McGuinness Flint was a rock band formed in 1970 by
Tom McGuinness, a bassist and guitarist with
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann were an English rock band, formed in London and active between 1962 and 1969. The group were named after their keyboardist Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The band had two diffe ...
, and
Hughie Flint
Hughie Flint (born 15 March 1940, Manchester, Lancashire) is an English drummer, known for his stint in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, for his group McGuinness Flint in the early 1970s and for his subsequent association with The Blues Ba ...
, former drummer with
John Mayall; plus vocalist and keyboard player Dennis Coulson, and multi-instrumentalists and singer-songwriters
Benny Gallagher and
Graham Lyle
Graham Hamilton Lyle (born 11 March 1944, in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer.
Between 1970 and 1997, he co-wrote 18 British Top 40 hits, 9 ''Billboard'' Hot 100 entries, 4 US Country No ...
.
Career
Their first single "
When I'm Dead and Gone" reached No. 2 on the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
at the end of 1970, No. 47 on the Billboard pop chart and No.3 5 on the Cashbox pop chart in the U.S., No. 5 in Ireland, and No. 31 in Canada.) The debut album ''McGuinness Flint'' also made the
Top 10 of the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
.
In 1999, it received another outing, in the soundtrack of the film, ''
East is East''.
A follow-up single, "Malt and Barley Blues", was a UK No. 5 hit in 1971,
but the group floundered under the pressures of instant success, being required to record a second album and reproduce their recorded sound adequately on stage, which resulted in disappointing concerts, then a series of illnesses among the band members cancelled most of the concerts on their first tour. According to McGuinness, at this time the band consisted of two groups of close-knit friends, the first being Flint, McGuinness, and Coulson, and the other being Gallagher and Lyle. Though these two units generally got along well, a key disagreement between them was that the first group felt the band should focus on touring and performing, while the Gallagher/Lyle camp felt they should focus on songwriting and recording.
The second album ''Happy Birthday Ruthy Baby'' failed to chart, as did the title track when released as a single, but contained some Gallagher and Lyle songs, notably "Sparrow", which attracted cover versions.
left towards the end of 1971 to record as a duo, and would enjoy major success in 1976 with their hit-laden fifth album ''
Breakaway''.
McGuinness Flint would continue to play some of their compositions in live performances.
After several temporary members came and went, including comedian
Neil Innes
Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the M ...
on piano, the group recruited bassist Dixie Dean on a permanent basis, and recorded ''Lo and Behold'', an album of
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
songs (which had not yet been officially recorded and released by the writer himself). This album was credited to Coulson, Dean, McGuinness, Flint, and was issued in 1972.
A single "Let The People Go" was
banned by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
(which Gallagher and Lyle contribed to), and was replaced by Lou Stonebridge on keyboards and Jim Evans on guitar.
This new line-up recorded two further albums. Neither of these recordings sold well and the group broke up in 1975.
A splinter group, Stonebridge McGuinness, had a minor hit in 1979 with "Oo-Eeh Baby" (No. 54 in the UK
the following year.
This group proved short-lived, however, and afterwards McGuinness and Flint both joined
.
Stonebridge had a stint in early 80s classic soul revival outfit The Dance Band, who recorded for the
-distributed Double D label.
McGuinness briefly reunited with Graham Lyle in 1983 to form the Lyle McGuinness Band, a short-lived
ensemble that recorded a single, "Elise", and an album, ''Acting on Impulse'', for the independent Cool King label; in Germany, this set was granted a major label release on Polydor. Lyle's songwriting career exploded soon afterwards with the worldwide success of his composition "
, ensuring that the Lyle McGuinness Band would not continue. Diamond Recordings reissued the album on CD in 1997 as ''Elise, Elise'', with the addition of the non-album single plus a previously unreleased song.
McGuinness continues to record and perform as a member of both
, the latter outfit being an amalgamation of 1960s Manfred Mann members that has operated since 1992.
Dennis Coulson died on 15 January 2006.