March 1971 - The Birth of the RCA Neon Progressive Label
by Pete Clemons
Neon was RCA's move into contemporary music. The first three albums of the then new series were released during March and were from Brotherhood of Breath, Fair Weather and Indian Summer. In a special survey SOUNDS magazine looked at the three groups, reviewed the first albums and talked to Olav Wyper, RCA's commercial manager, who was responsible for that new series. The label was launched at a special concert held at Imperial College, London in front of a student audience, the market that Neon had hoped to hit.
Man behind new label:
Olav Wyper is RCA's commercial manager and the man responsible for the launch of Neon, RCA's move into contemporary music.
He joined RCA from Philips where he masterminded the birth of Vertigo. Prior to that he was marketing manager for CBS for three years after working as a journalist, a copy writer and as advertising manager for EMI.
He likes the majority of contemporary pop music, enjoys Miles Davis 'enormously' and names Stan Tracey's 'Under Milk Wood' suite as his favourite piece of music. His favourite composer is Brahms.
New name in contemporary audio arts:
The first three releases on Neon - the name comes from the Greek word Neos which means new - are diverse in character.
There's Brotherhood of Breath, the band led by Chris McGregor: Fair Weather fronted by Andy Fairweather Low: and Indian Summer, a new band from Coventry. The music of each of the three groups is vastly different but that's very much Neon's policy.
Olav Wyper first saw Indian Summer on a trip up to the Midlands to check out the music that was coming out of the Birmingham and Coventry areas.
We went up there because we had heard that there were some very good groups playing in the clubs in the Midlands. There were two bands that we saw, Indian Summer was the supporting act, and Black Sabbath.
Indian Summer didn't really have it together musically at that time, the original band that we saw then, wasn't the band that's together now, but after I left Philips and came here in November we saw them again after Jim Simpson, their manager, contacted us here and we signed them there and then.
Indian Summer summary:
There's been something of a resurgence of late in the number of rock bands coming out of the provinces after establishing large followings in their home town. Black Sabbath came out of Birmingham with enough impact to hit nationally and now Indian Summer are looking for the same kind of success having broken out of their native Coventry.
The group has been together for nearly two years and its members came from different groups working in and around the Coventry area. Their aim, they say, is 'to achieve the meaning of Indian Summer - to give something fresh, warm and exciting when no-one expects it'.
Focal point of the group is organist and vocalist Bob Jackson whose voice at times verges on a scream reminiscent of Arthur Brown in the Crazy World days.
Colin Williams plays guitar, Paul Hooper is the drummer and Martin Harker plays bass and joins with Paul in a drum duet they include in their stage set.
Indian Summer album review: 'Indian Summer' (NEON NE2)
First impression is that Indian Summer sounded more than a little like Jethro Tull in their 'Witches Promise' days but this isn't a bad indication and they set up a tight, insistent beat throughout. Bob Jackson (keyboard, lead vocal) Colin Williams (guitar, vocal), Paul Hooper (drums, vocal) and Malcolm Harker (bass, vocal) make up the band and were responsible for all the compositions.
While there isn't a great deal of flexibility - more numbers sound too much alike - they are better on the faster items with dashing organ backing up good vocals.
'Emotions of Men', 'Black Sunshine' and 'Secrets Reflected' are good tracks, but 'Another Tree Will Grow' is the best number with the band breaking free a little more. There are some interesting guitar passages from Williams.
Neon NE 01: Beginning From An End, Fair Weather, 1971
Neon NE 02: Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood Of Breath, 1971
Neon NE 03: Indian Summer, Indian Summer, 1971
Neon NE 04: Tonton Macoute, Tonton Macoute, 1971
Neon NE 05: Dando Shaft, Dando Shaft, 1971
Neon NE 06: Spring, Spring, 1971
Neon NE 07: Shape Of The Rain (Riley, Riley, Wood And Waggett), 1971
Neon NE 08: Time IS ..., Raw Material, 1971
Neon NE 09: Septober Energy, Centipede, 1971
Neon NE 10: Metropolis, Mike Westbrook, 1971
Neon NE 11: The Running Man, The Running Man, 1971
............................
Indian Summer's Progressive Album on RCA Neon Label 1971 featuring Bob Jackson on vocals and keyboards - later of Pete Brown and Piblokto, Ross, Ra Ra, The Dodgers The Fortunes, Badfinger.
Malc Harker bass - based in Coventry at the time but later head of his father's firm Harkers in Stockton on Tees.
Colin Williamson and Paul Hooper - The Dodgers The Fortunes, Badfinger. and Paul Hooper more recently played drums for Prelude.
And Fresh Maggots originally ear marked for RCA Neon but actually on RCA Victor
No comments:
Post a Comment