Vertigo Records was a major force in the emerging British progressive rock movement of the early 1970s. The newly-found label had to start with lesser-known acts, but it was quite prolific early on, releasing about 30 wonderful albums in its first year of operation – 1970. In this and the coming articles we will review a good number of these albums. We start at the very beginning and the band that had the honor of recording label’s first release, catalog number VO1.
One day in 1969 Olav Wyper received a phone call from a headhunter. Wyper was considered a prime candidate for the role of running a new record label that can produce, market and sell the emerging progressive music that will capture the hearts and minds of youth around the world. Wyper was working for CBS at the time, and was involved with releasing the sampler album “The Rock Machine Turns You On”. The record combined the music of top CBS artists including Simon and Garfunkel and Blood, Sweat and Tears with mostly unknown bands including Spirit, The Peanut Butter Conspiracy and others. Reluctant at first to reveal who he was hiring for, the headhunter finally disclosed that it was Phillips. Up to that point the giant company focused on classical recordings and easy listening music, but since the mid-1960s it also added psychedelic and rock albums to its catalog. However, they wanted to compete with other major labels such as Decca and EMI, who created subsidiaries (Deram, Harvest) to focus on progressive music. Olav Wyper was quickly flown in a private jet to Eindhoven, Netherlands, to meet with the suits at Phillips’ headquarters. He signed a deal to have full control over a new label, supervising its A&R, marketing and art direction. The Vertigo label was born.
With a keen eye on the visual aspect of long play albums, one of Wyper’s first tasks was to create a striking logo and give the label a unique identity. He remembers: “I wanted something that was very visual. You have this large space on a twelve-inch record that really doesn’t do anything. I have always been a very visual person. When I worked in advertising that was one of my strengths. I wanted the label in the center of the album to be very visual. One thought I had – make it spell something only after the record is turning at speed – was something we tried to do without success.” As with many great inventions, necessity came to the rescue: “I was sitting in traffic, it was raining; my car windows were steamy and I wanted to look at something in a shop window across the street. I drew an increasingly large circle, like a spiral, in the fog of the auto glass.” Applying the label to the center of the vinyl albums, the hypnotic effect of the rotating swirl gave the label its name – Vertigo.
“I wanted something on the A-side of a record that drew you in. So that when the record spun you felt as if everything was pulling you towards the record. I did the rough designs, and then a lady – Maggie – in our art department came up with the final version. What we did was use this to take up the whole of the label on the first side of a record, so it really stood out.”
Colosseum – Valentyne Suite
Vertigo was founded late in 1969 and got busy quick, signing artists and releasing albums. The first band to sign with the label was Colosseum, a band who also had the honor of releasing the label’s first album – Valentyne Suite. The group consisted of excellent musicians who could play long instrumental pieces and lengthy solos. They had eclectic tastes in music, the reason for the varied styles that you can hear on this album. Keyboardist Dave Greenslade, who would later form the progressive rock outfit Greenslade with Colosseum’s bass player Tony Reeves, talked about his background: “We would listen to Vaughan Williams, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, and all these other wonderful composers. I don’t suggest that I’m anywhere near these artists, but it opened my mind to another way of writing; something different to rock and roll in the 1950s which was great fun but limited. With Jon Hiseman and Tony Reeves, I used to go to Ronnie Scott’s quite a lot and listen to Bill Evans. We’d also go to the Royal Festival Hall and hear Duke Ellington and Count Basie. What I’m trying to do is set the scene of my musical influences; we’ve gone from Stravinsky to Duke Ellington!”
The title track from the album occupies the full second side, and it is one of the band’s crown achievements. It features a brass and reeds section directed by jazz musician Neil Ardley. Melody Maker reviewed the album in November 1969 and focused on the musicianship of all band members: “Dick Heckstall-Smith plays excellent solo on both tenor and soprano. Dave Greenslade is impressive on vibes and piano as well as organ. Tony Reeves is a fine bass player and James Litherland plays aggressive guitar as well as contributing some of the most interesting themes.” The review saved the best for last: “But it is Jon Hiseman’s drumming which catches the attention, though he is never obtrusive. Hiseman’s great strength is his self-discipline which enables him to harness his great technique for the good of the band. The result is the band swings far more than many top names jazz groups.”
The final movement in the suite is also the last track on the album. Band leader and drummer Jon Hiseman wrote about the track in the original sleeve notes: “The third there – The Grass is Always Greener – begins by reflecting the calm before the storm. Written by Dick and myself it features Dave and Tony briefly before James emerges to push us all over the edge and destroy the relationship.”
