Ashton, Gardner and Dyke
Encyclopedia
Ashton, Gardner and Dyke were a power rock
trio, most popular in the early 1970s. They are best remembered for their song, "Resurrection Shuffle", a transatlantic Top 40 success in 1971. However, this success finally left them known as one-hit wonder
s.
first met the drummer Roy Dyke
, when playing with various Blackpool
based groups.
Ashton was invited to join the Liverpool
beat group, The Remo Four
as organist
/vocalist, whilst Roy Dyke became the group's drummer, having joined them in 1963. Their best work came in 1966 when they released their album Smile!. Before their break-up in 1968, they backed George Harrison
on his album Wonderwall Music
.
Ashton and Dyke then joined forces in 1968 with the bass guitar
playing Kim Gardner
, who had previously played in minor British groups, The Birds
and The Creation
. The triad simply called themselves Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. Mick Liber formerly of Python Lee Jackson
played lead guitar with the group.
They released their first single
"Maiden Voyage"/"See The Sun In My Eyes" on Polydor Records
in 1969, but it flopped. However, their next single release on Capitol Records
, made them household names. It was entitled "Resurrection Shuffle". They poached their brass section, Lyle Jenkins and Dave Caswell, from Birmingham band Galliard. It entered the UK Singles Chart
on 16 January 1971, had a chart life of 14 weeks and peaked at Number 3, and reached number 40 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
chart
. This one-off triumph ultimately garnered for them the tag of one-hit wonder
. The song has since been covered by a number of artists, including Tom Jones
and Clarence Clemons
.
Their follow-up single "Can You Get It" lacked the general boisterous appeal of "Resurrection Shuffle", and failed to chart. Nevertheless, Ashton Gardner and Dyke persevered and recorded three albums (see discography below). The trio also backed Irish singer Jonathan Kelly on his 1970 debut album.
Their last recording together was a collaboration with Jon Lord
on the soundtrack for a B movie
, The Last Rebel, starring former gridiron
star, Joe Namath
. Ashton also appeared on Lord's first solo album Gemini Suite in 1972.
The trio finally split the same year.
, and was briefly in Family
before teaming up again with Deep Purple
’s Jon Lord in Ashton & Lord. Later still he appeared with Lord and Purple’s drummer Ian Paice
as Paice, Ashton & Lord
. Dyke and then Gardner joined Badger
.
Ashton died of cancer
, on 28 May 2001. Gardner also died of cancer in 2001, in Los Angeles, California
on 24 October (also aged 55).
(Polydor 583 081) (1969)
(Capitol EST 563) (1971)
(1971, with Jon Lord
)
(Capitol EST 862) (1972)
(Purple) (2002)
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
trio, most popular in the early 1970s. They are best remembered for their song, "Resurrection Shuffle", a transatlantic Top 40 success in 1971. However, this success finally left them known as one-hit wonder
One-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...
s.
History
Founding band member, Tony AshtonTony Ashton
Tony Ashton was an English rock pianist, keyboardist, singer, composer, producer and artist.-Biography:...
first met the drummer Roy Dyke
Roy Dyke
Roy Dyke , is a rock drummer noted for his playing with The Remo Four, Badger, and Ashton, Gardner and Dyke.He married Stacia Blake, a former dancer with Hawkwind...
, when playing with various Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...
based groups.
Ashton was invited to join the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
beat group, The Remo Four
The Remo Four
The Remo Four were a 1950s-1960s rock band from Liverpool, England. They were contemporaries of The Beatles, and later had the same manager, Brian Epstein...
as organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
/vocalist, whilst Roy Dyke became the group's drummer, having joined them in 1963. Their best work came in 1966 when they released their album Smile!. Before their break-up in 1968, they backed George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
on his album Wonderwall Music
Wonderwall Music
Wonderwall Music is George Harrison's first solo album and the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall. The songs are virtually all instrumental, except for some non-English vocals and a slowed-down spoken word track. The songs were recorded in December 1967 in England, and January 1968 in Bombay, India...
.
Ashton and Dyke then joined forces in 1968 with the bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
playing Kim Gardner
Kim Gardner
Kim Gardner was a musician. He was part of the British invasion of the 1960s, and recorded more than thirty albums during his music career.-Career:...
, who had previously played in minor British groups, The Birds
The Birds (band)
The Birds were a popular rhythm and blues band in the United Kingdom during the mid 1960s, although they recorded fewer than a dozen songs and released only four singles. Starting out with a hard R&B sound, they later began infusing it with Motown-style vocal harmonies...
and The Creation
The Creation (band)
The Creation were an English rock band, formed in 1966. The most popular Creation song was "Painter Man", which made the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart in late 1966, and reached #8 in the German chart in April 1967. It was later covered by Boney M in 1979, and reached the #10 position in the UK...
