ROBERT PALMER : Music & Style

One of the joys of the Sixties' rock scene was the touring good time soul band. They played for fun, dancing and if they were lucky, a small profit. Packing their gear into Transit vans, night after night they set off to play at myriad clubs, pubs and concert halls around the country. It was the British version of American soul, but it wasn't necessarily a pale imitation.

The bands were nearly all good, and within their ranks were a great number of fine musicians and some outstanding singers, many of whom would go on to fame and fortune. There was a wide range of bands playing all shades of soul, R&B and blues.

If there was a way of dividing them into camps, it could be said that there were the Flamingo groups, based at the club in at the lower end of of Soho's Wardour Street, and the Marquee bands, further up the street. The former included Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames, Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds and Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, while the Marquee camp included Steam Packet, Jimmy James & The Vagabonds and... The Alan Bown Set.

The Alan Bown! as they became known later, was an unusually large band, heavy on brass and keyboards, and they drew a mass of fans. It was always a party atmosphere at their gigs, similar but perharps less fanatical to the response elicited by Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band.

Alan was a slightly built, intense but extremely likeable young trumpet player whose occasionally preoccupied look was brought on by the stress of keeping six other musicians happy and leading the band towards some sort of chart success. They tried so hard, but tragically rewards in that direction would elude them, although they had a minor hit with a song called Toy Town which had little to do with the kind of music their fans flocked to hear.

In this respect The Alan Bown suffered the same problem that afflicted most of the hard slogging Sixties bands. They could go on touring the local circuit for ever, but without hits they'd never get to America and make their fortune.

They did try to capture their 'live' sound with performances from the Marquee club which shared an album with Jimmy James & The Vagabonds (or Zigaboos, as they were affectionately known). But it was a poorly produced effort and didn't do them justice. This album however serves both to bring back memories of a long neglected area of British rock history, and reminds us that The Alan Bown weren't half bad.

On stage they presented a busy, fast moving show. Alan conducted, exhorted and waved his shiny blue electric trumpet around, in between blowing stabbing funk riffs and taking the odd solo. He wasn't a powerful trumpeter, but he had good pitching and a pleasant, bell like tone. He was always at pains to find a really ace front man, and he was fortunate in finding two of the finest young singers of the day.

First came Jess Roden, small, boyish, and blessed with a remarkably powerful voice. He was rated by the cognoscenti alongside the two Steves - Marriott and Winwood. After a good stint with the band, during which he sang his heart out and was nightly drenched in sweat, he was replaced by Robert Palmer.

It's Robert you hear on this album, and in view of his later solo success, it's fascinating to hear him in his early days. Robert will certainly have no cause or alarm to hear his old works revived. Handsome even as a spotty youth, Robert had obvious star potential. But he too was trapped in a cycle which meant gigging to live, but no time to develop a recording career. That would come later.

Back in 1969 the full band comprised Alan and Robert, together with Vic Sweeney (drums), Tony Catchpole (guitars), John Anthony (tenor and alto sax, recorder and clarinet), Jeff Bannister (piano and organ) and Stan Haldane (Fender bass and Fuzz bass).

They made a big sound, and at some of the smaller clubs, like the Cooks Ferry Inn, they almost outnumbered the audience hemmed up against the speakers. They were all excellent players, and John Anthony went to bigger things with Supertramp. Another side man who served apprenticeship with Alan Bown was Dave Lawson who later played keyboards with Greenslade.

Those who tend to dismiss all the recorded works of this period as badly produced and inept will be surprised - as I was - by the sheer quality and power of these performances. They reveal a band far ahead of its time. I had to check with higher authorities to make sure that he really was a product of 1969 and not some later epoch.

Robert sings in most authorative and confident fashion, with a beautiful sense of style and timing, without recourse to exaggeration and cheap effects. It may have been his pop idol looks that prevented his vocal assets from being taken more seriously.

There are moments on Strange Little Friend when he sounds not unlike Robert Plant, with the same sort of tender phrasing. But then the influences on singers of the period was a shared experience, with common roots.

What is more surprising is that Perfect Day, another outstanding cut on side one, has a close affinity with the kind of song and sound Stevie Wonder would produce, but not for another two years, with Where I'm Coming From and Music Of My Mind in 1971-2.

Leaving aside the vexed question of influences, it must have been galling to Alan, Robert and the band that their album wasn't widely accepted. They hadn't been able to transfer the raw 'live' sound of the band to album with any success, attempts at 'commercial' singles had failed, and here was the band giving its best shot with fine songs in the studio, and still there was no hope of an international breakout.

To employ a phrase once used about jazz arranger Fletcher Henderson, it was a study in frustration. But maybe there is still time to offer belated recognition of their efforts. Still As Stone was the A side of a single which wasn't included on the original album and could stand re-issue today along with quite a few other tracks that today's deejays might like to pick up without fear of damaging their reputations. The restrained vocal intro paves the way for a funky rocker with some great guitar from Tony over a backbeat from the drums. It's as good as a Stones hit - but with a better singer!

As well as Robert, the band had vocal talent in drummer Vic and guitarist Tony well displayed on the melodic All I Can Do. Tony and Jeff Bannister also took lead vocals on the experimental The Prisoner. There was a remarkable coolness about the times, even on songs like Children Of The Night and Gypsy Girl, the latter which has a touch of the Manfred Mann's and an affinity with The Mighty Quinn. There was never a sense of panic about The Alan Bown.

"Rock on!" shouts Robert during the final rave up on Wrong Idea. It was one of the earliest uses of the phrase on record. The Alan Bown had all the right ideas, but at the wrong time.

The band broke up in 1974, and Alan laid down his trumpet and went to work at the A&R department at CBS Records. Jess Roden made several solo albums with his own band for Island records and now works as a commercial artist. Robert Palmer sang in Dada and then Vinegar Joe with Elkie Brooks and then began a solo career producing such albums as Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley, Pressure Drop and Clues. He now lives in Nassau and no longer travels in a Transit.

Chris Welch (liner notes for The Alan Bown's compilation 'Kick Me Out' - 1985)

Voir aussi :

• Scarborough Singer Joins Leading British Pop Group (The Scarborough Evening News - 1969)
• Future Vinegar Joe Member Reviews Robert Palmer's First Recording With Alan Bown  (Melody Maker - 1969)