Dave Greenslade – Hammond organ, vibraphone, piano
Dick Heckstall-Smith – saxophones, flute
Jon Hiseman – drums
James Litherland – guitars, lead vocals
Tony Reeves – bass guitars
Colosseum – Daughter of Time
Colosseum followed in 1970 with the album Daughter of Time, by then expanding to their classic sextet lineup. Bass player Mark Clarke and guitar player Dave “Clem” Clempson replaced Tony Reeves and James Litherland. Clempson remembers how he joined Colosseum: “My band Bakerloo Blues Line had played support to Colosseum at a Cambridge University gig. Jon Hiseman contacted me a few weeks later and asked if I’d be interested in joining them, so after a very quick audition in their rehearsal room in Elephant & Castle in South London I did! My blues rock style fitted right in with what they were doing.” Jon Hiseman held the young guitar player in high esteem: “I consider the people in my band to be the best people in the country on their instruments. Certainly Dave Clempson, the new guitarist from Bakerloo, is going to be. He is a genius and going to be recognized as such as soon as he gets over the fact that he’s only twenty.”
The band also added a fantastic vocalist, Chris Farlowe, famous for his #1 1966 hit Out of Time. His voice and singing style made a big difference to the overall band’s sound on this album. Hiseman explained why he was looking to add a vocalist to the band: “I felt that the palette of Colosseum was becoming rather limited in its tonal range. Therefore, rather than get more brass and do a Blood, Sweat and Tears, we decided to concentrate on vocals.” Farlowe talked about how he joined the band: “Jon Hiseman was looking for a good singer because Clem Clempson – who was the guitarist and singer with the band – never had a strong voice. So Jon got me down there for an audition. I sang two songs and he gave me the job and said: ‘You’re exactly what we’re looking for.’”
Dave Greenslade talked about the significance of adding a blues-oriented singer to the lineup: “Colosseum was a strong, heavy band. So, if you were going to sing for us, then you had to be really strong yourself. I’d been with Chris Farlowe & The Thunderbirds from 1964 until about 1966, and when we began searching for a really powerful vocalist for Colosseum, I suggested Chris for the job. It was still a surprise when he agreed straightaway to do it. He is such a big bluesman that joining a band like this was taking him right out of his comfort zone. But it worked out so well.”
The band’s music became incrementally more structured and complex. In April 1970 Beat Instrumental magazine wrote: “Colosseum must surely be among the most sophisticated and exciting of all our bands; you can’t just amble along to one of their performances and sit back waiting to be entertained. The group rely on intelligent audiences who are prepared to get into the music. Colosseum prove that thoughtful music is by no means above everyone’s head.” Greenslade offered his viewpoint: “When this band first got together, Jon said, ‘I don’t know what we’ll play, so let’s write some material.’ None of us had any experience doing this, so we were finding our way. Now, we were able to come up with quite complex compositions, and you can hear this on Daughter of Time.”
Indeed, Daughter of Time is considered the band’s most interesting studio album. One of its highlights is the band’s cover of ‘Theme From an Imaginary Western’. The song was co-written by Jack Bruce and Pete Brown and was first performed in Bruce’s 1969 solo album Songs for a Tailor. Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall-Smith guested on that album. Hiseman talked about that wonderful song: “The lyrics by Pete Brown are the most fantastic. It’s an allegory for all the groups that tried to make it and fell by the wayside. Sometimes they made it, sometimes they found it, sometimes they lost it, sometimes they died in sight of day. They’re fantastic lyrics. ‘When the wagons leave the city for whatever it is further on’ – that’s the bands going out on the motorways in search of fame and fortune. Jack wrote probably his best melody lines to it. On his version of it, on ‘Songs for a Tailor’, there’s an organ line that we never used and nobody’s ever used on a cover version, but it’s very important to the song. It makes his the best version. But Mountain’s version is very good as well”.
Another favorite from this album is the opener Three Score and Ten, Amen, with fantastic contributions from all band members. Notice the brilliant bass lines by Mark Clarke and the horns by Dick Heckstall-Smith. There is also a guest: Barbara Thompson, Jon Hiseman’s wife, on saxophones.
Mark Clarke – bass guitar
Dave “Clem” Clempson – guitar
Chris Farlowe – lead vocals
Dave Greenslade – organ, piano, vibes, backing vocals
Dick Heckstall-Smith – soprano and tenor saxophones, spoken word
Jon Hiseman – drums, percussion
Guest appearance by Barbara Thompson on flute, alto, soprano, tenor, and baritone saxophones.
Sources:
Colosseum – Daughter of Time 2017 CD release booklet liner notes by Malcolm Dome