Black Widow were a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band that formed in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, England, in September 1969. The band were mostly known for their early use of Satanic and

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...

imagery in their music and stage act.

History

The band originally formed in 1966 as Pesky Gee! with Kay Garrett (lead vocals), Kip Trevor (lead vocals, guitar and harmonica), Chris Dredge (guitar), Bob Bond (bass guitar), Clive Box (drums and piano), Gerry "Zoot" Taylor (

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

), Clive Jones (aka Clive Beer-Jones; saxophone and

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

). Jim Gannon (guitar, vocals and vibes), replaced Dredge in spring 1969. The band released one album for

Pye Records Pye Records was a British record label. Its best known artists were Lonnie Donegan (1956–1969), Petula Clark (1957–1971), the Searchers (1963–1967), the Kinks (1964–1971), Sandie Shaw (1964–1971), Status Quo (1968–1971) and Brotherhoo ...

as Pesky Gee!, 1969's ''Exclamation Mark'', before Garrett left the band. The remaining band members continued on as Black Widow and released their debut album ''Sacrifice'' in 1970. ''Sacrifice'' reached No. 32 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. The band performed at the Whitsun Festival at Plumpton, UK, and at The Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. By 1971, the band had moved away from its darker occult imagery in an effort to gain a wider audience, which was unsuccessful. Having replaced Bond and Box with Geoff Griffith and

Romeo Challenger Romeo Alexander Challenger (born 19 May 1950) is an English musician who has been the drummer for the rock band Showaddywaddy since 1973 and seminal Progressive Rock band Black Widow. Biography Challenger was born 19 May 1950 in St. John's, ...

, Black Widow released the self-titled ''Black Widow'' album in 1971 and ''Black Widow III'' in 1972 (by which time Gannon had left, replaced by John Culley) to general lack of interest, before being dropped by

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

. The band recorded an album, ''Black Widow IV'', later in 1972 without a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

. It was not released then due to the band breaking up, shortly after replacing lead vocalist Kip Trevor, with another singer known as Rick "E" (born Frank Karuba; formerly of 'Plum Nelly'). The album was finally released in 1997 on the Mystic Records label. In 1999 the original

recordings A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, r ...

of their debut album, made before Garrett left the band, were released as ''Return to the Sabbat''. In 2000,

Black Widow Records Black Widow Records is an Italian record label founded in Genoa in 1990 and taking its name from the British progressive rock band Black Widow. It was originally a rarities shop focusing on collectable records and reissues. After a few years t ...

(an Italian label) released ''King of the Witches: Black Widow Tribute'' featuring bands such as

Death SS Death SS (later also intended as a contraction of In Death of Steve Sylvester) is an Italian heavy metal band. Biography Death SS was formed in 1977 in Pesaro by Steve Sylvester (born Stefano Silvestri), a future member of the Ordo Templi Ori ...

and

Church of Misery is a Japanese doom metal band from Tokyo, formed in 1995. Church of Misery's musical style melds early Black Sabbath-style doom with psychedelic rock; most of the band's songs are about serial killers and mass murderers. Bassist Tatsu Mikami ...

, as well as tracks featuring original members Kip Trevor and Clive Jones. In 2003, Sanctuary Records released an ''Anthology'' on double CD. In 2007, Mystic Records released a concert film ''Demons of the Night Gather To See Black Widow – Live'' as a DVD. The film includes Black Widow's entire ''Sacrifice'' album show from 1970. Jones and Geoff Griffith started to work on new Black Widow music. Paolo "Apollo" Negri from an Italian

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band Wicked Minds agreed to join the project on keyboards. The next Black Widow studio album, ''Sleeping With Demons'', had a 1980s new wave style. Rock singer Tony Martin is featured on the album as a guest vocalist on the song "Hail Satan". Black Widow's most popular song "Come to the Sabbat" has been covered by many bands and artists including Timberjack (Top 10 hit in New Zealand in 1971),

Jon the Postman Jon the Postman (real name Jonathan Ormrod) was an English punk rock singer from Manchester. Among his various jobs, the best known was that of a postman, hence the nickname. Early life Jon was a postman in Manchester in the 1970s and later sp ...

