Atomic Rooster

Atomic Rooster

By Pete Clemons

I was recently reminded, via a review of the much celebrated Lanchester Arts Festival of 1970, about an appearance made by power trio Atomic Rooster. A brief few words mentioned what a fine band they were. The review went on 'Vincent Crane is an entertaining madman at the organ and Carl Palmer's drumming was magnificent. But they could benefit from less volume'. This would have been before Atomic Rooster became a more well known band thanks to the singles charts.

More recently and Atomic Rooster are back in action. And before you, quite rightly, begin to assume that this is an impossibility and that it must be some kind of tribute band, in my opinion this version of Atomic Rooster is indeed authentic and legitimate.

Most folk, who remember Atomic Rooster, could never forget the bands two stellar singles released during the very early 1970s. 'Devils Answer' and 'Tomorrow Night'. And most of those people will also be aware that the trio of musicians who created those records, keyboard player Vincent Crane, guitarist John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond are, sadly, no longer with us.

And as good as that line up was, Atomic Rooster, as a band, were so much more in terms of the music created and the musicians involved with the band.

Atomic Rooster were formed during 1969 by Vincent Crane and Carl Palmer. And by February 1970 the band had released their first album. Soon after that album release Du Cann had joined the band as lead guitarist and vocalist.

By the time the bands next album, the acclaimed 'Death Walks Behind You' had been released during September 1970, Atomic Rooster had taken on the shape of its classic line up of Crane, Du Cann and, Hammond.

The band's third album, 'In Hearing of', has to be one of the strangest releases ever as it essentially involved a couple of versions of Atomic Rooster. The classic line up, and then another that included vocalist Pete French, guitarist Steve Bolton and drummer Ric Parnell (who had appeared briefly in an earlier version of Rooster between Carl Palmer and Paul Hammond) on drums.

During the sessions for 'In Hearing of', Vincent Crane effectively dissolved the classic and reassembled a new version of Atomic Rooster that was required for a forthcoming huge tour. Pete, Steve and Ric played alongside Vincent Crane while touring Italy, then across for a coast to coast tour of the United States.

Pete French's liner notes in a CD re-release of 'In Hearing of' state that when Vincent sacked John Cann, which led to Paul Hammond leaving in sympathy, he also removed many of John's guitar and vocal parts from the album.

Pete had had a call from Robert Masters, Atomic Roosters manager, after Vincent had heard Pete sing for his previous band, Leafhound. Pete went to Trident studios, met up with the band, and no sooner had he seen them both Paul Hammond and John Du Cann simply disappeared.

A few weeks before the tour, which started August and went through to mid October 1971, also drafted in the services of Steve Bolton whose own band had just split up. Steve had answered an advert in the music press. Problem was though, he wasn't a lead guitarist. He always played rhythm. It was a baptism of fire as Steve had to give himself a crash course in playing lead.

Bizarrely, the centre spread of the gatefold sleeve for 'In Hearing of' depicts a line up of the band that never actually recorded together.

And this is how we ended up having, along with other songs, an English version of the single 'Devil's Answer' with John Du Cann handling lead vocals and an American released version of the very same song which Pete French sung lead vocals on.

And how we have today, a version of this wonderful band, still touring under the name Atomic Rooster still thrilling audiences.