Wasted on the B-side was the superb ‘Wait By The Fire’, a cover version of a recent song by American songwriters Chip Taylor and Al Gorgoni. Arranged to maximise their vocal abilities and with the group’s core line-up augmented with subtle orchestration and vibes, the band turned ‘Wait By The Fire’ into a haunting, minor key pop classic that compares favourably to similar efforts by The Zombies.


After the commercial and creative failure of ‘I Hear A Rhapsody’, The Majority played it safe with their seventh single, issuing ‘Running Away With My Baby’/’Let The Joybells Ring’ in July ’67. ‘Running Away With My Baby’was an upbeat sunshine- pop number that did manage to make Radio London’s Fab 40, yet once again failed to break into the national charts.


Jim Carter-Fae knew that The Majority were a very good band, yet perhaps they had a problem when it came to developing and selecting material to record. In the summer of ’67, Carter-Fae made contact with Kirk Duncan, a session keyboardist who worked for Dick James Music Publishing. “I was asked to help them as a music director by Jim Carter-Fae,” explains Duncan. “I can’t remember how it came about but it was very good for a penniless musician like myself to have the run of Jim’s three clubs, The Revolution, The Speakeasy and Blaises that he ran over in Knightsbridge. After working with The Majority, Jim would often take us to one of a string of restaurants that he had an interest in. They were early “theme” restaurants, providing up market East End fayre like boiled beef and carrots and draught beer. There was usually a pub pianist as well. The food was great – and free!”


Duncan would oversee no less than 10 recording sessions with them at Dick James Studios as well as an additional session at Decca Studios. Many of the group composed songs cut during these sessions, including ‘Time Machine Man’ and ‘Our Love Will Be So Strong’ are superior to many of the tracks that were officially released by Decca during The Majority’s ’65-68 heyday. Though not released at the time, several of these recordings featured on Rev-Ola’s Psychedelic Jumble compilation of ’60s acetates.


During his time working with The Majority, Duncan was also involved in the October 7th session – produced by Noel Walker – to record a highly commercial cover of an obscure Bee Gees composition, ‘All Our Christmases’, for a film that was to star Georgie Fame. Several days later on 9th October, The Majority would also be seen in a sequence of the film, The Mini- Affair.”


In action en France. Barry; Ken and Roger; Bob.


“The backing of the Ryan twins was quite short-lived. The Ryans were not very good singers and could not harmonise at all. The Majority did not get on with them. They were stars of the live shows but were heavily carried by the band.”


Given the obvious commercial potential of ‘All Our Christmases’, the decision was made to issue it as the group’s next – and ultimately final – Decca single in Jan ’68. The song was backed with Barry Graham’s ‘People’,an excellent upbeat pop song which boasted a cor anglais and a chugging cello break straight out of the summer of ’67. But as was the case with all of their previous singles, ‘All Our Christmases’ failed to chart. The main reason ‘All Our Christmases’ failed in my opinion,” suggests Bob Long “is that it was released on 12th January 1968!”


By this time, The Majority were all growing tired of not being able to get a hit. “The band were trying to get out of the contract but Decca refused to release them,” recalls John Turner. Pete Mizen, who would join the group in Oct ’68 recalls that “The Majority were apparently very closely involved with Robert Stigwood at the time. I had heard that it was Robert Stigwood who got them out of their Decca contract when Decca didn’t want to let them go, even though they weren’t promoting any of their records.” In the end, the label apparently decided that if the group wanted to leave, they would let them go, and soon after ‘All Our Christmases’ was issued, The Majority were released from their contract.


In the months that followed the split with Decca, the original Majority line-up started to slowly splinter. Drummer Don Lill, bassist Ken Smith and guitarist Roger France each left the band within a few months of each other in the later summer/early autumn of ’68. Bassist Ken Smith was the first to leave. “Ken married a Playboy Bunny he had met when we played at the club in ’66,” remembers John Turner. A few months later Roger, who was married to Barry’s sister, came to the same conclusion and took a regular job to make some real money.”


Ken Smith was replaced on bass by Wally Andrews, while drummer Don Lill – who left the group in September – was replaced by Chris Kelly. John Turner remembers that “Chris Kelly was only with the band for a few months.”


It was Chris Kelly who brought lead guitarist Pete Mizen into The Majority line-up. “Chris Kelly was a friend of the bass player of the semi-pro band that I was playing with, and he phoned me up and asked if I was interested in joining The Majority and I said yes,” remembers Mizen. “He said,’ Well, we’re playing tonight at The Pheasantry Club, do you want to come and listen?’ So I went along and they were fantastic. Live, they were


87


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