Black Widow (band)

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Black Widow was a progressive rock/heavy metal band that formed in Leicester, England in 1970. The band was mostly known for its early use of satanic and occult imagery in its music and stage act. The band is often confused with the better-known heavy metal band Black Sabbath, but the bands were only superficially similar.

[edit] History

The band originally formed in 1966 as Pesky Gee! with Kay Garrett (lead vocals), Kip Trevor (lead vocals, guitar and harmonica), Jim Gannon (guitar & vocals), Bob Bond (bass guitar), Clive Box (drums), Jess "Zoot" Taylor (organ and piano), Clive Jones (saxophone and flute).

The band released one album for Pye Records as Pesky Gee!, 1969's Exclamation Mark, before Garrett left the band. The remaining band members continued on as Black Widow and released their debut album Sacrifice in 1970. Perhaps better known than their music was the band's use of occult references in their music and their live performances, which were made more controversial with the mock sacrifice of a nude woman. The band attracted further controversy by consulting infamous witch Alex Sanders for advice.

Controversy aside, Sacrifice reached #34 on the UK Albums Chart. [1] The band also performed at the Whitsun Festival at Plumpton, UK in 1970. [2] By 1971, the band had moved away from its darker occult imagery in an effort to gain a wider audience, which was unsuccessful. Having replaced Bond and Box with Geoff Griffith and Romeo Challenger, Black Widow released the self-titled Black Widow album in 1971 and Black Widow III in 1972 (by which time Gannon had left, replaced by John Culley) to general disinterest before being dropped by CBS Records. The band recorded a full-length album, Black Widow IV, later in 1972 without a recording contract. It was not released then due to the band breaking up, shortly after replacing lead vocalist Kip Trevor, with another singer known as Rick "E" (born Frank Karuba; formerly of 'Plum Nelly').

The album was finally released in 1997 on the Mystic Records label. In 1999 the original recordings of their debut album, made before Garrett left the band, were released as Return to the Sabbat.[3]