Neil Merryweather

Neil Merryweather
Birth name Robert Neilson Lillie
Also known as Bobby Neilson
Neil Lillie
Born December 27, 1945
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Origin Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genres Rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Vocals, bass
Years active 1965–?
Associated acts The Just Us, The Mynah Birds, The Flying Circus, Merryweather, Mama Lion

Neil Merryweather (born Robert Neilson Lillie on December 27, 1945 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadian rock singer, bass player and songwriter. He has recorded and performed with musicians including Steve Miller, Dave Mason, Lita Ford, Billy Joel, Rick James and Wilson Pickett, and released an extensive catalogue of albums.

The Just Us and The Tripp

Merryweather began his career in Toronto during the early 1960s performing under the name Bobby Neilson.

During 1964, he joined forces with Gary Muir & The Reflections, a local group comprising Muir (vocals), Ed Roth (organ), Bill Ross (guitar), Brian Hughes (bass) and Bob Ablack (drums). Neilson’s arrival prompted the group to part from Muir and the band briefly changed their name to The Ookpiks (after a native-designed stuffed toy owl that was being promoted by the Canadian government). As it turned out that another group was already using that name, they briefly switched to The Sikusis (after yet another stuffed toy). After the Canadian government demanded payment for their name, they settled on The Just Us in early 1965.

In 1965, the group recorded its lone single, "I Don’t Love You" c/w "I Can Tell", for the local Quality Records label. (Some copies list the group as The Ookpiks, some The Sikusis, and some The Just Us.) Soon afterwards, Ross and new drummer Al Morrison left to take part in the formation of The Bossmen around singer David Clayton-Thomas).

Neilson, who now went by the name Neil Lillie, befriended ex-Mynah Birds singer Jimmy Livingston in Long and McQuade’s music store where he worked in the backroom as an amp and guitar repairman and asked him to join a new line up of The Just Us. To complete the band, Lillie recruited former C. J. Feeney & The Spellbinders members Stan Endersby on guitar and Wayne Davis on bass.

In early 1966, The Just Us recorded an album’s worth of material at Arc Sound in Toronto, with the tapes being subsequently stolen by their manager. Undeterred, the band remained a popular local draw, regularly playing at Toronto clubs like the Hawk’s Nest, the In Crowd and the Gogue Inn as well as local high schools.

In June 1966, Davis left to play with Bobby Kris & The Imperials and Lillie learned to play bass in two weeks to fill the spot. Around this time, an American duo with the same name appeared on the charts and the group was forced to adopt a new name, The Group Therapy, for its show at the Varsity Arena on June 22, supporting The Byrds. When another local group surfaced with an earlier claim to The Group Therapy name, Neil came up with the new name, The Tripp, in September 1966.

The new group never had the opportunity to record, but did appear on the first episode of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s TV show “The Sunday Show”. The band remained a regular fixture on the Toronto club scene throughout late 1966 and early 1967, They opened for the top band in Toronto The Mandela and stole the show and afterwards were approached by Mandela guitarist and friend Domenic Troiano and his manager Riff Markowitz. Riff became the Tripp's manager. One of the Tripp's most prestigious shows during this period was a performance at Maple Leaf Gardens on September 24, 1966 alongside the cream of Toronto’s rock bands.

With its more experimental approach to performance, The Tripp began to perform at more colourful venues like Boris’ Red Gas Room, the Devil's Den, the Flick and the Syndicate Club. Pianist Richard Bell from Ritchie Knight & The Mid-Knights briefly augmented the group in early 1967 but soon moved on to Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks (and years later, Janis Joplin’s backing group Full Tilt Boogie and later The Band).

Mynah Birds

Soon afterwards, Lillie left the group to take up an offer from singer Ricky James Matthews (later funk star Rick James) in a new version of The Mynah Birds. The band went to Motown studios in Detroit during August 1967 and recorded "It’s My Time", a song written by James and Neil Young during the group's previous incarnation. The project was shelved when the band fell apart.

James and Lillie returned to Toronto to find new musicians. Upon their return, Lillie recruited Marty Fisher (keyboards) and Gordie MacBain formerly of Bobbie Kris and the Imperials. While in search of a guitarist Neil ran into the drummer from Staccatos ( later to become The Five Man Electrical Band ) who told him of a guitarist named Bruce Cockburn. Neil recruited Cockburn and the band was complete. Rick was picked up by the police for a breaking and entering charge involving a Yorkville Village clothes store and was being held in jail when it was discovered that he was also a draft dodger from the US Navy. It seemed like Rick would never be free to rejoin the new Mynah Birds so the band to stay alive decided to go it alone. Neil named the band The Flying Circus (this was before the Monty Python Flying Circus was formed).

Signed to Harvey Glatt’s management, the group recorded a number of unreleased tracks in Toronto, including Cockburn’s “Flying Circus”, “She Wants To Know”, “I’m Leaving You Out” “Mother” " The Elephant Song" as well as Neil's “Last Hoorah” and Fisher and MacBain’s “Where Is All The Love”. At the same sessions, the band also recorded songs by Cockburn’s former Children cohort, Bill Hawkins, such as “Merry Go Round”, “It’s A Dirty Shame” and “Little Bit Stoned”.

During late 1967, the band played at Le Hibou in Ottawa and the Riverboat in Toronto and opened for Wilson Pickett at the Capitol Theatre in Ottawa and Massey Hall in Toronto. They also opened for two nights for Roy Orbison at the Capitol theater in Ottawa. Motown records offered them a contract, but Cockburn rejected the deal, refusing to give up song publishing royalties.

