Kaleidoscope (UK band)
Encyclopedia
Kaleidoscope were an English
psychedelic rock
band that were active between 1967 and 1968. The band's songs were combining the elements of psychedelia
with remarkable lyrics. Other than as Kaleidoscope, the band were also known at various times as the Sidekicks, the Key, I Luv Wight and Fairfield Parlour.
in January 1967 with the help of the music publisher Dick Leahy. The group consisted of Eddy Pumer on guitar
, Steve Clark on bass
and flute
, and Danny Bridgman on drums
and the vocalist
Peter Daltrey
, who also played organ
and joined the band in March 1964. Most of the band's songs were composition of Pumer's music and Daltrey's lyrics. While the group did not achieve commercial success in its time, it retains a loyal fan-base and its recordings are remembered in high regard.
The band's first single "Flight from Ashiya" (b/w "Holidaymaker") was released on 15 September 1967 by Fontana Records
, a little earlier than the band's first album Tangerine Dream
. The song was telling about an impending plane crash. The single got quite an amount of radio airplay but failed to reach the charts. Years later, the song has appeared on many compilation albums, including Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969, the second box set of the Nuggets series and Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery. Two months later, Tangerine Dream produced by Dick Leahy was released. The album included "Flight From Ashiya", "Please Excuse My Face" and "Dive into Yesterday" which are now considered some the band's best songs. Meanwhile the band were aired performing live on several BBC radio
shows. A new single was released in 1968 called "Jenny Artichoke" (b/w "Just How Much You Are") that was inspired by Donovan
's, "Jennifer Juniper
". After the release the band traveled around Europe, and when in Netherlands
supported Country Joe and the Fish
at the Amsterdam Concert Hall. Faintly Blowing, again produced by Leahy, was released later, in 1969 by Fontana Records
. This time the band's sound was heavier but the tracks still included psychedelic elements with notable lyrics but it failed to reach the charts. After the failure of Faintly Blowing, they released two more singles which were songs by other writers and, after a radio session in BBC
Maida Vale Studios
, the band never again appeared as Kaleidoscope.
band, their music didn't change much and still included fairy-tale lyrics with psychedelic harmony. The band's first single as Fairfield Parlour, "Bordeaux Rosé", was released on 17 April 1970 on the Vertigo
label
. It got a considerable amount of radio airplay, but failed to achieve success. After releasing several singles, the album From Home to Home was released on 14 August 1970 with Symond's production. While the band was getting ready to release the album, they again used another name for themselves, I Luv Wight, as they were asked to record the theme tune for the Isle of Wight Festival
, "Let the World Wash in", which got released a week after the release of the album From Home to Home. They made the opening for the festival as Fairfield Parlour. The band's second album, White Faced Lady
, which they financed independently, was recorded in Morgan Studios
in London. Attempts at finding a record company failed and the album was shelved until 1991 when it was released under the name Kaleidoscope on their own label. The band's last appearance was at a concert in Bremen, Germany, in 1972.
In 2003, the independent record label Circle released the Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour's 1967 to 1971 BBC radio sessions recordings in an album called Please Listen To The Pictures.
as Fairfield Parlour
as I Luv Wight
as Kaleidoscope
as Fairfield Parlour
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
band that were active between 1967 and 1968. The band's songs were combining the elements of psychedelia
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
with remarkable lyrics. Other than as Kaleidoscope, the band were also known at various times as the Sidekicks, the Key, I Luv Wight and Fairfield Parlour.
History
Having performed since 1963 under the name The Sidekicks, they became The Key in November 1965, before settling upon the name Kaleidoscope when they signed a deal with Fontana RecordsFontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
in January 1967 with the help of the music publisher Dick Leahy. The group consisted of Eddy Pumer on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Steve Clark on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, and Danny Bridgman on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and the vocalist
Lead vocalist
The lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the...
Peter Daltrey
Peter Daltrey
Peter James Daltrey is a British musician. He has been lead singer and chief songwriter for the bands Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour. He is also a solo artist....
, who also played organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
and joined the band in March 1964. Most of the band's songs were composition of Pumer's music and Daltrey's lyrics. While the group did not achieve commercial success in its time, it retains a loyal fan-base and its recordings are remembered in high regard.
