The Dinosaur Days - 30 April 2000

The bands featured this week are: ( Ray Owen's Moon, NDR Big Band with Inga Rumpf , Phil Collins' Big Band, Deep Purple, Focus, Ekseption, Cressida, Murphy Blend, Lucifer's Friend)

Ray Owen's Moon

Ray Owen's Moon - Free Man, taken off his first and only seff-titled solo album, released in 1971. Ray Owen was the original vocalist in British outfit Juicy Lucy, and he appeared on their first self titled album in 1969. He left the band, his replacement being Paul Williams, and formed his own band, with Dick Stubbs and Les Nicol on guitars, Ian McLean on drums and Sid Gardner on bass. Their first and only album, which is quite rare and collectible, was released on Polydor Records, and it featured a number of really good riff laden tracks, in addition to a stunning version of Hendrix's "Voodoo Child", which Owen would redo in the mid 90's when he reformed his own version of Juicy Lucy. His career after Ray Owen's Moon is much of a mystery, as no record can be found of any other bands he may have featured with afterwards. As was mentioned, he reformed Juicy Lucy in the mid nineties and released an album called "Here she comes again" on HTD Records, with three unknown, but very good, musicians. For the record, Paul Williams also reformed another version of Juicy Lucy in the mid to late nineties, under the name "Blue Thunder".

NDR Big Band with Inga Rumpf 

NDR Big Band with Inga Rumpf - It's a Man's World, the title track of their 1993 album ( it's not clear how many albums this great band have made, as they've featured with the likes of Volker Kriegel, Abdullah Ibrahim, Dexter Gordon and Georgie Fame, just to mention a few ). Inga Rumpf, of course, should be quite familiar to Dinosaur Days listeners and readers of these pages - she was the singer/songwriter in The City Preachers/Frumpy/Atlantis/Rockship, in addition to being a very accomplished jazz and blues vocalist. NDR Big Band albums aren't that easy to find here in South Africa ( believe it or not! ), but if you do happen to spot one, give it a spin - awesome stuff!

Phil Collins' Big Band 

Phil Collins' Big Band - That's all, off their "A Hot night in Paris" album, released in 1999, the band's first album. ( Phil Collins is the subject of this week's Dino Quiz. A copy of this album is the giveaway prize ). Phil Collins joined British progmeisters Genesis in 1971 from their "Nursery Cryme" album onwards as drummer and vocalist. One of his early bands was Flaming Youth, a band with whom he released one fairly collectible album in the late sixties. Collins remained with Genesis for a number of years, taking over the lead vocal spot when Peter Gabriel left in May 1975, at the end of "The Lamb lies down on Broadway" tour. Collins is, apart from a tremendously successful solo artist, a world class jazz/fusion drummer, and his "other" band, Brand X, which he co-founded with guitarist John Goodsall, bassist Percy Jones and keyboard player Robin Lumley in 1976, gave him a perfect avenue to demonstrate his abilities. In 1998, Collins took his Big Band, complete with a 14 piece brass section, on tour to the US and Europe during 1998. Albeit an excellent album with some flawless playing, we've read one or two reports mentioning that the tour wasn't as successful as was hoped, the main reason being that the audiences were expecting to hear Collins sing as well as play! This is a non-vocal album, and should be appreciated as such. The man is a top class performer in every sense of the word, as his drumming abilities are equally as good as his singing abilities.

Question ( of the Dino Quiz number 159 ): Name the famous British prog outfit Phil Collins joined in 1971 ).

Answer: Genesis.

Deep Purple

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water, taken off 1999's stunning "In Concert with the London Symphony Orchestra", in response to many requests to hear a track off this amazing double album. We've played a few other tracks from this album in the past few months and it's also been mentioned and reviewed on these pages previously, so we won't labour the point here. Suffice to say that this is an epic album by an epic band, and it should find a spot in your collection. Oh yes, you may have heard the featured track once or twice before. But probably not with Ronnie James Dio helping out, nor with the LSO in full swing.

