Initially known as The Ingoes, they were renamed and signed to manager Giorgio Gomelsky’s Marmalade label. The original line-up comprised Brian Godding (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Jim Cregan (guitar, vocals), Brian Belshaw (bass, vocals), and Kevin Westlake drums). The band’s debut album, We Are Ever So Clean, is a classic example of English psychedelia. On release, it was presented in the U.K. music magazine Melody Maker as “Giorgio Gomelsky’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. Although not a major commercial success, tracks such as “What on Earth” or “Look at Me, I’m You” have helped give the album something of a cult period status as it is unearthed by successive generations of 1960s retro fans. It was recently voted number forty in Record Collector’s list of the “100 Greatest Psychedelic Records”. If Only for a Moment saw the band taking a noticeably heavier and rockier direction, with Cregan and Godding’s distinctive two-part guitar harmonies playing a prominent role. The album also marked the departure of Westlake, to be replaced by John “Poli” Palmer and then Barry Reeves. The quartet was dissolved in 1970. While Belshaw and Godding rejoined Westlake in B.B. Blunder, Cregan formed Stud with Jim Wilson and Charlie McCracken, before joining Family. He would find fame later in the decade with Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and as a part of Rod Stewart’s backing band. The Blossom Toes contributed music to La Collectionneuse (1967), a film by French director Éric Rohmer, and also appeared in Popdown (1967) by Fred Marshall. |
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