Delivery was a British
blues
Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
/
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
musical group, formed in the late 1960s. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock
Canterbury scene
The Canterbury scene (or Canterbury sound) is a musical scene that originated in the city of Canterbury, Kent, England during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Associated with progressive rock, the term describes a loosely-defined, improvisation ...
.
Career
Founded in 1966 as Bruno's Blues Band by guitarist
Phil Miller
Philip Paul Miller (22 January 1949 – 18 October 2017) was an English progressive rock/jazz guitarist and a central part of the Canterbury scene.
He was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is ...
, his elder brother pianist Steve Miller, drummer
Pip Pyle
Phillip "Pip" Pyle (4 April 1950 – 28 August 2006) was an English-born drummer from Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, who later resided in France. He is best known for his work in the Canterbury scene bands Gong, Hatfield and the North ...
and bassist
Jack Monck, the band gigged around London for a few years.
In 1968, saxophonist
Lol Coxhill joined them,
and the band's name was changed to Steve Miller's Delivery. In 1969, the band teamed up with blues singer
Carol Grimes and bassist
Roy Babbington replaced Monck.
The resulting line-up recorded and released one album: ''
Fools Meeting''.
Although Grimes wanted to appear as a band member, the record company released the album under "Carol Grimes and Delivery". In 1971, Pyle left the band to join
Gong
A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...
and was replaced by
Laurie Allan
Laurie Allan (born 19 February 1943) is an English drummer, best known for stints in Delivery and Gong.
Biography
Allan started drumming when he was 12. His professional career got going in the early 1960s. He was in The First Real Poetry Ba ...
(who would himself also later join Gong). They disbanded shortly thereafter.
Phil Miller went on to found
Matching Mole with
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...
and
Dave Sinclair, but a new Delivery line-up was assembled in early 1972, consisting of the Miller brothers, Pyle and
Richard Sinclair (bass and vocals), then Steve Miller's bandmate in
Caravan
Caravan or caravans may refer to:
Transport and travel
*Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan
*Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together
**Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop
*Caravan (trail ...
. The band played a few live shows in August/September that year, but with Steve Miller being replaced by Dave Sinclair (from
Matching Mole and
Caravan
Caravan or caravans may refer to:
Transport and travel
*Campervan, a type of vehicle also known as a motor caravan
*Caravan (travellers), a group of travellers journeying together
**Caravanserai, a place where a caravan could stop
*Caravan (trail ...
), the band changed its name to
Hatfield and the North.
A final Delivery performance took place in November 1972 for the BBC's Radio One in Concert series, with an unusual line-up bringing together the Miller brothers, Pyle, Babbington, Coxhill, and Sinclair (who provided only vocals).
Steve Miller went on to release two shared (rather than "duo") albums with Coxhill for Virgin's Caroline budget label in 1973/74.
Roy Babbington, who had played with the
Keith Tippett
Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "...spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporar ...
Group and
Nucleus
Nucleus (: nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
*Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucleu ...
in 1971–73, went on to join
Soft Machine
Soft Machine are an English Rock music, rock band from Canterbury, Kent. The band were formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. Soft Machine were central in the Canterbury scene; they became o ...
from 1973 to 1976.
Laurie Allan rejoined
Gong
A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...
a couple of times, most notably appearing on 1973's ''Flying Teapot'', and later
Barbara Thompson's Paraphernalia.
Discography
*''
Fools Meeting'' (
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...
, as "Carol Grimes and Delivery"), 1970
*"Harry Lucky" / "Home Made Ruin" (
single), 1970
Filmography
* 2015: ''
Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales'' (DVD)
References
External links
Deliverya
Calyx, the Canterbury websiteCollapso - Canterbury Music Family Treea
Calyx, the Canterbury websitea
www.carolgrimes.coma
www.musicstreetjournal.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delivery
Canterbury scene
English progressive rock groups
English blues musical groups
Musical groups established in 1968
Musical groups disestablished in the 1970s
1968 establishments in England
1970s disestablishments in England