FAMILY ALBUM
JUST POUR THE WINE In this new series of features, Shindig!
presents an in-depth examination of some of the albums that continue to tickle its fancy, bend its mind and colour its world.
From the near classic to the hopelessly obscure; the delicately floral to the ragingly visceral; we aim to examine these long-playing wonders – wherever possible, with the help of the people who made them.
First up, ANDY MORTEN takes a look inside FAIRFIELD PARLOUR’S 1970 outing From Home To Home with bandleader Peter Daltrey
P ‘Let The World Wash In’. Peter Daltrey at The Isle Of Wight Festival, 1970 134
eter Daltrey is on a roll. “The very brief colourful rocket that was psychedelia – which shot into the skies over Britain in 1966 and thumped back to earth
sometime in ’68 – had left us stranded in a dark uncertain future,” he asserts. “We would shrug off the Kaleidoscope moniker because the music we would be making from now on would be far removed from all that fairytale stuff. That was yesterday, man! Everything was going sorta progressive with the emphasis changing towards musicianship. Guys were playing solos and staring at the floor through flowing locks. Black was the new purple.”
It’s the summer of ’69 and Kaleidoscope has just released its fifth single, ‘Balloon’, to deafening apathy. Despite having been somewhat indulged by their record label Fontana (an unprecedented five-year deal, recording a debut albumwithout the benefit of a hit single, said single sporting a full- colour picture sleeve) and having come tantalisingly close to “making it” (virtually unanimous critical acclaim, scores of BBC sessions, regular radio play, prestigious live dates), the Middlesex quartet was now trapped within the creakingmechanism of the recording industry. ‘Balloon’ – like its two predecessors ‘Jenny Artichoke’ and ‘Do It Again For Jeffrey’ – was contrived by Daltrey and his guitar playing co-writer Eddie Pumer purely to achieve that elusive hit. Nowtheir creativity was being stifled and their freedom compromised at every turn.
“When it all fell apart – with intolerable
pressure to produce purely commercial singles,” recalls the ever-eloquent Daltrey today, “our saviour side-stepped into our lives in the bulky shambling shape of Radio One DJ, David Symonds. Dave recognised our frustration with our record company and our lack of success. And he saw our potential to change yet again. Dave took us under his substantial wing.”
And so, with renewed vigour and their freedom returned – temporarily at least – Kaleidoscope embarked on the second phase of its career, just as the decade swung towards its conclusion.
“We were more calm,” Daltrey remembers. “We were as optimistic as we had been in ’67 – but it was a measured, more mature, more realistic optimism. There were subtle changes in our outlook, in our demeanour, in our state of mind. The four of us were sat with Dave in the rather crowded driving seat. We were a new team. There were new horizons. What could possibly go wrong? I whipped out me hanky and cleaned those rose-tinted spectacles...”
Indeed. So what better way to cement this new and beautiful relationship than with a new name?
“It was probably late summer ’69 at Dave’s place when we made the decision to shed our Kaleidoscopic koat of many kolours – sorry, I just kouldn’t resist it! We would spend all day there, writing, rehearsing, shooting each other... Dave had an air rifle and at some point Ed managed to shoot our newmanager in the arse. Boy, did we laugh!
Photo from
www.iow1970.com
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