The V.I.P.'s were a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

R&B

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

formed in

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

, England in late 1963, out of an earlier outfit known as The Ramrods, who had formed in Carlisle in 1960. From a musical reorientation the band changed their name to Art in 1967, and released the album ''

Supernatural Fairy Tales ''Supernatural Fairy Tales'' is the only album by Art, who were formerly known as The V.I.P.'s. The album contains mostly band compositions plus a cover of The Young Rascals' "Come on Up" and Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth". Unusu ...

''.

Career

The band members at various times were: Mike Harrison (lead vocals) (ex Dino and the Danubes,

The Dakotas The Dakotas is a collective term for the U.S. states of North Dakota and South Dakota. It has been used historically to describe the Dakota Territory, and is still used for the collective heritage, culture, geography, fauna, sociology, econom ...

, The Ramrods);

Greg Ridley Alfred Gregory Ridley (23 October 1941 – 19 November 2003) was an English bassist who was the bassist and a founding member of the rock band Humble Pie and Spooky Tooth. Career Ridley was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England. Early in h ...

(

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

) (ex Dino and the Danubes, The Dakotas); Frank Kenyon (

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

) (1963–67) (born 12 October 1945, Carlisle) (ex The Teenages, The Ramrods); Jimmy Henshaw (

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

) (1963–67) (born James Henshaw, 20 October 1941, in

Newarthill Newarthill is a village in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, situated roughly three miles north-east of the town of Motherwell. It has a population of around 6,200. Most local amenities are shared with the adjacent villages of Carfin, Holytown and Ne ...

, near

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

, Scotland died 1 May 2007, Carlisle) (ex The Ramrods);

Keith Emerson Keith Noel Emerson (2 November 1944 – 11 March 2016) was an English keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He played keyboards in a number of bands before finding his first commercial success with the Nice in the late 1960s. He became ...

(

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 ...

) (ex-Gary Farr & The T-Bones) (1966–1967);

Luther Grosvenor Luther James Grosvenor (born 23 December 1946) is an English rock musician, who played guitar in Spooky Tooth, briefly in Stealers Wheel and, under the pseudonym Ariel Bender, in Mott the Hoople and Widowmaker. Grosvenor was born in Evesha ...

(lead guitar) (1967); Walter Johnstone (

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

) (1963–67) (born 11 March 1943, Carlisle) (ex The Teenages, The Ramrods); and

Mike Kellie Michael Alexander Kellie (24 March 1947 – 18 January 2017) was an English musician, composer and record producer. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Kellie was a member of the rock bands the V.I.P.s, Spooky Tooth and the Only ...

(drummer) (1967). When Emerson left in early 1967 to form

The Nice The Nice were an English progressive rock band active in the late 1960s. They blended rock, jazz and classical music and were keyboardist Keith Emerson's first commercially successful band. The group was formed in 1967 by Emerson, Lee Jack ...

, Harrison, Ridley, Grosvenor and Kellie changed their name to 'Art', and released one album, ''

'', produced by

Guy Stevens Guy Stevens (13 April 1943 – 28 August 1981) was a British music industry figure whose roles included DJ, record producer, and band manager. He was influential in promoting R&B music in Britain in the 1960s, gave the rock bands Procol Har ...

, covering Stephen Stills' " What's That Sound (For What It's Worth)" and Felix Cavaliere's "Come On Up". The group then disbanded, with all four members of the group's final line-up forming

Spooky Tooth Spooky Tooth were an English rock band originally formed in Carlisle in 1967. Principally active between 1967 and 1974, the band re-formed several times in later years. History Prior to Spooky Tooth, four of the band's five founding members h ...

, with the addition of the American musician

Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (born April 26, 1943) is an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive", and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and po ...

, later that same year. They also participated in a psychedelic album entitled ''Featuring The Human Host And The Heavy Metal Kids'' by a collective known as

Hapshash and the Coloured Coat Hapshash and the Coloured Coat was an influential British graphic design and avant-garde musical partnership in the late 1960s, consisting of Michael English and Nigel Waymouth. It produced popular psychedelic posters, and two albums of under ...

, formed by

and an influential British graphic design and avant-garde musical partnership between Michael English and

Nigel Waymouth Nigel Waymouth (born 1941) is a designer and artist, a co-partner in the boutique, Granny Takes a Trip, and one of the two-man team, Hapshash and the Coloured Coat, which designed psychedelic posters in the 1960s. He has since had a solo career, in ...

. The musicians involved in that project were Mike Harrison on keys and vocals,

on guitars,

on bass and

on drums, as well as Stevens, English and Waymouth. It was the first time that the term 'heavy metal' was ever used in music, even though that album had nothing to do with

heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed a ...

, being closer to

psychedelic music Psychedelic music (sometimes called psychedelia) is a wide range of popular music styles and genres influenced by 1960s psychedelia, a subculture of people who used psychedelic drugs such as LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, mescaline, and cannabis to ...

. The album was issued in 1967 by

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

, and contained only five songs from two minutes to more than 15 minutes of psychedelic and almost meditative state kind of music.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''

'' (

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

1967 - as 'Art')

Compilation albums

*''The Complete V.I.P.s'' (2 CDs, 28 tracks) (

Repertoire A repertoire () is a list or set of dramas, operas, musical compositions or roles which a company or person is prepared to perform. Musicians often have a musical repertoire. The first known use of the word ''repertoire'' was in 1847. It is a l ...

)

EPs

*''

Stagger Lee "Stagger Lee", also known as "Stagolee" and other variants, is a popular American folk song about the murder of Billy Lyons by "Stag" Lee Shelton, in St. Louis, Missouri, at Christmas 1895. The song was first published in 1911 and first recorded ...

'', Fontana, France *''What's That Sound (For What It's Worth)'', Fontana, France *''I Wanna Be Free'', Fontana, France *''Straight Down to the Bottom'', Fontana, France

Singles

*"Don't Keep Shouting at Me" ( UK

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

, 1964) *" Mercy, Mercy" (as The Vipps), U.S. only single, produced by

Derek Lawrence Derek John Lawrence (16 November 1941 – 13 May 2020) was an English record producer, famous for his work for Joe Meek's Outlaws, Deep Purple, Flash, Machiavel and Wishbone Ash. Lawrence came in contact with Meek circa at the end of 1963, ...

) *"Wintertime" (as The Vipps,

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 ...

) *"I Wanna Be Free" (

) *"Straight Down to the Bottom" (Island) *" What's That Sound (For What It's Worth)" (Island - as 'Art')

References

External links

The V.I.P.s at MyspaceGreg Ridley
* * as 'Art' {{DEFAULTSORT:Vips, The Musical groups established in 1963 Musical groups disestablished in 1967 1963 establishments in England 1967 disestablishments in England English rock music groups British rhythm and blues musical groups Beat groups Island Records artists