Miller Anderson - ...and on guitar (1994)

Miller Anderson was born on 12 April 1945 in Houston, Renfrewshire in Scotland, and started his career in the group The Royal Crests in Scotland around 1964, and after moving down to London in March 1965 they renamed themselves Karl Stuart And The Profiles. Under this name they released two singles in 1965, 'Love Of My Eyes'/'Not A Girl In A Million' and  and 'Haven't They Got Better Things'/'Touch Of Your Hand', before dropping the Karl Stuart part and becoming The Profiles. Two more singles followed in the same year, before Anderson left the band and joined The Voice. This time the group only managed one single, 'Train To Disaster'/'Truth', before he departed, although he was there long enough to play with Mick Ronson when they were both members at the same time. Anderson then formed a duo with Dave Dufort in the mid-60's, but with the addition of future Mott The Hoople leader Ian Hunter on bass and Dante Smith on keyboards they became The Scenery, and after Dofort left the band and was replaced by John Vernon Smith, yet another single emerged in 'To Make A Man Cry'/'Thread Of Time'. In March 1968 he joined the strangely-named At Last the 1958 Rock And Roll Show, bumping into Hunter again, and with Freddie Fingers Lee on keyboards and Pete Phillips on drums, they released one single, with the Jimmi Duncan-produced 'I Can't Drive'/'Working On The Railroad' appearing on the CBS label in 1968. 

In October 1968 the band changed their name to Charlie Woolfe, with the same line-up, and they were soon back in the studio to record another single, this time for NEMS in UK (also released by CBS in Holland), with 'Dance Dance Dance'/'Home', with the b-side being a Freddie Fingers Lee, Miller Anderson and Ian Hunter co-write. Soon afterwards, Anderson and Hunter decided to abandon Charlie Woolfe, so they resurrected The Scenery, and although this edition of the band did not record, they did back singer David McWilliams for a British tour. In November 1968 Anderson finally got the call that he'd been waiting for, with an offer to join the Keef Hartley Band as vocalist and lead guitarist, and he ended up composing most of their original material. They released the excellent 'Halfbreed' album, recorded in just three days, and which opened with 'Sacked', a recording of an answerphone message from John Mayall telling Hartley that he was out of The Bluesbreakers. On this album Miller only contributed vocals, with guitar courtesy of Spit James, but once James left the band, Anderson took over the guitar role completely, and this line-up played in Woodstock Festival on its second day, although unfortunately they don't appear on the movie or soundtrack. With the addition of Mick Weaver, the Keef Hartley Band released their second album, 'The Battle Of North West Six', with guitar by Spit James, who was still in the band when it was recorded, and with one track featuring Mick Taylor guesting on guitar. 

'Overdog' followed in 1971 , and the group converted into a big band, in order to record a live album in the legendary Marquee in London, called 'Little Big Band', and they toured with a line-up of up to 20 members. After the live recording, the band returned to their usual quintet, and after recording some tracks for BBC in March 1971, Anderson started to think of pursuing a solo career. leaving the band in 1971. His first solo album 'Bright City', was released on Dream later that year, and he assembled a band to play some concerts, although he didn't actually tour. Around January 1973 he  formed a new band with keyboardist Mick Weaver, with Hemlock having more of a folk feel than the blues that he was associated with. They released a self-titled album, 'Hemlock', which was originally conceived as Anderson's second solo album, with help from Pete Willsher on steel guitar and Chris Mercer on sax. They toured supporting Procol Harum in England in March 1973, followed by another tour supporting Savoy Brown and Uriah Heep. On that tour, the chemistry between Savoy Brown's Kim Simmonds and Anderson finished with the offer of them forming a band together, so with the addition of Hemlock's rhythm section the formed The Boogie Brothers, which eventually led to him joining Savoy Brown themselves in January 1974, giving a three-guitar line-up of Simmonds, Anderson, and ex-Chicken Shack leader Stan Webb. 

They released the 'Boogie Brothers' album in 1974, but with too many leaders in the band, they only stayed together until December. In 1975, Anderson teamed up with his old boss Keef Hartley, and formed the short-lived Dog Soldier. After releasing their self-titled album, 'Dog Soldier', Hartley and bassist Paul Bliss left the band, and although they carried on with replacements Jim Leverton and Eric Dillon, they soon parted ways after touring with Back Street Crawler. Around August 1976, Marc Bolan refreshed the line-up of T Rex completely, keeping only Dino Dines, who recruited his old mate Anderson to play on Bolan's next album 'Dandy In The Underworld', and after that he joined Donovan for a tour, but before he could re-join T Rex, Bolan was killed in a car accident in 1977. The following year Anderson put together another band with keyboardist Ronnie Leahy, and after adding Colin Allen on drums, and recruiting guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, The Dukes recorded their only album in 1979, and then toured with Wishbone Ash. They had a minor success with the single 'Hearts In Trouble', but soon after that, tragedy struck again and Jimmy McCulloch sadly died. They replaced him with Mick Grabham, but the band folder shortly afterwards. In 1982 Anderson was asked to join Stan Webb in his new band Stan Webb´s Speedway, but he was only in the group for a short while, and didn't record with them. 

