Gary Boyle is best known for his work with the outstanding jazz-rock band Isotope, but like so many musicians before him, he'd paid his dues in a number of lesser-known bands and with session work before he was recognised for the superb guitarist that he is. Gary Winston Boyle was born in 1941 in Patna, India, moving to the UK when he was eight, and attended the Leeds College of Music in the early 1960's. By 1965 he was backing acts such as Millie Small (of 'My Boy Lollipop' fame), and Lulu and The Luvvers, before joining The Echoes in 1966. Later that year he left The Echoes to join a new incarnation of Steampacket, the famed 'supergroup', whose line-up included Long John Baldrey, Rod Stewart, Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger, and Mickey Waller. When Steampacket folded shortly afterwards, Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll formed The Trinity with guitarist Vic Briggs, who was replaced in 1967 by Boyle, where he stayed until November, when he left to go to music college. On leaving college in 1969 he joined folk-rock band Eclection, but left in June to re-join Brian Auger in the re-named Brian Auger Trinity. By 1971 he was playing with bands like Caparius and Cirrus, and backing The Eddie Harris Group for a season at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, before joining The Mike Westbrook Band, and playing on the classic 'Metropolis' album in 1971. After assembling a progressive rock band for Paul Jones, including Roy Babbington, Dave McRae, Pip Pyle, and Dave Wintour, he formed Isotope in 1972, which was to take up most of his time for the next four years, before he disbanded them to form The Gary Boyle Band with the same members. In 1973, while still with Isotope, he guested on recording sessions for a dazzling variety of artists, including jazz-fusion pioneer Stomu Yamash'ta, pop singers B.J. Arnau and Lynsey De Paul, comic trio The Goodies, and folkies Bert Jansch and Doggerel Bank. In 1972 he was added to Australian band Python Lee Jackson's line-up to record some more songs which could be added to the three that had been taped with Rod Stewart as vocalist in 1969, and the 'In A Broken Dream' album was released that year to some success, following the re-release of the title track as a single, which earned the band a top 3 UK chart placing. The same year he guested on jazz singer Norma Winstone's 'Edge Of Time' album, adding his guitar to 'Erebus (Son Of Chaos)', although I've omitted that from this album, along with his appearance on Mike Westbrook's 'Metropolis' (where his only solo is very short and hardly audible) as they are both examples of extreme free jazz, and didn't really fit in with the rest of the tracks. However, I have included them as a bonus in the file in case you want to check them out yourself.
Track listing 01 Isola Natale (from 'Open' by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity 1967)02 Black Horse (from 'Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening' by Keith Tippett 1971) 03 Sweet Consolation (from 'In A Broken Dream' by Python Lee Jackson 1972)04 Swing Song (from 'A Little Taste' by Ann Odell 1973)05 Taking You Back (from 'Sing Songs From The Goodies' by The Goodies 1973)06 Mama Do (from 'Surprise' by Lynsey De Paul 1973)07 Jubilation (from 'B.J. Arnau' by B.J. Arnau 1973)08 Rolling Nuns (from 'Freedom Is Frightening' by Stomu Yamash'ta's East Wind 1973)09 Lullabye (from 'Silver Faces' by Doggerel Bank 1973)10 Oh My Father (from 'Moonshine' by Bert Jansch 1973)
Roderick David Stewart was born in North London in 1945, the son of a Scottish master builder from Edinburgh, and consequently has always maintained his Scottish heritage. The family was mostly focused on football, as his father had played in a local amateur team, and in the summer of 1960 Stewart went for trials at Third Divisiion club Brentford F.C., but nothing came of it, and so he instead opted for the life of a musician. In 1962 Stewart began hanging around with folk singer Wizz Jones, busking at Leicester Square and other London spots, and taking up playing the then-fashionable harmonica. Over the next 18 months Jones and Stewart took their act to Brighton and then to Paris, sleeping under bridges over the River Seine, and then finally to Barcelona, where he was deported from Spain for vagrancy during 1963. Disillusioned by rock and roll, he saw Otis Redding perform in concert and began listening to Sam Cooke records, becoming fascinated by rhythm and blues and soul music. After returning to London in 1963, Stewart joined a rhythm and blues group, the Dimensions, as a harmonica player and part-time vocalist. A more established singer from Birmingham, Jimmy Powell, then hired the group and it became known as Jimmy Powell & the Five Dimensions, with Stewart being relegated to harmonica player. Relations