Rare Bird were an English

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band formed in 1969. They had more success in other

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an countries. They released five studio albums between 1969 and 1974. In the UK, they never charted with an album but charted with one single, the

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 ...

-based

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

" Sympathy", which peaked at number 27. It sold one million copies globally.

History

The band's initial line-up was as below, although there would be changes by the time they came to work on their third

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

. The first two members listed were a constant throughout the lifetime of the band. * Steve Gould (b. Stephen Burt Gould, 25 March 1950,

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

) – lead vocals & bass, rhythm guitar *David Kaffinetti (b. David Franklyn Ewer, 17 April 1946,

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

) – pianos & assorted keyboards * Graham Field (b. Graham Frederick Stansfield, 3 May 1940, Beaminster,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

; d. 13 April 2018) – organ & assorted keyboards * Mark Ashton (b. Mark Ian McVey, 23 June 1949,

Herne Bay Herne Bay is a seaside town on the north coast of Kent in South East England. It is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government ...

) – drums & backing vocals The history of Rare Bird began when Graham Field placed an advertisement for a pianist in a musical periodical. He got thirty replies and formed a group called "Lunch". He met Dave Kaffinetti in November 1968, and together they formulated the basic ideas for Rare Bird. In August 1969, they finally found the ideal rhythm section in Steve Gould, Chris Randall and Mark Ashton. Field and Kaffinetti had originally envisaged that the band would be a four-piece and were looking for a singer/bass player. Gould and Randall, who had both previously been members of the Pop-Psych band "Fruit Machine", applied to the advert as vocals/guitar and bass respectively and were taken on. Lunch played a few gigs; one notable one was at the Tilbury Working Mens Club for the princely sum of five pounds. The band had no van and they managed to get amps, drums, guitars and Hammond organ into their cars. The gig was marred by Randall receiving a bad electric shock whilst on stage. It later turned out that the founders of the band were more interested in Steve Gould and convinced him to play bass. Randall was now high and dry and was kicked out of the band. Two weeks later, they had signed management and agency contracts, and three weeks later, were in the

studio A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial design ...

recording their debut album. Before joining Lunch, Randall and Gould had previously written a song called "To the Memory of Two Brave Dogs". Rare Bird included this song in their debut album, renaming it "Iceberg" but Randall received no credit on the L.P. Along with

Van der Graaf Generator Van der Graaf Generator are an English progressive rock band, formed in 1967 in Manchester by singer-songwriters Peter Hammill and Judge Smith, Chris Judge Smith and the first act signed by Charisma Records. They did not experience much commerc ...

and The Nice, they were one of the first bands that signed to

Charisma Records Charisma Records (also known as The Famous Charisma Label) was a British record label founded in 1969 by former journalist Tony Stratton-Smith. He had previously acted as manager for rock bands such as The Nice, the Bonzo Dog Band and Van der ...

, the

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

that Tony Stratton-Smith had founded. Their late 1969 release "Sympathy" reached No. 1 in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and in

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, sold 500,000 copies in

and over one million globally. It became their only UK hit single, reaching No. 27 and staying on the chart for 8 weeks. A 1970

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the track by

The Family Dogg The Family Dogg were a British vocal group, noted for their harmony vocals. They are best known for their debut album, '' A Way of Life'', and the subsequent single of the same name. Career The idea was born when the Anglo-American singers of t ...

reached number two in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. The song returned to the UK chart in 1992 when a version by

Marillion Marillion are a British rock music, rock band, formed in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in 1979. They emerged from the post-punk music scene in Britain and existed as a bridge between the styles of punk rock and classic progressive rock, becomin ...

reached No. 17.Roberts, David (2006). ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. In 2001, the track was sampled by

Faithless Faithless are an English band that formed in 1995, with its core members being Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz. Their first album, '' Reverence'', was released in 1996 and their most recent, ''All Blessed'', in 2020. They have sold millions ...

in their song "Not Enuff Love", named after a

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

line in "Sympathy". The first album released by "Lunch" in 1969 was called "Rare Bird", which now also became the band's new name. In early 1971, Graham Field left Rare Bird to form a short-lived solo project, Fields. Later members included Fred Kelly (drums),

Nic Potter NIC may refer to: Banking and insurance companies * National Insurance Corporation, Uganda * NIC Bank, a commercial bank in Kenya Politics, government and economics * National Ice Center, an agency that provides worldwide navigational ice a ...

