Art Wood had been a vocalist with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated for a short period during 1962, while simultaneously fronting his own group, the Art Wood Combo. When keyboardist Jon Lord and guitarist Derek Griffiths joined the Art Wood Combo, the Artwoods were formed, and recruited Keef Hartley on drums and Malcolm Pool as bassist to complete the line-up. In 1964 the band turned professional, and were soon signed by Decca Records, where their debut single was going to be a cover of Muddy Waters' 'Hoochie Coochie Man', before that was shelved in favour of a rendition of an old Lead Belly song, 'Sweet Mary'. Although that didn't chart, it got sufficient airplay to bring the band a lot of live work, including an appearance on the first live edition of 'Ready Steady Go!'. Their next couple of singles were also blues covers, and they finally cracked the charts with their cover of 'I Take What I Want', reaching number 28 on 8 May 1966. Buoyed by this success the band released their only album 'Art Gallery' in 1966, but it sold few copies and so they were dropped by Decca at the end the year. The band signed a one-record deal with Parlophone, but the release of 'What Shall I Do' also had no success, and their last chart attempt was engineered by their manager, who thought it would be a good idea to dress them in gangster gear and change their name to St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in the hope of piggy-backing some publicity from the release of the 'Bonnie And Clyde' film. Their only single under this guise fared no better then the others, and the band finally called it a day in 1967. In 1975 Art's younger brother Ronnie Wood joined the Rolling Stones to replace Mick Taylor, and when word got around that he was Art's brother, the Artwoods records became sought-after items almost over-night, increasing rapidly in value due to the small numbers that they sold at the time of their release. It's a shame that they didn't have more success in their prime, as they were a hard-working band who were just unlucky that their singles didn't seem to appeal to the record-buying public. Although they only released the one album in their lifetime, there was enough music recorded for singles and b-sides over the following year, plus a couple of BBC sessions and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre single (where they were in fact The Artwoods in all but name), to put together a possible follow-up to 'Art Gallery', which could have come out in 1967.
Track listing
01 I Feel Good (single 1966)02 Molly Anderson's Cookery Book (b-side of 'I Feel Good')03 In The Deep End (b-side of 'What Shall I Do?')04 What Shall I Do? (single 1967)05 I Take What I Want (single 1966)06 She Knows What To Do (b-side of 'Goodbye Sisters')07 Routine (from the 'Jazz In Jeans' EP 1966)08 Steady Gettin' It (BBC session 1967)09 Goodbye Sisters (single 1965)10 I'm Looking For A Saxophone Player Doubling French Horn Wearing Size 37 Boots (b-side of 'I Take What I Want')11 Brother Can You Spare A Dime? (from the single as St Valentines's Day Massacre 1967)12 Our Man Flint (from the 'Jazz In Jeans' EP 1966)13 Day Tripper (BBC session 1967)14 Al's Party (b-side of 'Brother Can You Spare A Dime?')
