Entertainment For Lively Minds
Mark-Almond
The Meeting Peter Green thread has a link to wikipedia re the new Fleetwood Mac box set. A quick perusal threw up the name Johnny Almond. "Blimey" sez I, "Mark-Almond! What ever happened to them?"
Does anyone else remember this? Mark played acoustic guitar, quite latin jazz styled, and Almond played a wistful sax. They had Tommy Eyre on electric piano and Roger Sutton on bass, which may well have been fretless. Mark and Almond were in the first incarnation of John Mayall's acoustic look-ma-no-drummer line-up
I had their first album on vinyl and had completely forgotten about it until I saw Johnny Almond's name just now. I think I bought it on the strength of one bossanova-ish track that got played a lot on the hip radio shows of that time. I can't even remember if the album as a whole was any good. I guess not, or I'd have replaced it on CD. They're not on Spotify so I can't refresh my memory
As far as I know, no connection with the tattooed bloke who wails with Soft Cell. Wiki says Johnny Almond died in 2009 in san Francisco, and Jon Mark makes new age music in New Zealand
Incidentally I remember said John Mayall line-up being roundly criticised after their first visit to Belfast on the grounds that they were a) acoustic and b) had no drummer
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I had their first album as well
as a young youngster and very much enjoyed it. I've searched around for it off and on over the years (ok, not that hard) and have been unable to locate it. Good memories, though.
just checked
Amazon have it from a dealer at £8.95 + pp
I've got all their albums
To The Heart was my favourite with a stunning version of New York State of Mind. They made two albums with John Mayall, Turning Point and Empty Rooms, the first being a live one and very good to.
They had a lot of great musicians pass through, any band that can have Danny Richmond and Billy Cobham occupying the drum stool can count themselves lucky.
Try their last album Nightmusic, it's available for £6.00 as a download rom Amazon. Very laid back late night listening or the Best Of Mark-Almond at £14.00 for the CD is an excellent dip into their cannon..
Yes johnny Almond died of cancer in San Francisco. To supplement a dwindling musical income he took a job in a hardware store and played and taught sax at the local church. He was a great hero of mine and if you can find his solo album Johnny Almond Music Machine you'll be well rewarded.
Lummee
An Album Time Forgot!
A satiny white cover with the band dressed in rather fetching Liverpool spice boy era white suits.
Two tracks each side if I remember correctly, one of the long songs was named "The City, parts 1 to 4", the other long one may nor may not have been called "Love".
Kinda wailful jazz noodling but not bad for all that.
Was a staple late night diet for The Wee Toon sixth former's parties when the Carlsberg Super drinkers crashed out and the more restrained of us began to foray into our meagre stash of jazzfags.
Would love to hear it again, if only for old times sake.