His next gig evolved from a collaboration between Ian Hunter and Corky Laing, who was the drummer in Mountain, who wrote several songs together, and then Hunter called Anderson to come over and sing and play guitar on the recordings. After Leslie West was invited to contribute to the project, it was suddenly a full-blown Mountain reunion, and in 1982 they started recording an album, 'Go For Your life', but Anderson has been forced to switch to bass after West joined, and so when he realized his part was to be too small, he left the band, although he can be heard on 'Makin' It In Your Car' from the record. In 1988 he joined The Spencer Davis Group, alongside vocalist Chris Farlowe, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, Zoot Money on keyboards, Pete York on drums, and Davis himself on vocals and guitar. They released a live album, 'Extremely Live At Birmingham Town Hall' in 1988, with Anderson in great form on 'Feet's Too Big' and 'Stormy Monday'. In November and December 1988 the toured Germany under the name of Pete York's R&B Revue, and in 1991 they recorded a live album under their alternative name of Pete York & Superblues, released in 1994, and featuring renditions of the Billie Holliday classic 'Lover Man', Chris Farlowe's early hit 'Out Of Time', and Anderson's showcases on 'Dimples' and 'Resurrection Shuffle'. Anderson is still working, and in the spring of 2016, he returned to the studio, releasing his new album 'Through The Mill' in the July, and this collection of tracks from throughout his long and varied career will go some way to show how he got to that point.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 Love Of My Eyes (single by Karl Stuart And The Profiles 1965)
02 Got To Find A Way (single by The Profile 1966)
03 The Train To Disaster (single by The Voice 1966)
04 Thread Of Time (b-side of 'To Make A Man Cry' by The Scenery 1967)
05 I Can't Drive (single by At Last The 1958 Rock And Roll Show 1968)
06 Dance Dance Dance (single by Charlie Woolfe 1968)
07 You Can Choose (from 'Overdog' by The Keef Hartley Band 1971)
08 The Actor (from 'Two Weeks Last Summer' by Dave Cousins 1972)
09 Ship To Nowhere (from 'Hemlock' by Hemlock 1973)
10 You Don't Love Me (from 'Boogie Brothers' by Savoy Brown 1974)

Disc Two
01 Broken Glass (from 'Broken Glass' by Broken Glass' 1975)
02 You Are My Spark (from 'Dog Soldier' by Dog Soldier 1975)
03 Jason B. Sad (from 'Dandy In The Underworld' by T. Rex 1977)
04 We Can Make It Together (from 'Heartbreak Hill' by The Strawbs 1978)
05 Time On Your Side (from 'The Dukes' by The Dukes 1979)
06 We Are One (from 'Neutronica' by Donovan 1980)
07 Makin' It In Your Car (from 'Go For Your Life' by Mountain 1985)
08 The Thrill Is Gone (from 'Extremely Live At Birmingham Town Hall' by The Spencer Davis Group 1988)
09 Dimples (from 'Superblues' by Pete York 1994)

Lynsey de Paul - songwriter (1975)

Lyndsey Monckton Rubin was born on 11 June 1948, and attended South Hampstead High School followed by Hornsey College of Art, now part of Middlesex University, and she also studied classical music with a tutor from the Royal Academy of Music. She began writing songs at an early age, and two of her earliest efforts were co-written with Don Gould (formerly a member of 60's pop group The Applejacks) and recorded by Oliver! performer Jack Wild, with 'Takin' It Easy' and 'Bring Yourself Back To Me' being included on his 1971 album 'Everything's Coming Up Roses'. Another song co-penned by her was 'E.O.I.O.', this time with Edward Adamberry, and htis was also recorded by Wild as a track on his 1972 album 'A Beautiful World', and it was also released as a single by The Beads. After these initial successes, she was contracted to ATV-Kirshner music publishing by Eddie Levy, where she joined a group of professional songwriters that included Barry Blue (at that time known as Barry Green) and Ron Roker (later to become Barry's brother-in-law). One of their earliest songs (and the only song where all three collaborated) was 'Sugarloaf Hill', recorded by the reggae artist Del Davis as a single in 1972. Her first major breakthrough came early in that year as the co-writer (with Ron Roker) of the Fortunes' Top 10 UK hit 'Storm In A Teacup', and she performed the song herself the same year on the BBC's The Two Ronnies TV show, under her new name of Lynsey de Paul. Around this time she also had chart success in Malaysia and the Netherlands as the writer of 'On The Ride (You Do It Once, You Do It Twice)', which was a Top 30 hit by the Continental Uptight Band, as well as with her song 'When You've Gotta Go', which was an Australian chart hit recorded by Solomon King. All three songs still credited her as 'L. Rubin', which she would continue to use while writing until 1973. Other notable songs from this period included 'Papa Do', which was released by Barry Green as a single, as well as 'Crossword Puzzle', which was another co-write with Green, and which became a hit single for the Irish singer Dana. 

