Who? I hear you cry, well in this instance I would echo that myself. I like to think after 50 + years in this business that even if I don’t know their work I will at least have heard of them, but I must confess not this time. So let’s investigate, come with me back to the end of the 60’s/start of the 70’s. Many bands had dropped their previous incarnation’s and gone ‘psych’ ‘prog’ ‘freakbeat’ ‘experimental’ etc etc. To cater for these ‘underground’ bands, the major Record Labels all created offshoot labels, EMI had Harvest, Pye Had Dawn, Philips had Vertigo, Decca had Deram and bringing up the rear was RCA with Neon. Now I have this particular quirk that remembers Record Labels (I used to file my mobile disco records by label) so I DO remember Neon but for another long forgotten band in Dando Shaft. In operation for just over a year from 1971 -2 the label only had 11 releases of which SOTR was number 7. Hailing from an area of the country bounded by Sheffield and Chesterfield the band came together originally as a Everly Bros style duo of cousins Keith Riley (lead vocals/guitar),and Brian Wood (guitar vocals before being joined by Keith’s brother Len Riley (bass) and Iain ‘Tag’ Waggett (drums). The band’s name changed constantly, The Gear (inspired by their covers of Liverpudlian bands and Beatlesque sound) The Reaction was another and it was at this point they recorded a brace of demo’s and a local record shop owner David McPhie took an interest (he also represented Sheffield’s own Joe Cocker) and duly became their manager. With a name change to the more contemporary Shape Of The Rain all was set. This 3CD package covers their 1971 album RRW&W, a host of demo’s, outtakes, alternative versions, the demo’s for the aborted second album, a 50 minute live show from May 1970 and more. Disc 1 contains the original album kicking off with ‘Woman’ which, as noted in the sleevenotes, is a riff heavy pop/rock number sounding in structure very similar to Atomic Rooster’s ‘Devil’s Answer’ (co-incidentally issued on the same day!), this was issued as a single but didn’t trouble the charts at all, But this didn’t bother Neon, singles ‘weren’t cool man’ this was the dawn of the album…much cooler…er..man. After all the man in charge at Neon was Olav Wyper who in his previous life had been at CBS where he had dreamed up the much lauded sampler ‘The Rock Machine Turns You On’. Why am I banging on about labels? because that’s where the problem with the success or rather lack of it for Shape Of The Rain lies. They were a good sounding band, they wrote their own material, and where they didn’t ,had excellent taste performing material by The Byrd’s and Love. Now as any reader of my reviews, column’s etc will know Love is a band really close to my heart. Shape Of The Rain were clearly heavily influenced by the prevailing West Coast Sound, track 7 ‘Dusty Road’ is a prime example as is the following track ‘Willowing Tree’s. And this is my point about success, had SOTR been on RCA’s main label there would have been more emphasis on promotion and put frankly money spent. To be fair even the band admit they were ‘musically confused’ but being hidden away, on a albeit ‘cool’ underground label served them badly. Their music is hook laden, delicate and contains some stunning arrangement’s, the Press of the time were impressed comparing them favourably to the like’s of Traffic and Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman took them to his heart as a big fan. So you had a commercially adept band hidden away on an obscure label, it was a no win situation as the fans of the ‘underground labels’ were looking for something more esoteric than SOTR and the main label fans of RCA were being treated to Bowie, Sweet etc i.e. the commercially successful acts of which SOTR could have been one. They have also been compared to Badfinger which I think is a fair comment, good hooky melodic songs and credibility to boot. The songs written for the second unreleased album show a growing confidence ‘The Very First Clown’ and ‘Listen To Your Heart’ being two examples.
The 3rd disc in the set is the previously mentioned ‘live recording’ taped at Manchester University (supporting Manfred Mann’s Earth Band) and given the recording restraints of the time is remarkably good, it captures the band in fine form (love the ‘Hendrix’ licks) mostly made up of new material at the time it did include a great version of ‘Willowing Tree’s from the Riley, Riley, Wood & Waggett album. And what about that album title? hardly jumps off the sleeve does it? I have a horrible suspicion somebody said something along the lines of ‘Crosby, Stills & Nash’ that’s cool man lets do that with this album. enough said! Eventually the band transferred to the main label and carried on til the mid 70’s before going their separate ways. Its a fact that there is more 60’s & 70’s music available to listen too today than there was then, incredible but true, so many albums never saw the light of day for so many reasons and some rightly so but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Shape Of The Rain and plugging a gap in my musical knowledge. Grapefruit Records have done their usual sterling job on the presentation of the set and the 24 page booklet contains many evocative photo’s and pictures of vintage poster’s and sound quality is excellent. Enjoy.
