"Page 45" singles #13 - Panda / Speeders / The Secrets

Panda - "Stranger" b/w "Medicine Man" 45
Decca 6100 013
Netherlands, 1971

Panda - "No Cookies" b/w "Swingin' About" 45
Phillips 6075 130
Netherlands, 1971








Speeders - "I Can't Get It to Save My Life"
197? - Germany

 

The Secrets - "Another Way" b/w "Holy Writ"
1971 - Ariola 10.713/Blow Music 10.713 Holland

Medicine Head - 1968/1977

British blues rock band Medicine Head was initially a duo. Active throughout the 70's, their biggest single success was 1973's "One and One is One", a number three hit on the British singles chart. The group recorded six original albums, the first three of which were on John Peels Dandilion label.

For most of it's carreer, the groupthe group was a duo comprising John Fiddler (vocalist, pianist, guitarist, drummer), and Peter Hope-Evens (harmonica, Jew's harp, and mouthbow player). At various stages, the band utilized other musicians, Clive Edwards, Keith Relf, Tony Ashton, Roger Saunders, George Ford, John Davies, Rob Townsend, and Morgan Fisher.

Fiddler and Hope-Evens began performing together on an informal basis in 1968 playing blues/rock songs in clubs in and around Birmingham. They were seen at the Lafeyette Club by radio DJ John Peel, who in turn played a tape of their songs for John Lennon, Eric Clapton, and Pete Townsend and, at Lennon's insistance, signed them to his Dandilion Record label. The dou's first album New bottles, Old Medicine, was recorded in a single two-hour session. and they toured with Peel at many of his gig's, Peel paying them out of his own fee. Their second album, Heavy on the Drum was recorded with Keith Relf, formerly of the Yardbirds, as producer. The single "(And The) Pictures in the Sky" rose to no. 22 on the U.K. singles chart in 1971, and was the first hit of the Dandilion label.

Hope-Evans left the band for over a year and Fiddler, Relf (on bass), and drummer John Davies recorded the band's third album The Dark Side of the Moon . It was released in 1972, the year before the Pink Floyd album of the same name. According to Nicholas Schaffner, Pink Floyd briefly changed the name of their piece (which they were already performing live) to Eclipse, until the Medicine Head album turned out to be "a commercial dud." The track "Only to Do Wahat is True" appeared on the 1972 compilation There is Some Fun Going Forward. 

Medicine Head signwed with Polydor records, and Hope-Evans returned for the album One And One is One produced by Tony Aston and recorded with various session musicians. The title track became the bands biggest hit, reaching # 3 in the U.K. in 1973, and they followed it up with "Rising Sun" (#11)

Despite constant touring (as a support act), Medicine Head failed to place an album on the U.K. Albums chart. For their final album, Two Man Band the band reverted to being a duo. Medicine Head finally folded in 1977.

 

 

 

 

Heavy Cruiser - s/t 1972 / "Lucky Dog" 1973

From Neil Merryweather.com: "In a nutshell... Neil took the members from Mama Lion into a studio to demo some songs. They recorded half a dozen songs and a few days later, Mama Lion wound up in New York City to play Central Park with Billy Preston. The engineer in L.A. made an acetate of Neil's songs and sent it to Neil in care of Famous Music. The band went to a meet n greet at Famous Music and Neil played the acetate at the party. The head of A&R loved it and bought the music from Artie Ripp.

Neil called the project "Heavy Cruiser." When Mama Lion got back to L.A., Neil took the band back into the studio and they recorded a few more tracks to complete the "Heavy Cruiser" record. Artie Ripp stopped the band from putting their names on the record because he didn't want it to interfere with his main act Mama Lion.

The same thing happened when Neil did more of his songs with the band and produced a second Heavy Cruiser record called "Lucky Dog" - band members names were left off the cover.

Heavy Cruiser is;

Neil Merryweather - vocals, bass, acoustic guitar

James Newton Howard - organ, piano

Coffi Hall - drums/percussion

Alan Hertz - guitar

Amsterdam - 1969/1974 A.K.A. Penny Wise

This group from Amsterdam evolved from the band Penny Wise. When they started out in 1969, the lineup was Donald Van Os (guitar/backing vocals, ex-Penny Wise), Martin Van Os (drummer, ex-Penny Wise), Johan Slager (guitar, ex-Little Johnny & Flaming Stars), Peter Van Aston (vocals), Robert Verway (bass, Brainbox).

Lineup in 1970 - Donald Van Os, Martin Van Os, Egon Verhoeven (bass, ex-California License), Michael Van Dijik (ex-Ekseption, went to Brainbox and stayed there from '71 to '74).

In 1974 the lineup changed to: Donald Van Os, Martin Van Os, Michael Van Dijik, and Jocques Zwart (ex-Think Tank). In that year, Amsterdam fell apart. Peter Van Aston became a producer and composer, and released a few albums under the name Peter Bewly.

The band never released a full length album, but has 9 7" singles to it's credit. A self titled compilation was released after the band had broken up in 1975 on Pink Elephant.

Bush - s/t 1971

From Canada, Ex-Mandala members Dominic Troiano, Roy Kenner, and Pennti "Whitey" Glan, left Mandala in 1969 and the next year moved to Arizona, where they recruited Prakash John and began playing the circuit with heavy blues based riffs and a bit less sophisticated output looking for something different.

They caught the attention of Reb Foster, an L.A. disc jocky while he was in Arizona and ran a management company through Cuordoroy Records, an affiliate of ABD/Dunhill Records. They signed with Dunhill in 1970 (Bush was the first band to sign with Cuordoroy) and soon found themselves opening for such acts as Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf. As they prepared for the release of their first album, the band found themselves in the middle of a law suit between Cuordoroy and Dunhill which did absolutely no good for the band, who ended up only releasing their eponymous debut. They hobbled along for another year, but called it quits, broke.

