For the Canadian 2000s tour band, see: Leslie Carter

Leslie Carter

Leslie Barbara Carter is an American singer.- Family :Carter was born in Tampa, Florida, the daughter of Jane Elizabeth and Robert Gene Carter. She is the older sister of Aaron Carter and younger sister of Nick Carter. Aside from her brothers, Nick and Aaron, she also has two sisters: Angel and...

.

The Other Half were a psychedelic

Psychedelic

The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...

 hard rock

Hard rock

Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

 band, based in San Francisco, active in the mid to late 1960s.

History

The Other Half formed in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

, later moved to San Francisco. They played several shows at Chet Helms

Chet Helms

Chester Leo "Chet" Helms , often called the father of San Francisco's "1967 Summer of Love," was a music promoter and a cultural figure in San Francisco during its hippie period in the late Sixties....

 Family Dog

Family Dog

Family Dog is an American animated television series that only aired 10 episodes for one year on CBS, due to negative reviews. The plot of the story was about an average suburban family, the Binsfords, as told through the eyes of their dog, It first appeared as an episode of the TV show Amazing...

 shows at the Avalon Ballroom. Their music was strongly influenced by Yardbirds and Rolling Stones. Guitarist Randy Holden

Randy Holden

Randy Holden is a guitarist best known for his involvement with the West Coast proto-metal group Blue Cheer on their third album, New! Improved! Blue Cheer .-Biography:...

 had been offered the chance to replace Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

 in the Yardbirds before joining The Other Half. The Other Half were at their peak when the music scene was at its height in San Francisco and the Flower Power

Flower power

Flower power is a slogan used by the American counterculture movement during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and non-violence ideology. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in...

 movement in full swing in Haight Ashbury. Their style changed from an earlier vocal based garage band, to the loudest big stage band sound of the time, taken in that direction by former Sons of Adam

Sons of Adam

The Sons of Adam were a rock band active, primarily in California, in the 1960s. The band is notable for its membership including Randy Holden, later of The Other Half and Blue Cheer, and Michael Stuart, later of Love.-History:...

 guitarist Randy Holden. Their sound has been compared to The Yardbirds, and contained elements of blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

, hard rock, and Eastern melodic influences. Holden left the band after their debut album was recorded, dissatisfied with the recording and the guitar he was playing at the time, later stating "I was trying to accommodate everyone else, at the expense of my own soul and happiness". Despite Holden's misgivings, the album has been described as "awesome incendiary rock".

Holden went on to join Blue Cheer

Blue Cheer

Blue Cheer was an American psychedelic blues-rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009...

 before embarking on a solo career.

The band's "Mr. Pharmacist" was included on one of the Nuggets

Nuggets

- Music :* Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968, a compilation of U.S. psychedelic rock released between 1965 and 1968...

compilations in the early 1980s and was later covered by The Fall. A collection of their recordings, titled Mr. Pharmacist was issued in 1982. This included their entire 1968 album and several tracks from singles.

Band members

• Randy Holden
  Randy Holden
  Randy Holden is a guitarist best known for his involvement with the West Coast proto-metal group Blue Cheer on their third album, New! Improved! Blue Cheer .-Biography:...
  
   - Lead Guitar, Vocals
• Geoff Westen - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
• Larry Brown - Bass
• Danny Woody - Drums
• Jeff Nolan - Vocalist

Singles

• "Mr. Pharmacist"
• "Flight of the Dragon Lady" Acta
• "I Need You" / "Wonderful Day" (Acta Records1967)

Vinyl LP

• The Other Half (1968) Acta Records (reissued (2004) Radioactive)
• Mr. Pharmacist (1982) Eva

External links

• Randy Holden's website
• Prindle, Mark Mr. Pharmacist review