Focus

Focus - Harem Scarem - taken off "Hamburger Concerto" in 1974, their 5th album. Focus were one of Holland's best and best known bands. They were formed in 1969 by former Amsterdam Consevatory student and keyboard player/flautist/vocalist, Thijs Van Leer. Joining him were bassist Martin Dresden and drummer Hans Cleuver, and, prior to enlisting the services of ex-Brainbox guitarist Jan Akkerman, the three musicians had previously backed Cyril Havermans, Robin Lent and other Dutch singers. Their first recording assignment was as accompaniment on a Dutch version of "Hair", but, heartened by audience response, the band decided to release a bona fide debut album, "In and out of Focus", in 1971. This album contained the single "House of the King", which sold well in continental Europe. Their follow-up album, "Moving Waves", produced by Mike Vernon and released the same year, was probably their best album. It contained another hit, "Hocus Pocus", which became a UK Top 20 hit. At this stage, the band's line-up and been reshuffled, with only Van Leer and Akkerman remaining from the original quartet ( Cleuver had been replaced by Pierre van der Linden and Dresden by Cyril Havermans ). Havermans, in turn, was replaced by Bert Ruiter and Colin Allen from Stone the Crows took over the drumstool for "Hamburger Concerto". Akkerman left Focus after 1975's "Mother Focus" album to embark on a successful solo career, in the process becoming known as one of the world's best and most respected guitarists. He did collaborate with Van Leer in the reformed Focus in 1985, although only one album was the result of this short-lived reunion. Van Leer continued in the band after Akkerman left, with guitarists Philip Catherine and Eef Albers and vocalist PJ Proby also sharing the stage with him, but Focus ceased to exist after 1978's "Focus con Proby" album. According to the March 2000 edition of Classic Rock magazine, Focus will be performing at the Canterbury Music Festival on July 31st this year, together with Caravan, Gong, Man, Colosseum and Arthur Brown. They unfortunately don't mention who's in Focus nowadays, but can you imagine what that's going to be like to see these great bands in concert on the same bill?!

Trace

Trace - Bourree, taken off "Birds", their second album, released in 1975. For such a small country, The Netherlands could certainly produce some musical giants! Trace was a progressive/classical/jazz trio put together by keyboard player extraordinaire Rick van der Linden, who first learnt to play the piano when he was seven years old. He later studied the organ, achieving honours in piano, organ, harmony and counterpoint. He became a teacher at the Haarlem Conservatoire and also taught elsewhere, later developing an interest in rock, jazz, ballet and classical music. In 1965, he joined the "Occasional Swing Combo", essentially playing jazz standards, but, at the same time, he was touring Holland playing with symphony orchestras and appearing as soloist in concerti by Bach, Rachmaninov, Beethoven and Mendelssohn. Van der Linden later joined an outfit called The Incrowd which ultimately evolved into Ekseption. He remained with Ekseption for six albums before leaving in 1974 to form Ace ( later changed to Trace when they learnt that an English band of the same name was already in existence ), with drummer Pierre van der Linden ( no relation) from Focus, on drums, and Jaap van Eik, ex-Cuby and the Blizzards, on bass. They released their first, self-titled album in September 1974 and it sold in excess of 50,000 copies in The Netherlands and quickly attained gold status.It also did very well in the rest of Europe, the US and Japan. For this second album, English drummer Ian Mosley, previously with Walrus and Darryl Way's Wolf ( Way appears as a guest violinist, accompanying van der Linden playing harsichord, on the incredible "Opus 1065"), replaced Pierre van der Linden. This second album, released in July 1975, also did well for Trace, and they had the perfect opportunity to promote themselves that month as they shared a bill with Osibisa and Curved Air at a festival near Eindhoven. A third and final Trace album, " The White Ladies", was released, with a number of ex-Ekseption musicians, in 1977. Van der Linden reformed Ekseption when Trace split up and recorded three further albums with them. He also appeared with Jack Lancaster in "Wild Connections" in 1978, and he worked with the likes of flautist Chris Hinze and Dutch group Kayak, to name just a few. Drummer Ian Mosely, in the meantime, went on to find fame with Marillion. All three Trace albums have been released on CD by the French Musea label, and are essential listening.

