Page 31 - BiTS_07_JULY_2024_Neat
P. 31
Having lost Fleetwood Mac, and with them still being such a big name, Mike Vernon
decided to milk the recordings they did have access to, and re-released ‘Need Your
Love So Bad’, which reached a creditable no. 32 in the charts. A compilation LP “The
Pious Bird Of Good Omen”. did rather better, climbing
to no. 18, although sales were probably dented to some
extent by the release only 2 months later of the new
Mac album, “Then Play On”, which appeared on Warner
Brothers - the Immediate deal only survived the one
single!
Turning back to the US artistes, Blue Horizon put out
the singles ‘Every Day I Have The Blues’, by B. B. King,
and ‘Runnin’ Shoes’, by one man band Juke Boy Bonner.
They weren’t expecting chart smashes with those
releases, and they didn’t get it, although both were well
received by the blues faithful.
In May and June a new label signing, Jellybread (named
after the Booker T instrumental) went into the studios to record tracks for an album
and a couple of singles. The band members had met as students at Sussex University,
and featured pianist Pete Wingfield, who subsequently had quite a successful solo
career. Their soul-tinged blues style was somewhat different from the other UK Blue
Horizon acts, but did not really reap the commercial rewards that were hoped for.
In the late Summer of that year
Christine Perfect reappeared, newly
married to Mac bassist John McVie,
and cut tracks for a Blue Horizon LP,
and a single, the Danny Kirwan song
‘When You Say’. Vernon was
unconvinced about the single, the Mac
version of which had appeared on
“Then Play On”. However, Christine
Perfect was insistent about it being
released, but unfortunately it flopped.
In spite of her Melody Maker poll
success, and generally good reviews
for the album, this was not translated
into sales, which were rather average.
Another non-starter in the sales
success area was the work of Anthony ‘Top’ Topham. He was the original guitarist in