The b-side of 'Papa Do' was another Rubin/Green collaboration, and 'Boomerang' was released as a single in the UK by The Young Generation, a group of dancers and singers recruited by Dougie Squires, who had a number of hits in the 70's, while Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band also recorded their own version of the song. Although she had recorded demo versions of her songs, De Paul was initially a reluctant performer, and although she wrote the song 'Sugar Me' for Peter Noone, her boyfriend at the time, Dudley Moore, suggested that she take a demo version to Gordon Mills, who urged her to record it herself and release it on his MAM record label. Released as a single, 'Sugar Me' rapidly reached the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, as well as the top of the singles charts in the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, and this was the start of her becoming a regular British chart and TV fixture over the next five years. She followed 'Sugar Me' with 'Getting A Drag', and her debut album appeared a few months later, leading to her being listed as the best female artist of 1972 by Record Mirror, female performer of the year by Radio Luxembourg, and third best female singer in the 1973 New Musical Express music poll. Her first album 'Surprise' was released in March 1973 on the MAM label, and as well as writing or co-writing all of the songs, she was also the producer for all of the tracks. Following the unsuccessful 'All Night', her next single was 'Won't Somebody Dance With Me', and the b-side 'So Good To You' was covered by Lenny Zakatek on the b-side of his single 'I Gotcha Now', which was also a de Paul co-write. Another song co-written by de Paul, 'Today Gluggo, Tomorrow The World', was the b-side of 'Don't You Let It Bring You Down' by the Spencer Davis Group, as well as appearing on their 1973 album 'Gluggo'. She recorded the spoken passage on Mott the Hoople's album track version of 'Roll Away The Stone', although the female trio Thunderthighs appeared on the hit single version of the song. 

In May 1974 she released 'Ooh I Do', which hit the charts in the UK, Belgium, Japan, Netherlands, and Brazil , and she also wrote her first TV theme tune 'Pilger Theme', for 'Pilger' where journalist John Pilger examined various political issues at the time in a series of 25 minute documentaries between 1974 and 1977. Another theme song, this time co-written with Barry Blue, was a song which was recorded and released in 1974 as a single by the UK group Rain, featuring Stephanie de Sykes as the vocalist, and 'Golden Day' was later used as the theme for the TV game show 'The Golden Shot'. A second Ivor Novello Award followed a year later for 'No Honestly', which was also the theme tune to the hit ITV comedy 'No, Honestly', and provided her with another UK Top 10 hit. The b-side to this single was her version of 'Central Park Arrest', which she'd written for Thunderthighs, and which had provided them with a Top 30 UK hit single a few months earlier. 'No Honestly' was the first release on the newly formed Jet Records, established by Don Arden, and she also wrote the second single that was released on the label, a song called 'My One And Only', which was recorded by UK female singing trio Bones. Her second album 'Taste Me... Don't Waste Me' was the first album release on Jet Records and was her favourite of all her albums, and is mine as well. De Paul continued to release singles through the mid-1970's, including the UK hit 'My Man And Me', along with 'Rhythm And Blue Jean Baby', 'Love Bomb' and 'If I Don't Get You The Next One Will', but this post concentrates on her writing for other artists in her formative years, and it shows how she progressed from those early efforts, including that surprise hit by the Fortunes, to the successful songs that she provided for other people in the 70's once she'd hooked up with Barry Green as her collaborator.  

Track listing

01 Takin' It Easy (Rubin/Gould) by Jack Wild 1971
02 Bring Yourself Back To Me (Rubin/Gould) by Jack Wild 1971
03 E.O.I.O. (Rubin/Adamberry) by Jack Wild 1972
04 Sugarloaf Hill (Rubin/Green/Roker) by Del Davis 1972
05 Storm In A Teacup (Rubin/Roker) by The Fortunes 1972
06 On The Ride (You Do It Once, You Do It Twice) (Rubin/Adamberry) by 

                                                                                              Continental Uptight Band 1972
07 When You've Gotta Go (Rubin/Roker) by Solomon King 1972
08 Papa Do (Rubin/Green) by Barry Green 1972
09 Crossword Puzzle (Rubin/Green) by Dana 1972
10 Boomerang (Rubin/Green) by Geno Washington And The Ram Jam Band 1972
11 I Gotcha Now (de Paul) by Lenny Zakatek 1973
12 So Good To You (de Paul) by Lenny Zakatek 1973
13 Today Gluggo, Tomorrow The World (de Paul/York) by The Spencer Davis Group 1973
14 Pilger Theme (de Paul) from the TV series 'Pilger' 1974
15 Golden Day (de Paul/Blue) by Rain featuring Stephanie De-Sykes 1974
16 Central Park Arrest (de Paul) by Thunderthighs 1974
17 My One And Only (de Paul) by Bones 1975