Ekseption

Ekseption - The Peruvian Flute, taken off "Trinity" in 1973, their sixth album, and the last to feature keyboard player Rick van der Linden before he left to form Trace. Ekseption's roots go back to the late fifties when they were formed as The Jokers in Haarlem in The Netherlands. The Jokers evolved into The Incrowd, with trumpeter Rein van der Broek being the only original remaining member. It was van der Broek who spotted van der Linden playing in a jazz club and he asked him to join The Incrowd. It was at this stage that they discovered that another Dutch group already had the name The Incrowd, so they changed it to Ekseption. Other members of Ekseption were Cor Dekker on bass, Peter de Leeuwe on drums, Rob Kruisman ( later replaced by Dick Remelinck) on woodwinds and Huib van Kampen on guitar. Ekseption's initial repertoire consisted entirely of cover versions, but after seeing a concert of Keith Emerson and The Nice, van der Linden wanted to combine his love of jazz and classical with a rock feel. They won a "battle of the bands" contest at the famous Loosdrecht Jazz Festival in 1968, and their prize was a contract with Philips Records, for whom they would go on to release most of their nineteen or so albums during their career. Problems were developing with the other members of Ekseption in that press coverage of the band was now concentrating on van der Linden as band leader due to his composer/orchestrator role, and he was asked to leave the band after the release of "Trinity". His replacement was Hans Jensen, and the subsequent album, "New Formula", although very good, was more jazzy as opposed to classically influenced, as had become Ekseption's trademark. Further albums, such as 1975's "Mind Mirror", are amongst the finest the band ever recorded. Van der Linden returned to Ekseption when Trace split in the late seventies. Unfortunately, as far as we know, not too many Ekseption albums have been released on CD, baring the odd classical compilation, although a really good double CD, featuring some of their more progressive/jazz/rock tracks, did surface a few years ago.

Cressida

Cressida - Asylum, the title track taken off their second and final album, released in 1971. Both Cressida albums can be used as an example of what is interesting and worthwhile about British late sixties/early seventies progressive rock. They can quite easily be described as the next best thing to Spring, in that they borrowed from almost any style of music imaginable, creating a unique atmospheric blend of light-heartedness and seriousness. Their music is intelligent and melodic, with singer Angus Cullen having one of the most agreeable voices around at the time. Their first self-titled album, released on the Vertigo swirl label in 1970, is more song orientated, with "Depression" and it's stunning John Heyworth guitar solo being the stand out track. This second album, though, was by far the better one, with long instrumental passages and more elaborate arrangements, as can be heard on the best track, "Let them come when they will". This album was also released on Vertigo, and both have now been released on CD by Repertoire, and are wholeheartedly recommended. A bit of trivia, if you're at all interested ( what else is new on these pages?!): Drummer Ian Clark replaced Keith Baker for Uriah Heep's "Look at Yourself" album in 1971.

Murphy Blend

Murphy Blend - Speed is coming back, taken off their first, and only, album, "First Loss", released in 1970. Berlin band Murphy Blend were a bit of a mystery. Named after a pipe tobacco, they were a rarity in early German rock, combining the early psychedelic Krautrock sound with heavy rock, classical and blues. Apart from the fact that they sounded a bit like early Jane and Pell Mell, they were pretty unique, with a strongly accented vocalist in Wolf -Rudiger Uhlig ( who sang in English and also played a heavy, chunky Hammond organ ).The guitarist was Wolfgang Rumler, Achim Schmidt occupied the drum stool, and solid bass lines came from Andreas Scholz. They had the potential to go far, but they unfortunately split shortly after the album's release, with Uhlig moving to Hanuman and Scholz to Blackwater Park, who are featured on our first Dinosaur Days CD.

Lucifer's Friend