While not technically a Cornish band they did include two well known members of the Cornish music scene, Nigel Uren and Mike Harwood. For a time the band also including Cornish acoustic guitarist Allen Greenall.
Nigel Uren and Mike Harwood had previously been jamming together in Cornwall, at Redruth's Room At The Top. Nigel had been asked to join the band and brought Mike with him.
The band were already active before the pair joined and were currently playing in Jersey. In the early days they were covering CSNY, Wings and other similar harmony heavy material.
Decca showed some interest in the band and come over to Jersey to see them. The Keyboardist, Pete Filleul (late of Climax Blues Band) was the main songwriter and put together three songs for a demo tape.
With no recording studios on the island they decamped to the only 4 track mixing desk around, which was located in a local TV studio and only available late at night. Decca were keen and wanted more songs, and the band relocated to Cornwall. The bass player didn't want to move to Cornwall so the band were then on the lookout for a replacement. When they were unable to find a suitable replacement in Cornwall the band moved up to Wales where the band originated from. In keeping with the times they moved to a farmhouse in the country and spent all day rehearsing and working up material.
The band was offered a deal through Decca to release an LP on their progressive Deram imprint. After the second set of sessions when the band returned to the farmhouse the found that Pete and their road manager had upsticks and left, leaving the rest of the musicians high and dry. It transpired that Pete felt the band was going in the wrong direction and not being produced as he originally though, and wanted to bring back the original line-up, which he did and proceeded to re-record the LP with the band's original musicians. Much to the dismay of Nigel, Mike and the others when they heard the finished LP the new line-up and used exactly the same arrangements as they had originally recorded!
Nigel would return to Cornwall and form Flying Fortress. Mike returned to Cornwall and went back to college, where he helped form a number of bands. |
