by Mott the Dog
5
Stars *****
In the early Sixties there was a stir going on
musically in the brand new world of Pop and Rock music around the area
of the quiet Cathedral City of Canterbury in Kent. The catalyst for all
of this, which was to be wittily called “The Canterbury Sound”,
stemmed from a band calling themselves The Wilde Flowers (appropriate
sixties misspelling like The Beatles and The Byrds). Formed in 1963, the
band imploded in 1967, splitting into two major factions, one side, the
more avant-garde jazz/rock fusion minded musicians Robert Wyatt, Hugh
Hopper and Kevin Ayers, going off to form Soft Machine, which later
begat such bands as Gong, Kevin Ayers and The Whole World, Matching
Mole, etc., while the other more pop/rock members Richard Coughlan, Pye
Hastings, David Sinclair, and his bass playing cousin Richard Sinclair,
went off and formed Caravan.
The four members of Caravan went off and did what
every self respecting band did in that much beloved era, went into
retreat in the country, “To get it together”. After a year camping
just outside nearby seaside resort Whitstable, rehearsing every night in
a nearby church hall, and fighting off starvation, they became one of
the tightest little musical outfits in the British Isles without even
playing a gig.
In 1968 they were snapped up by American record label
Verve, who released their first album Caravan (1968). This went
completely unnoticed by the record buying public, which is hardly
surprising as nobody had heard of them, and there was next to no
publicity as Verve went bust anyway.
This was all put right when, with great enthusiasm,
the giant Decca records signed up our young heroes to a recording
contract, and not only prepared them for their second album, but sent
them out on the road to get them in the public eye.
This included not only playing any place that would
have them, but at such major events as the Kraalingen Pop Festival at
Rotterdam in Holland in front of 250,000 people on the same bill as Pink
Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, and Frank Zappa. Admittedly, Caravan
was on first on the second morning, so most of the people were probably
asleep, but some of them must have taken notice as Holland has always
been a stronghold for Caravan fans.
Caravan’s second album, the wonderfully titled
“If I Could Do it Again I Would Do It All Over You” (1970), was
released to a far greater fanfare and critical acclaim, enabling the
band to enlarge their following and develop their natural talents. After
six months on the road promoting the album, the band was ushered back
into Air London studios under the inspirational eye of young producer
David Hitchcock to record a follow up album. When the band came back out
of the studio and released the results to its waiting public, they had
come out with what many people consider to be a seminal moment from the
early Seventies.
“In the Land of Grey and Pink” (1971) has one of
the most unique and instantly recognisable sounds in the history of
rock, perhaps a little whimsical for some, but then that is a lot of its
charm. In those fondly remembered days of innocence, anything written by
any member of the band was considered a band composition, and song
writing royalties were equally shared amongst the band members - a far
cry from today’s mercenary contracts.
On “In the Land of Grey and Pink”, what you
actually get is three of Richard Sinclair’s finest ever songs, one
from Pye Hastings (according to Pye that was fair enough as he had
written most of the first two albums), and then side two of the vinyl
album was taken up by the one twenty-two minute opus Nine Feet
Underground, which came in five separate movements, with four
bridges, and was mainly written by David Sinclair, with the others
linking all the parts together, and adding bits here and there.
The album opens with Golf Girl, a wonderful
song of love about Richard Sinclair’s future wife (there were no songs
of war, hate or politics in the Caravan repertoire, just songs of
idealised life that we can all relate to in our happier moments). This
song should be played regularly in all of the area’s many golf bars,
as no song could improve the atmosphere in a bar more.
Golf Girl is followed by another Richard Sinclair
song, Winter Wine, a song of fairytales and dreams which weaves
along perfectly with the feeling of well-being laid down by the first
song.
Next up is the Pye Hastings’s composition Love
To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly). The lyrics to this very
hummable song are extremely naughty, not smutty or crude, just enjoyably
naughty.
The title track, another Richard Sinclair number, is
a nursery rhyme set to music as if sung to children, including one of
the most beautiful piano solos ever put down on tape and lyrics that
would soften the most jaded soul’. “Not leaving your Dad out in
the rain, those nasty grumbley Grimblies, and cleaning your teeth in the
sea,” the song’s final verse, is sung in bubble as you would to
sing to a six month old baby; quite delightful.
The album’s epic Nine Feet Underground is a
stunning display of exactly how well the members of Caravan had mastered
their chosen instruments, including the duel lead vocals of Pye Hastings
and Richard Sinclair. Obviously, it is mainly David Sinclair’s
keyboards that are in the fore through out, deservedly so as he was on a
par with any player of his day. The piano, Hammond organ and the
mellotron are all given thorough workouts in the space allowed in Nine
Feet Underground’s twenty two minutes, but this does not detract
from the jazzy bass work of Richard Sinclair, the melodic lead guitar
work from Pye Hastings, or the rock solid drumming of Richard Coughlan.
There is also room for Pye’s brother Jimmy Hastings to come in and add
some flute and tenor saxophone.
Although the album was not a great commercial success
at the time, it has never been taken out of print and sells steadily to
this day. Decca has just released a re-mastered version with thirty
minutes of extra music, including two tracks that were recorded at the
time but had to be left off because of time limitations, demo versions
of two of the Richard Sinclair songs, plus an alternative ending to Nine
Feet Underground where Caravan proves that they could rock as hard
as any of their contemporaries if they wanted to.
The commercial failure of the album was to lead to
great internal stresses within Caravan, and David Sinclair was to pack
up his keyboards and leave almost immediately, going off to search for
his musical ideal with Robert Wyatt in Matching Mole. Cousin Richard
lasted one more album, Waterloo Lily (1972) before he cast off to roam
afield in the musical world, later forming Hatfield and the North,
before joining Camel.
Caravan stumbled on, but was to never match the
magnificence of In the Land of Grey and Pink, only reforming for
one off gigs in the nineties for financial reasons.
Musicians on In the
Land of Grey and Pink
Steve Rosse is a newspaper columnist cum
author, who has put together around 40 of his short stories into “Thai
Vignettes, Phuket and Beyond” (ISBN 974-93439-2-1, Bangkok Book House,
2005).
Mott’s CD review: Caravan