Tractor is an English rock band founded in
Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Boroug ...
,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
by guitarist/vocalist Jim Milne and drummer Steve Clayton in 1971. Both had been members of a
beat group
Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffl ...
, The Way We Live, since 1966. They are notable both for their appreciation by
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
and
Julian Cope
Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...
, but also for their longevity because as of 2007, they were still performing. The band was produced initially by schoolfriend sound engineer John Brierley.
Early history
In the early days, the main marketing tool of unsigned hopeful bands was to send demo tapes. Accordingly, a tape was sent by John Brierley to Elektra Records part of the CBS group. Clive Selwood was the CBS UK operations manager and he listened to the tape and liked what he heard. He and his partner DJ John Peel signed the band to their Dandelion Records label. Peel had a fondness for Rochdale, having worked in a cotton mill there before becoming a DJ. Clive Selwood came to Rochdale to sign up the band.
The group was booked into London's Spot Studios and finished the sessions within two days, and in January 1971 the band's debut album, ''A Candle for Judith'' was released, credited to The Way We Live. The release, named after Clayton's then girlfriend, later wife, earned immediate critical acclaim "...impeccable in both technique and emotion"... Al Clark writing in ''
Time Out'' in London in 1971.
Meanwhile, Peel bought the band recording equipment and a stereo PA system. He also convinced the band to change their name. Looking out of his kitchen window at Peel Acres in Suffolk, he spied a tractor in the fields adjacent to his house and recommended it as a name to them. Tractor's first release after the name change from The Way We Live was a 7-inch maxi single – "Stoney Glory"/"Marie"/"As You Say"—for Dandelion. They also backed up another Dandelion act –
Beau — on his ''Creation'' album (1971). All of this recording was done in an attic and bedroom studio of a terraced house in Edenfield Road Rochdale, which John Peel named Dandelion Studios, Rochdale to tie in with his record label
Dandelion Records.
The duo's first full-length follow-up was released in 1972. By January 1973, the album was earning positive reviews. ''
Melody Maker
''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born c ...
'' stated "albums don't come any better than this",
Bob Harris,
Anne Nightingale on
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
and
Kid Jensen
David Allan "Kid" Jensen (born 4 July 1950) is a Canadian-born British radio DJ and television presenter. Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Jensen began as a radio DJ on Radio Luxembourg. Jensen was later a broadcaster for the BBC from 1976 t ...
on
Radio Luxembourg
Radio Luxembourg was a multilingual commercial broadcaster in Luxembourg. It is known in most non-English languages as RTL (for Radio Television Luxembourg).
The English-language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earlies ...
, all gave
airplay
Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...
to the album and it climbed to 18 in the Radio Luxembourg album charts, and to 30 in the Virgin Bestseller charts. Sound engineer John Brierley was eventually replaced by former The Way We Live singer Alan Burgess and, along with Chris Hewitt who would eventually manage the band, Milne, and Clayton, the group began building a studio in Dawson Street, Market Street
Heywood, Lancashire, named Tractor Sound Studios, again partially financed by John Peel. This studio would feature in a BBC film about Rochdale, Heywood, and John Peel, when the band and Chris Hewitt revisited the studio in December 2006. In September 2009, the location of Tractor Sound Studios was celebrated with a blue plaque as a testimonial to the members of Tractor and John Peel. Unveiled by Steve Clayton, Peter Hook-Joy Division/New Order), Rev Mike Huck and Chris Hewitt The plaque is mounted on the front of the building. The part finished third album for Dandelion, which was to be eventually released in the 1990s as ''Worst Enemies'', was recorded at both
Chipping Norton Recording Studios
Chipping Norton Recording Studios was a residential recording studio in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, which operated from 1971 until October 1999.
The studios were created by Mike and Richard Vernon as the in-house studio for Mike Ver ...
, Oxfordshire and Tractor Sound Studios, Heywood.
Tractor eventually left the Dandelion label, which had effectively ceased to operate for about 17 years in 1973-confirmed by John Peel's article on Dandelion ceasing for a while in 1973
After Dandelion
Tractor then recorded a single in their Heywood studio, the reggae-tinged "Roll the Dice", released on
Jonathan King
Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when " Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate ...
's
UK Records
UK Records was a music label launched in 1972 by Jonathan King to distribute his own releases and those by some other artists. label.
In the summer of 1976, Milne and Clayton and manager Chris Hewitt recruited bassist Dave Addison and teamed up again with studio engineer John Brierley, now the owner of
Cargo Recording Studios
Cargo Studios was a recording studio located on Kenion Street, off Drake Street, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. It was opened in 1977 by John Brierley (who had gained notoriety in the early 1970s as producer of Tractor's first two albums) ...
at that point based in his house on Drake Street. They recorded another single "No More Rock 'n' Roll" / "Northern City", which was issued on Cargo Records of Rochdale and made the newly invented
NME
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
Indie singles chart. It also appeared on the 1977 punk compilation LP, ''Streets''. The "No More Rock'n'Roll"single was released to coincide with the 1977
Deeply Vale Festival, a North West England music festival of the 1970s which the band were heavily involved in. At this point Tractor Music- PA Company and Music shop moved into premises along with Cargo Studios on Kenion Street, Rochdale. The whole street became a music complex during the 1970s to the 1990s with many well known bands including
Joy Division
Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris.
