What does it sound like?:
‘Straordinary what you can find on the web. I remembered this group as an LP cover, and a name, forgetting I had actually, apparently, seen them, at Reading 75, tho’ I still can’t remember a thing about them. So I found the record and gave it a spin. Very odd in a not unpleasant way, like a chocolate coated oyster perhaps. It has proggy bits, all harpsichords and mellotrons, falling downstairs drums, extravagant bass motifs, along with country-rock harmonies and songs about cowboys. Yes, there is a fiddler too, but not a generic jiggery folk one, nor a country hoedown one, more symphonic sweeps and flourishes. And it was produced by Rick Wakeman. And one song is the full 12 minutes, all time signature changes and evidence of having quite enjoyed Echoes by the Floyd. My take is that if you imagine Jerry Garcia jamming with East of Eden, more for the vocals and the pretension. Or maybe, had polarities altered, and David Crosby joined the Hollies and encouraged Graham Nash in his shove to make them more prog?
What does it all *mean*?
Nowt, apart from the joy of an occasional uncovered and forgotten diamond shimmering thru’ the shite.
Goes well with…
Nostalgia
Release Date:
Might suit people who like…
playing some old.
Wayfarer says
I had that album once but tired of it quite quickly and gave it to my brother, who still plays it.
Wally was my first ever gig; Hasting Pier sometime in 1974, put on by Whispering Bob Harris. I worked with with Paul Gerrett, who played keyboards on the first album. He never mentioned being in the band – I found out from a mutual friend ages after I’d got to know him.
Tiggerlion says
Whispering Bob had an interest. He co-produced the album with Wakeman.
Nice review, retro. I like the falling downstairs image for the drums.
Beany says
Did Paul Gerrett work at YTV when you knew him?
Wayfarer says
No, it was afterwards, from the mid-eighties – we were tour directors for a student travel company, taking schoolkids on “Educational” trips around Europe.
H.P. Saucecraft says
Wally were named after a prevalent audience cheer at the time. Don’t know how it started, but virtually every ents committee gig in the early-mid seventies was interrupted by shouts of “WALLYYYYYYY!” – perhaps Beany might remember? Were you Wally, Beany?
Moose the Mooche says
I have an album by Do Toad!! somewhere.
A lot of drumming, as I recall.
hubert rawlinson says
Although many people think that the Wally chant started at Weeley, ( lets face it ‘”Wally of Weeley “just has certain ring to it ) we believe it began in 1970 at the Isle Of Wight Festival , as Roger Gray testifies .
The Wally saga started at the IOW festival the year before. I was at both, and there must have been a fair number who were, so it’s no surprise that the ‘WALLY’ chant started up again at Weeley. At the IOW in ’70, my fiancee and I were sitting next to a crowd from Yeovil – sometime during (I think) the second day, in a break between bands, one of them said to his mates “Is that Wally over there?”, pointing at someone picking their way through the crowd about 50 yards away. They agreed it was, and started shouting at him “Wally! Wally! Over here mate”, etc. Within a minute, we, and others around, joined in, all shouting “Wally – over here”. Soon, hundreds of people were shouting, and before the next band played, the chorus was taken up by thousands around the arena. The irony is that our neighbours never got to talk to Wally, because there were so many people shouting out his name from every direction, he (if he even realised it was him they were shouting for) never looked in their direction. So, as I said, with so many people from ’70 IOW going to ’71 Weeley, it’s no surprise that the “Wally” shouts started again during the more boring moments.
from http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/weeley-festival.html
H.P. Saucecraft says
I’m going to resurrect the tradition here.
hubert rawlinson says
Just driving back home past one of those churches that has different posters outside.
Today’s said “Looking for Wally…. Wise men seek Jesus”
Beany says
We started our own tradition at the Free Trade Hall concerts in Manchester. We used to respond to cries of Wally! with our own Wilbur! It soon caught on.
retropath2 says
From then the tradition developed to the extent that seasoned festival goers took on the name for themselves. I recall being most impressed at Reading 75 when Simon from Lewes, loosely allied to the friends I was with, outed himself as Simon Wally, when the chant went out, and left us to meet up with a group of, um, Wallys.
I was only 18.
Rob C says
This looks very interesting. Never heard of them before. I’m on the case Retrodude. Good man !
_/\_ 🙂
Neil Jung says
I’ve got the Wally LP having bought it soon after release and the excellent follow up Valley Gardens, which has, in true prog traditions, a very long song about the charge of the Light Brigade. They got back together a few years back (although sadly a couple had passed away) for annual concerts in home town Harrogate, and recorded a new album (patchy) and a live double and Dvd.