Greenslade were an
English 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 ...
band, formed in the autumn of 1972 by keyboard player
Dave Greenslade and bassist
Tony Reeves, with keyboardist
Dave Lawson and drummer
Andrew McCulloch.
History
The band made their live debut at
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
's Zoom Club in November 1972. Longtime musical associates, with a common background in jazz, Greenslade and Reeves had been original members of
Colosseum
The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...
. The two decided they wanted to form a band with two keyboardists. At the time, Reeves was
A&R director for the independent progressive label Greenwich Gramophone Co., and he invited
Dave Lawson of Samurai, a commercially struggling act with the label, to become part of the group. Lawson was previously a member of
The Alan Bown Set and
Web
Web most often refers to:
* Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal
* World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to:
Computing
* WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
, whilst drummer
Andrew McCulloch was briefly a member of
King Crimson
King Crimson were an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by Robert Fripp, Michael Giles, Greg Lake, Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald and Peter Sinfield. Guitarist Fripp remained the only constant member throughout the ...
and
Fields
Fields may refer to:
Music
*Fields (band), an indie rock band formed in 2006
* Fields (progressive rock band), a progressive rock band formed in 1971
* ''Fields'' (album), an LP by Swedish-based indie rock band Junip (2010)
* "Fields", a song by ...
.
On 20 February 1973 the band appeared on BBC's ''
The Old Grey Whistle Test
''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music series broadcast by the BBC. It was devised by producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough, and aired on BBC2 from ...
'' playing two numbers - "Pilgrims Progress" and "Bedside Manners Are Extra", both from the album ''
Bedside Manners Are Extra''.
Greenslade's third album, ''Spyglass Guest'' was their most commercially successful, reaching number 34 in the
UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is the United Kingdom's industry-recognised national record chart for album, albums. Entries are ranked by sales and audio streaming. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the O ...
. Reeves left shortly after the album was finished so that he could focus on his career as a producer,
and was replaced on the U.S. tour and subsequent fourth album ''Time And Tide'' by
Martin Briley, who also contributed guitar and backing vocals. Briley came to the group under the recommendation of Lawson, who had met him while doing
session work.
[
Greenslade announced their disbandment in early 1976 due to management problems.] The band felt their management company, Gaff Management, were not a good fit for them and wanted to sign with another big management company who had expressed interest in them, so they asked to be released from their contract. According to Dave Greenslade, "they told me they'd let us go if we paid them an absolute fortune. I didn't have that kind of money available, and therefore had no chance of getting away from them. This really soured our relationship to such an extent that, in the end, I split up the band to get away from them." Dave Greenslade went on to record his debut solo album, ''Cactus Choir'', in late 1976 and then in early 1977 put together a new band line-up with ex-Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Manfred Mann's Earth Band are an English rock band formed by South African musician Manfred Mann (musician), Manfred Mann. Their hits include covers of Bruce Springsteen's "For You (Bruce Springsteen song), For You", "Blinded by the Light" an ...
frontman Mick Rogers. Initially the rhythm section consisted of Dave Markee and Simon Phillips, who had played on the album, but they were replaced by Tony Reeves (who had in the meantime joined Curved Air) and Jon Hiseman (then concurrently leading his own Colosseum II) for the 1977 dates.
In 2000, Greenslade and Reeves, after considering a full-blown reunion of the original line-up, teamed up with vocalist/keyboardist John Young, and recorded a new Greenslade studio album: ''Large Afternoon''. Drummer John Trotter joined in time for a subsequent tour, during which the live album ''Greenslade 2001 – Live: The Full Edition'' was recorded. The album was released in 2002. John Trotter left the group the following year to move to Australia, and was to be replaced by James Gambold, but nothing further happened.
After Greenslade's original breakup, Dave Lawson went on to be a much-in-demand session musician, as well as playing with Roy Harper and later Stackridge
Stackridge were a British progressive rock/folk rock group which had their greatest success in the early 1970s.
History Classic period
Stackridge Lemon were formed from the remains of a previous band, Grytpype Thynne, by Andy Davis and James ...
. Thereafter he composed for film and television, including soundtracks for advertisements for British Gas
British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...
and others. Martin Briley had a moderately successful solo career before finding work as a songwriter for popular artists such as Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had ...
and NSYNC
NSYNC ( ; also stylized as *NSYNC or N Sync) was an American vocal group and pop boy band formed by Chris Kirkpatrick in Orlando, Florida, in 1995 and launched in Germany by BMG Ariola Munich. The group consists of Kirkpatrick, JC Chasez, ...
. Andrew McCulloch left the music industry, obtained a Masters Certificate and pursued a career in sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, Windsurfing, windsurfer, or Kitesurfing, kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (Land sa ...
.
Personnel
* Dave Greenslade – keyboards (1972–1976, 1977, 2000–2003)
* Dave Lawson – keyboards, vocals
Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...
(1972–1976)
* Andrew McCulloch – drums
The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...
, percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
(1972–1976)
* Tony Reeves – bass guitar
The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...
, double bass
The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...
(1972–1974, 1977, 2000–2003)
* Martin Briley – bass guitar, guitar
The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
, backing vocals (1974–1976)
* Dave Markee – bass guitar (1977)
* Simon Phillips – drums, percussion (1977)
* Mick Rogers – guitar, vocals (1977)
* Jon Hiseman – drums, percussion (1977; died 2018)
* John Young – keyboards, vocals (2000–2003)
* John Trotter – drums, percussion (2000–2003)
* James Gambold – drums (2003)
Discography
Studio albums
* 1973: '' Greenslade'', Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
K 46207
* 1973: '' Bedside Manners Are Extra'', Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
K 46259
* 1974: '' Spyglass Guest'', Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
K 56055 UK No. 34 Warner Bros.
* 1975: '' Time and Tide'', Warner Bros. K 56126
* 2000: ''Large Afternoon''
Live albums, compilations
* 1973: ''Reading Festival 1973'' (one track), GML Records 1008
* 1979: '' The Pentateuch of the Cosmogony'', Dragon's World Ltd/EMI Records
* 1997: ''Shades of Green (1972–75)''
* 2000: ''Live'' (recorded in 1973–75)
* 2002: ''Greenslade 2001 – Live The Full Edition''
* 2013: ''Live in Stockholm – 10 March 1975''
* 2019: ''Sundance'' - ''A Collection 1973 - 1975 - Esoteric recordings a Cherry Red Records label''
UK singles
* "Temple Song" / "An English Western" (1973)
* "Catalan" / "Animal Farm" (1975)
* "Gangsters" (theme from the TV series
A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...
) / "Rubber Face & Lonely Eyes" (1976)
References
External links
Greenslade
by Mike Barnes, 1 February 2009, at pressreader.com
{{Authority control
1972 establishments in England
2003 disestablishments in England
English progressive rock groups
Musical groups established in 1972
Musical groups established in 2003