Sumner and Hook formed the band after attendi ...
buying equipment here and hiring PA's from Tractor Music and recording in Cargo Studios, A blue plaque was put on Tractor's building in Rochdale in 2009 to celebrate its use as Cargo Studios, Tractor Music and Suite Sixteen Studios.
In 1980, Milne, Clayton, and Addison entered the studio, this time adding blind musician Tony Crabtree on keyboards/guitar. They recorded another single – "Average Man's Hero" / "Big Big Boy" – this one for Roach Records, which was a label run by the band themselves. The band started live concerts and recording again in 2001 with the two piece original line up of Jim Milne and Steve Clayton.
Recent history
As recently as 2004,
Julian Cope
Julian David Cope (born 21 October 1957) is an English musician and author. He was the singer and songwriter in Liverpool post-punk band the Teardrop Explodes and has followed a solo career since 1983 in addition to working on musical side proj ...
has given Tractor and their first album favourable attention.
The band issued CDs on numerous labels from 1991 before starting their own company in 1996, Ozit Morpheus Records, which has now reissued their entire back catalogue. Tractor began performing live again in 2001 (just the original duo of Jim Milne and Steve Clayton) and have become a regular festival band playing both
Glastonbury
Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury ...
and
Canterbury
Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour.
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of the ...
festivals. In 2004 Tractor took part and provided music for an ITV documentary, ''
Truly, Madly, Deeply Vale''. This was released as an extended DVD, ''
Deeply Vale Festivals'' in July 2007.
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced t ...
also showed a short documentary on Tractor in January 2007.
Tractor spent 2007 and 2008 in the studio recording additional material for a new extended version of their album about the
Peterloo Massacre
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter's Square, Manchester, St Peter's Field, Manchester, Lancashire, England, on Monday 16 August 1819. Fifteen people died when cavalry charged into a crowd of around 60,000 people who had gathered to d ...
which was eventually released in August 2011. The new double LP Townhead Mill was released in late 2012.
Clayton published his first novel, ''The Art Of Being Dead'', in 2008.
In 2019, as a protest against the planned demolition of four of the seven College Bank blocks of flats, the band released ''Shubunkin Over Rochdale College Bank'', a vinyl LP including all the tracks from their 1972 LP plus "Watching White Stars", "Northern City", and "Mr Revolution Man".
Discography
Albums
* ''A Candle for Judith'' (as 'The Way We Live')
971
Year 971 ( CMLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Battle of Dorostolon: A Byzantine expeditionary army (possibly 30–40,000 men) ...
on LP and CD
* ''Tractor''
972
Year 972 ( CMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* Spring – Emperor John I Tzimiskes divides the Bulgarian territories, recen ...
Album on LP and CD
* ''Original Masters'' album on CD AKA Tractor including..... The Way We Live - Original Masters 1992 Album CD
* ''Worst Enemies'' 1996 Compilation Album on CD
* ''Before, During and After the Dandelion Years, Through to Deeply Vale and Beyond'' 1998 Album on CD
* ''Steve's Hungarian Novel''- 1999 Double Album on LP
* ''John Peel bought us a studio and PA'' CD (2006)
* ''Peterloo- Various artists including Tractor" CD 16 August 2011
* ''The Road From Townhead Mill'' Double LP with free CD October 2012
* ''The Art Of being Steve Clayton '' Double LP summer 2013
* ''Shubunkin Over Rochdale College Bank'' LP 2019
* '' The Way We Live - A Candle for Judith 50th Anniversary'' 2 LP May 2021
Singles
* "King Dick II" – as ''The Way We Live'' on Dandelion EP (picture label )
* "Stoney Glory"/"Marie"/"As You Say" – Dandelion Maxi single
* "Roll The Dice" – UK Records
* "No More Rock'n'Roll" – Cargo Records
* "No More Rock'n'Roll" – Jim Milne and Tractor without Steve Clayton Polydor
* "Average Man's Hero" – Roach Records
Compilations
* ''
There is Some Fun Going Forward'' – Dandelion
sampler album
A sampler or promotional compilation is a type of compilation album generally offered at a reduced price to showcase an artist or a selection of artists signed to a particular record label. The format became popular in the late 1960s as record labe ...
(1972)
* ''A Bolt From the Black'' – featuring Tractor, Jimmy Page, Samson, Warhorse
* ''
Streets
Streets is the plural of street, a type of road.
Streets or The Streets may also refer to: Music
* Streets (band), a rock band fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh
* ''Streets'' (punk album), a 1977 compilation album of various early UK punk ba ...
'' – Beggars Banquet
sampler album
A sampler or promotional compilation is a type of compilation album generally offered at a reduced price to showcase an artist or a selection of artists signed to a particular record label. The format became popular in the late 1960s as record labe ...
(1977)
* ''Hard Rock'' – Dutch sampler
* ''It started in Rochdale'' CD Album 2008 Ozit Morpheus Records CD 247
DVD
* "Beyond Deeply Vale" – Ozit Morpheus/ents DVD ooo4
* "Deeply Vale Festivals" – Ozit Morpheus DVD ooo5
* "John Peel's Dandelion Records" – Ozit Morpheus DVD 0007
References
External links
TractorJulian Cope's ReminiscencesBBC Documentary*
Allmusic Guide entryInterview with Steve Clayton
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tractor (band)
English rock music groups
Music in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
Musical groups from Greater Manchester
Dandelion Records artists