Skin Alley

Skin Alley was a progressive British rock combo, that existed from 1968 to 1974 and was founded by Thomas Crimble and Alvin Pope. They are best known for their track, "Living In Sin".

Career

Thomas Crimble (bass/keyboards/vocals), Alvin Pope (drums), Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz (keyboards), and Bob James (sax/guitar) made inroads quickly and found themselves signed to CBS Records for their self-titled debut in 1969 and its 1970 follow-up, To Pagham & Beyond. Crimble moved on that year to play bass with Hawkwind and organising the Glastonbury Festival,^[1] and was replaced by Nick Graham (formerly of Atomic Rooster, though not the same-named musician from The End and Tucky Buzzard) before the album was completed, Graham singing on two of the tracks. Pope was later replaced by Tony Knight (real name Tony Brown), formerly of The Chessmen and Bronx Cheer.

In May 1972, Skin Alley appeared in the NME sponsored 'Giants of Tomorrow' marquee, as part of the Lincoln Festival.^[2] A switch to the Transatlantic Records label in 1972 heralded the release of the band's third LP, Two Quid Deal. By the time their fourth album, Skintight was released in 1973, they were playing more commercial, mainstream rock with lots of orchestration and brass arrangements.^[3] The band split shortly thereafter, with Graham having the most successful post-Skin career with his groups Alibi and the Humans in the early 1980s.^[4]

Band members

• Thomas Crimble - Bass, vocals, keyboards, harmonica (born 18 June 1947, Staines, Middlesex, England)
• Bob James - Saxophone, flute, guitar, vocals
• Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz - Organ, piano,accordion, harpsichord, melotron, vocals, trumpet
• Giles 'Alvin' Pope - Drums, percussion
• Nick Graham - Vocals, keyboards, bass, flute
• Tony Knight - Drums, vocals

Albums

• Skin Alley (CBS 63847) 1969
• To Pagham and Beyond (CBS 64140) 1970
• Two Quid Deal (Transatlantic Big T TRA 260) 1972
• Skintight (Transatlantic Big T TRA 273) 1973

U.S. based Columbia Records had no interest in the band and declined to release either CBS album in the U.S. The third and fourth albums were issued in the U.S. by Stax Records. Even though Stax was keen on expanding their repertoire into rock, they were not successful in promoting any of their rock acts and both Skin Alley albums were totally ignored in the U.S. (although there were plenty of promotional copies to be found in record shops at the time).

Singles

• "Tell Me" / "Better Be Blind" (CBS 5045) 1970
• "You Got Me Danglin'" / "Skin Valley Serenade" (Big T BIG 506) 1972
• "In The Midnight Hour" / "Broken Eggs" (Big T BIG 511) 1972

References