MARMELADE

The history began in 1961 in Glasgow -Scotland, when teenagers William Junior Campbell and Patrick Fairley have met on Campbell's 14th birthday and discovered that they both enjoyed playing rock 'n roll. Their early inspirations were the Everly Brothers and Cliff Richard & The Shadows. In the beginning, both played guitar, but Campbell played keyboards too (more and more in later years) then added Billy Johnson (bass) Tom Frew (drums). They took the name The Gaylords, and played local clubs and Johnson and Frew were later succeeded by Bill Irving and Raymond Duffy. Bill Irving was fastly replaced by Graham Knight.

The group began to shine, when the singer Dean Ford joined in 1963. Dean Ford is a pseudonym to Tom McAleese, his nickname is a mixture of Dean Martin, the Ford car and a gangster film. Dean Ford was an very active band's composer. They had regular bookings at the Picasso club in Glasgow and made appearances on BBC's Scotland's TV show, Come Thursday.

They developed a unique sound as Patrick Fairlay switched to a six-string bass while Graham Knight played a regular four-string model. George Martin flew to Scotland and held auditions in a ballroom. He gave Dean Ford and the Gaylords a recording contract and produced their first singleTwenty Miles. The group released 3 singles, but without success.

By 1967, they had signed with the CBS and chosen a new name, Marmalade, which was more akin with the times. This name were created when they was having breakfast with their manager Peter Walsh, that was engaged because Tremeloes, the Peter Walsh's band, liked its music.

Despite being little more than a mainstream pop outfit at this time they managed to get gigs at 'underground' venues like the Marquee and were a regular attraction at jazz and blues festivals. Various publicity stunts were used to put them in the public eye, including a promotional film and the distribution of jars of marmalade to various radio stations. By now, the group had relocated to London and set up a communal home in Archway.

Their debut 45, It's All Leading Up To Saturday Night, had a harpsichord introduction and conveyed the imagery of weekend freedom pretty effectively. The flip was a rather lightweight composition of their own. The follow-up, Can't Stop Now, was a pop/soul effort rather overshadowed by another group original on the flip. Their third release was a considerable advance - their first self-penned 'A' side. Notable for its tight harmonies, strong chorus and tuned-down lead guitar line, I See The Rain captured them at their most creative and together with the follow-up, Man In A Shop, which was full of gorgeous harmonies and swirling tapes, captured the feel of that memorable Summer of 1967, though sadly neither were hits here, though I See The Rain did get to No 23 in Holland. Jimi Hendrix called it his record of the year.

Their breakthrough finally came with a cover of US band The Grassroots' Lovin' Things, a commercial, bubblegum-style song, which CBS pretty much forced upon them, as time was running out for the band. On the flip side they did a cover of Hey Joe - they'd earlier been on a tour with Hendrix. Lovin'Things reached No. 6 in the UK hit parade.

Having achieved a hit formula they stuck to it with Wait For Me Mary-Anne and a cover of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from The Beatles' White Album, which took them to No 1. Both songs were extremely commercial and destroyed any 'underground' credentials which some of their earlier recording had nurtured. They were a classic case of a band who had to compromise to achieve success. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da stayed in the charts for five months. They wore Scottish national dress on Top of the Pops.

Baby Make It Soon gave them another Top 10 hit (No. 9), though Butterfly, one of their more creative songs and their final release for CBS sadly flopped, as did their album, There's A Lot Of It About. On 14 November 1969, they signed a new contract with Decca, which gave them complete freedom to write, arrange, produce and record whatever material they wanted free from record company interference - something they'd never enjoyed with CBS. The first result of this new arrangement was Reflections Of My Life, a ballad penned by Junior Campbell and Tom McAleese. Decca was sceptical about realeasing it as a single because they felt the first release on a new label should be positive and up-tempo. The song, that is like a Hollies' ballad, took some weeks to enter the charts but it climbed to No.1 in the New Musical Express.

It went down well climbing to No 3 in the UK and No 10 in the US. A new album inevitably followed, but Reflections Of The Marmalade failed to make much impact here in the UK, though it got to No 71 in the US, where it was issued as Reflections Of My Life. Rainbow was the next song. It was written by Junior Campbell, Dean Ford (or Tom McAleese) and his wife. The single, which featured the band's strong harmonies, made No.3. Rainbow also made it to No 51 in the US. My Little One gave them further UK hits and their next album, Songs, contains beatiful songs. By now though Junior Campbell felt the band had gone as far as it could and departed, to be replaced by Hugh Nicholson, who'd earlier played for another Scottish group, The Poets. Whitehead also left and was replaced by another ex-Poet, Dougie Henderson.

These changes gave the group a new injection of life in the short-term. Some Nicholson compositions, Cousin Norman (No. 6), Back On The Road and Radancer (Radancer is a Scottish term for a dancer, this song reached Top 10), Sarah,Ride Boy Ride were all pretty lively songs which, some of them, made the charts and kept the band in the public eye. Though, after the first of these hits Fairley 'retired' from the group. The band received some adverse publicity, though, in 1972, when a popular Sunday newspaper accused the band of sexual debauchery in a typical tabloid-style groupie exposé and the promising Radancer became the revitalised line-ups final 45 and their final 45 for Decca. At the same time of Nicholson's songs, Tom McAleese composed some nice songs using his pseudonym Dean Ford (Lovely Nights, Just one woman, Mama).

Nicholson left to join Cody but in 1974 Ford, Knight and Henderson re-grouped and signed with the EMI with a new six-piece line-up (D). This recorded the Our House Is Rockin' album and three 45s but Knight left almost as soon as the new line-up was put together and it was clear that the group was falling apart. It was left to Knight and Whitehead to haul the band out of the ashes in 1976 and put together a new line-up. Signing toTarget Records they enjoyed a further UK hit with Falling Apart At The Seams (which certainly described the band's predicament a few years earlier), which also climbed to Nzo 49 in the US, where it was released on Ariola America. Subsequent singles and an album flopped and, in any case, they are beyond this book's remit. Still the band was certainly durable and recorded in various incarnations throughout the eighties.

I think that the best CD on sale is Definitive Collection, though several good songs like Back on the road, Sarah, etc. are missing. Replacing that songs, they have included weak songs like Lovin' Things and Baby Make it Soon. Their recordings from 1973 onwards are not recommended.