The band's first single "Flight from Ashiya" (b/w "Holidaymaker") was released on 15 September 1967 by Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
, a little earlier than the band's first album Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream (album)
Tangerine Dream is Kaleidoscope's debut album released by Fontana Records in 1967.Though not as popular as the U.S. Kaleidoscope, this British band was also a band from the psychedelic movement with moderate domestic success, and just enough international exposure to have this album recognized in...
. The song was telling about an impending plane crash. The single got quite an amount of radio airplay but failed to reach the charts. Years later, the song has appeared on many compilation albums, including Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969, the second box set of the Nuggets series and Acid Drops, Spacedust & Flying Saucers: Psychedelic Confectionery. Two months later, Tangerine Dream produced by Dick Leahy was released. The album included "Flight From Ashiya", "Please Excuse My Face" and "Dive into Yesterday" which are now considered some the band's best songs. Meanwhile the band were aired performing live on several BBC radio
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927. For a history of BBC radio prior to 1927 see British Broadcasting Company...
shows. A new single was released in 1968 called "Jenny Artichoke" (b/w "Just How Much You Are") that was inspired by Donovan
Donovan
Donovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
's, "Jennifer Juniper
Jennifer Juniper
"Jennifer Juniper" is a song and single by Donovan, released in 1968. It charted in the UK and USA. It was written about Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie Boyd, while they were all with The Beatles in Rishikesh. She married Mick Fleetwood and was, at one time, the sister-in-law of George Harrison and,...
". After the release the band traveled around Europe, and when in Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
supported Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish
Country Joe and the Fish was a rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971, and also regarded as a seminal influence to psychedelic rock.-History:...
at the Amsterdam Concert Hall. Faintly Blowing, again produced by Leahy, was released later, in 1969 by Fontana Records
Fontana Records
Fontana Records is a record label which was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records; when Philips restructured its music operations it dropped Fontana in favor of Vertigo Records. In the seventies PolyGram acquired the dormant label....
. This time the band's sound was heavier but the tracks still included psychedelic elements with notable lyrics but it failed to reach the charts. After the failure of Faintly Blowing, they released two more singles which were songs by other writers and, after a radio session in BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
, the band never again appeared as Kaleidoscope.
Fairfield Parlour
By the end of the decade, failing with their last single "Balloon", the band moved on with their new manager DJ David Symonds, whom they met during the BBC sessions, as Fairfield Parlour, with the same line up. Despite the fact that they were now being called a progressive rockProgressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
band, their music didn't change much and still included fairy-tale lyrics with psychedelic harmony. The band's first single as Fairfield Parlour, "Bordeaux Rosé", was released on 17 April 1970 on the Vertigo
Vertigo Records
Vertigo Records today is a UK-based record label operated by Universal Music UK.-History:Vertigo Records was the name Philips Records chose in the late 1960s for its record sub-label to counter the progressive labels of its rivals EMI with Harvest Records and Decca Records with Deram...
label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
. It got a considerable amount of radio airplay, but failed to achieve success. After releasing several singles, the album From Home to Home was released on 14 August 1970 with Symond's production. While the band was getting ready to release the album, they again used another name for themselves, I Luv Wight, as they were asked to record the theme tune for the Isle of Wight Festival
Isle of Wight Festival 1970
The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival was held between 26 and 31 August 1970 at East Afton Farm an area on the western side of the Isle of Wight. It was the last of three consecutive music festivals to take place on the island between 1968 and 1970 and widely acknowledged as the largest musical event of...
, "Let the World Wash in", which got released a week after the release of the album From Home to Home. They made the opening for the festival as Fairfield Parlour. The band's second album, White Faced Lady
White Faced Lady
White Faced Lady is an album by UK band Kaleidoscope . It is a concept album that tells the story of a pale-skinned girl named Angel, from her troubled youth to her sudden rise to fame as a movie star to her tragic decline and untimely death...
