Splinter was a two-man vocal group from South Shields, England, consisting of Bill Elliott (William Elliott) and Bobby Purvis (Robert J Purvis), who formed in 1974.[1][2]
They were connected with George Harrison, of The Beatles and had groups of instrumentalists to back them on each album. One of those musicians was a guitarist known as Hari Georgeson (Harrison's pseudonym). Splinter was the first artist signed to Harrison's Dark Horse Record label, when it was still partnered with A&M Records. All of Splinter's albums are out of print.
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Splinter, who had worked together at various times in the Newcastle and London music scenes, first came to the attention of Harrison through Mal Evans who was involved with both groups. Harrison was impressed with one of their songs which he felt would be ideal for an Apple film, Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against The Eunuchs. Harrison initially wanted to sign Splinter to Apple Records and arranged sessions at Apple Studios to work on the song - he brought in Pete Ham from Badfinger to participate. Entitled "Lonely Man" plans were made for the song to be released as an Apple single and Splinter were shown performing the piece in the film. However, as Apple fell apart Harrison decided to establish his own record label, and once he heard more Splinter material he invited them to record an album. Work on this spanned 18 months. Also in this period Purvis and Elliot co-wrote the song "Kyle" with Gary Wright - it appeared on the 1974 Spooky Tooth album, The Mirror.
On their debut album The Place I Love, Harrison produced and played guitar on all the songs.[2] Other musicians included Alvin Lee, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Jim Keltner, and Klaus Voorman. Most of the songs were written by Purvis, with Elliott co-writing lyrics on "China Light" and "Costafine Town". "Costafine Town" was an international hit single, reaching the Top 10 in Australia and South Africa and the Top 20 in the United Kingdom. Both this single and album also appeared on the United States Billboard Hot 100 chart. The follow-up single, "Drink All Day", was banned in the UK by the BBC for the inclusion of the word "bloody".
In preparing for a second Splinter album in 1975 Harrison recorded them at his Friar Park studio. Harrison pressed this as a private album on Dark Horse Records.
On Harder To Live,[3] Splinter's second album, Harrison only participated on one track. "Lonely Man" was co-produced by Harrison and Tom Scott, and Harrison played guitar. It was used in the 1974 movie Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs, which was Harrison's first foray into film production. "Lonely Man" was a hit in Japan, and in recording a version of the song in Japanese, Splinter became the first western artists to sing in Japanese. They were helped to achieve this by the Japanese actor and singer, Masatoshi Nakamura. Another set of musicians provide backing (Chris Spedding, Waddy Wachtel and John Taylor).
Also in this period Splinter won the Outstanding Song Award at the 1976 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival at the Budokan in Tokyo with the song "Love Is Not Enough". This performance was released on an album that documented this annual song festival. As a result of this success, "Love Is Not Enough" was released as a single in Japan. This first version was produced by Tom Scott, and is a different arrangement from the one that subsequently appeared on Two Man Band.
Although the duo of Purvis and Elliott continued to perform together until 1984, the 1977 release Two Man Band was the last Splinter album released in most countries, including the United States. Harrison is credited as co-executive producer, and played some of the guitar. The main production duties were entrusted to Norbert Putnam. Although Two Man Band was Splinter's last release in the U.S. and most other parts of the world, the duo did record two more albums that were each released in no more than two countries. Both albums were done without Harrison.
The first of these, titled Streets At Night, was released only in Japan in 1979. Purvis and Elliott produced and arranged this album themselves. This album had Alan Clark who played keyboards, synthesizers, and clavinet.
In this period Splinter were associated with the Japanese music TV station, NTVM, and worked with the Japanese rock band, Godiego. A single of Splinter singing the Godiego song "Ghandara" (associated with the TV show Monkey) was released, and they also appeared on a compilation album, Our Favourite Songs, a set led by members of Godiego.
The final Splinter album was Splinter, which was released in the UK in 1980 on the Bellaphon label. The album was also issued in Japan the following year under the title Sail Away, with a song called "Pigalle" used in place of "All That Love".
They finally split in 1984. In recent years, Purvis has re-emerged as a performer and composer, working for a British cancer research charity.[2]
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