Spooky Tooth - Tobacco Road (1971) LP

Formed in 1967, Spooky Tooth quickly moved into progressive rock during the heady days of the late 60s. The original band comprised Gary Wright (b. 26 April 1943, Englewood, New Jersey, USA; keyboards, vocals) plus a band named Art (see "Art (2)") that featured Mike Kellie (b. 24 March 1947, Birmingham, England; drums), Luther Grosvenor (b. 23 December 1946, Evesham, Worcestershire, England; guitar), Mike Harrison (2) (b. 3 September 1945, Carlisle, Cumberland, England; vocals) and Greg Ridley (b. 23 October 1947, Cumberland, England; bass). Their hard work on the English club scene won through, although their only commercial success was in the USA. They combined hard-edged imaginative versions of non-originals with their own considerable writing abilities. Their self-indulgent excursion with Pierre Henry on Ceremony was a change of direction that found few takers, save for the superb cover painting by British artist John Holmes. Then a number of personnel changes: Ridley had departed for Humble Pie, Gary Wright left to form Wonderwheel and Grosvenor later emerged as "Ariel Bender" in Stealers Wheel and Mott The Hoople. Three members of the Grease Band joined; Henry McCullough (b. Portstewart, Ireland), Chris Stainton and Alan Spenner. The band broke up shortly after its release, although various members, including Foreigner's Mick Jones, Bryson Graham (drums), Mike Patto and Ian Herbert (bass) eventually regrouped for three further albums which, while competent, showed no progression and were all written to a now dated rock formula. The original line-up of Spooky Tooth, minus Gary Wright, regrouped in 1999 to record a worthy album for the German Ruf label.