C. C. S. (pop group)
Encyclopedia
Collective Consciousness Society, more commonly known as CCS, were a British
musical
group, led by blues
guitarist
Alexis Korner
.
Formed in 1970 by musical director John Cameron
and record producer
Mickie Most
, CCS consisted largely of session musician
s, and was created primarily as a recording
outfit. The personnel also included Peter Thorup
, vocals
; Alan Parker
, guitar
; Harold McNair
, flute
; Herbie Flowers
, bass
; Roger Coulam, keyboards
; Barry Morgan, drums
; plus Don Lusher
and Bill Geldard, trombone
. Some of the musicians were also members of Blue Mink
.
CCS are best known for their instrumental
version
of Led Zeppelin
's 1969 track "Whole Lotta Love
", which got into in the UK Singles Chart
in 1970, and was used as the theme music
for the BBC
pop programme Top of the Pops
for most of the 1970s, and, in a remix
ed version, between 1997 and 2003. Technically, the TOTP theme was not by CCS, but was recorded by the TOTP orchestra one morning before the day's rehearsals. Having said that, the band was conducted by John Cameron on that occasion and many of the musicians were CCS regulars. This enabled the production to tailor the tune to the correct duration and, more importantly, avoided the weekly payment of royalties
to the record label
.
Their single, "Brother", was used as the theme to Tom Browne's and Simon Bates' Sunday Top 40/20 Chart Rundown on Radio 1 in the 70's.
Their highest-charting
singles
were the Donovan
song "Walkin'", and "Tap Turns on the Water". They also recorded three album
s, including cover versions of the old blues standard "Boom Boom", "Living in the Past
", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
" as well as original material. A retrospective compilation album
, Singles As, Bs and Rarities was released in 2004.
Not widely known is that the band were also responsible for the first set of jingles for Manchester
's Piccadilly Radio when the station launched in April 1974 — examples can be found on ex Piccadilly presenter Jeff Cooper's website.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musical
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
group, led by blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner
Alexis Korner was a blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a Founding Father of British Blues"...
.
Formed in 1970 by musical director John Cameron
John Cameron (musician)
John Cameron is a British composer, arranger, conductor and musician. He is well-known for his many film, TV and stage credits, and for his contributions to 'pop' recordings, notably those by Donovan, Cilla Black and the group Hot Chocolate...
and record producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
Mickie Most
Mickie Most
Mickie Most was an English record producer, with a string of hit singles with acts such as The Animals, Arrows, Herman's Hermits, Donovan, Suzi Quatro and the Jeff Beck Group often issued on his own RAK Records label....
, CCS consisted largely of session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s, and was created primarily as a recording
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
outfit. The personnel also included Peter Thorup
Peter Thorup
Peter Thorup was a Danish guitarist, singer, composer and record producer. He was one of the most important blues musicians in Denmark, and he was known outside his own country, when in the late 1960s he met Alexis Korner and the two formed the bands New Church, Collective Consciousness Society...
, vocals
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
; Alan Parker
Alan Parker (musician)
Alan Parker is a British guitarist and composer. Parker was trained by Julian Bream at London’s Royal Academy of Music....
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
; Harold McNair
Harold McNair
Harold McNair was a renowned saxophonist and flautist.-Background:...
, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
; Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers
Herbie Flowers is an English musician specialising in bass guitar, double-bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T...
, bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
; Roger Coulam, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
; Barry Morgan, drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
; plus Don Lusher
Don Lusher
Don Lusher OBE was a jazz and big band trombonist best known for his association with the Ted Heath Big Band...
and Bill Geldard, trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
. Some of the musicians were also members of Blue Mink
Blue Mink
Blue Mink was a British five-piece pop group, that existed from 1969 to 1974. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums...
.
CCS are best known for their instrumental
Instrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
's 1969 track "Whole Lotta Love
Whole Lotta Love
"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it...
", which got into in the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
in 1970, and was used as the theme music
Theme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
pop programme Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
for most of the 1970s, and, in a remix
Remix
A remix is an alternative version of a recorded song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song ....
ed version, between 1997 and 2003. Technically, the TOTP theme was not by CCS, but was recorded by the TOTP orchestra one morning before the day's rehearsals. Having said that, the band was conducted by John Cameron on that occasion and many of the musicians were CCS regulars. This enabled the production to tailor the tune to the correct duration and, more importantly, avoided the weekly payment of royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
to the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
.
Their single, "Brother", was used as the theme to Tom Browne's and Simon Bates' Sunday Top 40/20 Chart Rundown on Radio 1 in the 70's.
Their highest-charting
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
were the Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
song "Walkin'", and "Tap Turns on the Water". They also recorded three album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
s, including cover versions of the old blues standard "Boom Boom", "Living in the Past
Living in the Past (Jethro Tull song)
"Living in the Past" is the title of one of British progressive rock group Jethro Tull's best-known songs. It is notable for being written in the unusual 5/4 time signature...
", and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
" Satisfaction" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in 1965. It was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and produced by Andrew Loog Oldham. Richards's throwaway three-note guitar riff — intended to be replaced by horns — opens and drives the song...
" as well as original material. A retrospective compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, Singles As, Bs and Rarities was released in 2004.
Not widely known is that the band were also responsible for the first set of jingles for Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
's Piccadilly Radio when the station launched in April 1974 — examples can be found on ex Piccadilly presenter Jeff Cooper's website.
Singles
- "Whole Lotta LoveWhole Lotta Love"Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is featured as the opening track on the band's second album, Led Zeppelin II, and was released in the United States and Japan as a single. The US release became their first hit single, it was certified Gold on 13 April 1970, when it...
" (1970) UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#13 - "Walkin'" (DonovanDonovanDonovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
) (RAK Records RAK 109, 1971) UK #7 - "Tap Turns on the Water" (1971) UK #5
- "Brother" (1972) UK #25
- "Sixteen TonsSixteen Tons"Sixteen Tons" is a song about the life of a coal miner, first recorded in 1946 by American country singer Merle Travis and released on his box set album Folk Songs of the Hills the following year...
" (1972) - "The Band Played the Boogie" (1973) UK #36
- "Hurricane Comin'" (1974)
Albums
- C.C.S.C.C.S. (album)C.C.S. was the first studio album of the British blues outfit Collective Consciousness Society, led by guitarist Alexis Korner. To avoid confusion with the group's second album with the same name, the album is often called "Whole Lotta Love", due to the inclusion of the Led Zeppelin song.-Track...
, also known as Whole Lotta Love (RAK SRKA 6751) 1970 - C.C.S.C.C.S. 2 (album)C.C.S. was the second studio album of the British blues and jazz outfit Collective Consciousness Society, led by guitarist Alexis Korner. This album is usually called C.C.S...
, also known as C.C.S. 2 (RAK SRAK 503) 1972 UKUK Albums ChartThe UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
#23 - The Best Band in the Land (RAK SRAK 504) 1973