The Spencer Davis Group - Letters From Edith (1969)

After the departure of Steve and Muff Winwood in 1967 the Spencer Davis Group underwent several line up changes, and by early 1969 parted company with their record label United Artists in the UK and looked around for a new deal. After touring America the band spent some time in New York cutting tracks for their new album with producer Lew Merrenstein. They ended up with a heady mix of laid-back blues, country rock songs, organ-driven instrumentals, plus one amazing progressive workout, which pushed the sound created on earlier albums to new limits. The record was released in the US on Columbia's budget label Date as the provocatively-titled 'Funky' after one of the instrumental tracks, but was soon deleted after disappointing sales. In the UK, CBS were expecting to sign the band for a record deal, but the deal fell through and the planned album was scrapped. Until recently it was thought that CBS only got as far as making 50 white label test pressings for internal use, however an orange label stock copy bearing the correct catalogue number has surfaced which confirms that the album was clearly named after the second track on side one, and was never officially called simply 'The Spencer Davis Group', as has been suggested. There's also a note on the label telling us that 'New Jersey Turnpike' was recorded live, which does account for the difference in sound to the other songs. Although it was long believed that no artwork was designed for the album, there does seem to be one battered copy out there which does have a finished sleeve, so I've cleaned it up to make it a bit more presentable, and added the rear cover as well. According to well-placed sources, there are only two copies of an orange label stock copy known to exist, one of which is owned by song-writer and SDG member Ray Fenwick himself, which he received at the time of recording. So although not strictly speaking 'unreleased', as 'Funky' was briefly issued in the US, this is what a UK copy of the album would have looked and sounded like had it appeared in 1969. 

Track listing

01 I Met A Woman
02 Letters From Edith
03 Raintree River
04 What A Way To Die
05 Funky
06 Magical Day
07 I Guess I'm Wasting My Time
08 Poor Misguided Woman
09 And The Gods Came Down
10 New Jersey Turnpike

The Spencer Davis Group - Give Us Some Lovin' (1968)

After Welsh guitarist Spencer Davis encountered vocalist and organist Steve Winwood (then aged 14 and still at school), and his bass playing brother Muff Winwood performing at a pub in 1963, he recruited both of them, together with drummer Pete York, to form the Rhythm and Blues Quartette. A year later they'd signed a record contract with Island Records, and Muff Winwood renamed them The Spencer Davis Group. They recorded a couple of singles which didn't do a huge amount, before their their fourth attempt hit the number one spot with a cover of Jackie Edwards' 'Keep On Running', and from that point on they became one of the UK's best R'n'B outfits. More hits followed, with 'Somebody Help Me' hitting the top slot again, but just missing it with the number two single 'Gimme Some Lovin'. Despite the chart successes they remained true to their roots, and their albums and b-side often featured covers of classic blues tracks, as well as some lively organ-led R'n'B instrumentals. By 1968 Stevie Winwood had left the band to form Traffic, and they'd taken on some of the psychedelic elements which were around at the time, so 'With Their New Face On' was an apt title for an album which mostly left the blues behind for a more lysergic pop sound. But their heyday was the period between 1965 and 1967, when they released some of their finest recordings, and tucked away on b-sides were songs which were the equal of their flips, so here they all are, from their first non-album single 'She Put The Hurt On Me', via a number of great 'Stevie.....' instrumentals, and including the US single versions of 'Somebody Help Me' and 'Gimme Some Lovin''.    

Track listing

01 You Put The Hurt On Me (single 1965)
02 I'm Getting Better (b-side of 'You Put The Hurt On Me')
03 Stevie's Groove (previously unreleased 1965)
04 I'll Drown In My Own Tears (from the 'You Put The Hurt On Me' EP 1965)
05 Goodbye Stevie (from the 'You Put The Hurt On Me' EP 1965)
06 Somebody Help Me (US single version 1966)
07 Trampoline (b-side of 'When I Come Home' 1966)
08 Stevie's Blues (b-side of 'Somebody Help Me' 1966)
09 Gimme Some Lovin' (US single version 1966)
10 Blues In F (b-side of 'Gimme Some Lovin'' 1966)
11 Back Into My Life Again (previously unreleased)
12 Waltz For Lumumba (Waltz For Caroline) (b-side of 'I'm A Man' in New Zealand)
13 I'm A Man (single 1967)
14 Oh! Pretty Woman (previously unreleased)
15 I Can't Get Enough Of It (b-side of 'I'm A Man')