Harmony Grass
 The
sole Harmony Grass LP, This Is Us (1970), is arguably
the finest UK soft rock release of the last four decades.
Bandleader Tony Rivers (real name Tony Thompson) was an enormous
Beach Boys fan, and it was his enthusiasm for the California
sound which defined his sonic template.
Until 1968, Harmony Grass traded as Tony Rivers & The
Castaways, gaining a reputation as England's Beach Boys, and
attracting the attention of UK pops' two most influential
managers. In 1966 they signed a management contract with Brian
Epstein and a singles deal with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate
Records.
As the 60s wore on, Rivers picked up any new American musical
developments. The Castaways' 1967 residency at London's Marquee
Club was used to hone an act which included versions of The
Tradewinds' Mind Excursion, The Lovin' Spoonful's You
Didn't Have To Be So Nice, and an up-tempo
Association-style rendition of Walk On By.
By late 1968 the name Tony Rivers & The Castaways was
sounding dated, and their post-Epstein manager decided Harmony
Grass sounded much hipper. The renamed group signed with RCA and
issued Move In A Little Closer Baby in December 1968.
Although subsequent Harmony Grass singles flopped, the band
released some gems, totally at odds with the formulaic fare that
might be expected from a band stranded on the
chicken-in-a-basket cabaret circuit by the end of the decade.
Foremost amongst them was Mrs Richie (included on
the This Is Us album), a self-composed song (about a
landlady in Stockton-on-Tees apparently!) influenced equally by
the harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash and (uniquely for a
British band) Love.
Despite the lack of single success, RCA released This Is
Us. Tony Rivers produced most tracks and wrote seven of
them. The soaring harmonies of What A Groovy Day
were on a par with the best of The Association.
Of the other new songs, the atmospheric Byrds/Beach Boys
amalgam I've Seen To Dream was a stand-out. Cover
versions of Chatanooga Choo Choo, Tom Dooley
and Spanky & Our Gang's Byrd Avenue blended
seamlessly into the album.
After the album failed to chart, RCA decided Simon and
Garfunkel's Cecilia might be the song to get Harmony
Grass back into the charts. They released the single, relegating
Mrs Richie to the B-side.
Insulted, Tony Rivers departed the group. Harmony Grass
carried on without Rivers, issuing a final single, the Bubblegum
styled Stand On Your Own Two Feet, and then got heavy,
first as Grass and then as Capability Brown.
Tony Rivers moved into production for CBS and worked as a
session singer on projects ranging from the budget cover version
Top Of The Pops collections to Roger Daltrey's One
Of The Boys album. In 1975 he became Cliff Richard's vocal
arranger, staying with him until 1986.
Original drummer Brian "Shirt" Talbot was killed on
5 December 1964 when the band were involved in a head-on
collision with a truck in Lanarkshire whilst on tour. Several
other band members were injured in the crash, including bassist
Ray Brown who went through the windscreen and spent several
months in hospital.
Brian Hudson succumbed to cancer on 21 September 2001.
|
