Cressida (progressive rock band)
Encyclopedia
Cressida were a British progressive rock
band, best known for their mellow, symphonic sound. Originally known as Charge, they were active from 1968 and 1970, and recorded two album
s for Vertigo
.
, and later travelled to London to join The Dominators, a band whose situation he later described as "hopeless - until Angus Cullen applied for the lead singer spot". He and Heyworth hit it off immediately, and Heyworth was invited to stay at Cullen's family flat in Barkstone Gardens near Earl's Court. The pair settled down to some serious writing, eventually welcoming bassist Kevin McCarthy and drummer Iain Clark to the fold and now calling themselves Charge.
The band's early setlists included covers
of songs by The Doors
("Spanish Caravan"), The Drifters
("Save The Last Dance For Me
") and Spirit
("Fresh Garbage"), alongside original compositions by Cullen and Heyworth. In the Summer of 1969, shortly after returning from a German tour, the band's organist Lol Coker decided to leave, and moved back to Liverpool to marry his Swiss girlfriend and take over his father's business. He had stayed just long enough to play on the band's first demo
, which got them a recording contract
with Vertigo Records
.
Peter Jennings then joined. "I was auditioned at the Roebuck pub in Chiswick, a place they sometimes used for rehearsals", he later remembered. "I imagine we ran through a 12-bar or two and possibly they tried me out on one of the numbers from their set, but anyway they liked the way I fitted in and I joined them that day". Jennings' previous musical experience included blues gigs playing 12-string guitar in tandem with ex-Paramounts pianist Andy Staines, and (in 1968–69) White Rabbit with drummer Ron Berg and guitarist Andy Rickell (a.k.a. Android Funnel). After White Rabbit came to an end, Jennings played with several short-lived bands.
At this point the band settled on the name Cressida. "None of the band considered Charge that wonderful a name. We decided after some discussion on a name taken from the William Shakespeare
play Troilus and Cressida
. Their first gigs as Cressida were in Germany, including the Star-Club
in Hamburg sharing the bill with Colosseum
and East Of Eden
, in the Autumn of 1969. Their manager at the time, Mike Rosen, also drove their Transit van and, being a trumpet player (he later joined Mogul Thrash
), occasionally joined the band on stage for some of their more extended numbers. But Rosen soon fell out with producer Ossie Byrne
(of early Bee Gees
fame), and from that point Mel Baister assumed managerial duties.
Other forays into Europe included a trip to Bratislava
, where they performed at the end of a week's competition between various bands from the Eastern bloc; a week supporting Black Sabbath
at Brussels
' Theatre 140; and a performance at the Open Circus (an event held in a large tent with lion taming, fire eating and other side shows) in Rouen
, France
, alongside Brian Auger
, Barclay James Harvest
, Man
and Circus.
Cressida mostly played the university and college circuits, as well as London clubs such as the Speakeasy
, Revolution and Blaises and the Marquee Club
. The first LP was recorded at Wessex Studios with Byrne producing. It consisted of songs by either Cullen or Heyworth (who handled lead vocals on one), plus one contribution each by Jennings and Clark.
Cressida went through a difficult phase when Heyworth was forced to leave in early 1970.
Heyworth (who would contribute one last piece to the second album, although he did not play on it) was replaced by John Culley, who had been playing with Geno Washington
. The new line-up recorded Cressida's second LP, Asylum, later in 1970 (again with Byrne producing, and with orchestral arrangements by Graeme Hall), but it was released posthumously in 1971, the band having broken up in September 1970. Noted jazz
flautist Harold McNair
guested on the song "Lisa" from the album.
After the band split up, Clark joined Uriah Heep
. McCarthy joined Tranquility, for whom he vocals and rhythm guitar instead of bass. Culley linked up with Black Widow
and from 1981–1984, joined Colin Tench to launch the London six-piece progressive rock band Odin. Culley is currently (2010) working with Colin Tench in BunChakeze, an international outfit.
Heyworth died in January 2010. In 2011, three of the four surviving original members of the band, Angus Cullen, Iain Clark, and Kevin McCarthy got together again with Peter Jennings. The band were prompted to play a one-off live gig at The Underworld, Camden Town in London on December 2, 2011. Coinciding with the show is the limited edition release of a vinyl album of previously unreleased demos that Cressida made before their first album, to be followed in 2012 by a CD release.
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, best known for their mellow, symphonic sound. Originally known as Charge, they were active from 1968 and 1970, and recorded two 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 for Vertigo
Vertigo Records
Vertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Universal Music UK.-History:Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the late 1960s for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram...
.