. The triad simply called themselves Ashton, Gardner and Dyke. Mick Liber formerly of Python Lee Jackson
Python Lee Jackson
Python Lee Jackson was an Australian rock band active from 1965 to 1968, before a brief sojourn in the United Kingdom. The group's most famous hit was "In a Broken Dream", featuring Rod Stewart as guest vocalist.-Members in Australia:...
played lead guitar with the group.
They released their first single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"Maiden Voyage"/"See The Sun In My Eyes" on Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
in 1969, but it flopped. However, their next single release on Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, made them household names. It was entitled "Resurrection Shuffle". They poached their brass section, Lyle Jenkins and Dave Caswell, from Birmingham band Galliard. It entered the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
on 16 January 1971, had a chart life of 14 weeks and peaked at Number 3, and reached number 40 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
chart
Record chart
A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....
. This one-off triumph ultimately garnered for them the tag of one-hit wonder
One-hit wonder
A one-hit wonder is a person or act known mainly for only a single success. The term is most often used to describe music performers with only one hit single.-Characteristics:...
. The song has since been covered by a number of artists, including Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
and Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
.
Their follow-up single "Can You Get It" lacked the general boisterous appeal of "Resurrection Shuffle", and failed to chart. Nevertheless, Ashton Gardner and Dyke persevered and recorded three albums (see discography below). The trio also backed Irish singer Jonathan Kelly on his 1970 debut album.
Their last recording together was a collaboration with Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
on the soundtrack for a B movie
B movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
, The Last Rebel, starring former gridiron
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
star, Joe Namath
Joe Namath
Joseph William "Joe" Namath , nicknamed "Broadway Joe" or "Joe Willie", is a former American football quarterback. He played college football for the University of Alabama under coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and his assistant, Howard Schnellenberger, from 1962–1964, and professional football in the...
. Ashton also appeared on Lord's first solo album Gemini Suite in 1972.
The trio finally split the same year.
Afterwards
After their demise, Tony Ashton went on to play for Medicine HeadMedicine Head
Medicine Head were a British blues rock band, active in the 1970s. Their biggest single success was in 1973, with "One and One is One", a Number 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart.-Main personnel:The group worked as a duo for most of its career, consisting of...
, and was briefly in Family
Family (band)
Family were an English rock band that formed in late 1966 and disbanded in October 1973. Their style has been characterised as progressive rock, although their sound often explored other genres, incorporating elements of styles like as folk, psychedelia, acid, jazz fusion and rock and roll...
before teaming up again with Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
’s Jon Lord in Ashton & Lord. Later still he appeared with Lord and Purple’s drummer Ian Paice
Ian Paice
Ian Anderson Paice is an English musician, best known as the drummer of the English rock band Deep Purple. As of Jon Lord's departure in 2002, he is the only founding member of the band who never stopped performing with the group, and the only member to appear on every album the band has...
as Paice, Ashton & Lord
Paice, Ashton & Lord
Paice, Ashton and Lord was a British rhythm and blues, funk-soul, rock band founded in 1977, after the break-up of the British band Deep Purple in 1976...
. Dyke and then Gardner joined Badger
Badger (band)
-One Live Badger:The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word...
.
Ashton died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, on 28 May 2001. Gardner also died of cancer in 2001, in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
on 24 October (also aged 55).
Album discography
- Ashton, Gardner and Dyke
(Polydor 583 081) (1969)
- The Worst of Ashton, Gardner and Dyke
(Capitol EST 563) (1971)
- The Last Rebel - film soundtrack
(1971, with Jon Lord
Jon Lord
Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
)
- What A Bloody Long Day It's Been
(Capitol EST 862) (1972)
- Let It Roll - Live 1971
(Purple) (2002)
Band members
- Tony AshtonTony AshtonTony Ashton was an English rock pianist, keyboardist, singer, composer, producer and artist.-Biography:...
— (born Edward Anthony Ashton, 1 March 1946, Blackburn; died 28 May 2001) — keyboardistKeyboardistA keyboardist is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, requiring a more...
and vocalist - Kim GardnerKim GardnerKim Gardner was a musician. He was part of the British invasion of the 1960s, and recorded more than thirty albums during his music career.-Career:...
— (born 27 January 1946, DulwichDulwichDulwich is an area of South London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth...
, London; died 24 October 2001) — bassistBassistA bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments... - Roy DykeRoy DykeRoy Dyke , is a rock drummer noted for his playing with The Remo Four, Badger, and Ashton, Gardner and Dyke.He married Stacia Blake, a former dancer with Hawkwind...
— (born 13 February 1945, LiverpoolLiverpoolLiverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
) — drummerDrummerA drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a... - Mick Liber — (born 1 March 1944, PeeblesPeeblesPeebles is a burgh in the committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. According to the 2001 Census, the population was 8,159.-History:...
, Scotland) — lead guitarist.