CCS, sometimes written as C.C.S., was a British

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

group, led by

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist

Alexis Korner Alexis Andrew Nicholas Koerner (19 April 1928 – 1 January 1984), known professionally as Alexis Korner, was a British blues musician and radio broadcaster, who has sometimes been referred to as "a founding father of British blues". A major in ...

. The name was derived as an abbreviation of ''Collective Consciousness Society''. Formed in 1970 by musical director John Cameron and record producer

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, CCS consisted largely of

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

s, and was created primarily as a recording outfit. The personnel also included

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, vocals;

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, guitar;

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, flute;

Herbie Flowers Brian Keith "Herbie" Flowers (born 19 May 1938) is an English musician specialising in electric bass, double bass and tuba. He is noted as a member of Blue Mink, T. Rex and Sky. Flowers has contributed to recordings by Elton John (''Tumblewe ...

, bass;

Roger Coulam Roger Keith Coulam, (born 21 August 1940, Blackburn, Lancashire, England, died October 2005), was a British keyboard session musician, who formed Blue Mink in the autumn of 1969, with Madeline Bell (vocalist), Roger Cook (vocalist), Alan Parker (g ...

, keyboards; Barry Morgan, drums; plus

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and Bill Geldard, trombone. Some of the musicians were also members of

Blue Mink Blue Mink were a British six-piece pop group that existed from 1969 to 1977. Over that period they had six Top 20 hit singles in the UK Singles Chart, and released five studio based albums. According to AllMusic: "they have been immortalised on ...

. CCS are best known for their instrumental

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's 1969 track "

Whole Lotta Love "Whole Lotta Love" is a song by English rock band Led Zeppelin. It is the opening track on the band's second album, ''Led Zeppelin II'', and was released as a single in 1969 in several countries; as with other Led Zeppelin songs, no single was r ...

", which entered the

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in 1970, and was used as the theme music for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

pop programme ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'' ("TOTP") for most of the 1970s, and, in a remixed version, between 1998 and 2003. Technically, the TOTP theme was not by CCS, but was recorded by the TOTP orchestra one morning before the day's rehearsals. Nevertheless, the band was conducted by John Cameron on that occasion and many of the musicians were CCS regulars. This enabled the production to tailor the tune to the correct duration and avoided the weekly payment of royalties to the record label. Their highest-charting singles were the

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song "Walking", and "

Tap Turns on the Water "Tap Turns on the Water" is a song and single by British band, C.C.S. Written by band leader Alexis Korner and John Cameron, it was first released in the UK in 1971. Background and chart success The song was the third chart success by C.C.S. an ...

". They also recorded three albums, including cover versions of the old blues standard " Boom Boom", " Living in the Past", and "

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" as well as original material. Their single, "Brother", was used as the theme to Tom Browne's and

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' Sunday Top 40/20 Chart Rundown on

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in the 1970s. Not widely known is that the band were also responsible for the first set of jingles for Manchester's

Piccadilly Radio Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Eng ...

when the station launched in April 1974 – examples can be found on ex-Piccadilly presenter Jeff Cooper's website. The short-lived CCS broke up in 1973, while Alexis Korner moved on to form the group Snape.

Discography

Albums

* '' CCS'', also known as ''Whole Lotta Love'' (RAK SRKA 6751) (October 1970) * '' CCS'', also known as ''C.C.S. 2'' (RAK SRAK 503) (March 1972) – UK No. 23 * ''

The Best Band in the Land ''The Best Band in the Land'' is the third and final studio album of CCS. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, January to May 1973 and released in September that year. In Australia, the album was titled ''The Band Played the Boogie' ...

'' (RAK SRAK 504) (September 1973)

Compilation albums

* ''The Best of C.C.S.'' (RAK SRAK 527) (1977) * ''Whole Lotta Love'' (EMI CDP 7 97553 2) (1991) * ''A's, B's & Rarities'' (EMI Gold 560 2532) (2004)

Singles

References

External links

* * * *
Biography at www.mystrands.com

Jeff Cooper's tribute site featuring a number of jingles recorded by CCS for the station
{{Authority control English rock music groups English blues rock musical groups Musical groups established in 1970 Musical groups disestablished in 1973 1970 establishments in the United Kingdom 1973 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Rak Records artists * *