Neil was getting bored playing Cockburn's folk rock songs and longed to do a heavier form of rock. He left The Flying Circus in March 1968, and reunited with former Tripp members Ed Roth and Jimmy Livingston to form a new band. Adding ex-Fraser Loveman Group guitarist Dave Burt and drummer Gary Hall, the new group, initially dubbed New King Boiler named after the iron furnace in Neil's grandmother's basement where they rehearsed. Gary Hall drank so much coffee that he was soon being called “Coffee” by Neil's grandmother; the name stuck, though he chose to spell it “Coffi”. The band got three demos together with the help of an engineer friend at Arc recording studio. Friend Bruce Palmer (former bassist for The Mynah Birds and now playing in LA with the Buffalo Springfield) was in Toronto and sold the band on going to LA the way that he and Neil Young had done the years before, they decided to pile into a car and just drive to La La Land.

Merryweather and subsequent recording career

The band adopted the name Heather Merryweather after the title of one of the songs they recorded with lyrics by band friend, June Nelson. June was Mo Ostin's secretary at Warner Bros. Records for many years .June was also responsible for pushing the band to go to LA. After they arrived in the summer of '68 the boys in the band were welcomed into the home of Linda Stevens in Topanga Canyon. Linda was a folk singer and song writer and friend of the Buffalo Springfield. She offered not only a place to stay but allowed the band to rehearse in the house. Heather Merryweather's first gig was to be at the legendary Topanga Coral but the night before they were to play the Coral burned down. The Coral owners quickly rented a store on Ventura Blvd and opened the new club as Big Pink. Heather Merryweather were the first band to play the club. During their performances the band noticed that Jimmy Livingston seemed to change and his performance fell short of what was expected. Jimmy chose to party rather than play and the band and him parted ways. Neil took over the vocals and began writing new material. Heather Merryweather soon found themselves sharing the bill with Chicago Transit Authority at the Whiskey in Hollywood. From that performance they were signed by the new A&R rep John Gross. Gross became the band producer. The band decided to shorten their name to Merryweather after the album was completed. Neil was at Capitol Records one day to oversee the final cover art and ran into Linda Ronstadt. Both being newly signed to Capitol they began a chat while sitting on the front steps of the Capitol Tower. Neil told her about the band and she was excited about her Capitol deal and was waiting to meet up with her Stone Poney's producer Nick Venet. when Nick arrived she jumped up and turned to Neil and said "it was great meeting you Neil Merryweather"! Neil liking what Linda had called him immediately ran back upstairs to see the album's cover designer Robert Lockart and had the name Neil Merryweather added to the album credits. Neil legally changed his name and began a long recording career as Neil Merryweather.

Merryweather's second album, Word of Mouth (released in September 1969), was a double-album of extemporaneous songs recorded in Los Angeles featuring the band jamming with numerous guests, such as Barry Goldberg, Charlie Musselwhite, ex-Traffic guitarist Dave Mason, Howard Roberts and Bobby Notkoff. Although the album was reasonably successful, the group fragmented, with Burt, Hall and Roth leaving to join Rick James in the formation of the band Salt 'N' Pepper. Prior to the break, Merryweather and Hall turned down an offer to join Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young as their rhythm section.

Merryweather flew back to Toronto to recruit replacements, then returned with them to record the album Neil Merryweather John Richardson and Boers for the blues label Kent in early 1970. The resulting album, credited to Merryweather, ex-The Ugly Ducklings drummer Robin Boers, guitarist John Richardson from Nucleus (and before that Lords of London), and ex-49th Parallel member JJ Velker attracted only limited interest, as did a follow-up album for RCA, Ivar Avenue Reunion, featuring the same basic group plus Goldberg, Musselwhite and Merryweather's new girlfriend, ex-CK Strong singer Lynn Carey.

Neil Merryweather and Lynn Carey, along with guitarist Kal David and former Merryweather bandmates Roth and Hall, recorded the Vacuum Cleaner LP for RCA in 1971. Merryweather, Carey, and Hall then formed the band Mama Lion in 1972, featuring Carey on lead vocals. The band recorded two albums, Preserve Wildlife (which featured a controversial photo of Carey appearing to nurse a tiger cub) in 1972 and Give It Everything I've Got in 1973. Merryweather also recorded with the Mama Lion lineup sans Carey, with the band calling itself Heavy Cruiser. They released two albums in 1972, the eponymous Heavy Cruiser and its followup, Lucky Dog.

After Mama Lion disbanded in 1973, Neil Merryweather released a couple of heavy glam rock solo LPs on Mercury Records: Space Rangers in 1974 and Kryptonite in 1975. Notable cuts included a cosmic glam rock version of The Byrds' "8 Miles High" and the Bowie-inspired single "Hollywood Boulevard," as well as the blistering autobiographical rocker "The Groove," an anthem chronicling Merryweather's ongoing difficulties in the music industry.

Merryweather then traveled to Europe and recorded his 1978 solo album Differences with British musicians, including drummer Clive Edwards of Pat Travers and UFO fame, and in 1980 recorded a pop-oriented album with the short-lived band Eyes titled Radical Genes. Following a brief and disastrous stint as Lita Ford's manager, co-writer, producer, and bass player on her debut solo album Out for Blood, he retired from music-making until the late 2000s, when he released an album with his new band, Hundred Watt Head, which is available on iTunes. In the interim he met his wife Vikki, who eventually encouraged his return to music, and worked as a creative resource consultant for the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works.

Discography

Sources