(bass), Andy "Ced" Curtis (lead guitar, vocals), Paul Holland , and Paul Karas (bass, vocals) on the ''Epic Forest'' album with Andy Curtis and Fred Kelly appearing on the album ''Somebody's Watching''. The band finally split up in 1975. Dave Kaffinetti (credited as David Kaff) played the part of Viv Savage in ''

This Is Spinal Tap ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (also known as ''This Is Spınal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi'') is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Christopher Guest, M ...

'' (1984). He also played keyboards for the band Spinal Tap in the film and on the soundtrack, and was seen in Spinal Tap's live appearances in 1984/85. Chris Randall went on to play with Martin Murray and The Honeycombs, the group of the mid 1960s with their worldwide hits, "Have I the Right", "Love In Tokyo" and "Thats the Way!". Paul Holland had previously been a recording engineer at Southern Music's studio in Denmark Street, London during the time that Fruit Machine recorded songs for release on the Spark Label under the direction of Barry Kingston. He died of cancer in 2010. The song "Beautiful Scarlet" from their first album was sampled in the 2004 song "Summer's Gonna Hurt You" by electronic music producer/DJ

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is the co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer, a member of the supergroup LSD with ...

Discography

Studio albums

''Rare Bird'' (UK: Charisma, U.S.:
Command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...
/ Probe, 1969) U.S. No. 115

All compositions by Rare Bird. U.S. version has sides 1 and 2 swapped. ;Side 1 # "Iceberg" – 6:46 (originally "To the Memory of Two Brave Dogs" by Randall/Gould) # "Times"- 4:00 # "You Went Away" – 4:17 # "Melanie" – 3:27 ;Side 2 # "Beautiful Scarlet" – 5:23 # "Sympathy" – 2:30 # "Natures Fruit" – 2:32 # "Bird On a Wing" – 4:13 # "God of War" – 5:08 ;Personnel * Graham Field – organ * David Kaffinetti – electric piano * Steve Gould – bass guitar, lead vocals * Mark Ashton – drums, tympani, backing vocals

''As Your Mind Flies By'' (UK: Charisma, U.S.:
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
, 1970)

All compositions by Rare Bird. ;Side 1 # "What You Want to Know" – 5:54 # "Down On the Floor" – 2:35 # "Hammerhead" – 3:29 # "I'm Thinking" – 5:35 ;Side 2 # "Flight" #* "Part 1: As Your Mind Flies By" – 9:48 #* "Part 2: Vacuum" – 3:16 #* "Part 3: New Yorker" – 6:33 #* "Part 4: Central Park" ;Personnel * Graham Field – organ, assorted keyboards * David Kaffinetti – electric piano, assorted keyboards * Steve Gould – bass guitar, lead vocals * Mark Ashton – drums, backing vocals

''Epic Forest'' (
Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...
, 1972) U.S. No. 194

;Side One # "Baby Listen" – 3:20 #* Ced Curtis – lead guitar #* Steve Gould – rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – electric piano #* Paul Karas – bass, co-lead vocals #* Fred Kelly – drums # "Hey Man" – 5:47 #* Ced Curtis – lead electric guitar #* Steve Gould – rhythm electric and acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – electric piano, Hammond and Farfisa organs #* Paul Karas – bass, backing vocals #* Fred Kelly – drums # "House in the City" – 4:20 #* Steve Gould – co-lead vocals #* Ced Curtis – guitars #* Dave Kaffinetti – electric piano #* Paul Karas – bass, co-lead vocals #* Fred Kelly – drums # "Epic Forest" – 9:08 #* Ced Curtis – electric and acoustic guitars, co-lead and backing vocals #* Steve Gould – electric and acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – electric piano, Hammond and Farfisa organs #* Paul Karas – bass, co-lead and backing vocals #* Fred Kelly – drums ;Side Two # "Turning The Lights Out" – 4:33 #* Ced Curtis – lead guitar, percussion #* Steve Gould – rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals, percussion #* Dave Kaffinetti – Farfisa organ, percussion #* Paul Karas – bass, co-lead vocals, percussion #* Fred Kelly – drums, percussion #* Nic Potter – percussion #* Paul Korda – percussion #* Ashley Howe – percussion # "Her Darkest Hour" – 3:30 #* Ced Curtis – acoustic guitar #* Steve Gould – acoustic guitar, vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – piano #* Paul Karas – bass #* Fred Kelly – drums # "Fears of the Night" – 3:14 #* Ced Curtis – acoustic guitar #* Steve Gould – acoustic guitar, lead and backing vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – piano #* Paul Karas – bass # "Turn It All Around" – 4:38 #* Ced Curtis – lead guitar #* Steve Gould – rhythm guitar, lead and backing vocals #* Dave Kaffinetti – Farfisa organ #* Paul Karas – bass, backing vocals #* Fred Kelly – drums #* Paul Holland – percussion # "Title No. 1 Again (Birdman)" – 6:01 #* Ced Curtis – lead guitar, percussion #* Steve Gould – rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals, percussion #* Dave Kaffinetti – electric piano, Farfisa organ, percussion #* Paul Karas – bass, co-lead vocals, beads #* Fred Kelly – drums, congas, percussion #* Paul Holland – percussion #* Chris Kelly – percussion

