Marmalade (band)

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The Marmalade
Origin Glasgow, Scotland
Genre(s) Beat
Pop music
Psychedelic pop
Years active 1967-present
Label(s) Sanctuary

Marmalade were a successful Scottish pop/rock group, from Glasgow in Scotland, originally known as Dean Ford and The Gaylords 1961-67. Changed group name to "The Marmalade" 1967. A later version of the band (from 1974 ), exists to this day, with only Graham Knight remaining from the originals.


Contents

[edit] Original band members

[edit] Biography

Unusually, Marmalade had two bass players, Graham Knight on 4 string, and Pat Fairley on 6 string, and were originally called Dean Ford and The Gaylords; who in 1964, were signed to EMI Columbia by the legendary Norrie Paramor and recorded various 3 min singles, incl Twenty Miles which was a big seller locally, but failed to chart nationally.

The group, well regarded nationally in Scotland, and despite, on many occasions being crowned, "Scotlands Top Group" decided to move out of their comfort zone and try to crack it nationally.

They further cut their teeth by doing a long stint in Germany, at the Storyville in Cologne and Duisburg, before moving to London circa 65/6, and proceeded to start again, building a huge club reputation, as a tight, close harmony band, before, on the advice of their manager, changing the band name to The Marmalade (apparently, he came up with the name whilst at the breakfast table!!)

In 1967, after changing labels to CBS, and legendary producer Mike Smith, their next few singles also failed to chart in the UK, although one, the cult hit, the "I See The Rain," was highly praised by Jimi Hendrix as the "best cut of 1967". Became a no 1 hit in the Netherlands the same year. (Graham Nash of The Hollies, contributed to the session)

During this period they landed a long stint at London's legendary Marquee Club where they supported, amongst others, The Action, Pink Floyd etc, and, as reported at the time, promptly "blew them off the stage", rapidly building a huge reputation and following, touring with The Who, Joe Cocker, Traffic, Gene Pitney, The Tremeloes etc, culminating in a summer appearance at the Windsor Jazz & Rock Festival '67, directly preceding Jerry Lee Lewis, in front of literally thousands of Hells Angels - they survived!

Marmalade's record label, CBS, though, were beginning to become concerned at their lack of commercial success and threatened to drop them if they did not have a hit, and after the failure of another self-penned single later that year, the clever, "Man In A Shop", insisted they record more chart-oriented material.

They rejected "Everlasting Love", which became a Number One for Love Affair, but later gave in to pressure and recorded a cover version of an American hit by The Grass Roots, "Lovin' Things", arranged by Keith Mansfield, which reached number 6 in the UK Singles Chart in the summer of 1968.

After a lesser hit with the follow-up "Wait For Me Mary-Anne", which only made number 30, they enjoyed their greatest UK success with their cover of The Beatles' "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da", which topped the UK chart at Christmas 1968. As the first Scottish group to ever top the UK chart, the week it went to the top spot, they celebrated by appearing on BBC1's music programme Top Of The Pops, dressed in kilts. This was followed by further successes with "Baby Make It Soon" in the summer '69.

After a change of record label to Decca Records, under a deal allowing them to write and produce their own songs, they recorded what would become their biggest worldwide hit, including a UK no 1, a top ten in Usa, and No 1 in most of South America, the melancholy Reflections of My Life, written by Junior Campbell and Dean Ford, with its distinctive backwards guitar break by Campbell. "Reflections" hit the no 1 spot almost exactly one year after "Obladi Oblada"

Reflections of My Life has recorded over 2 million sales and the writers were awarded a Special Citation of Achievement in 1998 by BMI in attaining radio broadcast performances in excess of 1 million in the USA alone.

Other UK hits included the mainly acoustic "Rainbow", coupled with "The Ballad of Cherry Flavor", and "My Little One". They toured extensively and gave rise to a cocktail — the Marmaladdie. They were managed by Peter Walsh, a 1960s and 1970s pop entrepreneur whose portfolio also included artists like the The Tremeloes, Bay City Rollers, Billy Ocean, The Troggs and Blue Mink.

After Junior Campbell, who co-wrote most of the group's original material with Ford, left the band in 1971 for a solo career, Marmalade suffered adverse publicity from the UK's newspaper, News of the World. They began a series of line-up changes including the loss of drummer Alan Whitehead, who was sacked in the middle of a self-promotion programme with his starlet girlfriend.

Marmalade recruited a new guitarist Hugh Nicholson, an ex-member of the The Poets, other band from Scotland. Then Marmalade released "Songs" in 1972 and Nicholson took on most lead vocals and songs composition with more direct and less orchestral arrangements, which met with limited success. However, Nicholson penned two of their last hits, "Cousin Norman" and "Radancer", besides less known hits like "Back on the Road" and "Sarah". He left in 1973 to form Blue (not to be confused with a much later boy band of the same name — Blue), and Dean Ford plus Graham Knight carried on with Marmalade. Nicholson was replaced by Mike Japp, a rock guitarist from the Welsh band 'Thank You'.

Refusing to play most of the band's old hit records on stage, the group slowly came to a standstill. Graham Knight was sacked, but then linked up with the original drummer, Alan Whitehead, to form Vintage Marmalade. They were reunited with their old manager Peter Walsh to play all the hits on stage, and had a full date sheet.

Dean Ford was one of many lead vocals in Alan Parsons Project. His last known work in music was in 1991 already living in the US. Knight and Whitehead took over the name Marmalade again with a new line-up, fronted by vocalist and guitarist Sandy Newman. They signed a deal with Target Records, and had another Top 10 hit in 1976 with the ominously entitled Tony Macaulay-penned song, "Falling Apart At The Seams". Subsequent singles then failed to chart.

Whitehead left the band in 1978 to manage other pop groups, which he does to this day. Knight is still touring on the nostalgia circuit with Marmalade — the only original left — alongside Newman, Glenn Taylor (drums), and Alan Holmes (guitar). Ford lives in New York having retired from the music industry, whilst Fairley has his own bar, called Scotland Yard, situated in Los Angeles.

Whitehead married Louise and they had two children, born in 1988 and in 1992. Despite Knight and Ford's greater celebrity, Whitehead always contended that he was the 'face' of the Marmalade, although arguably few would recognise him.

Junior Campbell is a successful songwriter tv film composer and arranger, now living in Sussex, England His further claim to fame being that he co wrote the music for the hugely successful Thomas the Tank Engine!.

[edit] UK chart singles

  • "Lovin' Things" (1968) uk chart position — #6
  • "Wait For Me Mary-Anne" (1968) — #30
  • "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (1968) — #1
  • "Baby Make It Soon" (1969) — #9
  • "Reflections of My Life" (1969) - (#3) *Note - ( #1 NME/Melody Maker/Disc charts - week ending January 28, 1970 )

(US #10)

  • "Rainbow" (1970) — #3 (US #51 Pop, #7 Adult Contemporary)
  • "My Little One" (1971) — #15
  • "Cousin Norman" (1971) — #6
  • "Back On The Road" (1971) — #35
  • "Radancer" (1972) — #6
  • "Falling Apart At The Seams" (1976) — #9 (US #49)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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