Hurdy Gurdy emerged from the Danish group ''Peter Belli and the Boom Boom Brothers'' (aka ''The B.B. Brothers'') in June 1967, when three members of the B.B. Brothers, guitarist Claus Bøhling, drummer Jens Peter Marquard Otzen and British vocalist and bassist

Mac MacLeod Keith MacLeod (popularly known as "Mac" MacLeod) (9 July 1941 – 16 November 2020), was an English musician who was a part of the Hertfordshire Folk music, folk and blues scene from 1959 onwards. He played in St Albans alongside Mick Softley a ...

formed the power trio. Inspired by

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

but with more psychedelic leanings, they split from

Peter Belli Peter Belli (born Georg Peter Brandt; 19 June 1943 in Kiel) is a Danish singer and actor. Career Peter's debut as a singer was in 1959, for a band called ''Trefters''. In the 1960s, Belli became Denmark's first rock star, alongside his band, ...

and MacLeod named the band 'Hurdy Gurdy'. They had considerable success in Scandinavia, breaking many attendance records for their live shows. The band moved to England in early 1968, after MacLeod had been deported from Denmark. From Denmark, MacLeod wrote to

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

's manager

Ashley Kozak Ashley Kozak (c.1930 – 2008) was a British jazz bassist, record producer and artists' manager, best known as having been Donovan's manager. After working, and recording, with Tony Crombie and His Orchestra in 1954, together with leading UK-based ...

on 19 December 1967 to ask if he could help the band in any way. Donovan wrote his song "

Hurdy Gurdy Man "Hurdy Gurdy Man" is a song by the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was recorded in April 1968 and released the following month as a single. The song gave its name to the album ''The Hurdy Gurdy Man'', which was released in October of that ...

" for them as a gift for MacLeod. MacLeod came back to the U.K. in the new year to see Donovan and, a few weeks later, the rest of the band followed. After hearing Donovan's demo tape, the band set up outside his Little Berkhamsted cottage and played their version of the song. Donovan did not like the heavy take on the track they played as he wanted a softer, acoustic arrangement. Soon after, he released his own version of the song which became a hit, his version in the end had a similar arrangement to the Hurdy Gurdy version. Donovan told Keith Altham of the NME (and Hit Parader) in December 1968: While they were in the UK, they did some recordings produced by Chris White and

Rod Argent Rodney Terence Argent (born 14 June 1945) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Argent came to prominence in the mid 1960s as the keyboardist, founder and leader of the ...

The Zombies The Zombies are an English rock band formed in the early 1960s in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group had a British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two fu ...

. Two tracks by the MacLeod era of Hurdy Gurdy, "Tick Tock Man" and "Neo Camel", are on the Mac MacLeod anthology ''The Incredible Musical Odyssey of the Original Hurdy Gurdy Man'' and showcase the free-flowing power trio

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

sound. Otzen and Bøhling had to return to Denmark shortly after those recordings, as they were unable to secure work permits from the Musician's Union. A new bassist (Torben Forne) was recruited to replace MacLeod and, in early 1971, they released a self-titled album for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

which has recently been reissued on CD. MacLeod briefly joined the post-Zombies group

Argent In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to b ...

. In 1993, Bøhling re-formed the band and performed two concerts at the Cavern Club in Exeter.

References

External links

The Incredible Musical Odyssey Of The Original Hurdy Gurdy Man
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurdy Gurdy Danish musical groups Danish rock music groups Musical groups established in 1967