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The Weeley Festival.
Clacton On Sea . Essex.
August 27th-29th 1971.


  Weeley program.

Colosseum

COLOSSEUM always present themselves as a group entity, but their personnel is indeed impressiveÑthe majority of its members are known and respected masters in their field.

    The line-up is: Jon Hiseman-drums, Dick Heckstall-Smith~ tenor and soprano sax; Dave Greenslade:organ, piano and vibes; Mark Clarke:bass guitar; Dave "Clem" Clempson: vocals and guitar, and Chris Farlowe:vocals. The group's first album, "Those Who Are About to Die Salute You (Morituri Te Salutant)" was released in March '69 on Fontana. It promptly appeared in the album charts and a single, " Walking in the Park," was taken from it to turther promote the album. Throughout the first two years the band made fresh conquests and victories. They established themselves as firm favourites on the Continent with many repeat television and concert performances, including their Prague Festival appearance in November 1969. After their coast-to-coast August/ September American tour, the band's second album, "Valentyne Suite," was released in November 1969, launching the new Philips progressive label, Vertigo; again this leapt into the charts.

 In January, 1970, Colosseum, augmented by the 10 piece New Jazz Orchestra, made what was without doubt the standout performance of the Lanchester Arts Festival. This led to a series of highly successfui concerts in May. Meanwhile Colosseum's second album released in the States, " The Grass is Greener," was received with ecstatic reviews, and as they continued to make top-billing appearances throughout Europe they were named "Group of the Year" in Germany. In May, 1970, Tony Reeves left to pursue his career as a record producer, and after a long search they found a tremendous new bass player in Mark Clarke, from Liverpool.

 A big step was taken in September, 1970, when Jon decided to add a vocalist to the line-up, to complement the instrumental side of Colosseum, and after exhaustive try-outs with singers of varying-ability unexpectedly found just the right man through Dave Greenslade's past association with himÑsomeone whose voice exactly suited themÑChris Farlowe. He joined Just in time to record with them their third L.P. released on the Vertigo label in November, 1970, called " Daughter ot Time." In June, Colosseum returned from a tour of italy, Switzer-land and their third tour of Germany for the release of " Colosseum Live," a double album on the Bronze label (ICD 1), which had been recorded at Manchester University during a college tour in February.

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Hi,
Thought you might like to know that the above book will be published on next week, on the 20th October through Jon's own publishing company - Temple Music.

It's called "Playing the band..." and covers Jon's life in music spanning four decades, playing with many of Britain's top musicians and relates their experiences at the 1969 and 1970 Bath Festivals (which I have sent you an extract about earlier).

As it's being published independently, we could use all the online promotional help we can get, so if there's any way of you mentioning/posting it as part of your excellent website...we'd be really grateful.


Thank you.

Colin Richardson

 

Comus

COMUS are Roger, Glen, Rob, Andy, Bobbie and Colin, who between them play acoustic guitars, electric guitar, bass guitar, violin, viola, flute, oboe, keyboards, banjo, hand drums and various recorders and percussion instruments. Their music is all original, shifting in mood from the aggressive and often erotic to the gentle and Iyrical, creating an atmosphere which switches from one of tension to one of tranquility.

Their name comes from a masque by John Milton which depicted Comus as an evil spirit who by playing music enchanted young innocents into his den of iniquity.

Weeley program menu

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Updated Jan 2021

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