 Snowman
13 Let The Wind Blow