The Spirit of John Morgan

Spirit of John Morgan was an English progressive rock band which played crossover prog blended with folk, blues, sould r'n'b & pop influences. 

Line-up:

John Morgan (organ, piano, vocals), 

Mick Walter (drums, percussion, vocals), 

Don "Fagin" Whitaker (lead guitar, vocals), 

Phil Shutt [Phil Curtis] (bass), 

Trevor Thoms [Trevor Thomas, Trevor James] (guitar)

(Phil Shutt later played bass in Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come band)

Palhinha...

The Spirit of John Morgan (1969)

Spirit of John Morgan (1969) - good mix of psycedelic rock, heavy blues, some folk and early british progressive rock (especially great John Morgan's organ). surely their best album. Very consistent. (Grham Bond's song "I Want You" from this album later was again covered by retro prog Italian band called "Standarte" in their s/t album. Also includes "Honky Tonk Train Blues".

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ADITUS!!!!! (Fusion Jazz)

Formed in early 70s with a heavy Symphonic-rock influence very popular in those years. Later in the 80s the band moved to a Jazz-rock fusion sound that drove them to the Pop-rock style that is until today their trademark sound. The band has released 14 albums and a first single in 1976. The band is still very popular in the Venezuelan musical scene. Jazz-funk fans will enjoy this loungey Venezuelan LP from Aditus.

Aditus -Aditus 2

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CAIN - Hard rock

Cain was a hard rocking Twin Cities band that tried to take on the music industry in the mid-seventies. Their two small label albums were serious hard rock guitar extravaganzas, but with great fun original tunes, raucous lead vocals, and sweet backing vocals. Their influences ranged from the guitar of Deep Purple and Robin Trower, the majesty of Queen, and the vocal harmonies of Styx

Cain's roots went back a number of years. In 1969, the Twin Cities band The Bananas went through some personnel changes. Guitarist Lloyd Forsberg, bassist Dave Elmeer, and keyboardist Al Dworsky brought in Jiggs Lee on vocals and Mike Mlazgar on drums. Jiggs (from the Grasshoppers) and Mike (from Crow!) replaced Jim Offerman and Joe Soucheray. A name change was desired and Lloyd came up with "Cain." Like many local bands, Cain performed at teen clubs and school dances. Eventually, they worked their way up to college shows and started to gain a "heavy" reputation outside of the Twin Cities. Along the way, Mike Mlazgar was replaced by Tom Osfar and Al Dworsky was replaced by Jerry Magee. 

Of course, Cain started writing their own material. The popular ballad "Katy" was written by their next keyboardist, Chas Carlson. Their tours took them to neighboring states with gigs in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Carbondale. They worked clubs with other Midwest bands like Styx, Kansas, and Cheap Trick. More personnel changes occurred before they went in to the studio to record their first album in 1975: Tom Osfar was replaced by Kevin DeRemer (from the Everett James Band) and keyboards were dropped from the line-up entirely.  Their first hard rocking album was titled "A Pound of Flesh" (a reference to Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice"). It's not known what the band thought of the cover image that ASI Records' marketing department created. 

The album's guitar sound brings to mind Richie Blackmore; the main riff of the album's opener "Queen of the Night" is in the same vein as Deep Purple's "Burn." Lloyd's Stratocaster sound ventures into Robin-Trower-land on "Badside." The album features an ode to girlie magazines on "If the Right Don't Get You the Left One Will," a big power ballad with "Katy," and an epic rocker with "All My Life." 

They supported the album with tours that took them as far as Texas. 

In 1977, the second (and last) album in their ASI contract, "Stinger," was released. This album was just as hard rocking as the first, but the song writing really advanced. The Queen influences come out strong on "Welcome to the Dance" and the title track "Stinger" (which was a big live favorite when Jiggs broke out the burning book!). The album's Big Power Ballad was "The Minstrel Song." 

A third album was only half completed in 1978 when disco and other pressures took its toll on the group. Dave and Jiggs left the group, while Lloyd and Kevin continued on as Cain for another year before calling it quits. 

Info By Kevin Anderson:

http://echoesof-the-past.blogspot.com.br/2008/10/cain-pound-of-flesh.html

Cain - 1975 - A Pound Of Flesh

Line-up:

Jiggs Lee - vocals, percussion

Dave Elmeer - bass, acoustic, keyboards

Lloyd Forsberg - electric guitar

Kevin DeRemer - drums

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Chaplin Harness

Chaplin Harness album shows how the band have a feeling for a good balance between longer jams with blues and rock in it ; also within some improvisations they kept the same structural melodic-rhythmical fundament as what makes blues-rock songs so groovy, so that their sound succeeds and remains strong from start to finish. The drum part thus continues its interesting rhythmic fundaments within the improvisations and also the electric guitar as well as the organ keeps this tension intact. There’s an East Coast feeling involved with a hippie and blues touch but occasionally this is performed as if this also breaks out of its stylistic smoothness. The rhythmic guitar for instance plays in a way that it recalls nearly funky elements without ever using this style element and the piano plays more often as if being late night jazz bar improvisations. And also, it is as if they have something of the biker road music smoothness within their use of rhythms and drives. 

