The Herd (UK band)

The Herd

The Herd in 1968. Left: Andy Bown (keyboards, vocals), back: Gary Taylor (bass), front: Andrew Steele (drums), right: Peter Frampton (guitar, vocals).
Background information
Origin London
Genres freakbeat, psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop

The Herd were an English pop rock group, founded in 1965, that came to prominence in the late 1960s. They launched the career of Peter Frampton and scored three UK top twenty hits.

Biography

The Herd were founded in 1965 in South London. The group recorded three unsuccessful singles with the record label Parlophone. In 1966 three members in succession (Terry Clark, Louis Cennamo and Mick Underwood) quit the group[1] and the group got the line-up that made it famous. The singer, Peter Frampton, was 16 when he joined the group in 1966 and had just left school. The other members were a few years older. Parlophone did not want to go on with them, but Fontana was willing to give them a try.[2] They also sent their manager Billy Gaff away and brought in the songwriters/producers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley instead. This pair had been largely responsible for a string of hits by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich.

Howard and Blaikley orchestrated for them a unique blend of pop and flower power. After a UK Singles Chart near-miss with "I Can Fly" (1967), the haunting "From the Underworld", based on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, reached Number 6 later that year with help from copious plays on pirate radio. It was a hit in other countries too. In the Netherlands the song reached Number 3.[3] "From the Underworld" was followed by "Paradise Lost", which made it up to Number 15 in 1968.[4]

Their greatest success came with "I Don't Want Our Loving to Die", a Number 5 UK hit single (also in 1968).[4]

The Herd appeared at The Saville Theatre, London on Sunday 8 October 1967 supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Also on the bill were The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and Eire Apparent.

With his boyish photogenic looks, Frampton was dubbed "The Face of ’68" by teen magazine Rave.[2][5]

The last months of 1968 were tempestuous times for the group. Steele left the group, to be replaced by Spinetti. The group dumped their managers Howard and Blaikley, and briefly found a new mentor in Harvey Lisberg who after three months found himself so bogged down with their personnel problems that he politely withdrew his services.[6] Most songs on their first and only album Paradise Lost were written by Peter Frampton and Andy Bown, just like their next single, "Sunshine Cottage".

Dissatisfied with mere teen idol status, and disappointed with the failure of "Sunshine Cottage", Frampton left by the end of 1968 to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott.[2] The remaining members Bown, Spinetti and Taylor made another flop single, "The Game",[5] then minus Taylor, formed the short-lived Judas Jump with Allan Jones, saxophonist from Amen Corner, and Welsh vocalist Adrian Williams. Taylor, who became a disc jockey, and Steele, reunited briefly for a one-off single "You've Got Me Hangin' From Your Lovin' Tree" in June 1971, to almost universal lack of interest.[7]

By the late 1970s, after a stint back with a pre-"Frampton Comes Alive" Peter Frampton band from 1973-1975, Bown had become a member of UK rockers Status Quo[5] and both Taylor and Spinetti had joined up with Gerry Rafferty's band.

Band members

Discography

Singles

LPs

CDs

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Carol Hynson. "The Official Mick Underwood website - biography of the UK rock drummer". Mickunderwood.com. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Herd". Webcitation.org. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  3. ↑ Survey of 1967 hits in the Netherlands (archived)
  4. 1 2 Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 251. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  5. 1 2 3 "The Herd". Making Time. Retrieved 2014-05-29.
  6. ↑ Rogan, Johnny. Starmakers & Svengalis. MacDonald Queen Anne Press. p. 175. ISBN 0-356-15138-7.
  7. ↑ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 227. CN 5585.
  8. ↑ The album has been re-released in 2005 on the Japanese AMR label with fourteen bonus tracks (AMR AIRAC 1141)
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 To the melody of the "Air" from the Third Orchestral Suite by Johann Sebastian Bach
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 This song has also been recorded by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich
  11. ↑ Two reviewers (Antony P. Hislop and Rog) at the British Amazon.com report that the order of the tracks on the sleeve does not correspond to the order on the disc
  12. ↑ Some tracks appear twice: in mono and in stereo

External links

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