Skin Alley were a British

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

band founded by Thomas Crimble and Giles 'Alvin' Pope in the autumn of 1968. The original lineup consisted of Crimble on bass guitar and vocals, Pope on drums, Max Taylor on guitar, and Jeremy Sagar on lead vocals. Taylor and Sagar left early in 1969, and were replaced by Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz on Hammond organ, a musician of Polish descent, and Bob James on saxophone, flute, guitar and vocals.

Career

The band, comprising Thomas Crimble, Alvin Pope, Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz and Bob James, were signed to CBS Records for their eponymous 1970 debut, and its 1970 follow-up, ''To Pagham and Beyond''. Crimble moved on that year to play bass with

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 ...

and organise the

Glastonbury Festival The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts (commonly referred to as simply Glastonbury Festival, known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts held near Pilton, Somerset, England, in most su ...

, and was replaced by Nick Graham (formerly of Atomic Rooster, not to be confused with Nicky Graham from

The End The End may refer to: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...

and Tucky Buzzard) before the album was completed, Graham singing on two of the tracks. Pope left at the same time and was replaced by Tony Knight. In May 1972, Skin Alley appeared at Lincoln Festival's ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

''-sponsored ''Giants of Tomorrow'' marquee. A switch to the

Transatlantic Records Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. The company was established in 1961, primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom ...

label in 1972 heralded the release of the band's third LP, ''Two Quid Deal''. By the time their fourth album, ''Skintight'', was released in 1973, they were playing more commercial, mainstream rock with

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

tion and

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s. The band split shortly afterwards, with Graham having the most successful post-Skin career with his groups Alibi and the Humans in the early 1980s. US-based

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

had no interest in the band and declined to release either CBS album in the US. The third and fourth albums were issued in the US by

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in September 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. ...

. Although Stax was keen on expanding its repertoire into rock, the label was not successful in promoting its rock acts, and both Skin Alley albums were largely ignored in the US. Keyboardist Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz died in 2022 at the age 74-75.Krzysztof Juszkiewicz
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Band members

* Thomas Crimble -

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

, keyboards,

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

* Robert 'Bob' James -

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

, vocals * Krzysztof Henryk Juszkiewicz - organ, piano, accordion, harpsichord, mellotron, vocals,

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

(died 2022) * Giles 'Alvin' Pope -

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, percussion * Nick Graham - vocals, keyboards, bass, flute * Tony Knight - drums, vocals

Albums

* ''Skin Alley'' (CBS 63847) March 1970 * ''To Pagham and Beyond'' (CBS 64140) December 1970 * ''Two Quid Deal?'' (Transatlantic Big T TRA 260) October 1972 * ''Skintight'' (Transatlantic Big T TRA 273) November 1973

Singles

* "Tell Me" / "Better Be Blind" (CBS 5045) 1970 * "You Got Me Danglin'" / "Skin Valley Serenade" (Big T BIG 506) 1972 * "In The Midnight Hour" / "Broken Eggs" (Big T BIG 511) 1972

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 1969 British progressive rock groups