Future Vinegar Joe Member Reviews Robert Palmer's First Recording With Alan Bown (1969)

Keef Hartley as portrayed on Melody Maker (1969)

On the November 1, 1969 issue of the British magazine Melody Maker, future Vinegar Joe member, drummer Keith "Keef" Hartley (1944-2011) reviewed the music releases of the week "in blind date" : The Beatles' Something, Led Zeppelin's Heartbreaker ... and the latest single from the Alan Bown Set, Gypsy Girl, featuring a young new singer named Robert Palmer. Here's what Keef Hartley thought of it.

"I've no idea who it is but I caught a glimpse of the label so I know it's Decca - probably done in the Number One studio, with the emphasis on done.

It sounds like somebody new who hasn't quite got it together and they had to rehearse the song in the studio and recorded it as quickly as possible because they didn't have too much time.

Instrumentally it's quite good; vocally too, but it's just not a very good song."

The Alan Bown!

A few years later, Keef Hartley would work with Robert Palmer on Vinegar Joe's second album Rock 'n Roll Gypsies. The singer also appeared on Hartley's 1973 solo effort Lancashire Hustler, which includes the Palmer-penned track Circles.

"I phoned Jess Roden who I had admired as a singer for a long time," Keef Hartley recalled in the liner notes for the 2009 reissue of the album. "He sang in the Alan Bown Set in the 1960s then set up a band called Bronco that hadn't really done much. I used to cross paths with him when I played in the Artwoods - I remember one time when the Alan Bown Set turned up on the motorway service station in their van, just as my van decided not to start, and they gave a lift down to London which really got me out of a fix on that day - we all helped each other out in those days. Anyway, Jess came down to my flat and we started working on a few ideas for tracks and it seemed promising. I felt now that I could make a start.

Again, for this album, we worked at Island Studios with John Burns co-producing and engineering. It was John who, having heard Philip Chen at a recent Rod Stewart recording session, suggested that we should try and get hold of him as our bassist. Following some more hustling that was arranged.

I then called my old mates Elkie Brooks and Robert Palmer from Vinegar Joe who I'd recently recorded with. They were happy to do the backing vocals and suggested that they bring along pianist Jean Rouselle. Jazz-rock guitarist Jim Mullen was a perfect choice for guitar along with Junior Kerr, who played on Seventy Second Brave. I now had the heart of a great band. Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell had two vocalists that he wanted to promote, Jess Roden and Robert Palmer. I was working with both of them and found it amazing that although they could have been perceived as opponents, there was never any animosity between them and they worked as professionals.

It was about this stage that the lawyers discovered that I had been playing on studio sessions for two Vinegar Joe albums. You see, you can't just go and play on other people's albums because it isn't covered in your recording contact. So it's kind of a big deal for pen pushers when musicians are just helping each other out. The way out of this mess was actually already in place without me or anyone else realising it. I just had to get Elkie and Robert to reciprocate on my album. They already were doing that, but if they hadn't, I wouldn't have asked them just to please the lawyers as only correct musical decisions are the right ones to make.

Circles was written by Robert Palmer for Vinegar Joe's first album. I told them that I loved the song and asked them if I could use it on my album and they said 'Great, no problem.' I did a more gospel sounding version of it and fortunately they loved it."