The genesis of Idle Race goes back as far as 1959, when core members Dave Pritchard (rhythm guitar) and Roger Spencer (drums), joined forces with vocalist Billy King, bass guitarist Brian Cope, and lead guitarist Al Johnson to play under the name of Billy King And The Nightriders. In 1962, King left the band and was replaced by Mike Sheridan (Michael Tyler), and this change coincided with the band's rise in popularity, culminating in a record deal with EMI in 1964. By this time Cope had been replaced by Greg Masters, and Johnson by lead guitarist and composer Roy Wood, who had his first commercially released composition 'Make Them Understand' on the b-side of a 1965 single by Mike Sherdan's Lot. By December 1965, Wood had joined forces with other musicians to form The Move, and so had to leave The Nightriders in January 1966 when The Move started touring. Wood's place in the Nightriders was filled by Johnny Mann, a band-mate of Carl Wayne in The Vikings, with Wayne now joining Wood in The Move. Sheridan felt that the band had come full circle and also decided to leave, leading the remaining members of the band to consider a change in direction, starting with a shortening of their name to 'The Nightriders', and then signing a new recording contract with Polydor Records. Mann departed shortly thereafter, and was replaced by Jeff Lynne, who was at the time an unknown guitar prodigy from Birmingham, and the classic Idle Race line-up was complete.
They were still called The Nightriders when they released their sole Polydor single 'It's Only The Dog'/'Your Friend', in 1966, but with Lynne starting to provide a string of catchy Bealtesque songs, they changed their name again, firstly to The Idyll Race, and then The Idle Race. Wood, now a major star in the Move, helped arrange a record deal with the new British arm of Liberty Records, and BBC disc jockeys such as John Peel and Kenny Everett were big supporters of the group. Their debut single on Liberty was to be a cover of Wood's 'Here We Go 'Round the Lemon Tree', but the Move's own version, which was on the b-side of their 'Flowers In The Rain' single, began getting national airplay on British radio, and so Liberty abruptly pulled the single in the UK (although it was still released by Liberty in the US). Subsequent singles also had little success, but despite this the band released their debut album 'The Birthday Party' in 1968, which has since gone on to be considered a classic record of the psychedelic era. In February 1969 Lynne received an offer to replace Trevor Burton in the Move, but he declined as he hoped to steer The Idle Race to commercial success with their second, eponymous album for Liberty. Two singles were released to promote the record, but they also failed to chart, and the album itself was not well-received. In January 1970, Lynne accepted a second offer by Wood to join The Move, on condition that they would eventually retire that band and concentrate on a new venture, Electric Light Orchestra, and so the classic line-up of The Idle Race was no more.
Mike Hopkins (guitar) and Dave Walker (vocals) were hired to replace Lynne, and a cover of Mungo Jerry's 'In the Summertime' finally got them into the top 10 in Argentina, followed by another cover, although this time their version of Hotlegs' 'Neanderthal Man' did not fare so well. In 1971 the band produced their final album 'Time Is' for Regal Zonophone, and they limped on for another year before finally disbanding in 1972, with some of the members going on to form The Steve Gibbons Band. Strangely enough, in the year before Lynne left, the band did record almost enough material to issue another Lynne-fronted album in 1970, although to make the running time up to a reasonable length we would have to include the two post-Lynne covers and a couple of early non-album singles to flesh it out. There'a also a BBC session version of Moby Grape's 'Hey Grandma' included, as they used to play this in concert, so they could well have considered recording a version of it for an album, and the otherwise unreleased 'Frantic Desolation' could have made it as well, although unfortunately the only available take of this song is taped from a radio broadcast, and so is not the best quality. Although the timespan of the music is perhaps a bit too wide to produce a coherent album, we do end up with an interesting collection of singles, b-sides, radio sessions and alternate takes that you won't hear on any of the band's studio records.
Track listing
01 Imposters Of Life's Magazine (single 1967)02 My Father's Son (b-side of '(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree')03 Knocking Nails Into My House (b-side of 'The Skeleton And The Roundabout' 1968)04 (Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree (single 1967)05 Follow Me Follow (alternate version)06 Days Of The Broken Arrows (single 1969)07 Hey Grandma (BBC session 1967)08 Lucky Man (alternate version)09 Neanderthal Man (single 1970)10 Worn Red Carpet (b-side of 'Days Of The Broken Arrows')11 Victim Of Circumstance (b-side of 'Neanderthal Man')12 In The Summertime (single 1970)13 Frantic Desolation (BBC Session 1969)14 Told You Twice (b-side of 'In The Summertime')
