I’d say so… I’ve just digitised this fabulous 1970 concert for a pal, the mysterious ‘Johnny Kidd Fan Club’, featuring the Hartley band (including British jazz legends Henry Lowther on violin/trumpet, Harry Beckett on trumpet and Lyn Dobson on sax/flute) plus an additional 7-piece horn section for the final two numbers. Enjoy. Did any of our number see Hartley back in the day? Was he legendary?
Keef Hartley Band – time for a reappraisal?
i remember seeing Keef Hartley at Bournemouth Winter Gardens, 70’s I guess.
I think I was too young to appreciate it.
Good answer, Red.
Johnny Concheroo / Mojo or according to Chiz the most boring person on the blog saw him a number of times usually in smaller ballroom festivals. His view was they were good esp the guitarist Miller Anderson. Keef had this American indian thing going and looked pretty cool. Ex Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.
The second most boring person on the blog speaks: I saw them a few times, both before and after he added the brass, always enjoyed them. Definitely at Klooks Kleek, can’t remember where else – Roundhouse possibly. Can’t beat a nice drop of big fat brass behind yer blues…
I would have expected MojoWorking to focus on the blooze/guitar end of things. For me, the interesting bits all come courtesy of the jazzers (Lowther, Beckett et al.). I suppose, as others suggest, Keef had a distinctive ‘sound’ but the songs weren’t there.
The song parts of the pieces aren’t quite there, so I can maybe see why they didn’t have great success with record sales, but the playing and the quality of Miller Anderson’s voice are certainly good.
I remember seeing him and some of the brass players with John Mayall but I don’t think I ever saw his own band play. A very good live act, I reckon they’d have been. A shame there’s no footage of them at Woodstock.
This time last year … charidee shop … Madonna, Lighthouse Family, “This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours” (obviously) … very unpromising … suddenly, first 3 Keef Hartley albums on CD, bonus tracks, unplayed … 50p each.
It was a bit Mac and a little ahead of its time (i.e. bland) from memory. Wasted opportunity – if you’ve got the late 60s, use it. I’ll dig out the debut later.
I was in a 2nd hand bookshop, somewhere in Norfolk a couple of years ago.
It had a small 2nd hand vinyl (sorry, that should be ‘preloved’) section. I remember pointing out a copy of Halfbreed to my wife because they were looking for some ridiculous price for it. Around £50 as I recall. I was incredulous that they thought anyone would pay that price.
Growing up in Preston – Keef’s hometown – I was vaguely conscious that he was probably our only bona fide true “rock star.” Not sure I ever heard any of his records though I do vaguely recall seeing his later band Dog Soldier as support to some lumpen heavy metal band at a sparsely filled gig in the mid-70s (and possibly an “In Concert” recording?).
According to his obituary in the local paper, he returned to Preston in later life and the terraced family home off Plungington Road and worked as a carpenter.
Enjoyed the bold and brassy last couple of numbers – all a bit Blood, Sweat and Tears – and presume its Keef himself singing? That sound was a bit of a thing at the time – there’s a new Ace compilation “Horn Rock” out later this month which features similar stuff from the likes of Paul Butterfield, Electric Flag and others.
‘Horn Rock’…!? Someone have a word….
Here’s the second of Keef’s three John Peel Sunday Concerts (11/70), also with an expanded horn section. It’s more rock-jazz than jazz-rock this time, to my ears – so, one to forward to that Guardian of the Blues Boom, Junior!
I saw Keef with his Big Band at Watford Town Hall and was utterly blown away. A marvellous blues with a sensational horn section. I’d never heard anything quite like it.
Listen to this clip , rather than watch it. The cameraperson must have been on drugs, But you get a feeling of the excitement of seeing them live.
Top notch band who should be far more widely known.
I confess that I am somebody who has never heard of Keef, let alone his music.
I hadn’t *heard* his music before digitising these concerts, though I knew a little of his band via interviewing the great Henry Lowther. Henry recalls that Miles Davis came to one of their 1969 US concerts and conversed with him (i.e MD conversed with Henry) about the experience of playing in a rock band as a trumpeter. One can see where his ideas were going. But having listened to the second Keef concert here, I can see why his band has been largely forgotten – stodgy songs, great sound, second-tier guitar player. If they were going in a guitar-centric direction, they didn’t have the right man. History, I think, backs me up on this. I’ve never even seen a picture of Miller Anderson. The previous concert has much more ‘air’ and variety in the dynamics with the jazzers soloing.
Here he is.
On the original Word site I wee set to with a guy who was Miller Anderson’s P.R./manager/agent/who knows?
He was a first time poster and he produced a long spiel about how Miller Anderson was the best undiscovered voice in the UK.
I simply posted that it would be nice if he’d shown a bit of decorum before diving in with a first post of that nature and asked what his relationship was to MA.
He sent me a disparaging PM in reply.
Maybe he’s still lurking around and could post some old and new MA pictures.
Also let us nor forget, the Keef Hartley Band appeared at the original Woodstock. Just imagine if they had made it onto the film instead of say, Ten Years After.
They appeared after John Sebastian on day 2. A tough act to follow, in the circumstances.
Never worry if he’s still around, Carl – sounds like an ar*e.
It seems from the responses so far that, for once, I might have suggested an act that really does deserve a bit of a reappraisal… I was going to suggest, on the basis of Eddie & the Hot Rods doing a farewell tour, that it was time we gave Barrie Masters a reappraisal. But then I watched some clips and thought, ‘No’.