Career
The roots of Cressida were sown in March 1968, when guitarist John Heyworth answered an advertisement in Melody MakerMelody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, and later travelled to London to join The Dominators, a band whose situation he later described as "hopeless - until Angus Cullen applied for the lead singer spot". He and Heyworth hit it off immediately, and Heyworth was invited to stay at Cullen's family flat in Barkstone Gardens near Earl's Court. The pair settled down to some serious writing, eventually welcoming bassist Kevin McCarthy and drummer Iain Clark to the fold and now calling themselves Charge.
The band's early setlists included covers
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 songs by The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
("Spanish Caravan"), The Drifters
The Drifters
The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...
("Save The Last Dance For Me
Save The Last Dance For Me
"Save the Last Dance for Me" is the title of a popular song written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, first recorded in 1960 by Ben E. King with The Drifters....
") and Spirit
Spirit (band)
Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.- The original lineup :...
("Fresh Garbage"), alongside original compositions by Cullen and Heyworth. In the Summer of 1969, shortly after returning from a German tour, the band's organist Lol Coker decided to leave, and moved back to Liverpool to marry his Swiss girlfriend and take over his father's business. He had stayed just long enough to play on the band's first demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
, which got them a recording contract
Recording contract
A recording contract is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist , where the artist makes a record for the label to sell and promote...
with Vertigo Records
Vertigo Records
Vertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Universal Music UK.-History:Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the late 1960s for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram...
.
Peter Jennings then joined. "I was auditioned at the Roebuck pub in Chiswick, a place they sometimes used for rehearsals", he later remembered. "I imagine we ran through a 12-bar or two and possibly they tried me out on one of the numbers from their set, but anyway they liked the way I fitted in and I joined them that day". Jennings' previous musical experience included blues gigs playing 12-string guitar in tandem with ex-Paramounts pianist Andy Staines, and (in 1968–69) White Rabbit with drummer Ron Berg and guitarist Andy Rickell (a.k.a. Android Funnel). After White Rabbit came to an end, Jennings played with several short-lived bands.
At this point the band settled on the name Cressida. "None of the band considered Charge that wonderful a name. We decided after some discussion on a name taken from the William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
play Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida
Troilus and Cressida is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1602. It was also described by Frederick S. Boas as one of Shakespeare's problem plays. The play ends on a very bleak note with the death of the noble Trojan Hector and destruction of the love between Troilus...
. Their first gigs as Cressida were in Germany, including the Star-Club
Star-Club
The Star-Club was a music club in Hamburg, Germany that opened Friday 13 April 1962 and was initially operated by Manfred Weissleder and Horst Fascher. In the sixties, many of the giants of rock music played at the club. The club closed on 31 December 1969 and the building it occupied was...
in Hamburg sharing the bill with Colosseum
Colosseum (band)
Colosseum is a pioneering British progressive jazz-rock band, mixing progressive rock and jazz-based improvisation.-History 1968 - 1971:The band was formed in September 1968 by drummer Jon Hiseman, tenor sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith and bass player Tony Reeves, who had previously worked together...
and East Of Eden
East of Eden (rock band)
East of Eden was a British progressive rock band, who had a Top 10 hit in the UK with the single, "Jig-a-Jig", in 1971. The track became something of a stylistic albatross around the band's neck, since it did not resemble their usual sound or anything else they normally played...
, in the Autumn of 1969. Their manager at the time, Mike Rosen, also drove their Transit van and, being a trumpet player (he later joined Mogul Thrash
Mogul Thrash
Mogul Thrash was a progressive rock band from the United Kingdom active in the early 1970s.-Biography:British jazz-rock band Mogul Thrash evolved from James Litherland's Brotherhood, which in addition to guitarist Litherland also featured guitarist/reedist Michael Rosen , drummer Bill Harrison and...
), occasionally joined the band on stage for some of their more extended numbers. But Rosen soon fell out with producer Ossie Byrne
Ossie Byrne
Oswald Russell "Ossie" Byrne was an Australian record producer, best known for producing the early recordings of The Bee Gees, including their first international hit, "New York Mining Disaster 1941"....
(of early Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
fame), and from that point Mel Baister assumed managerial duties.
Other forays into Europe included a trip to Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, where they performed at the end of a week's competition between various bands from the Eastern bloc; a week supporting Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
at Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
' Theatre 140; and a performance at the Open Circus (an event held in a large tent with lion taming, fire eating and other side shows) in Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, alongside Brian Auger
Brian Auger
Brian Auger is a jazz and rock keyboardist, who has specialized in playing the Hammond organ.A jazz pianist, bandleader, session musician and Hammond B3 player, Auger has played or toured with artists such as Rod Stewart, Tony Williams, Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Boy Williamson, Led Zeppelin, Eric Burdon...
, Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest
Barclay James Harvest are an English progressive rock band. They were founded in Saddleworth, Lancashire, in September 1966 by John Lees, Les Holroyd, Stuart "Woolly" Wolstenholme , and Mel Pritchard .-History:...
