Tomorrow (band)

Not to be confused with Toomorrow (disambiguation).
Tomorrow
Origin London, England
Genres Psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop, freakbeat
Years active March 1967–April 1968
Labels Parlophone/EMI, Harvest Heritage/EMI, Sire
Associated acts Yes
Past members Keith West
Steve Howe
John "Junior" Wood
John "Twink" Alder

Tomorrow (previously known as The In-Crowd and before that as Four Plus One) were a 1960s psychedelic rock, pop and freakbeat band. Despite critical acclaim and support from DJ John Peel who featured them on his "Perfumed Garden" radio show, the band was not a great success in commercial terms. They were among the first psychedelic bands in England along with Pink Floyd and Soft Machine. Tomorrow recorded the first ever John Peel show session on BBC Radio 1 on 21 September 1967.

History

They played the songs Am I glad to see you and Blow-up for the film Blowup in 1966.

Tomorrow appeared in the 1967 film Smashing Time under the name of The Snarks. John "Junior" Wood was ill and was replaced by John Pearce, a clothes dealer. Again their music was not used in the film. The rock group sounds used in the film are by Skip Bifferty. [1]

The band released two singles, one of which, "My White Bicycle", was later covered by heavy rock act Nazareth, and as a novelty record by Neil the Hippy (Nigel Planer) of The Young Ones TV series. According to drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the song was inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in Amsterdam which instituted a community bicycle program: "they had white bicycles in Amsterdam and they used to leave them around the town. And if you were going somewhere and you needed to use a bike, you'd just take the bike and you'd go somewhere and just leave it. Whoever needed the bikes would take them and leave them when they were done."[2]

Tomorrow's September 1967 single "Revolution" preceded The Beatles song "Revolution" by a year. In Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles – Making Music in the 1960s he asserts the band's performance of the song one night at the UFO Club as the apotheosis of the '60s UK underground.[3] Also, at UFO Club Tomorrow jammed with Jimi Hendrix.[4]

Tomorrow singer Keith West is perhaps better known as a participant in Mark Wirtz's Teenage Opera project that gave him a solo hit single "Excerpt from a Teenage Opera (Grocer Jack)" and brief commercial success. Guitarist Steve Howe later joined progressive rock band Yes, whilst Twink joined The Pretty Things on their concept album, S.F. Sorrow, before forming The Pink Fairies.

Discography

Albums

Singles

As The In Crowd:[5]

As Tomorrow:

References

  1. Colin Larkin, The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Volume 7, page 541 (Oxford University Press, 2006. ISBN 9780195313734)
  2. Tomorrow
  3. PUNKCAST#1129 Video of 'White Bicycles' reading in NYC, Mar 28 2007.
  4. http://www.hit-channel.com/interviewtwink-pink-fairiestomorrowthe-pretty-thingsstars/66892
  5. Dan Hedges, Yes London Sidgwick & Jackson, 1981, pp 142
  6. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 268. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

External links

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