Recording Studios in San Francisco. The double album features their live set spread over three sides of vinyl. The fourth side featured songs recorded at the Record Plant, most dating from the first album sessions including ‘You Must Be One Of Us’, a song by Ron Nagle, originally intended as a single.


Valentino notes that the reasons for deciding to do a live album at this point were simple. “It probably came about most likely from our live playing, plus we had just traded away Luther Bildt and Michael Mau for Cory Lerios on keyboards, Steve Price on drums and Brian Godula on bass, replacing Pete Sears who had gone to join John Cippolina in his new band, Copperhead. The new line up was really great on stage, so hot we were on fire.”


John Blakeley has slightly different recollections of how the band came to release a live album, namely to try and save money!


Overall, Family Album definitely fulfils the promise that was inherent in their first album. The title was thought up by Tom Donahue and seems appropriate given that he often introduced the band as “My Children” at the start of their live performances. Again it is a beautifully made and eye catching gatefold sleeve with a hand tinted photograph of the band on the front cover.


For reasons best known only to the executives at Warner Brothers, the album was not given a UK or European release, which seems like an odd decision given how enthusiastically the band had been welcomed on this side of the Atlantic. In the USA, the album outsold its predecessor and served to enhance their reputation as a live band. Two albums released in the space of a year and a growing army of fans seemed to imply a good future for the band.


The DraculaMovie


After the recording of Family Album, Stoneground once again returned to England where they got the chance to appear in another movie. This film was light years away from The Medicine Ball Caravan and its portrayal of the hippy lifestyle. It was a Hammer Films production called Dracula AD 1972 that starred Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing and was an attempt to set a vampire movie in modern “swinging” London. Stoneground can be seen performing at a party, playing two songs, ‘You Better Come Through’ and ‘Alligator Man’.


For this tour, Stoneground had undergone yet more personnel changes, and various commentators have suggested that the nature of the bands formation created an inbuilt set of fault lines that would inevitably lead to their all too soon demise. For some, they were becoming too cumbersome, three guitarists, five lead vocalists as well as bass, drums, keyboards and saxophone players. As John Blakeley notes, “there were a lot of people in


Annie, Sal and Diedre in the party scene from Dracula AD 1972.


generate massive album sales.


John Blakeley; “As it turned out, it was to be the last album with that line up of the band. This was fine by me and, as it turned out, everybody else in the band. Nobody had made any money by then and we were all tired of doing gigs, just to pay the roadies, replace equipment and meet expenses. The album turned out okay. It was much better arranged than previous efforts. I thought Sal was a better producer than Tom. I am sure that Sal wanted to be out of the band by this stage. He was the most talented guy and was constantly having to put up with guys who didn’t respect him and wanted their own careers. This was not necessarily their fault though, they were younger than us and Cory Lerois was a much better business head than Sal, Tom or I. Cory basically rallied a few people around him and got the band to split up. This was fine by me after all we had been through.”


Stoneground toured extensively in the USA to promote the album but as already noted, no radio hits emerged and album sales were disappointing. Tom Donahue is said to have had to withdraw from the band because of ever increasing demands on his time at KSAN Radio.


the band which was nobody’s plan as such, it’s just how things ended up. The last hippy glamour band. Maybe the only one that fits that description now that I come to think of it.”


Stoneground 3


Recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and released in ’72, their third album, Stoneground 3, was poorly received by the press, despite the inclusion of some great songs and the fact that several members of the band thought it was their best release to date. Songs like ‘From Me’ and ‘Heads Up’ were as good as anything previously put out under the band’s name. Perhaps because they dated back to the first recording sessions at Trident Studios. Newer material was equally strong though, with Sal’s ‘From A Sad Man Into A Deep Blue Sea’ being one of their best ever recordings. The album was widely aired on West Coast FM Radio stations but sales did not follow, which can hardly have been aided by the uninspired choice of cover art. The band photo used on the rear sleeve would have surely made a better front.


Some commentators and band members point to internal divisions, and the ever present problem of keeping a band now numbering 11 members and a road crew fed and paid as too much for everyone to cope with. Rumours abound of petty squabbles and fights and a creeping sense of disillusionment. Some or all of which may go to explain why what looked on the outside to be a band on the verge of great success, was in fact a band on the verge of major break- up. The break-up cannot have been helped by the record label deciding to drop them from its roster either. Sad news, but possibly understandable given that constant touring and receptive audiences had failed to


43


The act that recorded and toured that third album played one final show in January ’73, in Sacramento, which ironically was a sell out.


After that, it was all over although many of the band members continued to take an active part in the local and national music scene. John Blakeley hooked up with Country Joe MacDonald and toured as part of his band for several years. Recently, after recovering from a serious illness he has been busy recording again. Sal and Lydia left Stoneground to form The Valentino Band, who gigged around the Bay Area for a couple of years before he returned once more to the reformed Beau Brummels. An event that generated more press interest than the last year of his time in Stoneground had.


•


With many thanks to Tim Barnes, John Blakeley and Sal Velentino.


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