Troiano and Kenner weren't out of work for long, once The James Gang came calling (who was seeking replacement for Joe Walsh's position) and Troiano would later join the Guess Who, and release several solo albums, as well as form his Black Market project before becoming immersed in production and behind the scenes work. Kenner would often appear on Troiano's works, as with John, who, along with Glan, went on to record with Alice Cooper.

The band re-released the album in 1995, at the same time that another "Bush" came out of Britan with the same name. To avoid any legal trappings, the band released the album as "Bush X" for the Canadian release.
Two years later, Troiano and Gavin Rossdale, leader of the British band held a press conference in Toronto to announce they'd been given the Bush name on recordings.

Agnes Strange - "Strange Flavour" 1975

Formed in 1972 in Southampton, Hampshire, England Agnes Strange was a blues based hard rock trio comprised of John Westwood (guitar/vocals), Alan Green (bass), and Dave Rodwell (drums). They got a record deal on an affiliate label distributed by Pye Records, and their debut Strange Flavour was released on Bird's Nest Records in 1975. The label was created by an agreement with a pub company having the same label name, and who's discs were only sold in the pubs of the same chain. Really no mystery why the album never garnered any mainstream attention. The album is great foot stompin' boogie hard rock blues. The album was entirely original material delivered with flawless execution, The band also released a single on Bird's Nest: "Give Yourself a Chance" off the L.P., with the non-album b-side "Clever Fool." Another single was released in 1977 "Cant Make My Mind Up" b/w "Johnny B. Good", this time on the Baal label. The band split up shortly after however members remained active in the Hampshire club scene. An unreleased archival album Dust in the Sunlight was released in 2000 via Thorns Backtrack Archive series, as well as a CD compilation out of Germany on Rock Fever Music entitled Theme From a Dream and is made up of material recorded between 1972 and 1974 and also contains some demo material.

Load Control - "Scotland" b/w "Words of Wisdom" & "Why Those Tears" b/w "It Would Be So Good"

Complete fucking mystery to me. If anyone has any info about this band, sent it forward!!!

Kahvas Jute - "Wide Open" 1971

Australian psychedelic rock band Kahvas Jute was formed in July, 1970 and earned immediate popularity on the live scene. Mainstay of the lineup was Dennis Wilson on guitar and vocals. Other founding members include Bob Daisley (Ozzy Osbourne, Rainbow, Uriah Heep, Gary Moore, Deep Purple) on bass guitar, and Tim Gaze on lead guitar and vocals. Their debut album Wide Open was released in January, 1971. The group supported Bo Diddley on his second tour of Australia in October 1973. Australian rock historian Ian McFarlane described their style as 'expansive and free flowing, strong rhythm and melody with exceptional guitar work.' Kavas Jute did a reunion gig in 1991 and in 1993 Wide Open was released on CD. And it's a good thing too, as copies of the original album trade for over $1,000.00, In 2005 thet did another reunion show at The Basement in Sydney which was recorded and filmed. A DVD and album pack titled: Then Again: Live at The Basement was issued in 2006.

Charge - s/t 1973

A 1973 private pressing. Of which, only 1 copy is known to exist. (!!!)
"The greatest lunatic heavy-rock private pressing of the Progressive era - swathes of Pink Floyd-esque ala Motorhead non music"
-Rockasteria

This is in fact a pirate issued by some anonymous thieves from, I believe, the Netherlands. We had them removed from Amazon 3 years ago. The line-up stated is totally incorrect. Charge was a trio I formed in mid-1972 from the ashes of Baby Bertha and Sweet Poison. The correct line-up is: Dave Ellis guitars/vox/song-writer; Ian Mclaughlin, bass and Pete Gibbons, drums. It was recorded at SRT Studios, Luton, in one 10-hour session on a freezing January day in 1973. We'd recorded there the previous January as Baby Bertha and were impressed with the sound and production. Unfortunately, new engineers had been installed who insisted (quite the BBC types) that we turn everything down to a volume comparable to a tranny radio, hence we lost our 'live' sound and the recording turned out to be rubbish. We have since had the above record properly released with all the correct details, original band photos, and liner notes. It can be obtained from David Wells, Wooden Hill, 13 Barricane, St Johns, Woking GU21 7RB. Phone: 01483 727169. As the work has remained popular for so long, Ian (bass) myself and a cluster of friends and family have been working on re-recording the songs for the past two years. It is almost complete and hopefully will be ready next month. Thank you for your interest. I hope the correct details are of help. The cover above has absolutely nothing to do with us and totally misses what the record was all about. The original featured a giant spliff - hence the name. Cheers. Dave Ellis, CHARGE 2016

Next - "Dusty Shoes" LP 1971

From Winnipeg, Canada, Next were an offshoot band of regional heroes, The Fifth. After a fairly successful run of singles in Canada, The Fifth split in 1970 with several members defecting to other acts in the region. One such product of the split was Next. The band were quickly to secure a contract with Warners and by late '71, Dusty Shoes was released. With somewhat limited exposure and very poor distribution, the album sank without a trace and Next were history by 1973. Members would turn up later in The Guess Who, Harlequin, and The Litter.

"Dusty Shoes" is very much typical of the era from which it sprang. Overall, it's tastefully arranged organ/guitar driven pseudo hard rock that recalls Grand Funk Railroad quite a bit in places. With the soulfully gritty lead vocals of George Belanger, everything here has an edge which makes it sound a lot harder than it actually is. That subtle dynamic is what carries this album and makes it a satisfying listen.

George Belanger: Lead Vocals

Ralph Watts: Lead Guitar

James Grabowski: Organ

Al Johnson: Drums

Brian Seller: Bass