, Bewitched,

and

Propagandhi Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitari ...

. Jones of Black Widow together with Mark Pollard and Kevin Brooks wrote an

ABBA ABBA ( , , formerly named Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Anni-Frid or Björn & Benny, Agnetha & Frida) are a Swedish supergroup formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The group's ...

tribute song "Hey You Ring Me Tonight", recorded by the Swedish band The Airwaves and released in 2008 on their 3 track CD with the same name (Riverside Records Bonnier Amigo Distribution). In 2012, guitar player John Culley appeared on a cover version of the Black Widow song "You're So Wrong" on Corvus Stone's debut album.

Personnel

*Clive Jones (aka Clive Beer-Jones; born Clive Alan Jones, 28 May 1949, Leicester, Leicestershire - 16 October 2014,

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

) - saxophone, flute (1966-1973) *Gerry "Zoot" Taylor (born 10 November 1948, Leicester, Leicestershire) - organ (1966-1973) *Kip Trevor (born Christopher J Trevor, 12 November 1946,

Littlemore Littlemore is a district and civil parish in Oxford, England. The civil parish includes part of Rose Hill. It is about southeast of the city centre of Oxford, between Rose Hill, Blackbird Leys, Cowley, and Sandford-on-Thames. The 2011 Censu ...

, Oxfordshire) - lead vocals, guitar, harmonica (1966-1972) *Bob Bond (born Robert Bond, 2 October 1940,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, Sussex) - bass guitar (1966-1971) *Clive Box (born 1946, Leicester, Leicestershire - October 2016) - drums, piano (1966-1971) *Kay Garrett (born 5 April 1949,

, Leicestershire) - lead vocals (1966-1969) *Chris Dredge (born Christopher Dredge, 31 October 1946,

Tipton Tipton is an industrial town in the West Midlands in England with a population of around 38,777 at the 2011 UK Census. It is located northwest of Birmingham. Tipton was once one of the most heavily industrialised towns in the Black Country, w ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

) - lead guitar (1966-1969) *Jim Gannon (born James Gannon, 4 March 1948,

, Leicestershire) - guitar (1969-1972) *

(born Romeo Alexander Challenger, 18 May 1950, St. John's,

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

) - drums (1971-1973) *Geoff Griffith (born Geoffrey Griffith, 4 April 1948, Leicester, Leicestershire - 16 April 2016,

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

) - bass guitar (1971–73) *John Culley (born 1946, Leeds, West Yorkshire) - guitar (1972-1973) *Rick "E" (born Frank Karupa) - lead vocals (1972-1973)

Discography

Albums

*''Exclamation Mark'' (1969) as Pesky Gee! (

) *''

Sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

'' (1970

) *'' Black Widow'' (1971 CBS Records) *''Black Widow III'' (1972 CBS Records) *''Black Widow IV'' (1997 Mystic Records), recorded in 1972 *''Return to the Sabbat'' (1998 Mystic Records) *''Demons of the Night Gather to See Black Widow – Live'' (2008 Mystic Records) *''Sleeping with Demons'' (2011 Smack Management) *''See's the Light of Day'' (2012

), live and studio performances recorded in 1971

Singles

*"Come to the Sabbat" b/w "Way to Power" (1970

) *" Wish You Would" b/w "Accident" (1971 CBS Records)

Compilation

*''Come to the Sabbat – Anthology'' (2003 Sanctuary Records)

References

External links

*
Interview on the Leicester Bands website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Widow English progressive rock groups Musical groups from Leicester Musical groups established in 1969 Occult rock musical groups Black Widow Records artists Columbia Records artists