Here’s life at the bottom for a recording group in 1970. The group is Affinity, managed by Ronnie Scott, a full diary, and an LP on Vertigo that year. You’d think they were going somewhere. This section of a documentary fronted by Anne Nightingale from that year gives a glimpse of the lifestyle for an act at this level.
Life in the C division of British progressive pop, 1970
If Johnny C doesn’t respond to this thread, I think we’ll have to send search parties out. He hasn’t been around for a while…
He’s still tweeting away, so not completely AWOL.
probably on holiday. It’s summer time down here
The only thing I know about Affinity is they did a very good cover of Eli’s Coming.
Didn’t they become Linda Hoyle & Affinity?
I’ll look at the clip later when I have time to view it. Thanks Colin.
They didn’t record under that name (as far as I’m aware) – just one LP and one 45. Linda then made an extremely rare Vertigo solo LP. And that was it.
Having watched the clip it’s clear they didn’t become Linda Hoyle & Affinity. Thanks for putting it up, it was very interesting.
Does anyone know if any of the band went on to do anything of note afterwards or has anyone come across any of the band working in a bank/managing a supermarket…?
Their Wikipedia reference (which looks so thorough that a band member must have overgauled it) suggests there was a reunion in recent years.
Think you need an Asterix there @Colin H
Very good! 🙂
There’s a cracking live album out there as well. it was recorded at Ronnie’s, where they were some kind of house band for a while whenever Linda wasn’t around. Alongside Cressida, they are my favourite progressive band who aren’t Yes or King Crimson. Indeed; exalted company. These people had chops.
Chops? According to Linda in the doc it was mostly bread and cheese.
arf. As the good man would have said.
Yep there is some Affinity out there with the first album, live at the beeb and some outtakes.
Someone once told me -perhaps on the old Word site- that Linda Hoyle is the voice you here on the underground or some train station or something…. or maybe I dreamt the whole thing
She was reduced to busking…?
You may be getting confused with Celia Humphries of Trees, who were active at pretty much the same time as Affinity.
I was told hers is the voice heard on the Northern Line and possibly the rest of the Underground network.
Yes, I’ve always understood that the roots of trees are underground.
Possibly I am Carl, it was just a tinkle in the back of my head, hidden behind the fluff.
I was listening to “The Garden of Jane Delawney” by The Trees at the weekend, and almost started a thread entitled, “Albums greatly lessened by the over-use of one instrument.”
In this case, the electric guitar…..Jimi had a lot to answer for!
As for Affinity, slightly put off by the word “Vertigo.”
This post break the house rules. Under no circumstances is the Vertigo label to be dissed.
‘First they came for the Deramists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Deramist.
Then they came for the Vertigoists, and I did not speak out
Because I was not a Vertigoist.
Then they came for the ECMs, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not an ECM.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.’
(With apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller)
That’s a fascinating clip Colin, thanks. Never paid much attention to them at the time – they were a bit too jazzy for my taste then. And actually not very good. Some not entirely relevant observations:
1. Muddy truck stops – whatever happened to them?
2. I just somehow knew the beaky bloke with the enormous specs would turn out to be the bass player.
3. Gigs in East Anglia must have been a nightmare, with no M25, M11, and not even a complete M4 if coming from the West.
4. That battered Transit is only 2 years old.
5. I like Annie Nightingale.
I’ve never heard of them, but that was a great clip. Thanks for posting it, Colin.
I remember that album, ie I remember seeing the cover, part of a batch of Vertigo releases that no-one in New Zealand ever bought because we’d never heard of the bands and they weren’t played on the radio.
I too like Annie Nightingale
thanks all… Actually, MikeP, it was because of a (rather tenuous) jazz angle that I was reminding myself of them earlier today. I’m working on a partly speculative British jazz compilation and was at a point in a disc where, for the good of the listening experience/balance a vocal performance would have been handy. The trouble is, there were very, very few female vocalists working at the progressive end of British in the 60s/early 70s who were recorded. Generally, EVERYONE had Norma Winstone guesting (Garrick, Joe Harriott, Westbrook, Taylor…). Three NW vocals on a disc, from within different ensembles seems like overkill. Elaine Delmar is too mainstream, Julie Driscoll’s recordings of the period don’t quite work within the vibe of the comp, and Affinity/Hoyle, while being marginal to the brief, well, just aren’t good enough…
You should check out their live album recorded at Ronnie Scott’s; it’s much better than not good enough.
Indeed. Recorded without Linda Hoyle who was having nodes on her vocal cords removed:
https://www.angelair.co.uk/?tcp_product=affinity-live-instrumentals-1969
Colin H : Maggie Nichols, Kate Westbrook, even Annie Ross. Probably not Beryl Bryden. Not sure how they’d fit the vibe though.
Checked Annie Ross – no; KW outside the timeframe; Maggie N – could not find any period-relevent material online and have none myself. I suspect Jack Bruce will have to fill the vocal slot.
Not sure whether it fits the brief but there was a rather good jazz fusion outfit in the 70s called Turning Point (their two albums were reissued on Vocalion a few years back). The vocalist was Pepi Lemer, who later went on to work as vocal coach for the Spice Girls (nobody’s perfect etc).
Thanks for the thought, Jetmeister – I think I’ve cracked it now, though: one CD’s worth of a potential 3CD British jazz anthology spanning 1965-72. A colleague is working on the other two. It may not get anywhere, and you will undoubtedly be familiar with 90% of it, but if the label concerned thinks its a goer, that the wish-list tracks are licenseable, then it should be a good listen (while touching a fair number of bases). I’ll the AW know in due course if it goes anywhere.
Sounds great, Colin. You’ve got at least one guaranteed buyer.
If you can still get hold of it, John Wickes’ book ‘Innovations in British Jazz’ (Vol 1, 1960-1980) is an invaluable source of information on this period.
I have it. (I think we might have had this conversation before!)
Probably. Have I had my dinner yet?
I only hope you can find room for dear old Cleo Laine. “A-skib-dab-diddley whee-zib-zob-a-doodly-bing!”
Cool; I rather like the first Affinity album, as It happens (surprisingly phat beats).
I was reminded of this other, slightly sad documentary from 1969 on the (non) career of Mike Stuart Span, who straddled mod pop with psychedelia and prog; they later recorded an unreleased album for Elektra Records as ‘Leviathan’. Contrast the ‘toppermost of the poppermost’ ethos of their managers with the ‘keep on truckin” values of the later group.
Incidentally, Afinity were, I believe, originally a University of Sussex group (hence the well-spoken musicians) and The Span were also from Brighton.
The Leviathan album has been available for a while now – Record Collector mag did a limited vinyl imprint a while back, and since then it’s made its way onto CD for the first time. Of interest, but not essential is how I’d put it (in other words I bought a copy and I’m not sure I’ll get value for money from replays).
That’s a fascinating clip, as well as being a small glimpse into what a post-Brexit Britain will be like.
Gosh, I hope you’re right. I can’t wait for a return to even more creaking infrastructure, damp and cold public toilets, routine monotonous travel in MOT failure vans and a life haunted but driven by the endless, hopeless promise of good times to come when I make the big time. I long to have my Transit refilled at the pump by a lost soul who scratches out Eddie Cochran songs on a battered acoustic while I dig in my skinny wallet for the price of a tankful, stamp my feet to keep warm and wish the place sold fags so I could replenish my supply of Number Six. Rollin’ back the years! Taking control!
You are alluding to the Sting cameo in 1970s miserable movie, Radio On?
Indeed I was. Mention The Grosvenor Hotel to Bristol’s hipster youth these days and they stare at you blankly.