soon broke down between Powell and Stewart over roles within the group and Stewart departed, and shortly after that, as he was waiting at Twickenham railway station after having seen Long John Baldry and the All Stars at Eel Pie Island, Baldry heard him playing 'Smokestack Lightnin'' on his harmonica, and invited him to sit in with the group. When Baldry discovered Stewart was a singer as well, he offered him a job for £35 a week, and in June 1964, Stewart made his recording debut (without label credit) on 'Up Above My Head', the B-side to Baldry's 'You'll Be Mine' single. While still with Baldry, Stewart made some solo demo recordings, and after being scouted by Decca Records at the Marquee Club, he signed to a solo contract in August 1964. Turning down Decca's recommended material as too commercial, Stewart insisted that the experienced session musicians he was given, including John Paul Jones, learn a couple of Sonny Boy Williamson songs he had just heard, and the resulting single 'Good Morning Little Schoolgirl' was released in October 1964. Stewart left Baldry's band after a disagreement, but later patched things up when legendary impresario Giorgio Gomelsky put together The Steampacket, which featured Baldry, Stewart, Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Micky Waller, Vic Briggs and Ricky Fenson. The group was conceived as a white soul revue, like The Ike & Tina Turner Revue, with multiple vocalists and styles ranging from jazz to R & B to blues. The Steampacket was unable to enter the studio to record any material due to its members all belonging to different labels and managers, although Gomelsky did record one of their Marquee Club rehearsals. Stewart departed from The Steampacket in March 1966, joining a somewhat similar outfit, Shotgun Express in May as co-lead vocalist with Beryl Marsden. The other members included Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (who would later go on to form Fleetwood Mac), and Peter Bardens (soon to form Camel), and they released one unsuccessful single in October 1966, the orchestra-heavy 'I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round' (with a couple of great instrumentals on the flip), before disbanding. In 1967 guitarist Jeff Beck recruited Stewart for his new post-Yardbirds venture, joining as vocalist and sometime songwriter. This would become his biggest break, and was also where he first played with Ronnie Wood, whom he'd first met in a London pub in 1964. Following two well-received albums, 'Truth' in 1968 and 'Beck-Ola' in 1969, Stewart and Wood both left, joining Wood's brother Art in his new band Quiet Melon, who recorded a couple of tracks before disbanding, one of which featured Rod on lead vocal. Stewart had signed a solo contact with Mercury Records in 1968, but contractual complexities delayed recording until July 1969, and in the meantime he'd been invited to join Ron Wood in a band put together by ex-Small Faces members Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones, who soon decided to call the new line-up The Faces. In April 1969 Stewart sang guest vocals for the Australian group Python Lee Jackson on their 'In a Broken Dream' album, and in 1972 the title track was re-released as a single and became a massive hit. His payment was a set of seat covers for his car. From this point on, Stewart's solo and band career took off, with hit singles and albums in both capacities, but for this album I'm looking just at the bands who Stewart lent his distinctive vocals to before he hit the big time. I've chosen just songs where he is the sole vocalist, which means omitting some Steampacket duets, but with the exception of the Long John Baldry track, which is worth hearing as it was his debut outing as a singer, and the Shotgun Express single. I've also omitted his time with the Jeff Beck Group, whose studio albums, BBC sessions and live bootlegs are all freely available if you want to sample his work with them - and please do as it's all great stuff.
Track listing
01 Up Above My Head (I Hear Music In The Air) (Long John Baldry 1964)02 Ain't That Loving You Baby (The Steampacket 1965)03 Mopper's Blues (The Steampacket 1965)04 Keep Your Hands Off Her (The Steampacket 1965)05 Bright Lights, Big City (The Hoochie Coochie Men 1965)06 Just Like I Treat You (The Steampacket 1965)07 Can I Get A Witness (The Steampacket 1965)08 Don't You Tell Nobody (The Hoochie Coochie Men 1965)09 It's Alright (The Steampacket - BBC session 1965)10 I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round (Shotgun Express 1966)11 Stone Crazy (The Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation, with Peter Green and Jack Bruce 1967)12 Doin' Fine (Cloud Nine) (Python Lee Jackson 1969)13 In A Broken Dream (Python Lee Jackson 1969)14 The Blues (Python Lee Jackson 1969)15 Diamond Joe (Quiet Melon 1969)