Til next time….please all stay safe and well……Colin
Tag Waggett… thanks for your kind words and thanks for an excellent review. Tag Waggett ( drummer) SOTR
Colin Bell… Hi Tag, good to hear from you, i hope i did your album justice, stay safe & well
Bill Griffiths… the first eight live tracks were recorded at Alfreton Hall on 2nd May 1970 on a Tandberg 1541 mono recorder and a Shure microphone . I was fortunately able to find a position at the back of the hall in an elevated position above the audience. the hall itself is not large being the remains of a former stately home of the Morewoods family, now a wedding venue. A couple of tracks were not included on the cd, possibly to leave room for the Manchester set.
Tony Davis… Really interesting piece Colin. As you say many lost bands of the late 60s and early 70s are now coming to light and bringing hidden gems to life.
Colin Bell… Thanks Tony, the review i posted yesterday of the 3CD set of bands covering The Beatles has some great stuff on it, which may well interest you, Cheers.
A.A.Matthews… Excellent notes about this band that until a few days ago were unknown to me. May I draw attention to Cross & Ross , another little known UK outfit from the early 1970’s. They appeared to be influenced by CSNY, the Laurel Canyon sound, and other West Coast outfits. Well worth seeking out
Colin Bell… Thanks for your comments A.A. I’m happy my review led you to discover a very interesting band
Photo of Teresa Bassett and plastic bread bags on feet! – see below
Nick Prince… Wow. What a line up.
Andy Gunton… was at this one too 🙂
Mick Knights… I’ve got photo’s of Hawkwind and Ultavox at this one, must dig the out sometime and post them.
Terry Pack… went to Reading as a punter in 1975 or 76, I can’t remember which, and wondered what it would be like to play to such a huge crowd. In 77, I found out. I don’t know how many people attended festivals in those days. Any ideas?
John Storer… Somewhere in the back of my mind, I seem to recollect that the average daily attendance at Reading back then was about 30,000. Anyway, THIS is the year I went with Neil McGuigan, Matt Brand, Mick Hurton and Kev Potter. Most vivid memory is Jayne (formerly Wayne) County & The Electric Chairs being canned off stage. The only other band I remember seeing was Ultravox (the John Foxx version). I must have seen others – would have definitely wanted to have seen Eddie & the Hot Rods, The Motors and SAHB, but cannot now remember seeing them
Mick Knights… Here’s a couple of Hawkwind
photos by Mick Knights
Chris Meachen…. Seem to recall being at this one, but it’s all a bit hazy now…
Mark Asseenontv Scutchings-Stevens… I went there !! Had my sleeping bag stolen on the last night 🙁
Teresa Bassett… This was my first festival. 4 of us drove from Lincolnshire in a mini for the weekend. one small ex army tent and no idea what to expect. I remember the mud . I remember Thin Lizzy even now – Dancing in the Moonlight. I remember the beer can fights. I remember the toilets. Only have one photo of the weekend – me in cheesecloth and jeans and plastic bread bags on my feet. (see top photo)
Paul Morfey… I was there!! Lizzy were amazing!!
Ella Hall… Borrowed my dad’s old transit van and drove to Reading from Derbyshire with some pals from college. The ground was too soddon to pitch our tent so we “moved in” to this seemingly huge army-style tent with dozens of other tentless teenagers. The mud was amazing! Inadequate wellies and a shortage of plastic bags led to us going barefoot. Remember watching Thin Lizzy while dancing in thick mud almost up to our knees – played at seeing how far of an angle we could lean, straight-legged, before we splodged over!!! Festival over, we spent hours towing various small cars off site before heading home. To the owner of the large, canvas khaki, Army-style tent -Thank you!