The lead singer sings either with a more screaming force, in the late 60s American tradition of trying to add extra power in the voice to create a different white blues alternative by singing more in a black way, elsewhere he’s a more hippie voice while there are added occasional backing vocals arrangements. The organ is great when leading and improvising, and when it is not, it takes over the part like a rhythm guitar (like on the great “3/4 Plaything”, also interesting for its great rhythmic fundament). Less guitar solos are featured, but there are some, mostly in a bluesy fashion. I also need to mention a few other extraordinary ideas, like more strange contemporary almost avant-garde (-for a band with a rather bluesy rock fundament especially-) jazzy chords on piano on an interesting smooth rhythm, still within the east coast context, on “Stitch”.  The bass lines are mostly mixed in a bit softly, but “3/4 Plaything” also featured a bass lead solo (each one of the instruments also had one). Despite some vinyl distortion in the high notes in beginning of the recording, the label managed to deliver an acceptable sound quality of this rather unknown band’s only acetate copy, after a limited vinyl reissue of the same recordings on Void records some four years ago. The band wasn’t entirely unknown at the time. They have played with the Nazz as well as with many other big names on the road. Guitarist Rick Lannaconne became more know within jazz circles. 

( http://www.psychemusic.org/sixties5.html)

Chaplin Harness 

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Zoppo Trump - Prog Rock

German early 1970's progressive band from Dortmund. 

The key players were Nicky Gebhard (born in Berlin) a self-taught drummer, who started in jazz-rock with the Günther Boas Band, and one Reimund Eberth, a blues guitarist and singer.

Zoppo Trump (1971)

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Principal Edwards Magic Theater

Principal Edwards Magic Theatre was a 14-member communal performance art collective in the United Kingdom made up of musicians, poets, dancers, and sound and lighting technicians.The collective was originally formed at the University of Exeter in the late 1960s, and then was later based at farmhouse in Kettering, Northamptonshire as a commune after educational studies were causing conflict with their musical activities. The core of the group was Belinda Borquin, David Jones, and Root Cartwright backed by several musicians and dancers.

The group was signed to John Peel's Dandelion Records after he witnessed their first gig, and their single, "The Ballad of a Big Girl Now", was released in 1969. Following the single was the release (under the same label) of two albums - Soundtrack and The Asmoto Running Band - the second of which was produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. During this time, the group opened for several acts including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Fleetwood Mac. The sometimes whimsical, sometimes epic (verging on progressive rock) writing style of guitarist Root Cartwright, was paired with the eclectic lyrical contributions of David Jones, Gillian Hadley and Monica Nettles, and was performed by vocalist Vivienne McAuliffe. The violin and recorders of Bindy Bourquin were another key element of the group's trademark sound. Lyn Edwards, originally on bongos, took over on the drumkit. The group disbanded in December 1971, but a new band with a smaller nucleus (including new bassist Richard Jones from Climax Blues Band) and a name-change to, simply, Principal Edwards, they recorded a few new singles and a third album called Round One for Deram Records. Most of the Deram recordings were also produced by Nick Mason

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Principal Edwards Magic Theater - 1969 Soundtrack

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Central Nervous System

Band was originally known as "Five Sounds" and included keyboardist Joe Sealy. They released two singles in 1965 and 1966 on Epic which charted on Halifax radio station CHNS. In 1968 the "Five Sounds" were the house band on CBC television's "Where It's At" (the local segment of the national series) which was hosted by Frank Cameron and produced in Halifax. In 1968 the band went to New York to record "I Could Have Danced All Night" album and changed name to "Central Nervous System" at the suggestion of Mark Joseph who worked at the Record Plant where the album was recorded. Album consisted of Billard and Jollimore penned originals and cover of Lonnie Mack's "Why" which was not listed on the album cover. Album was produced by Tom Wilson (Zappa, Dylan) and Eddie Kramer (Hendrix, Stones) was one of the engineers. Band split up in 1969 just before the album had a chance to try itself in the marketplace and dates were lined up to tour in the United States. Billard and White both went on to play in "Pepper Tree" at different times. Oakley switched to lead guitar and was a founding member of "Soma". Jollimore and Cassidy both went to Lighthouse. 

Written from info from: Ritchie Oakley, Jim Rice and Richard Bonner.

( http://nsclassicrock.8m.com/centralnervoussystem.html )

Central Nervous System - I Could Have Danced All Night 1968

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After Tea - Blues Rock

After Tea was a Dutch flower power band formed in the Hague in 1967 by Hans van Eijck (keyboards, guitar, vocals), U.K. native Ray Fenwick (guitar, vocals), Rob "Polle" Edward (bass, organ, vocals), and Martin Hage (drums). Their first hit was "Not Just a Flower in Your Hair," and they carried on, despite personnel changes, until the early '70s.

After Tea - 1970 - Jointhouse Blues

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Long John Baldry

John William "Long John" Baldry (12 January 1941 – 21 July 2005) was an English blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No. 1 in 1967 and in Australia where his duet with Kathi McDonald You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' reached number two in 1980. Baldry lived in Canada from the late 1970s until his death; there he continued to make records and do voiceover work. One of his best known roles in voice acting was as Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.

John Baldry - 1971 It Ain't Easy

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