, which they financed independently, was recorded in Morgan Studios
Morgan Studios
Morgan Studios, also known as Morgan Sound Studios, were recording studios in Willesden, North London. The studios were notable for many recordings of the 1960s and 1970s by many British bands and artists such as Ten Years After, Yes, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Joan Armatrading, Cat...
in London. Attempts at finding a record company failed and the album was shelved until 1991 when it was released under the name Kaleidoscope on their own label. The band's last appearance was at a concert in Bremen, Germany, in 1972.
In 2003, the independent record label Circle released the Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour's 1967 to 1971 BBC radio sessions recordings in an album called Please Listen To The Pictures.
Band members
- Eddy Pumer - lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
and organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
(born Edmund Pumer, 7 October 1947, WoolwichWoolwichWoolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
, South East LondonSouth East (London sub region)The South East is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark. The sub region was established in 2008. The south east has a population of 1,300,000 and is the location of 500,000 jobs...
) - Steve Clark - bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
(born in 1946 died 1 May 1999 Chelsea BridgeChelsea BridgeChelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank. There have been two Chelsea Bridges, on the site of what was an ancient ford....
, South West LondonSouth West LondonSouth West London could refer to:*SW postcode area*South West *Western part of South London*South West...
) - Danny Bridgman - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
(born Daniel Bridgman) - Peter DaltreyPeter DaltreyPeter James Daltrey is a British musician. He has been lead singer and chief songwriter for the bands Kaleidoscope and Fairfield Parlour. He is also a solo artist....
- lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
and organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
(born Peter James Daltrey, 25 March 1946, BowBow, LondonBow is an area of London, England, United Kingdom in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a built-up, mostly residential district located east of Charing Cross, and is a part of the East End.-Bridges at Bowe:...
, East LondonEast End of LondonThe East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...
)
Singles
as Kaleidoscope- "Flight from Ashiya" / "Holidaymaker" (Fontana 863, 15 September 1967)
- "A Dream for Julie" / "Please Excuse My Face" (Fontana 895, 26 January 1968)
- "Jenny Artichoke" / "Just How Much You Are" (Fontana 964, 6 September 1968)
- "Flight from Ashiya" / "(Further Reflections) In the Room of Percussion" (Netherlands only) (Fontana 906, 1968)
- "Do It Again for Jeffrey" / "Poem" (Fontana TF1002, 14 March 1969)
- "Balloon" / "If You So Wish" (Fontana TF1048, 25 July 1969)
- "Nursey, Nursey" (free with Bucketfull of Brains magazine) (1 May 1989)
as Fairfield Parlour
- "Bordeaux Rose" / "Chalk on the Wall" (17 April 1970)
- "Emily" / "Sunnyside Circus" (Australia only) (1970)
- "In My Box" / "Glorious House Of Arthur" (France promo-only) (1970)
- "Just Another Day" / "Caraminda" / "I Am All the Animals" / "Song for You" (24 July 1970)
- "Eyewitness" / "Epilog" (Japan only) (1970)
- "Bordeaux Rose" / "Baby Stay for Tonight" (19 March 1976)
- "Bordeaux Rose" / "Overture to White Faced Lady" (1976) (Australia only)
as I Luv Wight
- "Let the World Wash In" / "Medieval Masquerade" (Philips 6006 043, 21 August 1970)
Albums
as The Sidekicks- The Sidekicks Sessions 1964-1967 (2003)
as Kaleidoscope
- Tangerine DreamTangerine Dream (album)Tangerine Dream is Kaleidoscope's debut album released by Fontana Records in 1967.Though not as popular as the U.S. Kaleidoscope, this British band was also a band from the psychedelic movement with moderate domestic success, and just enough international exposure to have this album recognized in...
(Fontana (S)TL 5448, 24 November 1967) - Faintly Blowing (Fontana STL5491, 11 April 1969)
- White Faced LadyWhite Faced LadyWhite Faced Lady is an album by UK band Kaleidoscope . It is a concept album that tells the story of a pale-skinned girl named Angel, from her troubled youth to her sudden rise to fame as a movie star to her tragic decline and untimely death...
(The Kaleidoscope Record Company KRC 001 CD, 14 February 1991) - Please Listen to the Pictures (Circle Records CPWL/CPWC 104, 1 September 2003)
as Fairfield Parlour
- From Home to Home (1970)