''Somebody's Watching'' (Polydor, 1973)

;Side One # "Somebody's Watching" – 5:25 – (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Curtis) # "Third Time Around" – 4:55 – (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Curtis) # "Turn Your Head" – 4:38 – (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Curtis) # "More and More" – 4:05 – (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Curtis) ;Side Two #

"Hard Time" – 3:06 – (Chaplin, Fataar) # "Who Is the Hero" – 3:39 – (Lamb) # "High in the Morning" – 3:30 – (Korda) # "Dollars (Incorporating Extracts From: A Few Dollars More)" – 8:38 – (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Curtis) ;Personnel: *Steve Gould – lead vocals, guitar; bass (track 6) *Dave Kaffinetti – pianos, clavinet, organ *Andy Curtis – guitar *Nic Potter – bass guitar (tracks 1-5, 7-8) *Fred Kelly – drums, Northern percussion

''Born Again'' (Polydor, 1974)

;Side One # "Body and Soul" 3.12 (Gould, Camm) # "Live for Each Other" 2.57 (Ashton) # "Diamonds" 4.09 (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti) # "Reaching You" 3.31 (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti) # "All That I Need" 3.58 (Gould, Kaffinetti, Kelly) ;Side Two #

"Redman" 3.50 (Gould, Kaffinetti, Kelly, Curtis, Hall) # "Peace of Mind" 5.30 (Gould, Kaffinetti, Kelly) # "Harlem" 3.25 (Gould, Kaffinetti, Kelly, Camm) # "Lonely Street" 3.20 (Gould, Kelly, Kaffinetti, Camm) # "Last Tango in Beulah" 6.27 (Gould, Kaffinetti, Kelly) ;Personnel: *Steve Gould – lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar; electric piano (track 10) *Fred Kelly – drums, harmony vocals, percussion *Dave Kaffinetti – acoustic and electric pianos, harmony vocals, Hammond organ, Korg synthesizer *Andy Rae – Fender bass guitar *Kevin Lamb – harmony vocals (tracks 7, 9)

Singles

*"Sympathy" b/w "Devils High Concern" ( UK No. 27, 14 February 1970)/US No. 121, 11 March 1970 / France No. 3) *"Roadside Welcome"/"Four Grey Walls" b/w "You're Lost" Uncharted UK Polydor 2814 011 (1972) *"Birdman -Part One" (Title No. 1 Again) US No. 122, 1 September 1973)

Compilation albums

*''Attention! Rare Bird'' (

Fontana Records Fontana Records is a record label that was started in the 1950s as a subsidiary of the Dutch Philips Records. The independent label distributor Fontana Distribution takes its name from the label. History Fontana started in the 1950s as a subs ...

cat. # 9299 008, compiling tracks from the first two albums, released in 1974) *''Rare Bird'' (Polydor cat. # 2384 078, a budget re-release, compiling tracks from their three albums on Polydor; released in the Polydor Special series in 1977) *''Sympathy'' ( Charisma, tracks from the first two albums, 1976) *''Third Time Around: An Introduction to Rare Bird'' (

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a t ...

, 2003)

References

External links

The JupiterSpace Rare Bird Web SiteMark Ashton Project Web SiteMark Ashton Vey Art Web Site
{{Authority control English progressive rock groups Musical groups established in 1969 Charisma Records artists