High Tide was an English rock band, formed in 1969 by Tony Hill (

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

and

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

), Simon House (

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

and keyboards), Peter Pavli (

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 ...

) and Roger Hadden (

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

History

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...

author, Wilson Neate, stated this of the group, "High Tide had the muscularity of a no-nonsense proto-metal band, but they also ventured into prog territory with changing time signatures and tempos, soft-hard dynamics, multi-part arrangements, and even some ornate faux-Baroque interludes". High Tide made their first recordings as the backing band on Denny Gerrard's album ''Sinister Morning''.Shaw, Adrian. (2000
"Tony Hill interview"
''Perfect Sound Forever magazine''. Gerrard returned the favor by producing their first album, ''

Sea Shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific ...

'', which was released in October 1969. Though it met with a scathing review in ''

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 ...

'', reviews in the underground press were universally positive, and sales were just enough to convince Liberty to give the green light to a second album.Powell, Mark (2006). "High Tide - Sea Shanties". In ''Sea Shanties'' (pp.8-10)

D booklet D, or d, is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''dee'' (pronounced ), plural ''dees''. History Th ...

London: Eclectic Entertainment Ltd. This second album, ''

High Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables c ...

'', was released the following year. A third album was being recorded in 1970, but Roger Hadden, who had been suffering from chronic mental instability and depression since before joining High Tide, had a mental breakdown and was hospitalized before the album could be finished. Unable to continue without Hadden, the group split up. During the late 1970s, Hill and House recorded ''Interesting Times'' as a duo, taking turns playing bass and using a drum machine to replace Roger Hadden. The album featured heavy use of synthesizers, which to an extent supplanted the use of House's violin. The album was originally released as a mail order cassette, and issued on vinyl and CD in 1989 and 1990.Joynson, Vernon (1995)
''The Tapestry of Delights''
. London: Borderline Books. Any possibilities of further recordings from this semi-reunion were dissolved when House rejoined

Hawkwind Hawkwind are an English rock band known as one of the earliest space rock groups. Since their formation in November 1969, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and have incorporated many different styles into their music, including hard ...

in 1990. However, under the encouragement of drummer Drachen Theaker, Hill pushed out no less than five albums under the High Tide banner by the end of the following year, starting with two discs of retrospective material, and then with three albums recorded by an entirely new band. The first retrospective release, ''Precious Cargo'', consists of sessions recorded in 1970 by the original group, but their exact nature is not specified. It has been theorized, however, that they are the rehearsal sessions for their unfinished third album. One song, "The Great Universal Protection Racket" (mislabeled on the album as "Exploration"), had been recorded for ''Sea Shanties'' but went unreleased at the time due to space constraints. None of the other six songs were used in any earlier recordings. The second retrospective album, ''The Flood'', is a collection of demos of various origins. It includes four demos recorded by the original High Tide shortly before their breakup, six demos recorded in 1971 and 1976 by Tony Hill and Peter Pavli with other musicians, and a Peter Pavli solo demo from 1979. The new band which recorded the remaining High Tide albums consisted of Tony Hill (guitars and bass), Dave Tomlin (violin and bass), and Drachen Theaker (drums), though various guest musicians also contributed, including a few appearances by Peter Pavli and Simon House. Eschewing the tight, complex compositions which were the staple of the original High Tide, the new band's albums ''Ancient Gates'' and ''The Reason of Success'' consisted almost solely of lengthy improvised performances with little to no

compositional In semantics, mathematical logic and related disciplines, the principle of compositionality is the principle that the meaning of a complex expression is determined by the meanings of its constituent expressions and the rules used to combine them. ...

basis. Between these two albums was released ''A Fierce Nature''. Tony Hill wrote all the songs on ''A Fierce Nature'' and played everything but the drums. A two disc compilation album, ''Open Season'', was released in 2000. However, with the exceptions of a new Tony Hill solo track, a new Peter Pavli solo track, and a short track from ''Ancient Gates'', the content was drawn entirely from ''The Flood'' and ''The Reason of Success''. The tracks "Futilist's Lament" and "Blankman Cries Again" are on the

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1959, ...

2004 sampler ''

All Good Clean Fun ''All Good Clean Fun'' was originally a promotional sampler issued by United Artists Records (UDX 201/2) in 1971. This original release was a double album containing 23 tracks by 20 different artists, with three artists (Morning, The Nitty Gritty ...

'' CD re-package (Liberty 8660902), but High Tide did not appear on the original 1971 LP.

Discography

Studio albums

*''

'' (1969) *''

'' (1970) *''

Interesting Times ''Interesting Times'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the seventeenth book in the ''Discworld'' series, set in the Aurient (a fictional analogue of the Orient). The title refers to the common myth that there exists a Chi ...

'' (1986) *''Precious Cargo'' (1989) *''A Fierce Nature'' (1990) *''Ancient Gates'' (1990) *'' The Reason of Success'' (1991)

Compilation albums

*''The Flood'' (1990) *''Open Season'' (2000)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:High Tide (band) Musical groups established in 1969 English progressive rock groups English psychedelic rock music groups