, Man
Man (band)
Man are a rock band from South Wales whose style is a mixture of West Coast psychedelia, progressive rock, blues and country-rock. Formed in 1968 as a reincarnation of Welsh rock harmony group ‘’The Bystanders’’, Man are renowned for the extended jams in their live performances, and having had...
and Circus.
Cressida mostly played the university and college circuits, as well as London clubs such as the Speakeasy
Speakeasy Club
The Speakeasy Club, 48 Margaret Street, London, England, was a late-night haunt for the music industry from 1966 to the late 1970s. The club was first managed Roy Flynn, who then became the manager of Yes. Tony Howard then became manager, having previously been the main artist booker from The Bryan...
, Revolution and Blaises and the Marquee Club
Marquee Club
The Marquee was a music club first located at 165 Oxford Street, London, England when it opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts.It was also the location of the first ever live performance by The Rolling Stones on 12 July 1962....
. The first LP was recorded at Wessex Studios with Byrne producing. It consisted of songs by either Cullen or Heyworth (who handled lead vocals on one), plus one contribution each by Jennings and Clark.
Cressida went through a difficult phase when Heyworth was forced to leave in early 1970.
Heyworth (who would contribute one last piece to the second album, although he did not play on it) was replaced by John Culley, who had been playing with Geno Washington
Geno Washington
Geno Washington is an American R&B singer who released five albums with The Ram Jam Band between 1966 and 1969, and eight solo albums beginning in 1976.-Early to late 1960s:...
. The new line-up recorded Cressida's second LP, Asylum, later in 1970 (again with Byrne producing, and with orchestral arrangements by Graeme Hall), but it was released posthumously in 1971, the band having broken up in September 1970. Noted jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
flautist Harold McNair
Harold McNair
Harold McNair was a renowned saxophonist and flautist.-Background:...
guested on the song "Lisa" from the album.
After the band split up, Clark joined Uriah Heep
Uriah Heep (band)
Uriah Heep are an English rock band formed in London in 1969 and regarded as a seminal classic hard rock act of the 1970s. Uriah Heep's progressive/art rock/heavy metal fusion's distinctive features have always been massive keyboards sound, strong vocal harmonies and David Byron's operatic vocals...
. McCarthy joined Tranquility, for whom he vocals and rhythm guitar instead of bass. Culley linked up with Black Widow
Black Widow (band)
Black Widow were a rock band that formed in Leicester, England in September 1969. The band were mostly known for its early use of satanic and occult imagery in their music and stage act...
and from 1981–1984, joined Colin Tench to launch the London six-piece progressive rock band Odin. Culley is currently (2010) working with Colin Tench in BunChakeze, an international outfit.
Heyworth died in January 2010. In 2011, three of the four surviving original members of the band, Angus Cullen, Iain Clark, and Kevin McCarthy got together again with Peter Jennings. The band were prompted to play a one-off live gig at The Underworld, Camden Town in London on December 2, 2011. Coinciding with the show is the limited edition release of a vinyl album of previously unreleased demos that Cressida made before their first album, to be followed in 2012 by a CD release.
Band members
- Angus Cullen - lead vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion
- John Heyworth - guitars, vocals (1968-70)
- John Culley - guitars (1970)
- Lol Coker - organ (1968-69)
- Peter Jennings - organ, piano (1969-70)
- Kevin McCarthy - bass
- Iain Clark - drums, percussion
Discography
- 1970 - Cressida (Vertigo)
- "To Play Your Little Game" (Heyworth) 3:15
- "Winter Is Coming Again" (Heyworth) 4:42
- "Time For Bed" (Cullen) 2:18
- "Cressida" (Cullen) 3:57
- "Home And Where I Long To Be" (Heyworth) 4:04
- "Depression" (Cullen) 5:02
- "One Of A Group" (Jennings) 3:35
- "Lights In My Mind" (Heyworth) 2:45
- "The Only Earthman In Town" (Heyworth) 3:32
- "Spring '69" (Cullen) 2:14
- "Down Down" (Heyworth) 4:15
- "Tomorrow Is a Whole New Day" (Clark) 5:19
- 1971 - Asylum (Vertigo)
- "Asylum" (Cullen) 3:31
- "Munich" (Jennings) 9:30
- "Goodbye Post Office Tower Goodbye" (Cullen) 2:47
- "Survivor" (Cullen) 1:32
- "Reprieved" (Jennings) 2:29
- "Lisa" (Cullen) 5:05
- "Summer Weekend of A Lifetime" (Cullen) 3:20
- "Let Them Come When They Will" (Heyworth) 11:46
External links
- Official 'Cressida' website
- Review of 'Cressida' album
- Band overview
- Most of the information contained herein came from a Cressida profile/interview in the UK fanzine Ptolemaic Terrascope.